Amanda Purser, the front desk manager for Gainesville Health & Fitness (GHF), spoke with Club Solutions about Gainesville’s in-house club management software, which makes possible almost all of GHF’s day-to-day operations.
Q: You previously have mentioned that Gainesville uses its own club management software, called the Facility Management System (FMS). Why did GHF decide to use its own, versus going through a club management software provider?
A: When Gainesville Health & Fitness initially saw the need for some type of club management software, it was 25 years ago. Back then there was no such thing as CMS. One of Joe Cirulli’s (owner of GHF) good friends was in the computer business and created FMS specifically for our club. We’ve stayed with the same program ever since, because it allows us to quickly adapt the software to our specific needs as a business instead of waiting on CMS software companies to design new products, only after the industry recognizes a need.
Q: How does GHF use guest reports? What information does this collect, and why is this important?
A: Our guest reports allow us to interpret a few different data sets. The most important probably being the information we gather about our lead sources. We can see what our most/least successful lead sources are, along with the demographics that our marketing tools are reaching. For example, by pulling a guest report, we can tell that our referral lead source is the most promising, and that these guests generally fall into our secondary target market (18-24 y/o). We can categorize our guests into essentially any demographic we want by altering the type of report we pull, as well as use these reports to target certain groups of people for different types of promotions (i.e. reaching out to an older group of guests to market a seminar on aging and exercise).
Q: What feature of FMS is your personal favorite?
A: Our pop-up feature. It’s such a simple thing, but gives us such a great return. Colored screens will pop up when a member checks in alerting the receptionist to any anomalies in the member’s account (i.e. balance, renewal, incorrect address, etc.). But my favorite of all our “pop-ups” is the birthday screen. It’s great to see one of our receptionists wish someone a happy birthday (or an early/belated birthday since the screen appears the day before, of, and after a birthday) as they’re rushing through their day trying to get to spin class before they have to take their daughter to school. Many times they’ve forgotten it’s their own birthday, and are so appreciative of someone taking the time to wish them well. Again, it’s something small, but adds an extra level of customer service to our front desk.
Q: How does GHF use web lead reports? How is this report beneficial to the club?
A: Like referral leads, web leads tend to be more successful. By pulling reports weekly, we can determine whether or not we’re reaching our goals for the amount of web leads that our website is producing, as well as interpret the demographical data that we receive from the reports and market to those specific groups.
Q: How important is FMS to the daily operations of your club?
A: Vital! It is so much more than just checking in members and viewing accounts. FMS integrates three of our most fundamental departments: front desk, marketing and sales. All of these departments rely on FMS for their divisions to work smoothly and successfully. Daily operations are made possible because we have FMS.
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
