Regardless of the type of business you run, Christina Von Stroh, the director of product at Zen Planner, said reporting is a key part of operating a successful company.
According to Von Stroh, the reports that customer management software provide, allow for an easy way to keep an eye on key metrics, such as revenue and retention.
Aside from tracking numbers, Von Stroh said customer management reports can also be used for goal planning. “And by setting those up in advance, then all you need to do is look at your dashboard and you can easily tell whether or not you’re operating in the realm that you’ve defined,” said Von Stroh.
Carole Oat, a national sales manager at Twins Oaks Software, explained that Twin Oaks breaks its reports into various types of data management. Most importantly, Oat encourages her clients to look at demographic reports to get a clearer picture of what type of members they’re attracting.
“Anything that they put in the software, they can get out of the software,” said Oat.
Von Stroh, however, believes attendance reporting is the most under-utilized report. She believes tracking this will help owners better understand what promotions are best working, and allow them to connect personally with members who have not been coming into the club.
Additionally, with the advent of kiosks, club owners no longer have to manually input their members’ data into their customer management software.
“What we hear consistently from our customers is … having a Zen Planner [kiosk] saves business owners 10 hours a week in time, that they used to have to [spend on] administration work,” said Michelle Burrows, the vice president of marketing at Zen Planner. “It also allows them to focus more on interacting with their clients or members, rather than sort of being buried in paper work.”
Clubs can set up an iPad at their front desk and allow members to sign in, sign up for memberships, renew contracts or handle other administrative roles with the touch of his or her finger. Oat said it’s also beneficial for members.
“Members don’t have to wait for a staff member to be available to review membership offers and things like that,” said Oat. “They can go right to the club website, but they can do it at the club [too]. They can utilize that. Or, if they’re an existing member, they can utilize the member portal to sign up for a class, to register their child for a program, to pay a balance, update their billing, to see their usage or their accounts receivable history. There’s quite a bit of functionality.”
Both Von Stroh and Oat agreed that kiosks and customer management reports offer convenience that both members and owners expect in today’s digital age.
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Emily Harbourne is the former assistant editor of Club Solutions Magazine.
