Bringing all the software you use to manage your club under one umbrella can be difficult. Jonas Fitness, one of the fitness industry’s top club management software companies, can bring all your systems together and make your daily operations much simpler and more efficient.
Here, Jeff Jeran, the director of fitness services for Valley Health Wellness & Fitness Center, shares how Jonas Fitness has made club management simpler for his clubs and why he’s partnered with them for over six years:
CS: How were you introduced to Jonas Fitness, and why did you decide to work with him?
JJ: Our corporate business solutions team and IT teams took a look at all the different products and decided on Compete with Jonas when they took over Check Free because we have a really great working relationship with them. Our company kind of does a little bit of beta testing for some of their products and they’re very responsive to the needs of our centers when we have an issue or a concern, they helped find some solutions to the problems our centers were facing. That’s really what it boiled down to — they were very responsive to our teams and other centers to find solutions to everyday problems we have.
CS: What are the benefits to your business as a result of this partnership?
JJ: A few years ago, we were having a problem with attrition in the centers. Our center in particular, was looking at an attrition rate of about 46 percent, which is extremely high and even high in a medical fitness center like ours. Our memberships are month-to-month and we don’t really have contracts. That leads to higher attrition rates, but what we sat down as a team to figure out was focusing on lowering that attrition rate. We were really looking at the overall member experience and finding different software applications that we could use, and Jonas worked with us when identified some of these other companies, to integrate the other softwares into their platform. That has made a tremendous difference in our facility.
For example, we found a product from TRP, which provides us a tool to engage our members on a daily basis through a net promoter score. We send out 50 surveys daily to members who used the center that day and it provides us with real-time feedback to identify any problems and address those suggestions from our membership in real-time. We’re able to identify members who may be at high risk for cancellation or not really using their membership — we can identify them and prod them to come back to the center. Another aspect of the TRP software is what we call “engage,” where when our members check into the center, it can identify that member as a very high-risk person or a low-risk person for not coming back to the center the following week. It provides my team a tool by letting us know a certain member is a high-risk member, pulling up their picture, and then my member service team can find that member and go talk to that member to find out how they’re doing or whether they’ve done any appointments or assessments. What we’ve seen with that is a major decrease is attrition.
Jonas was able to take all these software programs we were running independently and integrate them into their core business software — by doing that, we’ve been able to see a major improvement in our attrition rate. Last year, we saw a 6.2 percent decrease in our attrition, and this year, we’re trending to see about 36 percent attrition, so that’s a little over 10 percent reduction in our attrition rate over the past three years. I believe that’s thanks in big part to Jonas and their team integrating and helping us utilize these tools.
CS: What do you consider when choosing a CMS partner?
JJ: The biggest thing is relationships, being able to give feedback to a management company like that, and for them to take that feedback and work with it. That working relationship has been integral to the partnership between our fitness center and Jonas. We consider them a very strategic piece of what we do. I think anybody looking for a CMS partner should look at whether they take feedback, are able to provide solutions from the feedback you give, and are receptive to working back and forth with you.
CS: Have you been pleasantly surprised by working with Jonas in any way?
In the fitness business, everybody’s trying to do what they need to, but what surprises me is that working relationship and the ability to give feedback and for them to provide the solution we need. Some other companies I’ve worked with in the past haven’t always taken that feedback and tried to provide a solution. It was more of a canned solution that really didn’t fit into some of what we were looking for. I was pleasantly surprised they were able to integrate outside partners that weren’t really their primary partners. They work with Fit Rewards or The Retention People or other companies they’ve integrated with. In the past, we were always doing things manually and on multiple platforms in our facility, and by using Jonas’ Compete hub and spokes concept, we’ve been able to sign a member up from sales and have that information transferred to all these other products. My team can focus more on the member experience and less on data entry.
CS: Why should other clubs consider working with Jonas Fitness?
JJ: I think they’re a tried and true partner in fitness. The working relationships we have developed through the years are fantastic, and I think it’s a great group of professionals. Their business is to make our business better and make our lives easier. I’ve found working with them has made that possible for our center and any of our other centers.
For more information on Jonas Fitness, visit jonasfitness.com.
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Bobby is the former assistant editor of Club Solutions Magazine.
