As clubs continue to reopen at full capacity across the U.S., member habits have changed. Many operators are reporting a shift in users favoring strength equipment over cardio, or cardio being used for shorter intervals at a time.
“Your peak periods, or the traffic from 2019, is probably going to be different than what it looks like today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future,” said Matt McConley, the global digital product manager at Matrix Fitness. “There’s going to be some volatility and some stops and starts — sort of a roller coaster ride — as we go through the next 12 months.”
To keep abreast of changing usage patterns at your facility, there’s no better resource than asset management technology, which provides data on how often a piece of equipment is being used, service and support info, and more.
“Asset management serves a number of roles, but one of the primary is gaining access to data to see what machines you have and what usage looks like,” said McConley. “This helps inform all kinds of business decisions, such as your next purchasing cycle and understanding what the product mix ought to look like.”
Historically, some operators have relied on observation to delineate what members favor; or when deciding what they need more or less of. However, many are turning to asset management data as proof that their instincts are on the mark.
“What we’re able to provide through asset management is hard data that backs up your observations,” said McConley. “This is especially helpful for evaluating your product mix. Do I have members coming in at peak times that want to use a treadmill, but they can’t, because we don’t have enough of them to meet the demand? Meanwhile, I have six extra bikes that are sitting idle at peak times.”
And, asset management technology is improving, with new features and capabilities being added yearly that provide more flexibility and functionality for operators.
For example, McConley shared many Matrix Fitness customers are utilizing the marketing and branding features on the brand’s touchscreen consoles — features that are fueled by asset management technology.
“On our touchscreen console, we’ve got a ton of flexibility in terms of how you brand it, how you leverage that machine when it’s idle for marketing purposes, and how you set up automated messaging that can interact with your members at various points during the workout experience,” explained McConley. “You can even utilize reminders such as, ‘At the end of the workout, remember to wipe down your machine.’ All of those capabilities to market, promote messages and really communicate with the members and put your brand at the forefront of all of that — all of that stuff is configured from asset management and pushed out to the machines in the given facility you set it up for.”
As clubs continue to navigate the marketplace post-COVID, welcoming back members and bringing in a new subset of consumers, the data and functionality asset management technology provides will be more important than ever.
“Having that hard data to really back up what the conditions are on the ground today is absolutely more crucial now than it was pre-pandemic, when things were a lot more predictable,” said McConley.
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
