How the Smart Health Clubs platform became an all-in-one member engagement software solution for club operators.
When it comes to customer experience, convenience is no longer a privilege. It is an expectation.
Today’s consumers expect ease of use in everything from booking a ride-share to ordering food online. According to Praveen Kashyap, the founder and CEO of Smart Health Clubs, this expectation applies to gyms as well.
“During COVID-19 we have all come to depend on apps to order online, communicate and entertain ourselves,” said Kashyap. “Many of these changes are at least long lasting, if not permanent. Members will demand the same level of digital services from clubs and will gravitate toward the clubs that offer them. So, it is imperative for health clubs to offer a seamless app user interface for all the services they offer. This promises a higher service rating by members and they are likely to stay at the club longer.”
In fact, Smart Health Clubs came to be to solve the problem of lack of convenience for members regarding technology within fitness facilities and gyms.
In 2015, Kashyap — who led a software research team at Samsung that built the first Smart TV — began working on a strength and conditioning workout tracker. He needed a large, multi-use club to serve as a beta site to help refine it and get it to the market. He approached Mike Alpert, who at the time was the CEO of The Claremont Club in California.
“During our interactions, he talked often about how members at health clubs were forced to use many apps — one for a calendar, one for video, one for booking and more,” recalled Kashyap. “Obviously, Mike was frustrated at not being able to offer his members an excellent digital experience.”
As a result, he and Alpert saw an opportunity to create an all-in-one digital platform for health clubs. Smart Health Clubs was born.
“We are truly the only all-in-one member engagement software solution,” explained Alpert, who has since joined Smart Health Clubs full-time as COO. “We have eliminated the need for clubs to use and pay for multiple member-facing software apps, which makes it much easier and efficient for members to stay connected and to complete purchases of services and products.”
Smart Health Clubs’ solution is extremely robust, spanning functionality from fitness content delivery and hiring to instructor substitution and marketing components.
For example, the base platform gives a club all it needs to get started such as goals and tracking for members, department management, calendars with Smart Scheduling, custom branding, social networking features, and more.
The platform also includes group exercise solutions, including a robust and mature booking and attendance offering spanning cancellations, waitlists and attendance. “This ensures your directors and trainers spend their time on the right things and not on manual follow-ups and calendar updates,” explained Kashyap. “The Smart Health Clubs platform takes care of all that.”
The platform also includes virtual solutions that empower a club to reach a member at home or on-the-go, with on-demand video, livestreaming and professional content from MOSSA and Les Mills.
“We also have a bunch of very exciting wellness solutions like goals and tracking, fitness plans and nutrition counseling,” added Kashyap. “And, we have just launched a tennis solution that makes booking a court and inviting partners easy with just a few button clicks.”
Last but not least is Smart Health Clubs’ ecommerce layer, which allows clubs to sell their offerings, classes and services, and differentially price them for their membership tiers — including pricing for non-members.
“We are launching our digital marketing solution that completes the full cycle of marketing, selling and fulfillment of all offerings,” explained Kashyap. “Marketing messages can be targeted to specific members both on mobile and web, and members can purchase classes or services with ease.”
All of these solutions are available to clubs through a customized mobile app and web portal.
According to Kashyap, an overarching feature of these components is they are extremely easy to set up and customize per a club’s membership tiers and pricing. “Just a few clicks and you are set,” he said. “You want to change something? A few more clicks. In any case, our ‘Success Partners’ help clubs set these up and support them closely in the initial days of the rollout.”
Due to the fast-changing pace of technology, the flexibility the Smart Health Clubs platform provides is a key differentiator for the software-as-a-service company.
According to Alpert, flexibility is especially important in a software solution considering the aforementioned changes in what consumers expect regarding the user experience.
“Technology touches almost everything we do today and it continues to evolve at lightning speed,” said Alpert. “Today’s consumers use their mobile devices, computers and tablets to complete purchases and to obtain information they are interested in, and they want it to be efficient and easy to navigate.”
In addition to helping clubs serve their members in the current times, the leadership at Smart Health Clubs is also looking toward the future. In October 2021, the brand announced a partnership with GENAVIX HealthyCARE Network to create a HIPAA compliant solution clubs can utilize to take advantage of insurance reimbursements — which are becoming more and more accessible nationwide.
“That will open up new and exciting revenue opportunities for clubs through medical fitness and health care,” said Alpert. “The explosive interest in health and wellness has also greatly increased the consumer demand for the virtual delivery of wellness and fitness solutions. Great operators will focus their efforts on smart and sustained marketing campaigns around these and also reach out to the non-member market, which represents 80% of the population.”
Ultimately, a project that started out as a beta test has evolved into an all-in-one solution in Smart Health Clubs that gyms can utilize to improve their customer experience and streamline operations.
“We are truly an all-in-one platform,” said Kashyap. “No other brand is even close in the detail and the adaptability of our software to the needs of every club operator. And no one can offer the commitment and promise of service that we already deliver on.”
