Understanding technologies requires monitoring and adaptation to ensure it remains a valuable tool in achieving your business’ mission. To best utilize the continuously growing capabilities of technology, having an airtight business strategy is crucial.
Mark Miller, the chief operating officer of Merritt Clubs, emphasized the need to have a technology strategy similar to one you may have for sales or retention. Prioritizing what needs you want technology to alleviate and researching solutions both inside and outside the industry are important steps in the process. Furthermore, when implementing multiple technologies, you must figure out how they work together.
Even though it may be tedious, using technology is how you’ll stay relevant in a competitive and rapidly modernizing market. “We have a robust technology stack, and we’re constantly looking for new ways to improve what we do,” said Miller. “We’re constantly looking to adopt and move into new technological spaces because that’s what members are using today.”
To truly reap the benefits of powerful technologies, Merritt Clubs uses software in a variety of areas of the club. HubSpot is the club’s CRM which handles its website, digital leads and integrates with ABC’s GymSales system. The gym’s app, powered by MotionVibe Innovations, helps with signing up for group fitness classes, messaging and payroll. The team is also in the process of improving the app to help more with personal training and other fitness aspects of operations.
Another highlight of technology is its ability to be personalized to fit your club’s needs. And you may not be taking advantage of its full capabilities. When evaluating potential technologies, question and explore its functions to find out how it will serve your staff and members.
“The challenges of handling technology are reduced if you’ve done a good job vetting and knowing what you have,” said Andrew Barranco, the regional operations manager and aquatics director at Merritt Clubs. “They increase when you agree to a subscription or sign an agreement on a new technology you’re not really clear on. Whichever department is going to use the technology the most needs to really own it and customize the technology to its fullest extent.”
Being smart about technological investments can keep you from making unnecessary or harmful decisions. Connecting the purpose of new technologies to your own mission is a potential way to prevent over-investing or becoming overwhelmed with your technology stack.
At GoodLife Fitness, technology plays an integral part in the chain’s mission to be a place of good health for every Canadian. As such, leadership has focused on having the best systems in place to support membership and staff experience.
“We’ve implemented a strong enterprise architecture program,” explained Greg Tully, the executive vice president of technology and information at GoodLife. “Business stakeholders are heavily involved because their support is needed to drive us where we want to go. We’ve documented all of our technological capabilities across the entire business.”
With so many facets of operations at the largest health club chain in Canada, a variety of technologies are used for data storage, marketing, member management, HR and more. Tully noted there are a plethora of options out there today versus in the past when organizations typically built technology to fit their needs. With so many possibilities on the market, finding the right fit for you can be tedious. This process often requires intention and the expectation for things to change as new technologies are needed.
GoodLife’s open architecture allows leadership to integrate new technologies into the stack when necessary. For example, the club recently added OpenWrench technology to aid in improving member and associate experience by documenting equipment inventory and its age and warranty. This way, GoodLife can prioritize maintenance schedules and help gyms more easily when they report issues and malfunctions with technology or exercise machines.
Other ways technology helps GoodLife provide top-quality customer experience include using member management software from Exerp and partnering with Gantner which gives members access to areas of the club from their phone. Snowflake software also houses member data and provides GoodLife analytics and ways to better understand members through generative AI.
“We want member experience to be frictionless,” said Tully. “People want functional experiences without roadblocks. We also can’t make assumptions about what they want just from working in the clubs or in the office. We need to partner with our members and hear their input which AI is also helping with. As we get better at personalization with this technology, we’re building member engagement and retention.”
Ensuring members have a positive experience when interacting with your technology increases their engagement which gathers more data on how they’re using your club’s services. Mark Caravello, the chief information officer of Midtown Athletic Clubs, touched more upon this symbiotic relationship with the example of mobile apps. “The data collected and paired with their interactions at our clubs will eventually allow us to curate and build a personalized member journey so we can help them in achieving both their physical and mental health goals,” he said. “In the end, your mobile app needs to meet expectations and match your brand standard for it to be impactful.”
This need ties into a trend Caravello is noticing of clubs building out a personalized front end with vendor systems as the backbone to help with operations. Many products on the market won’t completely fill in the gaps so make sure to find the right partner with technology that either can integrate with other software or be altered. Caravello also suggested looking at software outside of the industry.
When it comes to generic business areas like HR, sales or project management, Midtown turns to outside vendors like Workday, Silverware, Maestro Technologies and Databricks. These technologies ensure operations can run smoothly and staff are taken care of. Midtown also works with Daxko and its CSI Spectrum for group exercise class scheduling, member management, check-ins and other health club-specific operations.
By working with a variety of vendors, the club ensures it’s serving members in the best way possible. “Behind all these technologies is data which helps drive a better member experience and clubs should expand how they organize, govern and use data to make better decisions,” said Caravello. “At Midtown, we’re pushing to become just that: a data-driven organization to drive our growth, enhance our services and deliver exceptional value to our members.”
Another club investing in making technological strides is Fitness Premier. Jillyan Morris, the franchisee success manager, explained how even though they’ve been using HubSpot for almost a year, they’re still only scratching the surface of exploring its capabilities. One avenue it’s helping with is through marketing and by integrating with direct mail automation software Postalytic.
Morris also highlighted the introduction of kiosks members can interact with to perform similar actions like they would with a staff member. As a 24/7 club, having a place where people can submit referrals, freeze or cancel their membership, submit a note about an area of concern, or sign up to be a member without an employee needing to assist is game-changing.
However, with technology able to perform many vital functions once only done by staff, it brings up a critical concern about it replacing people. Morris emphasized though this isn’t the case. In fact, it’s freeing up employees to be able to connect with members. “With our kiosk, it’s allowing our staff to have more time interacting face-to-face with members,” explained Morris. “We really focus on community. Having that personal touch when someone walks in and is able to talk with the front desk staff or the manager instead of having them tied up with a request increases engagement.”
In the health club industry where staff and member relationships are the foundation of success, technology can be a vital tool when used correctly to promote member engagement and retention. Becoming familiar with the current capabilities now also ensures you’re ready for the technologies to come.
“Technology is here to stay,” said Morris. “I don’t think using it removes us from the people business. It gives us more opportunities for face-to-face interactions. We’re not as bogged down as we used to be so why not embrace it?”
