Josh Biard, the national director of health and wellness/athletics at Arcis Golf, shares how Freemotion Fitness has been a key partner in enhancing fitness offerings across their clubs.
Arcis Golf, the second-largest private golf owner and operator in the U.S., manages over 70 courses nationwide. With three years at the company, Josh Biard has overseen fitness initiatives ranging from daily fee courses with minimal amenities to full-service country clubs featuring state-of-the-art fitness centers.
Since joining Arcis Golf, Biard has exclusively partnered with Freemotion Fitness for all fitness projects. Over the past three years, they have completed 15 to 20 fitness center renovations, from upgrading equipment to building brand-new facilities. Below he shares how Freemotion’s equipment and services have helped elevate the fitness experience for members.
Why did you decide to partner with Freemotion? What problem were you looking to solve or what solution were you looking to incorporate?
It was service oriented more than anything else. We love the Freemotion product. We think it’s the best we could get. However, that’s not the sole reason we would go with them; it’s really based around the service. They’re just head and shoulders better when it comes to customer service.
How would you rate Freemotion’s customer service and support?
It’s smooth from the beginning to the end. It’s very collaborative and the install is almost always seamless. Really what the most important thing is maintenance after. Having somebody who literally just a text or a phone call away. And, if there’s any issues — which there always are with all equipment — no matter what you have installed, there’s going to be some concerns, they’re reactive. They’ll have it fixed immediately.
It’s just very consistent. It’s very personalized. There’s never a time where we’re trying to get in touch with somebody for a piece of equipment. What’s great about it is whether if it’s one of our clubs in Florida to California, we have the same contact person. All our fitness directors at each of those clubs know who to contact to get something fixed immediately. The worst thing when I visit properties, the last thing I want to see is a sign that says out of order. It’s never acceptable for our members and guests. That never happens when it comes to Freemotion.
How has Freemotion helped enhance your fitness offerings?
When I first started at Arcis we recognized fitness being a very important component to our clubs and we wanted to elevate member experience. I would tour a lot of the clubs and treadmills and ellipticals would be out of service. It was consistent. When I dug down into it, directors were trying to get in touch with people to fix it. Our former equipment companies weren’t responsive. There’d be a monitor down on a treadmill that would take three months to get it replaced. That’s not the case with Freemotion.
The second thing is high quality equipment. That really impacts the members. They like the iFIT technology that keeps them engaged and excited to come and work out. The feedback we get now is more around how much they love the technology; how much they like this treadmill compared to another one or the ellipticals. It’s all positive.
What advice would you like other owners to know about working with Freemotion?
I would go back and reiterate the service portion of things. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and done a lot of renovations and bought a lot of equipment. You really need to focus on how quickly they are responding to you when you’re first starting this process of determining which equipment you want.
Look at the companies that are responding quickly and are going to go out of their way to try to give you the information that you need and seem the most genuine. There’s just a level of honesty with Freemotion that I got right off the bat with. There never felt like they were trying to just sell me on the products, and that’s why it’s turned into this long term relationship.
