Gym management software enables you to look after membership details, billing, marketing, class scheduling and a host of other administrative and growth-related tasks pertaining to your gym or health club. Rather than completing all of these tasks independently - and manually - gym management software lets you automate a large percentage of the work.
If you’re considering club management software, but you’re not sold on the idea, take a look at the questions below. These will help guide you in deciding whether yours is the kind of gym or health club that would benefit from gym management software.
What kind of service do I want to offer?
It’s true that some gyms don’t need gym management software. Some gyms and health clubs do just fine as they are without any kind of information technology. Customers pay cash on the door, train and then leave. Word of mouth ensures a trickle of new memberships and the gym is usually full enough that you cover costs. Some are a bit more advanced and do some digital record keeping.
But the best gyms no longer function that way. They operate on different gym pricing strategy - a recurring-income stream, not an ad-hoc model. The top gyms have tiered memberships, offer premium add-ons and manage to derive the maximum value from each membership that is possible.
Classes, personal training, a premium service that keeps members happy and willing to keep coming back - if this is the kind of service you want for your gym, then gym membership software is pretty much essential. Without it, how will your gym coordinate classes, ensure memberships don’t lapse and derive the highest amount of profit from each membership?
What kind of members do I have?
According to a national study, the average gym membership holder visits the gym twice a week and spends approximately $58 per month on membership. They are also highly likely to own a smartphone and use some sort of personal fitness device or app. This is the modern gym user.
Aside from what you want for your gym, the typical modern gym user nowadays demands the kind of service that only a gym powered by gym management software can deliver. They want personalised emails, they want class reminders, they want to be able to book personal training sessions online. If they can’t do it at your gym, there are plenty of other gyms that will let them.
What kind of experience do new members demand?
According to research by global analytics firm comScore, 44% of smartphone users make at least two purchases per month using their device, including one-off purchases such as subscriptions and recurring payments. Modern gym users expect to be able to find a gym on their smartphone and they expect to be able to join on their smartphone too. Without gym management software, your gym won’t be able to meet that need.How do I retain my members?
How do you know when a member of your gym is close to cancelling their membership? One of the strongest signs that this is about to happen is that they stop showing up. But unless you stand at the door and county everyone in and out, how would you know?
Gym management software can give you at-a-glance member behavior analytics so you can spot patterns in member behaviour. If a member’s usage suggests they may be about to lapse, bring them back in with a personalised email inviting them for a one-to-one training session to go over their goals. Or better still, set up your gym management software to do it for you.
What are my growth ambitions?
As well as helping you retain members, gym management software gives you invaluable insights into membership demographics. Do most of your members work in a certain type of industry? (the gyms around in and around Silicon Valley would say yes, for example), then tailor your growth plan to target them.
Are you getting more enquiries from women than men? That’s valuable intelligence you wouldn’t necessarily get without gym management software. Finding that over-40s are spending more on classes than anyone else? Set up more classes for that demographic.
How much time do I have to manually perform membership admin?
Perhaps the key benefit of gym management software is that it frees you up to focus on growing your business, rather than running it day-to-day. Do you really want to be booking people into classes, answering the phone or sending out letters for renewals?
No, you don’t. Spend your time thinking up new ideas, developing new services and staying ahead of the competition.
Yes, you *could* handle all of the tasks that gym management software takes care of if you wanted, but you’d have time left for little else. Automation allows for clearer analysis, better decision making and the intelligence to challenge assumptions.
What are the information security risks I face?
One of the lesser-known benefits of a gym management system is security and data protection. As well as enabling automation and task management, the majority of gym management software products come with a good level of information security built-in.
If you accept payment by credit card or regular bank wire, you’ll need to hold some of your members’ payment data. This comes with a set of responsibilities. Now we’re not saying you’re careless, but health club software typically comes a minimum level of data security as standard. So if the worst happens and you experience a break-in on-site or a security breach, your data and the data of your members will remain safe.
