Gym management software should improve your health club’s operations — not nearly destroy it. Unfortunately, in an industry as unregulated as gym management software, “buyer beware” is one of the few pieces of advice you can count on. In this blog, we explore how four Gym Insight customers faced nightmare scenarios orchestrated by their previous gym management software companies.

1) Gym management software firms won’t release your data

Kelli Porter of Mountain Top Fitness Gym, LLC in Overgaard, Arizona, runs two 24/7 health clubs and franchises a third, The Lab Fitness. If that’s not enough, she’s also a single mom of five kids. In 2019, when she bought her first Mountain Top Gym, she inherited software firm Gym Assistant. It was a tough company to work with — customer service was so difficult to reach, she often fixed a problem herself or just lived with it. As well, processing fees ran a painful $800 and $1,000 per month. 

She called Gym Insight after receiving a tip from her franchise owner.  Impressed by Gym Insight’s friendly customer service and software features, she subscribed. Only one problem remained: transferring her client data over to Gym Insight.

With a standard “data dump,” as the industry refers to it, the previous company and its payment processor release all the accounts to the next software firm: member names, phone numbers, and credit card numbers. In this case, Gym Assistant’s payment processing company Worldline dug in its heels, refusing to assist in transferring credit card data — this despite Porter and a Gym Insight sales representative calling daily in their attempts to move her data over.  

Unbelievably, it took six months for WorldLine to release any data and, when it did, it provided payment information for only 50 of her 600 clients. At that moment, Porter essentially lost her database. Since the fiasco ended, she’s slowly recovered clients, reaching out to them by email and telephone, attempting to secure credit cards for their accounts. Naturally, she’s lost clients in the transition, but she feels optimistic. Even with the lost clients, she saves $1,000 a month in processing fees and enjoys a steadier income. The latter is because her gym members’ credit card payments are processed immediately, rather than batched and charged twice-a-month. As well, new members are arriving daily, attracted by the ease of signing up online and through their telephones. Most importantly, she no longer feels she is missing the market by using outdated, cumbersome software. 

Unfortunately, what Porter experienced is a known “thing” in the gym software industry —payment processing companies who make it excruciatingly difficult for an owner to extract your own information. 

What a remarkable thought — What other industry is allowed to keep your business’s database?

Surprisingly, the surprises don’t end there.

2) These financial software firms hide just how much they are taking from your gym.

Gym management software is an industry where the software firm frequently acts as the payment processor. As a result, gym owners often don’t know how much money is being extracted from each account every month.

In the case of Empire Gym of Georgia, owners Mary and Jamie Cain used ABC Fitness for a short while prior to switching to Gym Insight. 

They soon discovered the international behemoth kept fees for collections, charged for PCI compliance, and masked their true costs behind cumbersome reporting. After switching to Gym Insight, Jamie found they had been losing 14% of their total revenue to their payment processor.

“I did not even know they were keeping my late fees… You don’t know how much you are making,” explains Jamie.  

The heist does not end there. These companies are constantly growing through acquisition.  When ABC Fitness bought GloFox, Shane Davis, owner of Aledo Athletic Club in Aledo, Texas, expected his rate to increase. It’s business, after all, and he had been with GloFox for four years — a long time in this industry.  

Unfortunately, his rates tripled, and the firm began keeping members’ delinquent charges as well. That was enough. ABC Fitness did not offer any new services or features warranting the increase, in Davis’s estimation. Old school to the core, he found a Gym Insight business card and called our company.  “They had a really good attitude, were willing to listen,” and, for the most part, Gym Insight has been awesome, he says. 

3) They don’t update their gym management software.

It’s a fast-paced world and even in small towns, customers expect easy access to their gym. Sean MacIndoe, of Eagleridge Fitness Center & Training in Pueblo, Co., inherited eFit Financial member management system from the club’s prior ownership.

Overall, he liked the company. The firm provided good, responsive customer service. Unfortunately, they did not update their software, and it soon became unreliable. MacIndoe’s team began to experience system outages that left staff unable to access their database.

He regularly turned down prospects, asking them to return when the system was running. Additionally, current customers could not pay their bill during these outages, or, conversely, the system would accept their credit card but not post on their account. Later in the day, these members would receive a text announcing their overdue account. Such small aggravations build and, eventually, his “good-enough” software began costing him hard money.  

Today, with Gym Insight, his clients enjoy access to Eagleridge through digital keytags, which replaced eFit’s two-key system. With digital key tags, members use their telephone and a QR code to enter the gym.  Additionally, our free Member’s App allows members to check attendance history and send a PDF to their employers directly. Such simple improvements have increased efficiency and minimized some of the many irritations we all experience every day.

Gym management software in a competitive industry

Gym management software is — no doubt — a competitive industry. There is much money at stake for these payment processing firms, and small, privately owned gyms can feel as if they are stuck in the middle of a storm.

That’s where Gym Insight is different. We are a software firm owned by former gym owners. It’s love through action. Our product is designed to make you money, save you time, and give you tools to grow. We write our own code, build our own features and answer our phones here in the United States. And we never touch your money. Wow. What a concept. 

Thanks for reading our blog and we look forward to providing a demo of our software. Just call 855-367-4967 (855-FOR-GYMS) and ask for Anthony or Natalia.