I founded Gym Insight because I wanted software that catered directly to how I manage my fitness center, and I just couldn’t find that on the market. At least, not up to the standards that I expect from a dedicated business application. Insight has been so successful because other owners of small fitness center and their managers face the same demands every day.
One of the most important things that the best gym management software must do is integrate with the customer experience. It has to help the curious browser or window shopper to pull the trigger and commit to an appropriate level of membership. It does this by creating a portal on the gym’s website, which is linked to the billing capabilities of Insight.
Convenience and Expectation Are Seizing The Day
Member Convenience is the prime reason to take advantage of the tools that enable web based sign-ups. Having immediate access to the World Wide Web encourages investigation, when the impulse strikes. Access to the Internet is now so ubiquitous that, for those who desire it, connection is always within a hand’s reach.
This leads right into the next point: It’s becoming expected that "online" is the way to do things in all walks of life. Aren’t we supposed to be living in the future now? Web based sign-ups are so pervasive that you kind of suck if you don’t do it, in the eyes of your customers. You’re going to miss out on a commonly used channel of communication if you don’t use a website that links directly into your gym management software and doesn’t allow members to sign-up through the World Wide Web. This is something that Insight is designed to do for fitness centers.
Customers Are Doing It For Themselves
It’s such a powerful tool to let prospects do the exploring and selling themselves. Automation leverages your staff. Let me give an example and please bear with me. I’ve read somewhere that when the Instagram photo-sharing service sold recently they only had a handful of employees. In case you missed it, Instagram sold for $1 billion (that’s right, with a "b"!).
Now, the key there is that they have millions of users, who help themselves. This may sound like an extreme case but the point is that the users of Instagram are just normal people who have social media accounts. It’s an example of how tech savvy folks are becoming. They just need to understand what’s on offer and, if you stay out of the way, they’ll sign themselves up at very low cost to you.
The technology will sell itself. Labor cost reduction is the flip side of convenience. You get an automated operation, timely insightful information about the activities of your clients and prospects. In a small business it can often seem like there are never enough hours in the day. Any labor saving tech is going to help you deploy your staff more effectively. This is something that really takes the pressure off.
When Is Now A Good Time For Carpe Diem?
The need for customer convenience combined with the expectation of web based presence, means that seizing the moment of member wanting to join now. There are loads of aphorisms about taking immediate action and "he who hesitates . . ." etc., and so on. That’s because of the huge fundamental truth: Humans generally and, customers specifically, fall prey to fears and if they don’t dive in they will forget or move on to the next thing. Then the moment is lost.
Insight is here to make your fitness center work better. If you aren’t doing so already, consider getting a software system that will help your members sign up on the World Wide Web, one that integrates into your gym management applications. Insight will fill that role and give your customers convenience, leverage and de-stress your staff, and help to sell memberships. After all, it is the twenty-first century now; aren’t you supposed to be doing all of that?
Over to you…
What are your thoughts on online membership signups?