Employee Profile: Steven Cole Manning, customer support It takes gumption to work, go to college, and raise a tween, but our customer support pro Steven Cole Manning makes it look and sound easy. He’s one the newest members of our team and has quickly revealed a multiplicity of talents that are reshaping our social media outreach. Hired to support Danny Fagan, our director of customer support, Steven Cole brings an eclectic background as useful as it is interesting. Read on to discover how a gift for gab and an ear for music are moving our software company into the future. [...]
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Danny Fagan, director of customer service Here’s the inside scoop — Daniel’s the guy who’s in charge of keeping our customers happy. We count on him to direct a team of U.S.-based customer service pros who reflect our gym-obsessed focus. Then, because he’s so close to the customer and understands their day-to-day so well, we made him our training specialist, too. Here, he and his team ensure our customers know how to use every feature built into the software, recognizing that no matter how well-designed a product is, there’s always a hurdle to overcome. Read on for the lowdown on Daniel. [...]
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As a gym owner, customer service may be one of those catchphrases you don’t think about much. To stay competitive and keep costs down, you’ve leaned into online sign-ups, digital keytags, and reducing employee payrolls. It’s working, too. With an emphasis on cost reduction and adapting services to customer needs, small gyms have stopped disappearing from the landscape. Truthfully, if you’re a gym owner reading this blog, you’ve survived quite a clean-out. In 2019, gym ownership hit record levels, with more than 41,370 gyms in the United States, according to Statista’s research. Today, that number hovers at about 31,000 clubs. Congratulations on being among the fittest [...]
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Why Gym Insight is the right gym management software for your fitness center Choosing the right gym management software for your fitness club is probably one of the hardest decisions you’ll make as an owner. Not only is it the track on which your gym runs, but if you need to switch software companies, transferring data can be brain-numbingly difficult. So you want to get it right, if not the first time, at least the second go-around. As a holiday gift to you and to us, we’d like to express why we believe Gym Insight is just the best possible [...]
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Let’s talk switching gym management software as a goal for January. If your fitness center is using a management system that takes a percentage of every sale, now is the time to switch to Gym Insight. The process is simple and the results are worth the effort. We know it’s the holiday season. We understand you’re busy with family, friends, and the slow drizzle of diehard gym members. Changing software is the last task you want to add to your to-do list. But listen to us. Why would you not want to switch software right now? After all, January and February are [...]
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As a gym owner, you’re a natural entrepreneur. Capable of weighing risks and making decisions. Yet, diversifying companies or running multiple gyms is a difficult leap — powering through even one gym can seem insurmountable. How can you run multiple gyms successfully? To answer this question, we turned to Troy Barnum, who owns two Total Fitness gyms and a successful ATV ecommerce store. He bought his first gym in 2011 after running other ventures. Here’s his key advice. For a full recount of our conversation, go to our “Gym Owners Podcast” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxZ2Q5ExbQ0 10 Tips for Running Multiple Gyms 1) Expect to work hard. Barnum puts [...]
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Don Roberts’ Fit 24/7 Gym keeps things simple. His gym does not boast a sauna, day care, or exercise classes. Customers know to follow the rules or get kicked out. And his club is open every day, 24 hours a day, frequently without a single employee on premise. Stripped bare of any extras and run entirely by himself, his 550-member facility in Durango, Colorado, has been profitable — very profitable, he insists — from day one. The key to making money is minimal expenses and 24 hour access. The advantage of 24-hour gyms In a time when nearly 20 percent of gyms closed permanently [...]
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If you have opened a new gym, you must know that it is, after all, a new business. So you should be prepared to run and develop that business as a business. To do so, you must acquire knowledge about the fitness business industry, and also be aware of the pitfalls of why new gyms fail so you can be sure to avoid them. In my opinion, here are the top 10 reasons why new gyms fail... #1 - No proper business plan No business plan can be fatal to your new gym. Before starting a gym know: Successful gyms watch finances, [...]
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What is awesome gym customer service? Customer service is important for any business to succeed. If you own a gym, your revenue source will be directly linked to your membership base. In order to ensure your gym business survives and remains competitive in today's fitness industry market, you have to consistently provide your members with high quality service. Customer service plays a vital role in member acquisition and member retention — research by IHRSA shows interaction with fitness staff significantly decreases member dropout. Gym members that are satisfied with the service being provided by your fitness business will automatically come [...]
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Third Party Confirmations I was just reading the results of a really interesting small business survey, and the discussion about it, on the Club Solutions Website. The point was that community and reviews lead as the driving forces for growth across the spectrum of small businesses. Of 6,000 survey respondents, eleven percent were gym members. The survey showed that there is growth in the economy, small businesses get the most return by providing community, and that small businesses, including gyms, get a lot of mileage from reviews posted by members. The article went on to say that these reviews provide [...]
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Some Thoughts Based On Recent Events Human resources issues may seem like a long stretch for the Gym Insight Blog but this is a serious set of issues that could easily cause any small business to lose the farm. I'm talking about the fast changing and very sensitive issues of equality and diversity in the workplace and the gym. Recent incidents in fitness centers, where the key issues were the poor handling of diversity and the rapidly evolving legal environment, have made this something that every gym owner should be prepared to confront. That basically means getting along with people [...]
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Give Great Customer Service To Secure Your Business Future I've come to the conclusion that there's one simple key to effective customer service. It's a principle that's so obvious that it is quite simply missed most of the time. Sometimes genius lies in the simple, the unsophisticated and the literal. The key that I'm talking about here is the practice of hiring only people for customer service roles who are naturally inclined to help others. One of the best business practitioners of this sort of policy is Southwest Airlines, which has long known the importance of finding the right person [...]
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The Fitness Experience Companies like SoulCycle and Spartan Race are focused on the experience you have during training or as goals to meet for preparatory training. Other systems like CrossFit demand much of your body and even with proper supervision by certified staff you can easily strain muscles and joints in practice. SoulCycle is a great example of a fitness business carving out a niche because it defies the trend away from spinning classes, which are apparently in decline. By matching charismatic instructors and style with what might otherwise be a limited format the company has created an enthusiastic base [...]
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There is nothing more worthy of celebrating, when you own a gym, than bringing in new memberships. It gives you hope for the future as you watch your list of members grow. This so-called on boarding period is a highly critical time that you can use to secure your relationship with customers. You have the perfect opportunity to assure a high lifetime value for you, and positive experience for them. Selling Means More Than Surviving This transitional time period can determine how long new members stick around and how they present their experience to friends and on social media. It [...]
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There are people in the world who are naturals at selling and performing in public situations. Personally, I am not one of them. It amazes me when someone seems to be naturally cool and confident when eyes are all on him or her. Also, those people tend not to be trainers or managers working in gyms. I suppose that figures, helping people motivates most of the trainers that I know but they tend to have a history in jobs that are not sales related. I love working out and hanging out in the gym and so do most of the [...]
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