With restrictions largely lifted for vaccinated people, our cities are really opening back up. Since March 2020, the fitness industry as we know it has changed. So have member expectations. We’ve all gotten used to a world of highly accessible fitness with the benefit of immediacy, connectivity, and personalization. What does this mean for your club? How can you adapt to meet these new expectations and get members back into your club? In this blog, we focus on five strategies that will help your fitness business bounce back and ensure you are prepared and set up for success.
1. Minimize the Perceived Health Risk of Returning to Your Gym
The most important part of your strategy will inevitably be getting members back into your club. This is step one of your business bouncing back. However, depending on the demographics you serve, you may face the challenge of overcoming public reluctance to mixing and exercising with others. It is likely that a good percentage of your members are eager and won’t be deterred, but that won’t be everyone. To counteract the reluctance, you’ll need to minimize the perceived health risk of returning to the gym. Here are a few ideas that will help you do this:
• Reassure Your Members Through Effective Communication of Safety Protocols
The importance of this step cannot be underestimated. It is critical that your members are aware of the safety protocols and ramped-up hygiene efforts that you have implemented. It’s not enough for you to be taking precautions — your members need to know about them before they ever walk back in your door. It’s also important for members to understand what is expected of them while they’re in your facility.
• Provide Members with Club Capacity Insight
By providing your members with visibility of club capacity, you are empowering them to make an informed decision about when they visit the club. The most effective way to provide this information is through a member app that puts real-time capacity information right at their fingertips.
• Allow Members to Book Their Gym Visits in Advance
The last thing anybody wants is to get all ready and head to the gym only to wait outside for there to be room in the facility. Mobile booking provides members with assurance that when they set aside time to exercise, they will be able to gain instant access to the gym. Not only does this provide you with control over the number of members in your club at any time, helping you adhere to social distancing guidelines and hygiene regulations, but it also allows members to plan their visits with confidence, knowing that they will not have to wait around when they arrive, can jump straight into their session, and can enjoy a safe environment in which to exercise.
• Provide Contactless Check-In
Providing members with a quick, contactless, self-check-in solution is instrumental in keeping members safe and minimizing the spread of germs at your facility. Members do not want to be hanging around reception in lines or punching their PINs into a keypad, both of which can be breeding grounds for germs. Instead, they want a fast, easy, hygienic solution that will not let them down. A perfect example of such a solution is Mobile QR Code Check In, which enables members to use their smartphones to gain access to the club by simply scanning the QR code upon entry.
2. Provide Virtual Classes
Many in-person fitness classes are already resuming, but offering virtual classes is probably still a wise move. For a variety of reasons, many people still have not been vaccinated. By accommodating both in-person and online classes, you can include everyone.
Although there is no substitute for the live, “in-person” experience, providing a virtual offering to your members with instructors they are already familiar with leading classes they already enjoy will undoubtedly keep your members engaged with your club, on track, and seeing results.
3. Expand Your Outdoor Offering
There is a lot of mileage in offering an outdoor schedule. With the warmer months upon us, people are inspired to get outside and get active. Also, recent studies show that 70-90 percent of those who contract COVID-19 have a marked vitamin-D deficiency. So, what better place to get a dose of the vitamin D than out in the sunlight? Be sure to include this nugget of information when promoting your outdoor offerings.
4. Beat Out “At-Home” Fitness
It’s easier than ever to pursue fitness at home, but it’s important to remember that it’s very difficult for the average consumer to recreate the gym experience at home. First, home gyms are incredibly expensive if you’re trying to match the quality and standard of equipment. Second, it’s hard to replicate the energy and motivation you get from working out in a gym when you’re alone in your garage. Third, and most important, is the absence of coaching; clubs are uniquely positioned to provide coaching, which generates better results.
To win out over “at-home” fitness and drive members back into your club, you may want to consider implementing technology and services that allow you to provide more personalized, tailored coaching. One of the most effective ways of doing this is through body composition analysis. Offering health assessments and personalized training programs based on each member’s body measurements, especially when paired with the ability to track their body comp on a regular basis, will be a real win for any health and fitness facility.
5. Your Power Strategy: Streamline, Save, Succeed
It’s now more important than ever to have the right technology in place at your club, technology that will streamline your operation, save you time, and reduce administrative work, so you have more time to focus on what matters most: your members.
Having all the tools you need in one platform provides a host of benefits, including a cohesive and seamless experience for both your club staff and your members, lower cost, and fewer critical issues resulting from multiple systems. Here are some other benefits to consider:
• Integrated Billing and Payments
An all-in-one club management system with integrated billing will free up a heap of time and reduce your overall costs while optimizing your cash flow.
• Automation
A good club management system will automate many manual processes, saving you more time.
• Ditch the paperwork and manage your members in one place
With an all-in-one club management system, you can successfully manage all your members and prospects in one place.
• One system to learn
Your team only needs to learn one system, which means new hires won’t be overwhelmed learning multiple systems. It also means they can get up and running much faster and spend more time on the gym floor supporting your members.
• One support team
Having just one support team with the product knowledge to help across all areas of your system will save you a lot of time and energy when it comes to fixing issues or managing a change.
ClubWise is an all-in-one club management solution that provides all the tools your fitness business needs to bounce back stronger. It’s incredibly simple to use and is designed to save you a heap of time by automating many of your manual processes from membership billing to marketing and communications.
For more information on how ClubWise can help your fitness business bounce back stronger, book a free no-obligation demonstration below.