Technology is an undeniably hot topic for both fitness consumers and providers as we shift further into the realm of digitization. And, at the forefront of this technological fascination is gym management software. You may have heard of it – or even be using one – but have you delved into the real advantages of a gym management system?
In short, a club management system is a comprehensive application management system that assists your gym administration and helps you organize effectively. The objectives of gym management systems revolve around the simplification of the day-to-day tasks that enable your organization to work seamlessly.
Set the Objectives of Your Gym management System
Before your belt out for any software, it’s important to weigh its pros and cons against your business goals. If it doesn’t help you meet those goals either directly or indirectly, move on and find another tool that fits your needs . The last thing you want is to end up with a surplus of software .
That said, the advantages of a gym management system are manifold; in this blog, we will break down some popular gym management system features and their uses.
Building and running a gym involves hard work, time, and endless upkeep of processes. You have to manage staff schedules, onboard clients, find new leads, and ensure that your fitness center is always up to scratch.
You also need a competent team to run classes and tools to track member attendance and collect fees, send out invoices, pause contracts, retain members, automate marketing flows – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
This is where robust gym management system features come in. Such software helps us simplify our member management and reduce hours of back-end tasks.
Read more: How Akasha London saves 40 hours a week using a club management system .
1. Client Acquisition
A key feature of a gym management system is its user-friendly ability to market your business to maximize the new member acquisition.
Capturing prospective clients for your gym may seem simple in theory, but in practice, it’s a complex process that involves understanding your user journey. Many fitness facilities often shoot from the hip when it comes to lead acquisition without ever really understanding how their clients decided to sign up.
One of your objectives when using a gym management system should be to capture leads and turn them into paying clients. Specially designed software can help you initiate triggers that alert you about where a prospective client is along your sales funnel. You can use these triggers to create automated communication, such as emails and other messages to keep them interested.
The advantages of a gym management system are that these tasks end up taking less time as everything just needs to be set up once and tweaked as you progress with your messaging.
2. Client Retention
A club management system is a great way to engage with your existing members by providing a steady flow of communication about your club’s happenings.
The objectives of a gym management system include making interactions between you and your members easier and more beneficial for both parties. You can use the features present in the software, such as community groups, to members updated about club events, fitness challenges, member appreciation posts, new equipment, or member referral programs – whatever floats your boat!
Additionally, a club management system like Virtuagym provides clubs with a portal where they can easily manage details of members’ payments and attendance rates – meaning you can do outreach if you believe a member may churn.
To learn more about lead acquisition and client retention strategies for fitness businesses, read our e-book on the subject .
3. Managing Bookings and Scheduling Classes
With a club management system, you can easily schedule classes, timeslots, and other events for your fitness center.
The other advantage of a gym management system is that you can link openings to a client-facing app that enables members to book their own timeslots and classes as per their favorite instructor or workout.
The ease of communication, as well as processes, enables you to provide clients with a valuable offering that they will love. Not to mention, it will set you apart from your competition – if they are still doing things manually. As a result, this will feed into your client retention strategy and attract more members who value flexibility and time saved – it’s almost as if your club’s techy edge acts as its own marketing strategy!
4. Email Marketing
An especially useful gym management system feature to have is in-built email marketing.
There are many ways you can divvy up your email marketing strategy, ranging from sporadic top-of-funnel communication to more detailed bottom-of-funnel outreach.
Clubs can incorporate email marketing to send automated nurture flows, craft monthly newsletters, or create updates whenever is necessary to keep your clients engaged.
5. Billing Process Management
Managing a fitness club involves a slew of administrative tasks such as payments, invoices, contracts, billing, cancellations, etc. Traditionally, you would need a whole team to look after different accounts.
However, one of the advantages of a gym management system is that you can see an overview of your club’s finances on your online platform. This can bring your organization to a whole new level while saving you time, money, and stress.
Read more: How Gym Management Software Will Save You Hours of Time .
Easing the burden of back-end tasks should be one of the objectives of a gym management system. Gym owners should deep dive into how to get the most out of software through proper onboarding and good support throughout the implementation process.
Discover how one of Virtuagym’s clients, Pacific Beach Training , used a club management system to take care of back-end management during the pandemic.
6. Cost Reduction Through Data
Selling memberships is one way to ensure you’re turning a profit, but cost reduction is also a good way to keep tabs on your club’s finances. A gym management system feature that lets you see where you may be bleeding out financially is imperative.
For example, software with a business intelligence tool can clue you in on your client behavior, peak hours, and busy periods. This can help you better allocate staff, saving you money in the long run.
7. Decision-Making Support
The advantages of a gym management system include guidance in determining business decisions. This ties into cost reduction, as you can use data from software to make informed decisions, and carry out those decisions directly within the software’s features.
This ensures that everything you do is based on real information and not just ‘a hunch’. Plus, you’ll be able to share your insights with the team, brainstorm solutions, and generate reports and records to ensure that things are done properly every step of the way.
8. A More Unified Workflow
Larger clubs have different departments that require the same information at the same time. This means that there may be more workload, and there is a constant exchange of information to and from different departments.
An effective gym management system features the ability to streamline workflows as information can be easily accessed from many devices at the same time. It doesn’t matter how large or spread out your facility is, everything can still happen under one roof with the right gym management system.
9. Gain Insight into Your Financial Reporting
Another advantage of a gym management system is that you can create detailed monetary reports to track and manage cash flow.
You can easily view reports for the monthly payments collected, termination of credit cards, accounts of canceled memberships, and product sales to trace your monthly cash flow.
To learn more about accounting best practices for your fitness business, read our webinar blog featuring financial author John Briggs .
10. Manage Client Coaching
A good gym management system feature to have is client coaching and tracking. Such a feature allows gyms to offer personalized training in the form of 1:1 coaching or a virtual personal trainer so clients can reach their health goals from anywhere, at any time.
Clients and trainers can monitor, adapt, and evaluate performance, workouts, and nutrition. They can constantly optimize personal workout plans and give feedback to each other to achieve faster results. All this can be done directly within a gym management system with a client-facing platform or app.
Given the increasingly shifting fitness landscape, the best way to gain a competitive advantage and level the playing field is by using software solutions.
The advantages of a gym management system don’t just end here, but if you’re still on the fence, read our blog on whether fitness apps are the future of fitness .
