It’s simple math: happy clients = profitable clients.
With satisfied clients come recommendations and word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. Up to 92% of consumers trust WOM above all other forms of advertising, according to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report.
When your clients come to you, they want to improve themselves in some way. The journey for each client is a personal one, so it’s up to you to provide an inviting, exciting and engaging environment for them to become loyal to your brand.
Fitness software is a great tool to help you build your online and digital platforms where you can boost your interaction with clients outside your facilities. Software also provides you with a great opportunity to gain insight into your clients fitness journeys, and understand what segments of the market you’re thriving in, and which areas you aren’t.
So, what are the best ways to boost customer loyalty to your brand while staying ahead of your competitors?
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Utilize Digital Technology
Building upon or improving upon your relationship with clients starts with having an open culture in your fitness facilities. It’s important that your clients can exercise in an environment they feel comfortable in.
This stimulates them to visit your club more often and reduces the number of people who quit. Without a community, your club would be nothing more than a room to lift weights. Fitness software, in the form of an online platform or mobile app, is one of the most effective ways to build a sense of community around your clients. Virtuagym’s fitness software provides businesses with a branded mobile app that places emphasis on community & interactive groups.
Using the community features members can easily share and show their progress and achieve goals, like weight loss or muscle gained, with other members. Creating a sense of belonging and camaraderie can enhance the loyalty people feel towards your club. If they feel they are a part of something special, you’ll see it in their actions.
Integrate Wearables
You can also integrate wearables with your mobile app, which can immediately create a boost in interactivity . Wearables track member activity, while the app visualizes progress to make it more relatable.
Many of Virtuagym’s professional clients have access to an in-built upsell model where they can sell wearables to their members at a discounted price. Products in
Virtuagym’s upsell model includes an activity tracker that records step count, calories burned, and sleep patterns, and a body composition monitor that tracks body weight, body fat, body water, muscle mass, and visceral fat. Both devices automatically sync all measurements to a club’s branded app.
Online Client Coaching
Virtuagym’s software also includes effective communication tools that enable coaches to interact with their clients one-on-one outside of their facilities, monitor and control aspects of a client’s fitness journey, and have the added flexibility of being able to provide services to their clients at any time.
Client touchpoints such as this are a great way to motivate and inspire them to train harder and stick to their own goals. It also adds value to your client’s experience with your club. Adding value is an essential component to increasing a client’s lifetime value at your club.
Automate Push Notifications
An even easier way of automating your client touchpoints is with push notifications - those messages that you receive on your phone from an app, even when the app and/or phone isn’t active at that time.
The benefit is that these notifications are read a lot more than email: the open rate of push notifications is 40-60% versus 25% for email. So, instead of sending an email when there’s a last-minute class cancellation, a push notification is more likely to prevent frustrated members from showing up to an empty room.
Push notifications can also drive member engagement by notifying members of new profile messages, comments, or challenge invitations, encouraging interaction among your members.
Adapt to Client Demand
With people’s lifestyles getting busier, not everyone has the time or willpower to endure one or one-and-a-half-hour sessions at the club - especially at the start of their fitness career. Discuss this over with your clients, after which you can recommend a timeframe that best suits their fitness goals and lifestyle.
Another thing to keep in mind is their budget. Some clients may only be able to afford a 30-minute session. It’s wise to accommodate budgets of all shapes and sizes. This will not only widen your target audience but can increase your personal training revenue as well. For example, clients can attend 30-minute sessions more frequently than 60-minute sessions as they can easily schedule a workout during their lunch break.
You can also offer small group training as a cheaper alternative for your clients. Virtuagym’s software includes a scheduling tool which makes this easier to provide. Clients can select the desired workout length and group classes by looking at your availability on your calendar. Clients are more likely to remain loyal if you’re flexible enough to accommodate their needs.
Conclusion
When it comes to keeping clients happy these are all effective, easy-to-implement solutions. A good fitness software, like Virtuagym’s, can help you apply these solutions to your existing platforms and improve your communication and engagement levels with clients.
It’s important to create an environment for your clients that enables them to feel comfortable, motivated, and inspired to use your facilities on their fitness journeys. This will not only enhance your clients’ loyalty to your brand but also help you stay ahead of your competitors.
