How can I mitigate the risks of Coronavirus for my business?
1. Stay informed: only get your information from trusted sources (WHO, your country’s health departments, main news sites) and avoid clickbait titles and private message chains. To be informed on what’s happening in the fitness business, sign up to our webinar series!
2. Keep your members up-to-date: update your social media accounts with everything your business is doing with regard to the Coronavirus outbreak - and any and all virtual workouts you’re working on!
3. Check government support initiatives: many countries are working on economic measures to relieve financial pressure on SMEs, including tax exemptions or delay in tax payments, reduced support loan interest rates, etc. Make sure you’re informed on what is being offered and how to apply for it.
4. Comply with health recommendations: your gym may still be open - or re-open soon! If it’s the case, ensure you have a system in place to provide frequent cleaning, freely available hand sanitizer and avoid physical contact by reducing class sizes and placing restrictions on the amount of people allowed to simultaneously train at your gym.
What do we know about Coronavirus and how does it impact fitness businesses?
Uncertainty is currently the only certainty: latest news is saying that almost half of the world is in some sort of lockdown to prevent the spreading of COVID-19.
Strong measures being put in place to prevent further outbreak, with governments’ main goal being to “flatten the curve”: reduce the spreading of the pandemic so as not to oversaturate health care providers and hospitals.
Fitness clubs worldwide have been forced to close, together with most non-essential businesses, and there’s a rapid demand for digital, at-home solutions like Virtuagym @ Home.
What is Virtuagym @Home?
Virtuagym @Home is an online solution that allows gyms and studios to engage with their members online.
It consists of two modules:
1. Virtual Trainer Workouts, with 3D exercises to work out from home with our virtual trainers Emma Squatson and Brad Fit. You can find basic workouts with no equipment needed, but also exercises with elastic bands and dumbbells, as well as a ""Body and Mind"" section.
2. Video On Demand (VOD): imagine Netflix with the best workout videos, the platform is completely populated with premium exercise content from Yoga, HITT, Dance, Core, Pilates, Tai Bo, Les Mills, Jillian Michaels, P90X and more!
Want to start with Virtuagym @Home? Contact our Client Success team if you’re one of our clients or use this link if you’re new to Virtuagym.
Can I have my own custom mobile app?
Yes! The app will enable you to engage your clients through one touchpoint, that will also give them access to all Virtuagym @Home functionalities!
To create a custom mobile app, your company should meet the following requirements:
- You have more than 150 clients.
- You're not sole proprietor.
- You have an Apple device available to you (Apple will use this to verify your identity).
Please contact our Client Success team to get started. Read more about the custom mobile app and how to get started.
How can I use workouts, the community & challenges to remain engaged with my clients?
You can create workouts that your clients could do from home. So if you don’t want to live stream your classes, consider making individual and group workout plans to be mass assigned to your clients.
You can combine these workouts with challenges and special community groups to keep motivating your client.
Can I pause all of my clients' contracts?
Yes, it is possible to pause your clients’ contracts. You can follow this guide on how to pause contracts individually. Mass contract pausing for your entire facility can be done for you (also retrospectively) by one of our staff, so please get in touch by emailing support@virtuagym.com if you want this implemented.
While contracts are paused, you could consider charging your members a monthly fee for online digital training services using Virtuagym. We are expanding the default Virtuagym workout database for free with Virtuagym @Home workouts, so you can offer those to your members!
How can I apply a discount for my memberships?
You can follow this guide to understand how you can apply discounts and adjust the price per membership. By adjusting the price in the memberships, all the invoices created by the assigned memberships for the next invoice period will have the new price. This only works for renewing memberships.
At the moment, it is not possible to adjust the price or add a discount to all memberships simultaneously.
How can I extend the validity of lesson tickets or credits?
It’s not possible to do all at once, you’ll need to manually give clients new credits. You can do this by adding credits manually or, if you use our Point of Sale module, adding credits to members by making a Point of Sale product and assigning this to the clients. This is convenient when you want to assign the same amount of credits to a large group of clients.
What’s the difference between Video On Demand and streaming?
Video on Demand is a service Virtuagym provides, powered by Fitness on Demand. This service provides you with the ability to give your members access to streaming exercise videos, directly from the Virtuagym mobile app.
In order to stream your own content through the Virtuagym app, you can read this guide on going live with Virtuagym and this guide on how to embed videos in your app’s home screen.
How can I add a live streaming to my Club Community?
We've got you covered! Using this link you can find all the steps to set it up!
Can I use my own videos for VG@home workouts?
The VG@home workouts are standard and cannot be edited. You can however create your own @home workouts with your own videos.
My payment provider Mollie changed their payout time, what can I do?
Recently Mollie announced that they will in many cases delay the payout of Direct Debit and Credit Card payments for April by 15 days, and for May by 30 days due to the COVID19 outbreak. Mollie is afraid that a lot of your members will ask for a chargeback since they cannot visit your club during the pandemic. We are surprised and very disappointed by their decision and understand this has a big impact on your business. We are here to help.
After contacting Mollie, they let us know that they are willing to make exceptions for Virtuagym customers on a case by case basis. We advise you to contact Mollie to see if they can make an exception for your company.
In the meantime, we understand that you’re in need of a trustworthy alternative. We advise you to take action and we wrote an article with all the options you have to avoid this situation. Please read our Helpdesk article carefully and make your decision on how to proceed. We advise you to act quickly and get in touch with our Client Success team for more information.
