As the coronavirus swept across the world last year, the majority of the UK government responded by issuing lockdown and stay-at-home orders to help reduce transmission. While few—if any—industries remained completely unscathed, the fitness industry was hit especially hard.

Faced with sudden forced closures for an unknown period of time, fitness business owners were left scrambling to transition to digital offerings in order to stay afloat, while consumers were left looking for new ways to exercise from home in order to maintain both physical and mental health.

The Silver Lining

One silver lining of the pandemic is that people are significantly more health-conscious since the COVID-19 outbreak began. Activity data showed a meaningful increase in healthy activity since the onset of the pandemic in early March 2020, and that gym closures haven’t held people back from being active—in fact, daily exercise minutes actually increased by 43% according to activity data.

Considering that many people had to figure out new ways to exercise while being under lockdown, it’s no surprise that low-intensity steady-state (LISS) activities—for example, Pilates and yoga—have seen a resurgence in popularity. The transition to digital fitness offerings, paired with consumers’ heightened interest in full body health and wellness routines, has generated a lot of new business opportunities in the fitness landscape.

And while the market is ripe with opportunity—especially for yoga and Pilates business owners—there are a few key things you need to know before opening a Pilates studio.

1. Start with a business plan

Before opening a Pilates studio, you’ll need to have a business plan in place. A business plan is a comprehensive written document that outlines all pertinent company information, goals, and strategies. Business plans will vary by company, but typically include the following sections: 

• Executive Summary
• Business Description
• Industry Background
• Competitive Analysis
• Market Analysis
• Management Summary
• Operations Plan
• Marketing plan
• Financial Plan
• Attachments and milestones

Essentially, an effective business plan should serve as a blueprint for decision-making based on company goals and the target market. And although a great business plan doesn’t guarantee success, opening a Pilates studio with a solid business plan and framework in place will set you up for success by keeping everyone involved with your company on the same page and moving in the right direction together.

2. Find the right space

There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a location for your Pilates studio business. To help you identify a space that will best suit your needs, consider the following:

• How many classes or sessions will you offer every day?
• How many people will be in each class?
• Will you run sessions simultaneously?
• What kind of equipment do you need?
• Is there adequate parking?
• Do you want your own space, or would you consider leasing space inside an existing facility?

Leasing from an existing facility can be a great way to bring in new clients, but you’ll want to ensure your potential space is removed from noisier activities like basketball and racquetball. A quiet, peaceful environment is required for a successful Pilates experience.

3. Hire the right Pilates instructors

The quality of your Pilates instructors will have a direct impact on the success of your studio, so you’ll want to hire a team of instructors who have a thorough knowledge of Pilates, as well as experience teaching group classes. Because the nuances of Pilates are significant, your Pilates instructors also need to be able to modify exercises to meet the needs of participants.

4. Get the word out

A multi-faceted marketing plan is a must-have when opening a Pilates studio. After setting up your website and social media channels, you’ll also want to consider paid marketing efforts like direct mail, print promotions and online advertising.

If you don’t have a huge budget, don’t worry! There are a lot of inexpensive ways to market your studio, too. A few examples include:

• Utilise your social media channels to reach your target market directly
• Create a blog to establish your brand and share industry expertise
• Use email campaigns to keep in touch

5. Have a management system in place

Opening a Pilates studio will require you to wear many hats and juggle various roles, so you’ll want to have a management system in place to help simplify the day-to-day of running your Pilates studio business. Running any business takes a lot of work, and necessary functions—for example, tracking employee hours, payroll, scheduling, and membership management—require a huge time investment if you’re trying to do it all yourself.

Utilising a yoga studio management software like ours can help you save time and money by reducing operational expenses, automating billings and collections, simplifying member management, and more.

Conclusion

Opening a Pilates studio is an exciting journey that offers many great rewards, but running your own business will also require a lot of planning, responsibility, and ongoing management. From facility scheduling to employee management, point-of-sale, invoicing, online registration and more, EZFacility‘s robust set of tools does all the heavy-lifting so that you can focus on the high-level needs of your business.

Curious to know more? Click here to schedule a free, personalised product demo today!

When it comes to business, nothing speaks louder than results. And in the fitness world, customer reviews and testimonials are a powerful way to showcase results, build trust, demonstrate your ability to deliver an exceptional member experience, and offer social proof that you’re able to help clients achieve their goals. 

In today’s digitally driven world, online reviews and testimonials are a must-have for your marketing mix. In this blog, we’ll focus primarily on customer testimonials—what they are, why they matter, and quick tips to help you collect more.

What is Testimonial Marketing?

Einstein Marketer defines testimonial marketing as “the use of a person’s written statement expressing their experience, gratitude, or dissatisfaction in your product or service.” And while the terms “testimonial” and “review” are often used interchangeably, there are a few key distinctions between the two:

• Customer testimonials offer a more in-depth explanation of the customer’s experience with your product and service, and typically includes an explanation about why the customer chose it, and how it’s impacted their lives.
• Another noticeable difference is where customer testimonials appear. Customer testimonials are typically given to the company directly by the client, whereas customer reviews are typically provided and posted to a third-party site. 
• A third major difference is that because companies ask for customer testimonials directly, they’re usually always positive.

Why Testimonials Matter

Customer reviews, video testimonials, star ratings, and the like are all designed to inspire trust by providing information about other customers’ real experiences. You can almost guarantee potential customers will take to the internet to look for online reviews and customer testimonials about your business before they make any purchase decisions.

Here are a few statistics that may surprise you:

• 97% of consumers say the customer reviews they read influence their purchasing decisions
• 92% of consumers will hesitate to buy a product if there are no reviews left by customers
• 84% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends
• 75% of people online trust a business after seeing a positive review
• 94% of consumers refuse to support a business because of negative reviews

Methods to Collect Customer Testimonials

Now you know why customer reviews and testimonials matter, but you may not know how to effectively solicit customer feedback. According to BrightLocal’s 2020 Local Consumer Review Survey, 72% of customers will provide reviews and testimonials simply if a local business asks them to. While the best way to ask for customer testimonials will vary by your business and client-base, but here are five strategies to consider:

1. In-person

Sometimes the most effective way to get more customer testimonials is to simply ask your clients directly, face-to-face. Keep in mind that not everyone will be willing or able to provide customer testimonials on the spot, so it’s a smart idea to create a promotional card that clearly explains how, and where, customers can submit reviews and testimonials at a later time that’s convenient for them.

2. Email

Email is often the easiest and fastest way to ask for customer feedback, especially if you utilise a facility management software to streamline the process. If your website already has a landing page with a submission form in place to collect reviews and testimonials, be sure to include that direct link in your email to make it as easy as possible for users to submit customer feedback.

3. Your website

Including a link to your testimonial page on your website can be the gentle reminder some customers need. You’ll want to make sure the link to your testimonial page is visibly displayed, and includes a clear, concise call to action in order to collect more testimonials and reviews on your website.  

4. Social Media

In today’s highly connected world, more businesses are turning to social media to engage with members and build relationships with potential new customers. Highlighting existing customer reviews and testimonials on your social media pages helps establish your brand, builds credibility, and provides the social proof some people will need to see before considering your fitness facility. You can also utilise your social media pages to request customer reviews and testimonials, but you’ll want to space out these requests to avoid coming across too pushy or salesy.

5. Receipts

Including a link to your testimonials page and submission form on purchase receipts ensures all clients know how, and where, they can provide customer feedback. It’s also a good idea to include this information in your other marketing materials—for example, posters, flyers, display signs, and your new member welcome packet, just to name a few. The easier it is to provide customer feedback, the more likely you are to get it.

Conclusion

The best way to get more reviews and testimonials for your fitness facility is to use a combination of the ideas outlined above. The more touch points you create with your customers, the more likely you are to get customer feedback. It will take some time and trial-and-error to determine which strategies are most effective for your business and clients, but securing more online reviews and customer testimonials is vital to promoting and growing your fitness business in today’s increasingly competitive landscape.

To learn how EZFacility’s comprehensive facility management software can help you connect with members, convert leads into long-lasting relationships, and streamline operations so you can focus on the most important aspects of running your business, click here to schedule a free demo today.

While the fitness landscape is always evolving, there’s no doubt the coronavirus crisis accelerated the adoption of the hybrid model and changed the face of the fitness industry forever. And despite ongoing concerns regarding the coronavirus and how it will continue to impact businesses and society at large, the collective interest in health and fitness remains at an all-time high.

With Q4’21 looming just around the corner, now is the perfect time to review your current marketing plan to gauge the success of this year’s marketing campaigns in order to gain a better understanding of strengths and weaknesses, and to identify areas of improvement that you’d like to focus on next year.

And although the negative financial impact of the pandemic has led many fitness businesses to reconsider their marketing budgets, it’s imperative that you continue marketing your fitness center in order to differentiate yourself from competitors, reach and attract new potential customers, and keep current gym members engaged.  

5 Fitness Marketing Ideas for Your Gym

It can be challenging to figure out where to allocate your marketing budget and resources, especially during uncertain times like these. Below, we’ve provided five fitness marketing ideas to help you optimise your digital presence and effectively reach your target audience.

1. Utilise targeted advertising

As of 2021, the number of people using social media is over 3.96 billion worldwide. With the average consumer now spending an unprecedented amount of time online, utilising targeted advertising is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. And, fortunately, there are a number of tools at your disposal to make it easier than ever. In addition to being the world’s most widely used social media platform with an active user count close to 2.8 billion, Facebook also offers a comprehensive targeting solution to ensure you’re getting your content in front of the right users. 

2. Invest in digital content marketing

Outbound marketing is the old way of doing business. With more people turning to their digital devices to interact with fitness brands and to search for exercise videos, at-home workout routines, fitness tips and the like, many fitness businesses are shifting their marketing efforts to focus on digital content creation. Considering content marketing can generate over three times as many leads as outbound marketing—and costs approximately 62% less—it’s pretty clear why investing in content marketing makes sense for fitness businesses.

3. Promote your digital offerings

Digital fitness is in, and it doesn’t look like that will be changing anytime soon. Even as social distancing and other mandates are being lifted, many people have come to prefer the flexibility that at-home workouts provide. To remain competitive in today’s digital landscape, you’ll need to invest in digital content creation (as we touched on in #2) and invest the time required to develop strategic marketing campaigns that highlight your digital offerings. 

4. Update your social media marketing strategy

Social media platforms are always evolving to meet the needs of their users, so it’s important to review your social media marketing plan throughout the year to make sure it’s updated to reflect the current environment and trends. Staying up to date on new social marketing tools and features will help you create more effective, tailored marketing campaigns to engage your target audience.

5. Create a seamless experience

The user experience plays a vital role in the online customer journey, and it directly impacts consumer purchase decisions. Today’s consumers are time-sensitive and expect to be able to locate what they need quickly, easily and without interruption. Any delay, glitch or interruption in your online services can cause potential customers to lose interest quickly, or even develop a negative association with your brand.

Conclusion

Let’s face it—the pandemic has changed the fitness industry as we once knew it. And while you may be tempted to cut back on marketing your fitness center during uncertain times, investing in online marketing is an investment in your future success. In today’s increasingly digital world, fitness businesses need to meet potential customers where they are—online.

To learn how EZFacility’s suite of marketing tools can help you attract new potential customers and nurture leads throughout the buying process to grow your fitness center, click here to schedule a free demo today!

Yoga is an ancient physical and spiritual discipline that originated in India more than 5,000 years ago. And while it’s long been heralded for its many health benefits, the popularity of yoga has increased substantially since the COVID-19 pandemic hit due to its flexible nature and the ability for people to practice yoga anywhere, any time.   

The global yoga market size is predicted to have a compound annual growth rate of 9.6% from 2021 to 2027. Yoga is slated to remain a constant fixture in global fitness trends for years to come, which means there are a lot of opportunities for business owners who are interested in opening a yoga studio.

While opening a yoga studio is an exciting adventure and a great way to continue your passion and help others, it can also feel overwhelming at times, especially at the beginning. There are a lot of things you’ll need to have in order before opening your doors, beginning with a business plan.

In this blog, we’ll talk about what a business plan is, why you need one, as well as which key components to include when you create your own yoga studio business plan template.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a written document that describes how a business—usually a startup—defines objectives, as well as how the company plans to achieve its goals. An effective business plan will guide you through the phases of starting, managing and growing your business.

Think of your business plan as the compass that will guide your yoga studio and keep everyone moving in the right direction. Your business plan is the place to put all of your thoughts and plans in one place, so it’s important to take your time to ensure you cover all elements and aspects of your business.

Why do I need a business plan?

The best way to set yourself up for future success is to start with a solid framework. Although business plans are especially helpful for new businesses, every company should have one.

Here are five benefits of having a strong business plan:

1. It will help you better understand your competition
2. It will help you better understand your target market
3. It will serve as a guide to grow your business
4. It will help you reach milestones
5. It can help you secure funding

What should your business plan include?

Below is an overview of key areas to include when you create your yoga studio business plan template:

1. Cover page:

A small but fundamental component of your yoga studio business plan template is the cover page, which should include the name of your company as well as contact information.

2. Table of Contents:

The table of contents is where you’ll provide an outline of what readers can expect to find in your business plan. It also helps readers quickly skim or skip to the areas of greatest interest.

3. Executive Summary:

The executive summary is where you will provide a synopsis of your business plan in a concise, detailed and interesting way. This section should be no longer than one page, and should answer key questions such as:

• What are your business goals and how will you achieve them?
• Who is your target market?
• What are your financial projections?
• How is your yoga studio different from competitors?

4. Industry Background:

In this section, you’ll provide past and current information about the size, trends and critical features of the industry. This section should answer questions such as:

• What is the industry?
• What is the industry outlook?
• Who are the competitors?
• What are the barriers to entry?

5. Competitive Analysis:

Your competitive analysis should provide key information about your major competitors, as well as an assessment of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.

6. Market Analysis:

Learning about your target market and their needs, preferences and demographic data is an integral part of any business plan. By identifying and understanding your current or potential customers, you’ll learn how—and where—to reach and connect with them. This section should also demonstrate that there is a real need or demand in the market that your new business aims to fulfill. 

7. Sales and Marketing:

In the sales and marketing section of your business plan, you’ll explain how you plan to allocate marketing resources to most effectively reach new customers and convert them into lifelong members. Be sure to include specific marketing strategies and explain how they align with business goals and objectives.  

8. Cost Projections and Funding:

1.     The financial section is the crux of any good business plan. It should provide current and future projections of your studio’s financial performance and show how much money you need to generate in order to be profitable and poised for continued growth.

Conclusion

When opening a yoga studio, having a well-researched and comprehensive business plan in place is vital to the success of your company. Your business plan will be your guidebook to growing your yoga studio and will also serve as a benchmark to measure success year-after-year.    

To learn how our yoga management software can help you achieve peace of mind by streamlining operations and maximising efficiency, click here to schedule a personalised product tour today.

Fitness enthusiasts are heading back to the gym as COVID-19 restrictions ease, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to give up online fitness classes and home workouts. If there’s one lesson the collective fitness industry learned in 2020, it’s that the demand for online fitness options isn’t going anyway any time soon.

To stay afloat during the pandemic amid forced business closures, gyms and fitness studios had to quickly adapt and transition to digital offerings. And although most restrictions have been lifted and people are able to return to in-person workouts, that doesn’t mean everybody is ready—or necessarily wants to.

Because the pandemic continues to create new challenges and restrictions on society, a hybrid fitness model puts gym owners in a more secure position to navigate the current climate, as well as future obstacles that may arise.

What is a Hybrid Gym?

Hybrid is the new buzzword that’s made its way into almost every industry—and especially within the fitness industry. With a hybrid gym model, your digital offerings are meant to complement your brick and mortar operations. A hybrid gym offers the best of both worlds, and includes a combination of in-person and online workout options. For example, your gym may offer in-person exercise classes that are also live streamed or available on-demand for members who want to continue with home workouts.

Benefits of a Hybrid Model

The hybrid model has become the new norm in the fitness industry—and it doesn’t look like that’s going to be changing.

Considering the lingering uncertainty around the coronavirus and its future impact on businesses—and society at large—the hybrid gym model makes a lot of sense. Here are three reasons you should consider a hybrid gym model in 2021:

1. Help Reduce the Spread

Providing online fitness options helps reduce the spread of the coronavirus by giving people the ability to workout from home, thereby reducing foot traffic at your physical location. One of the main concerns with the coronavirus all along has been how quickly and easily it seems to spread in confined spaces. Although most gyms and fitness studios have implemented new health and safety protocols, there’s no denying the reality that the more people you have in a confined space, the higher the risk of transmission.

2. Reach More People

With a traditional gym model, your membership base is heavily driven by your location. And because you can’t just change your physical location (easily), the hybrid model gives gyms a greater ability to reach more people and attract new business without being limited by physical proximity. Because a hybrid model includes online workout options, you’re able to extend your reach and provide services to people who don’t live near your facility, ones who are unable to attend live classes (for various reasons), as well as people who simply prefer home workouts. You can also adjust your pricing and gym membership options to include a digital-only subscription service.

3. Diversified Income Streams

When the pandemic first hit and businesses were forced to close their doors unexpectedly, and for an unknown period of time, many gyms and fitness studios were left without a sustainable source of income and scrambling to find ways to generate additional money. By adopting a hybrid model and providing online fitness options, you’re putting yourself in a more secure financial position, both now and in the future.

Conclusion

The fitness industry is still treading uncharted waters, and the pandemic will continue to impact the ways consumers engage with gyms and fitness studios. One thing we do know is that the demand for online fitness options continues to rise, so it’s a good time to consider adopting a hybrid gym model.

Your reputation is the most important aspect of your business—it affects everything from how many people follow you on social media to your company’s bottom-line. For gyms and fitness-related businesses, a positive reputation can help attract new members, entice a better selection of prospective employees, create more business opportunities, improve your search engine rankings, and more. Conversely, a negative reputation can lead to loss of sales, membership churn, high employee turnover, and other costly consequences.

When a consumer is considering making a purchase decision, they want to make the best choice—and they base their decision on which product or service appears to be superior. Nearly 90% of consumers worldwide make an effort to read reviews before buying products, and 86% of customers rely on word of mouth recommendations and online reviews. These statistics illustrate the importance of your online reputation and digital footprint, as well the impact of positive reviews, to grow and maintain your gym reputation.

Read on to learn more about why gym reviews matter, where you can collect them, and what you can do to get more online reviews. 

Why Gym Reviews Matter

Online reviews give consumers the power to tell their side of the customer journey—whether positive or negative—for millions of eyes to see. And, chances are, the first thing perspective members will do is research your gym and read online reviews before making any purchase decisions.

Here are just a few statistics to illustrate the power of online reviews:

• Customer reviews can increase conversions by 270%.
• 91% of people ages 18-34 say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
• 93% of consumers say that reading online reviews has influenced their purchase decisions.
• 75% of people online trust a business after seeing a positive review.
• 94% of consumers refuse to patronise a business because of negative reviews.

Given the impact of online reviews, it’s necessary to actively monitor them as a part of your reputation management strategy, and to garner as many positive reviews for your business as possible. 

Where to Collect Online Reviews

While a number of different review platforms exist, below are three key ones you’ll want to focus on when building your online reputation:

Your Website

We live in a digital world, and you should assume the vast majority of gym goers will visit your website before they decide whether or not to visit your facility. Your website is the center of your digital presence, and it’s one of the most powerful marketing tools in your repertoire.

Your website is the home base that connects everything—it’s where you can display your mission, provide information about your products and services, link social media accounts, highlight positive gym reviews, and more. You can set up a system that allows users to leave online reviews directly on your site, or you can copy reviews from other platforms.

Google Reviews

Google has a whopping 92% market share, making it the most widely used search engine in the world. Google is the first place most people go to do online searches, so managing your Google presence is an absolute must to grow and maintain your gym’s reputation. The first step is to claim your business listing using Google My Business (GMB), which then gives you the ability to update information regularly in order to control how your gym appears in search results.

Google reviews are directly linked to your GMB page, meaning that a user can search for your business on Google, locate your GMB page, and read Google reviews to get a better feel for your brand based on what other people are saying about you.

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social media platform and has over 2.80 billion monthly active users. If that’s not enough to impress you, consider this: Facebook also has 1.84 billion users that are visiting the social networking site on a daily basis. Facebook users are able to leave reviews on any Facebook business page, which will often appear on the Google search page as well.

How to Get More Online Reviews

Below are three simple ways you can get more online reviews:

1. Post Instructions & Information Everywhere

One of the easiest ways to get more gym reviews is to make sure you have the information clearly outlined and visibly posted all around your facility. Consider creating a mix of posters, flyers, and cards that include instructions on how—and where—your members can leave online reviews. It’s also a good idea to include this information in your member welcome packets.

2. Include Review Requests in Your Emails

Emails are most likely the main way you communicate with your members, so it’s a great opportunity to request gym reviews. Consider adding a review request link near your email signature, and make sure you choose a font and text size that makes it stand out.       

3. Keep it Simple

If you’re trying to get more reviews on your website, keep the process quick and simple. Asking too many questions or requiring too much information will drive people away, so you want to make the review process as easy as possible. Consider giving users the option to select a simple star rating, or to also include feedback in the comments section.

Conclusion

Gym reviews are one of the most cost-effective ways to market your business, build a positive reputation, and make your company look more favorable to potential customers. Online reviews also heavily influence purchasing decisions and lead conversion, so it’s important to constantly monitor and respond to your gym reviews to keep your reputation favorable and your business growing.

Exercising is one of the most important things you can do to improve your overall health—which is especially crucial during the COVID-19 era. Regular exercise helps keep your immune system operating at its prime, and it also helps lowers the risk of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, depression, and more.

And while many restrictions on businesses have been lifted and fitness facilities have reopened, you may find yourself wondering if it’s safe to return to in-person workouts. The answer is yes—as long as you exercise proper gym etiquette, follow protocols, and do your part to reduce the spread of germs.

 Here are five ways you can help keep yourself and other people at the gym safe and healthy:

1. Don’t go if you’re sick (or think you might be)

This should be common sense, yet we feel compelled to emphasise how important it is to skip your in-person workout routine when you’re sick or not feeling well. Even if you think it’s no big deal, the best way to keep fellow gym goers and other people at the gym safe is to avoid exposure until you’re back to feeling 100%.  

2. Avoid peak hours

Most people have a preferred time to get their workout routine in for the day, but it’s still a good idea—if it’s possible—to adjust your workout schedule in order to avoid visiting the gym during peak hours. Again, it may seem like common sense, but shifting the time of your workout routine by even just 30 minutes can have a huge impact on flattering the curve and reducing the spread of the coronavirus.

3. Follow the rules

Rules and restrictions vary from business to business. Make sure you pay attention to the rules at your gym, and follow them. If you see areas of the gym that are closed, or a piece of equipment that’s marked out of use, remember that these rules are in place to keep you and fellow gym goers safe.

4. Wipe down equipment

Germs and public places go hand-in-hand, and the gym is no exception. In fact, studies have found that free weights contain more than 360 times the amount of bacteria than toilet seats, and treadmills contain over 70 times more bacteria than a water faucet. Again, it should be common sense at this point, but make sure you wipe down equipment before and after every use. Germs and other illnesses existed long before Covid, but you can help limit the spread of germs by exercising proper gym etiquette and washing your hands regularly, wiping down your gym’s equipment, and maintaining a safe distance from fellow gym goers.

5. Bring your own supplies

Have you ever gone to grab a paper towel or cleaning wipe at the gym, only to find there aren’t any left? It’s not a good feeling, but it’s a situation you can easily avoid by bringing your own supplies. Bring at least two towels to the gym with you—one to lay on equipment and machinery to create a protective barrier, and one to use to wipe your sweat. It’s also smart to bring your own sanitiser, or sanitising wipes to make sure you can wipe down equipment before and after every use.

Conclusion

Regular exercise and physical activity have always been important, but even more so now during the pandemic. If you’re ready to get back to the gym and in-person workouts, just make sure you exercise proper gym etiquette and do everything you can to keep you and other people at the gym safe and healthy.

The fitness industry has undergone a major transformation over the past year in order to adapt to shifting demands and changing consumer habits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With many government restrictions now lifted, and vaccines available throughout the UK, fitness businesses are finally starting to see more foot traffic again.

While this is great news, it’s important for business owners to understand that customers’ expectations have changed dramatically since the pandemic hit. This is especially true within the fitness industry, where members have grown accustomed to the convenience and flexibility that digital fitness offerings provide. Now more than ever, providing a great customer experience is a non-negotiable for gyms and fitness-related businesses.

In this blog, we’ll talk about why member experience matters, and what you can do to ensure you’re providing a positive customer experience throughout the entire customer journey.

What is the member experience?

In a membership-based business, the customer experience is ultimately what defines and drives your business. The experience you provide is what makes your business unique, and it’s what attracts people to your products and services over your competitors. Providing a great member experience is critical to creating a positive association with your business, boosting customer engagement, and building a community of loyal customers.

The member experience begins at the first point of contact with customers, and encompasses all of the touch points throughout the customer journey. To ensure you’re providing a positive member experience, you need to continuously offer exceptional customer support, anticipate—and exceed—customers’ expectations and needs, and provide an experience your members can’t get anywhere else.

Ways to Create a Great Customer Experience

In today’s increasingly digital world, ensuring a positive member experience is more important than ever. The experience you provide—whether positive or negative—will stay with you and impact your long-term success. In fact, 87% of customers think brands need to put more effort into providing a consistent experience.

A great customer experience provides your business with a competitive edge, improves customer satisfaction and customer engagement, and helps you attract loyal customers. Conversely, a bad experience has the opposite effect, and can quickly lead people to cancel their memberships, or leave negative reviews online and on social media.

In order to provide great customer experience, you must remember that the experience extends beyond just signing up members—it needs to be emulated across multiple platforms and touchpoints. Additionally, you need to understand how your members think, and what they want.

Below are four ways to help you provide a great customer experience:

1. Safety & Hygiene

In the wake of the pandemic, safety and hygiene are critical components of the member experience. Customers’ expectations of gyms and fitness-related businesses have evolved, and they now include the expectation that businesses have health and safety standards in place to minimise the transmission of COVID-19. Maintaining a high standard of cleanliness is the new norm, and it’s key to ensuring your members feel safe and comfortable.

2. Employee Culture

The environment you foster plays a huge role in whether a member has a positive customer experience, or a bad experience. Running a gym isn’t just about laying out equipment—it’s about creating a space that can change peoples’ lives. To do that, you first need to ensure that you’re providing positive employee experiences, too. You’re likely familiar with the saying “happy employees create happy customers”—and studies have confirmed that employee happiness is directly correlated with employee efficiency, creativity, and productivity. If you want to consistently provide positive customer experiences, you need to build a team of happy, engaged employees.

3. Customer feedback

The best way to know if you’re meeting customers’ expectations is to ask them. Asking for customer feedback after key touchpoints during the customer journey shows members you care about their experience, which leads to greater customer satisfaction and higher customer engagement. Customer feedback is also an invaluable way to learn what you’re doing well, in addition to identifying areas for improvement.

4. Convenience

As we touched on earlier, customers’ expectations have changed since COVID-19, and business owners need to be willing to meet the consumers where they are. Data from a recent global study revealed that 70% of responding internet users worldwide were using their smartphones or mobile phones more as a direct result of the coronavirus outbreak, and another study found that mobile owners worldwide will continue to increase to 7.33 billion by 2023. For gyms and fitness-related businesses, this means that a strong digital presence is key to long-term success.

Consumers now expect a hybrid combination of in-person and online workout options, and they want to be able to research, book services, and communicate with brands easily. If you haven’t already done so, make sure your app, website and social media channels are updated, user-friendly, informative, and offer a seamless experience.

Conclusion

A great customer experience is what will keep your members coming back, and make them more likely to recommend your business to friends. Remember that you’re selling a continuous service, so it’s imperative that you build a strong team of engaged employees, solicit customer feedback, and continue to monitor digital trends in the fitness space to make sure you’re keeping up with the shifting landscape.

To learn how EZFacility can help you provide a great customer experience and improve customer satisfaction, click here to schedule a free, personalised product tour. 

Are you reading this blog on a mobile device? Statistically speaking, there’s a good chance the answer is yes, considering more than half of website traffic is generated through mobile phones.

And if you’re like most people, your phone is the first thing you check in the morning and the last thing you check at night.

With so many people constantly attached to their phones, business owners have an opportunity to reach their audience through a number of different communication channels and marketing strategies.

In this blog, we’ll cover one of the easiest and most effective digital marketing strategies you can implement to connect with your members, boost class attendance, increase member engagement, and improve retention rates.

What Is a Push Notification?

A push notification is a short message that pops up when users have your app installed on their device. Mobile app push notifications are designed specifically for phones and tablets, whereas web push notifications are designed for laptop and desktop users. Certain web browsers, like Chrome and Firefox, have pop-up push messages that alert users of notifications. However, not every mobile device supports web push notifications.

Depending on the device, push messages may look slightly different and have different character limits. Mobile app push notifications typically look like text messages, and can only be sent to users who have your mobile app installed on their device if they have agreed to receive push messages.

How a Push Notification Strategy Can Increase Customer Retention

A push notification strategy is an effective way to keep customers engaged with your business, win back inactive members, improve retention rates, and boost revenue. It’s all about relationships, and push messages help strengthen the bond with your customers by offering a simple, familiar way to keep in touch. In fact, one study found that push messages increase retention rates three to 10 times, while boosting engagement by 88%!

Here are a few examples of how you can utilise push messages:

• Share updates about new classes and digital offerings to spark interest
• Motivate clients by celebrating milestones
• Share links to fun and interesting content like recipes, nutrition tips, or How To’s
• Offer promotions and discounts
• Encourage members to book services or purchase products
• Send alerts for upcoming classes, new services, or expiring memberships

4 Tips to Improve Your Push Notification Strategy

• Define your target audience: In order to increase your open rates and conversion rates, you need to define your target audience. You can use the member data you have on file to create tailored lists by using information such as age, goals, class attendance and purchase history to categorise clients. Doing this helps you create messages that you know will be relevant and of interest to those audiences.
• Make it personal: Happy members become loyal, long-term customers and brand advocates. One of the best ways to get your clients to care about your business is to show you care about them. While some messages may apply to all, sending too many impersonal and irrelevant messages will likely lead members to opt out of receiving your push messages. Use the member data you have available to keep the messages relevant and personal. Sometimes it’s the little things—like sending a push message to celebrate a milestone or anniversary—that can make all the difference.
• Timing is (still) everything: The best time to send push messages will vary based on the content you’re delivering. For example, class reminders should be sent 30 minutes before the class begins, whereas the best time to send general information can vary. Generally speaking, push messages sent between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. have the highest open rates, but you should always check the data to see when your customers are most responsive.
• Keep it short and sweet: When it comes to writing your push messages, you want to keep it brief, clear, and persuasive. While different platforms have different character limits, the ideal length is about 10 words. Since the text will appear differently across devices, it’s always best to keep it as short as possible.

Conclusion

Push messages are an easy and effective way to reach your audience and keep customers engaged. By creating tailored distribution lists, you can deliver relevant and interesting content to defined audiences, which will help improve your overall push notification strategy and retention rates.

Being a fitness entrepreneur can offer a myriad of benefits—it allows you to create a career that aligns with your values, dictate your own schedule, choose who you want to work with, build a network of like-minded individuals, and it gives you control over important business decisions.

But while owning and operating your own company can be extremely rewarding, being the person who’s ultimately responsible for whether your business succeeds or fails is a heavy burden to carry alone, and it can have a significant impact on your mental health. In addition to harming you personally, mental health problems can also negatively impact your business by hindering productivity, impacting relationships, and negatively affecting company culture.

In this blog, we’ll cover some of the common stressors fitness entrepreneurs face during their careers, why it’s so important to start talking more openly about mental health, and how to build a support network.  

Entrepreneurial Stress

Those who choose the entrepreneurial path tend to know they will face stress and pressure throughout their careers, but COVID-19 upended day-to-day life, global industry, and the world as we once knew it. The fitness industry was hit particularly hard, and many brick-and-mortar facilities were forced to close permanently, while others are still scrambling to adapt and survive in the post-pandemic era.

It’s been an especially tumultuous time for most businesses, but even more so for fitness entrepreneurs who must navigate the obstacles and changing landscape largely on their own. The high level of stress that comes with running your own business can have a dramatic impact on your physical mental health—and, if not managed appropriately—can lead to burnout, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more.

Below are a few examples of common challenges fitness entrepreneurs face:

1. Assuming multiple roles

When you run your own business, it’s oftentimes necessary to take on multiple roles, especially when you’re first starting out. But when you’re doing everything on your own, it’s easy to become overwhelmed, stressed and burnt out. If you have a team of employees, it’s critical to learn how to delegate so you can focus on the high-level priorities.

2. Financial burdens

Financial management is a part of every business, and paying close attention to your finances is key to staying in operation. Staying on top of your finances to ensure you’re in the green can be extremely stressful and time-consuming, so it’s important to establish a process for how you plan to manage the books and as well as how you will tackle financial pressures head-on.    

3. Loneliness

Research shows that many entrepreneurs struggle with mental health issues—and many try to keep it to themselves.

Without a proper support network in place, entrepreneurs who struggle with mental health issues can experience feelings of isolation and loneliness, as well as depression, anxiety and a number of other health issues.

Making Your Mental Health a Priority

Running a business can be overwhelming, but trying to deal with everything on your own can be very detrimental to your physical health and mental health. It’s important to be open and honest with those close to you, and to seek external guidance if you’re struggling with any mental health problems.

In order for your business to be the best it can be, you need to be the best you can be, too—and that means making yourself and your health a top priority.