5 Questions to Ask Before Implementing Fitness Software
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Evaluating whether or not to purchase new fitness software can be a daunting task. You want the software to be a complete solution that has the functionality, performance, and features you need to run your business. Asking the following questions to your fellow gym managers, employees, and to the software vendor can help you determine if your gym is ready to implement the software.
1. What Are Your Business’ Needs Right Now?
What are your business needs, and what are you trying to improve? Are you trying to open a new location? Are you trying to increase your retention of members? Are you trying to increase membership sales? If you don’t know your business’ needs, you won’t have an understanding of what solutions will help you to improve your business. You can’t match up a problem with a solution if you haven’t diagnosed the problem. Some of the biggest challenges that gyms face are member retention and maintaining a consistent revenue. These variables are dependent on member delinquencies. Are you facing any of these challenges? There are a few different ways that fitness software can help to solve these concerns.
Improving member retention is possible with all of the data you’ll have access to. You can track your members’ behaviors and understand their likes and dislikes, so you can engage with your members more effectively and build lasting relationships with them. It can help you better manage your finances and grow membership sales through email marketing services and online membership forms. And finally, it gives members access to an online portal. This portal allows them to do a variety of tasks right from home. They can manage their membership levels, view searchable schedules online, sign up for new classes, see their billing information, automate their payments, and more.
2. How Will Fitness Software Affect My Team?
If you’re going to implement fitness software, you want to make sure that it will be accepted and utilized by the rest of your team. It should meet the needs and goals that your team is working towards. When the software is aligned with your goals, it will be supported and easily adopted by the team. Using a complete software gives your team the functionality that they need to complete tasks more efficiently and better understand the performance of your fitness center. One of the biggest impacts you will see is how simple it becomes to manage your employees. The software allows you to manage timesheets, check employee availability, and automate administrative tasks, making you and your team’s jobs easier. With fewer administrative tasks, your team will have more time to focus on other tasks like driving more membership sales and building long-lasting relationships with members.
One aspect that always causes concern is how to best train employees to use the new software. You may consider putting together a training program yourself that your team could use. But also know that most companies provide implementation support to answer any questions that you have while onboarding.
Ultimately, better management of your employees creates a happier and more productive place to work.
3. Does My Business and Team Have the Necessary Resources?
Assess the resources that you have. Make sure to allow your team the time to learn this new tool. If you rush everyone to get onboarded in a short period of a time, it will be difficult to learn the most efficient way to use the software. Having a training curriculum or a certification program built ahead of time can help your team be ready-to-go with the new fitness software once it is purchased. Vendor support is a resource critical to the success of the software implementation, necessary for the transition to go smoothly. Finally, finances will be a determinant of which software you choose as well. Having time designated for training, support services from the vendor, and financial resources will help make the implementation easy and efficient.
4. What Will I Get in Return?
In addition to the member retention, consistent revenue, and employee management discussed, you can expect to see financial returns too. Some health clubs are able to see an increase in revenue of 14% within one year in addition to increasing check-in rates and personal training revenue. To determine the ROI you can expect to see, take the gain of the investment minus the cost of the investment, and divide by the cost of the investment. The cost for fitness software varies by the vendor that you use, as each vendor has a different pricing model making it hard to compare vendors simply by their prices; it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. But the gain of the investment can be determined by calculating the following: the cost reduction based on time saved, the increase in the lifetime value of your members from increased retention rates, and the increase in membership sales from employees having more time to drive sales.
5. What Kind of Support Will I Receive After Implementing Fitness Software?
This is something that a lot of people forget to ask, but it is a vital question to ensure the success of the software integration. There are bound to be questions and concerns that arise when you are first setting up and getting used to the new software. Having a support team that is behind you helps to create a smooth transition when making a software purchase. They can help with things like training and usage as well as troubleshooting unusual errors, especially during the onboarding process. Having support will help you get the most out of your new software and make sure you are using it in the most efficient way possible.
To see success at your gym, you need a software vendor that is committed to seeing your success. ABC Financial is the nation’s leading software and payment processing provider, and they pride themselves on their customer success. They currently work with over 7,000 health clubs throughout North America to deliver cutting-edge technology and top-quality customer service.
To see how fitness software can work for your gym, request a free demo from ABC Financial, and ask these 5 questions!
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