For successful fitness club operations, follow The Five S’s

The key to running a successful fitness business is being able to strike the right balance between investing in the best products and technology to attract members, while also keeping control of business costs to maintain profitability.

The good news is that clubs that choose to build greater automation into their business can achieve both at the same time – creating a club that’s a desirable place to be while delivering time and cost savings for both management and staff.

So what should you consider when deciding to upgrade your club automation, and what benefits should you expect to gain from making such an investment?

Follow the steps

As specialists in contactless technology and bespoke software solutions, GANTNER believes that fitness clubs should be focused on the ‘Five S’s’ when building out their seamlessly automated customer journey club operations.

These five S’s are: Security, Staffing, Statistics, Self-Direction, and Secondary Spend

Let’s take a look at each of these areas in turn, and consider how much priority they should have in your fitness club business model, and what you can hope to achieve with them:

SECURITY - A secure club leads to contented members, and contented members lead to a profitable business!

When designing a customer journey, you need to make sure above all that it’s safe – for your members, your staff, and your business.

Using the latest RFID technology and management software, clubs can know exactly who is in their club at any one time (once a member presents their key card, fob, or smartphone), and also implement restricted access areas if they wish. This level of security can begin right at the club gates, with members having to use their assigned credentials to access the car park.

With member data being instantly displayed to staff at reception and club access points pre-assigned, sharing of membership cards is no longer an easy option – meaning that whoever is in your club is paying to be there and the risk of fraud is eliminated. Further levels of secure biometric data can be added, such as the need for the member to use their fingerprint for entry.

In larger clubs that either operate on a 24-hour basis or very extended hours, tamper-proof technology becomes even more important for keeping everyone safe and protecting your fitness club business.

The use of a member credential at club check-in can also activate access to club changing rooms and lockers, meaning that only members can access these areas and instantly locate their belongings, meaning everything is kept reassuringly secure.?

STAFFING - making your business MORE personal, not less

There is sometimes fear from businesses that introducing more automation and technology into their member experience could make the customer journey more impersonal and less friendly – but in fact, the opposite is true.

Automation actually frees up more staff time so that your employees spend less of their time on repetitive administrative tasks, and more quality time around the club or on the gym floor interacting with members.

The staff makes for contented, looked-after members, which ultimately benefits your bottom line!

In today’s more challenging times, of course, many clubs are looking to streamline their staff levels to create savings. Doing this alongside an automated customer journey means that you can cut costs and make staff time savings, without impacting the level of support that your customers receive when they visit your club.

STATISTICS - studying your numbers will help you spend wisely and make savings where needed

In these challenging market times as the world recovers from the global pandemic, a successful health and fitness club should be just as much focused on achieving cost savings as generating new revenues – and a well-automated customer journey will deliver both!

The cost savings that can be made through needing fewer staff members to deliver services may be evident - but how can clubs achieve this without negatively affecting the member experience?

The key to this is an effective data tracking and always studying your stats! With an automated, RFID card-based system, clubs can track both real-time and historic data for club occupancy levels and hour-by-hour usage. This in turn allows the club owner to make more informed decisions on when staff is needed and where they're most needed within the club at different times of the day.

This information could enable club owners to deliver a better experience for members at busy times while saving the club money by choosing to have less staff at quieter times.

With an RFID-enabled smart locker system, the data related to locker usage can also be easily tracked and acted upon - such as deciding to have fewer lockers if they are not being used and freeing up valuable club space for something else.

It’s also worth noting that there are also savings to be made with the time and costs associated with ongoing club maintenance. An RFID-controlled smart locker system, for example, eliminates the need for physical locker locks and keys and all the maintenance time and costs that come along with that, including jammed locks and lost keys.

SELF-DIRECTION – let your members feel more in control to engender a greater sense of club loyalty

The more your time-pressed members can move seamlessly through your club through automated processes - from car parking entry and turnstile entry to easy locker access, and logging onto their favorite piece of fitness equipment, the more satisfied they will be. This in turn leads to a greater sense of customer loyalty, and better retention levels for clubs.

And as every fitness club owner knows, the key to a profitable business is achieving high customer retention. It costs a lot more money to acquire a new member than it does to retain – and entertain – an existing one.

Again, studying the member data and usage closely will allow clubs to design an automated customer journey that’s perfect for their particular members, and puts greater, yet safer, control in the hands of your members and your employees alike.

SECONDARY SPEND - make it easier for your members to spend, spend, spend!

While a health club’s revenues will mainly be based on primary spending - which is the membership fee that’s normally fixed and available at different tiers - there is always a need to drive sales in other areas of the club on a daily or regular basis to create the revenues that enable your business to expand.

The easier it is for your monthly paid-up members to spend on extras while in the cub environment, the greater your revenues will be.

Turning your member ID card into a pre-payment or credit-style card is the ideal way to encourage both impulse purchases - like that special offer of the month on spa products – and ‘essential' buys, such as the post-workout hydrating beverage or after workout protein snack and drink.

For clubs that don’t have a food and beverage area, a vending machine is an efficient way to make sales 24/7 - especially if members only need to swipe and charge it to their member ID card to make a quick purchase.

For those clubs that do have a cafe area, members are much more likely to drop in for a coffee or a healthy lunch if they already have their ID and payment card – rather than having to go back to the changing rooms and find some cash.

Installing RFID terminals throught the club, where members can book an additional training session on a powerplate, a last minute massage on a massage bed, or the entry to the exclusive spa and sauna area, will further drive daily and weekly sales.

And don’t forget you can make a strong – and profitable – first impression by programming your turnstile access points to flash special offers up on the screen as members swipe their ID card to enter the club.

The data that’s captured every day in your club through an automated customer journey will produce a goldmine of data for you as a club owner or manager. And this member data can then be turned into successful and profitable marketing campaigns delivered via the club’s centralized management software.

The data collected also enables much more efficient business planning when it comes to tracking member behavior and preferences, optimizing usage of club facilities, and future planning for business success.

If you choose to start your digital club transformation with GANTNER, you can be assured of expert planning, step-by-step support, future-proofed technology choices that grow with your business, and specialized consulting tailored to your individual health and fitness club.

Or contact us directly by email for more information: [email protected]