Author: ezfacility

Scheduling

3 Quick Ways To Streamline Scheduling

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These days, scheduling just one day in a single family’s life practically requires a PhD in metaphysical engineering. Your spouse is out of town, you have an important work meeting, you’re out of groceries, and the plumber is coming to fix your broken sink; meanwhile, one kid has to get to soccer practice, taekwondo, and a dentist appointment and the other has a dance class and a tutoring session. Figuring out how it’s all going to get done seems impossible.
No wonder running a sports facility can give you a headache. If coordinating four people’s activities in one day is complicated, what about coordinating fields, equipment, practice space, classes, and special events for hundreds of people over several months? How are you going to get it all done?
Of course, you already have systems in place for tackling this task, but can you improve those systems? Here are a few tips for streamlining:

1. Test Your Knowledge

If you use league scheduling software, make sure you know its capabilities. Sure, you know how to publish a schedule to your website (you do, right?), but can you schedule multiple divisions at once? Are you sure you’ve got the settings right so you avoid double booking? Are you accommodating team preferences? If your software doesn’t allow you to do all these things, it’s time to find a new one. If it does and you’re not sure how to do them, it’s time for a refresher course. Do some research online, or, better yet, call your software’s support line. If you don’t use scheduling software, oh boy. Unless you’re a tiny, boutique facility, offering just one sport and with only a small clientele, you probably really need some.

2. Setup Quick Group Meetings

Have weekly or daily check-in sessions with employees to make sure everyone knows what’s on tap, forestall any potential glitches, and fix any problems. Scheduling works best when all the people involved know about the schedule and have a chance to weigh in on it. You’ll be doing yourself and your facility a big favor if you create time for brief, frequent sessions to ensure all systems are go. Also! No matter how carefully you plan and check your plan (and double-check your plan), conflicts happen. Know your steps for handling conflicts; train your employees in handling them too. Remember the end goal: Keep the customers happy.

3. Make Time for Analyzing Mistakes.

Again, conflicts arise. If something has gone wrong with your scheduling despite your mastery of software, your open lines of communication, and your vigilant efforts to stay on top of things, you need to know what went wrong. It can be useful to have a flowchart of questions to help you avoid problems in the future (for example: Did I enter this team’s practice location change into the software correctly? If no, then learn how to enter changes; if yes, then did I check to make sure the change was communicated through the proper channels? If no, then…. You get the idea).
We tend to think scheduling should come easily to us, and sometimes it does. But your facility is a complex system. To maintain complex systems, small adjustments often are necessary—and they can make a big difference. Figure out what small changes you can make to simplify scheduling!

Foster Partner Workouts

Foster Partner Workouts

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A recent blog post and a recent study, although differing significantly in content, come to essentially the same conclusion: We have more of a chance of staying healthy when we partner with someone than when we try to go it alone.

The blog post, written by a sports writer and athlete for the popular Greatist website, notes that studies show working out with a buddy can increase accountability, keep spirits high during exercise, and spur better results. The post lists 35 great ideas for partner workouts. The study, a collaboration between the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and policymakers in the Canadian province of Manitoba, suggests that younger children learn about health from older children more effectively than from coaches and teachers. Researchers looked at a program called Healthy Buddies, in which older kids mentor younger ones about healthy foods, physical activity, and positive body image; elementary school children who took part in the program reduced their waist sizes and showed improvements in self-esteem.

Why should all this be important to you? Of course, as a fitness club or sports center owner or manager, you’re interested in retaining current members and attracting new ones. One way to do those things is to make workouts or practices fun. If science is proving it’s more fun for people to workout with a partner, it would behoove you to think of ways to foster partner workouts. If you don’t yet have classes designed to accommodate buddy exercise, it’s time to develop and offer some. And maybe it’s time also to experiment with new ideas: How about designating a weekly time slot for partner workouts in the cardio room? Anyone can come, and no one will be forced to work with someone else, but singletons who want a partner can ask others looking for the same if they want to pair up during that time, and duos can be encouraged to come. Trainers can be on-hand with ideas for buddy exercises.

Really, with the studies in hand that prove the effectiveness of partner workouts, there’s no limit to ideas you can try launching based on that information. And let your clientele know that you’re reading up on these studies and developing new ideas based on what’s best for them — that’s another good way to keep the members you already have and gain new ones.

As for the study about older kids mentoring younger ones for better health, this is information that will be useful to sports centers that cater to youth. Whether you specialize in baseball, soccer, track and field, or offer general athletic programming, why not start thinking about how older kids at your facility might be able to help teach younger ones? Can you offer one night of mixed-age practices, pairing elementary-schoolers with high-schoolers and letting the learning take off? This same strategy might work for fitness clubs too — not necessarily using age as a guide to matching mentors and mentees, but creating a program that would allow members who have successfully met their weight loss and exercise goals to mentor members who are still struggling. Doing so could only strengthen your community, and strengthening your community can only be good for business.

Giant New Sports Center to Feature Practice Space and a Full-Service Restaurant

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February 24, 2014 – A new indoor sports center opening next month in Harrisburg, South Dakota, will feature a 60,000-square-foot field of turf, two sand volleyball courts, and a 9,000-square-foot restaurant. The facility, Perfect Practice Sports Academy, will cater to children’s team sports. Owner Gary Sperber says that the surrounding community already has expressed a great deal of interest in the center.
“On the weekends, I bet we have 200 people here, looking at where we are and the progress, and the kids are getting excited, so it’s fun to see that,” he said. He also noted that hundreds of practice sessions have been scheduled through various organizations, and the facility is gearing up to schedule tournaments.
The addition of a restaurant is likely to attract even more customers. A venture among Perfect Practice, Sperber, and Mike O’Connor, the restaurant is called Game Changer. It will be designed by Tony Kellar, who owned a popular local restaurant that recently closed, and headed up by renowned chef Josh Kellar.
“Including a restaurant in a kids-oriented sports venue makes good business sense,” says Emily Wilensky, Marketing Manager of EZFacility, a sports center management software developer in Woodbury, New York. “Kids will have access to what sounds like state-of-the-art practice and game space, and their parents will enjoy the convenience of an on-site top-quality eating joint where the whole family can relax after an intense practice or in between tournament sessions.”
The restaurant will seat almost 300 people and will include a three-season patio. The turf field will host T-ball, flag football, and soccer, and the facility also will serve baseball, softball, basketball, and volleyball teams.

New Sports-Themed Hotel Plus Sports Facility Planned for St. Louis Suburb

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February 21, 2014 – Construction for a sports-oriented hotel and 85,000-square-foot sports facility soon will break ground in Chesterfield, Missouri. Florida-based GoodSports Enterprises Global has signed a deal with local developer Dean Wolfe to build a 130-room hotel and adjacent sports center. The complex will sit on 10 acres of a $300 million, 132-acre development area.
The concept targets two types of travelers, while also serving the local community. On weekdays, the complex will cater to businesspeople, with the sports area serving local families and sports leagues. On weekends, the facility will host tournaments, with the hotel providing a venue for athletes and their coaches and families.
“Pairing a sports facility with a sports-themed hotel is a sensible approach for a new venture,” says Eric Willin, COO of EZFacility, a sports management software company in Woodbury, New York. “Given the steady rise of sports tourism, a complex that caters to corporate travelers, who will also presumably have use of the facility, and to local families and traveling leagues is bound to be profitable.”
The project, said GoodSports vice president of development, will be completed next winter. It is part of a bigger thrust to build 25 similar “villages” around the country in the next few years. The Chesterfield site is the third location, after Huber Heights, Ohio, and Greenwood, Indiana.

Fill Positions And Keep Them Filled

Fill Positions And Keep Them Filled

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There’s a particular kind of frustration that all business owners have experienced: You spend time and money searching for the perfect employee. You make a promising hire, invest valuable resources in training, and finally breathe a sigh of relief — and then your employee moves on. So how do you fill positions and keep them filled?

At fitness centers and sports facilities, certain positions are especially hard to keep staffed. Over on the IHRSA blog, three fitness/sports center owners recently answered questions about the positions they’ve repeatedly had difficulty filling. For Telos Fitness Center in Dallas, Texas, the trickiest position is the front desk. “By nature, [it’s] entry-level and offers competitive, but minimal, hourly pay and ‘front line’ responsibilities,” says Brent Darden, the center’s owner/general manager. At Riverside Health Club in Mount Vernon, Washington, owner Karen Westra has found the facilities manager position most challenging to fill. Joe Cabibbo, owner and general manager of Odyssey Athletic Center in Waldwick, New Jersey, struggles with personal trainers leaving because they lack skills to market their services.

Whatever position you struggle to keep properly staffed at your own facility, there are some general steps you can take to improve the situation. First, take the time to analyze all of the tasks that the position in question is responsible for. You might find that you’re consistently hiring people with the wrong experience, or that the tasks can be split between two positions, making it easier to keep the troublesome one filled. That’s what Westra discovered when she sat down and listed out everything a facilities manager would have to do in order to keep up with preventative maintenance demands at her club. The solution? Hire a facilities assistant, and consult regularly with the facilities manager about which tasks can be delegated.

Next, rather than investing resources in a particular individual, invest in systems and training. This approach works for Darden with the font desk job. “We have found the best solution is to invest heavily in the systems and training of front desk staff in order to maintain consistent service, despite frequent turnover,” he says. In other words, even if you have to make a new hire for the front desk position, or any position, every six or nine months, having seamless systems in place and a rigorous training program will ensure that members’ day-to-day experience doesn’t change much.

Finally, for personal trainer positions or similar ones that require self-promotion, make sure your hires are equipped to engage in self-promotion. As Cabibbo puts it, “Regardless of the extent of their certification, personal trainers seem to have difficulty applying their knowledge in a marketing/sales aspect.” Where certification programs fail, you might have to be prepared to teach. Keep your coaches, personal trainers, and perhaps other employees up-to-speed on the best ways to attract and keep clients. You’re the one who will benefit in the end, because you won’t have to worry about replacing the employees who aren’t keeping themselves busy enough.

Information Is Power

Information Is Power

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All right, a show of hands please: How many of you have done your reports? Yes, that’s right: reports. When you hear the R-word do you break out into hives? Do memories of tenth-grade English class flood your mind and render you a sobbing mess? Do you start sweating, thinking about those all-nighters you pulled back when you would sit down around 8 p.m. to get started on a twenty-pager due the next day? Well, relax. That’s not the kind of report I’m talking about — although, like that sort, this kind also can mean the difference between success and failure.

I’m talking about reports you can use to measure and improve every aspect of your health center, fitness club, gym, or sports facility. Financial reports, booking reports, availability, payroll, membership, point of sale, inventory, marketing, participation, attendance, and system usage reports — all of these can give you vital information about how your business is doing on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. But only if you actually run them. And only if you know what to do with them after you’ve run them.

For this industry, having data available at your fingertips is vital. All day long, you serve members who want the best workout experience possible; coming to your facility might well be the highlight of their day. If you don’t know how packed your classes are, what marketing efforts have been effective in the past, what the daily attendance patterns at your facility are, and the like, then you don’t know how to provide your members with the tip-top service they’re seeking.

It’s not enough, however, just to run reports and have them available. You have to make sure your employees are trained in reading and analyzing the reports you run. Can your membership guru study the membership report and understand when and why new enrollments dip? Can your payroll director take a look at a report and determine whether there are payroll expenses you’re incurring unnecessarily? If you’re regularly producing reports (and if you are, good for you!), sit down with the employees responsible for studying them, and make sure they’re on the same page as you when it comes to understanding them.

Finally, know how to take action based on your and your employees’ analyses. If a booking report tells you your 12 p.m. Monday spin class is constantly over-enrolled, consider running a second spin class at the same time. If your inventory report shows that the women’s locker room runs out of towels every day at 5 p.m., you know you’ve got to get more towels in there, or make changes to your laundry schedule. Whatever the issue, when you’ve taken the time to gather and examine data that tells you how your club is doing, take action. Let the reports guide you in your decisions about which actions to take. Information is power, but until you make changes based on the information, it’s only potential power.

Got an App?

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It’s time we talked about apps. The fact is, if your facility doesn’t have one, you might soon find your business going the way of the 8-track cassette player and the fax machine. Websites alone don’t cut it anymore; customers expect your business to be accessible to them at any time of day, from wherever they are. That means if they’re at their kids’ soccer practice and they want to check your class schedule, or they’re walking down the street and they want to know your exact address, you better have an app for that. You need a quick, easy, smartphone-accessible solution to all of your customers’ needs.

Your customers aren’t the only ones who benefit. If you can provide them with palm-of-the-hand services, you’ll reap rewards yourself. A mobile app that gives you the ability to immediately update members with “Push Notifications” allows you to communicate quickly and effectively with your entire community about club changes, news, class availability, and the like. An app also can present you with an easy way to distribute information about specials, promotions, and coupons, drawing members in by keeping them on the look-out for deals from you. There’s another big bonus too: An app can be a selling point for new members (and it’s a must-have if the gym across the street has one).

But no matter how much easier an app makes things for you, what it comes down to is greater customer satisfaction. If you’ve got an app that complements your sports or fitness business — again, engaging members and clients when it’s convenient for them — then you’ll have customer satisfaction, which means improved retention. In addition to keeping clients informed, hooking them on promotions, and providing an easy way to book classes, you can offer an app that allows you to post motivational photos and videos, showcase members’ stories, offer fitness tips, and highlight new workouts. Your customers get what they need, and you get what you need. That’s what apps are all about.

Data Security

Protect Your Customers’ Data

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The recent and ongoing Target credit card debacle shouts out a loud and clear warning to anyone who operates a business that involves credit card transactions: Protect your customers’ data! When 40 million or so Target shoppers had their credit and debit card data stolen because of problems with the store’s security procedures, the company was sued in multiple lawsuits, its shares fell precipitously, and it was left struggling to placate customers with apologies and discounts. The legal and financial threads will take months — or longer — to untangle, and the store will have to fight to win back its reputation.

For health clubs, sports facilities, and fitness centers, protecting data is especially crucial, because business depends so heavily on relationships with customers. The key to successful protection is the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard, which provides an actionable framework for developing a strong security process — including prevention, detection, and appropriate reaction to breaches.

Here’s what you need to do to become compliant with PCI Data Security Standards:

  • Use a firewall to build and maintain a secure network. Also, consider changing all system default passwords to create unique employee user IDs.
  • Encrypt all credit card numbers. This one is a no-brainer.
  • Install industry-standard antivirus and malware security programs. These will perform scans and provide feedback, confirming that your systems are protected and letting you know when a concern arises.
  • Restrict employee access — on the network and physically — to cardholder data. You want to make sure only specific employees have permission to access it.
  • PCI compliance audits are your friends. Participate in them regularly in order to monitor and test systems that process and store cardholder data.
  • You have an information security policy, right? If not, what are you waiting for. Establish — and maintain — one immediately.

When data is compromised, so much is lost. The last thing you need is to have customers lose faith in your club or facility, to feel insecure about your ability to protect them. If a security breach occurs, they will wonder if their faith is misplaced. A store like Target probably can survive such a blow — it’s big enough, and offers enough conveniences, that customers will begin to trust it again eventually. But with a fitness center or sports facility, the stakes are higher because of the personal and emotional investments your customers make when they trust you to help them shape healthier selves, to provide a refuge from the more stressful parts of their lives. If your systems are breached they’re going to feel the pain more keenly than customers in other industries.

So take the necessary steps — and then let your clientele know you’ve done so. If you communicate with them about the security measures you’ve taken, they’ll be reassured, and a reassured customer is likely a retained one.

Palm Beach Hotel Receives Preliminary Approval for Planned Fitness Center

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January 24, 2014 – The Breakers, one of the top-ranked hotels in Palm Beach, Florida, has received the local zoning commission’s approval to build a new fitness center. Construction depends on the Town Council, which has the final say; if the plan goes forward, the new center will triple the size of the hotel’s current exercise area. Construction would begin around June 1 and take three to four months to complete.
The hotel’s proposal calls for a 4,190-square-foot fitness center on what is now a rooftop terrace. The center will feature an ocean view and will presumably include a wider range of exercise equipment and machinery than is currently available. The present facility occupies a 1,400-square-foot space on the ground floor and, according to The Breakers’ attorney, James Crowley of the Gunster law firm, is outdated. Meanwhile the terrace area is underused.
However, there is a dispute over the hotel’s zoning rights, because the new fitness center would bring the total size of its beach club area to about 24,000 square feet. That would exceed a 20,000-square-foot limit set by the town in 1998, when it approved demolition of a hotel ballroom and previous beach club facilities. The hotel is seeking an amendment to the zoning rules, claiming it has not yet used 11,621 square feet of accessory space granted it for “future use assignment” during the 1998 ruling.
“Exercise is quite a different thing now from what it was in 1998,” notes Tracey Keats, President of EZFacility, a fitness facility management software developer in Woodbury, New York. “Travelers to highly-rated hotels expect a certain level of health club offerings, and it’s clear why The Breakers wants to be able to meet customers’ workout needs. The proposed facility update could attract new hotel guests and keep longtime ones coming back.”
One thing in the hotel’s favor is that the new facility would pose no traffic concerns. It will be open only to hotel guests and members, attorney Crowley explained, and there is ample parking.

Fitness First Launches Major Rebranding Effort

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January 24, 2014 – Fitness First, the UK-based gym chain with branches throughout Europe and Asia, announced a £225 million brand overhaul. With more than twenty years of business under its belt, the chain is looking to upgrade its look, clubs, and customer service. The first phase of rebranding has begun, with a £1.5 million marketing campaign designed to communicate the new corporate identity to customers.
Advertisements in the new campaign position the club as “rewriting the rules of fitness.” For example, part of the overhaul includes a shift in “fitness philosophy,” with the gym pushing a freestyle fitness regime based on natural movement. An ad titled “Rule #3” features the slogan “Focus on Movement, Not on Machines.” Other ads emphasize the chain’s new embracing of shorter classes (“More Burn, Less Time”), better customer service (“Go Further for Members”), and move toward outdoor training (“With You Outdoors, Not Just on Gym Floors”).
“Fitness First’s foray into a new corporate identity speaks to larger changes within the industry,” says Emily Wilensky, Marketing Manager, of EZFacility, a gym management software developer in Woodbury, New York. “In general, focus is shifting to upgraded customer service; body weight training; shorter, more intense workout sessions; and innovations like outdoor training and greater incorporation of technology. In the light of these changes, many fitness facilities are contemplating identity updates. It will be interesting to watch Fitness First’s unfold.”
Additional initiatives for the brand overhaul include a goal for all 2,200 UK staff, “from the chief executive to receptionists,” to attain a certified fitness qualification by 2015; the establishment of a fitness test that measures gym members’ biological ages; and the creation of a fitness app that lets customers track their daily progress. In addition, the gym’s logo will change from blue to red. “…Red is the color of energy and strength,” said marketing director David Jones. “It is bold and confident and a statement of intent, and it better represents the direction we are taking.”

Making a Difference and Boosting Business

Making a Difference and Boosting Business

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Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released troubling data: Only about a quarter of kids ages 12 to 15 are getting the amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity recommended by federal guidelines: 60 minutes each day. This follows a report the organization issued last year, revealing that childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past thirty years. We all know where childhood obesity, or simply too little activity in childhood, can lead: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, poor self-esteem, stroke, cancer, osteoarthritis — nothing good.

The trend is worrying, but also worrying is the fact this data is tracked and reported year after year, and large-scale improvements seem nonexistent. In this year’s report, researchers write, “…tracking the prevalence of physical activity among U.S. youth may help inform public health interventions.” We need these interventions now.

Where they’re lacking, health facilities, and in particular sports facilities that train youth, can make a difference. The key is to connect news of the data to the everyday happenings at your facility. First, you have to help spread the word: Send newsletters, post on social media, hang up flyers in your facility, put up a billboard-sized sign in your window — however you do it, get the word out there that there is a problem. Use the numbers the CDC provides (they’re sadly impressive—for example: In 2010, more than one-third of American children and adolescents were overweight or obese).

Then explicitly describe how your facility directly helps combat the dire figures. List the classes you offer that keep kids moving for 60 minutes; highlight any special deals parents can take advantage of. Invite new students in for free trial classes. Post videos showing kids having fun at your facility. If you’re a health club or fitness center that does not cater to kids, get the word out there anyway — and then explain why it’s crucial for parents, teachers, and other adult role models to stay in shape if they want future generations to stay in shape.

Also, consider what new offerings you might develop in order to speak to the worrying reports, and make clear that your new offerings are a response to those reports — you can even mention the CDC’s data in your catalog of courses or on your website. As for those offerings: Have you studied your scheduling software to see where you might fit in an extra class or two? Have you hosted nutrition-information sessions for parents and kids? Can you send personal trainers into schools or camps, both as ambassadors charged with spreading the word about health and fitness — and, of course, your facility?

If you help share the information that’s out there, show your members and clients (and potential members and clients) that you care, offer ways to make meaningful changes, and provide a free class or lecture to get folks started, you’ll be well on your way both to making a difference and boosting business.

Motivation

Keep Your Clients Motivated

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Around this time of year, there’s a lot of motivation in the air. Even people who avoid making resolutions find themselves catching the New Year’s bug, and they and the resolution-makers alike launch fresh exercise schedules, re-dedicate themselves to weight-loss plans, research new fitness programs to try, and put their workout-related holiday gifts to use. All well and good, but by the time Valentine’s Day rolls around, a lot of that motivation fades away like a bouquet of old roses.

This means you have a tough job, because if you want to keep clients coming back to your facility and spreading the word about it, you have to help make sure the New Year’s bug sticks — that is, you have to keep your clients motivated. How do you do this? Three main strategies will give you a good start.

First, charm them into it. Your front-desk staff, trainers or coaches, and head administrators should have the charisma to make members and clients feel drawn to your facility. Any business is only as alluring as the people who make it run. Make sure your people are alluring: Do they smile and greet customers in a friendly way (preferably by name)? Do they go out of their way to establish a personal rapport with clients? Can they do what the best teachers do: make others desire their approval? If you have employees who make your members feel welcome, recognized, appreciated, and inspired, you’ll see high motivation levels all year round, and high motivation levels equal retention.

Also, hold your members and clients accountable. This is a strategy that works especially well with youth; if you run a sports facility that trains kids you’ll want to employ this one. We all perform better when we know someone is watching and when we feel someone is counting on us. Let your members know that you’re paying attention: If someone trains really hard, beats a personal record, or wins a competitive match, send an email — you, the owner or manager — to say you heard about the accomplishment and you feel proud to have that client on board (and make sure coaches, trainers, and other employees truly are paying attention so they can let you know about it). Make it clear that you consider their success your success. Motivation will come naturally as a sense of responsibility for the larger organization sets in.

Finally, make it fun. Some college professors are good at this one. They’ll bring donuts to class, hold a session outdoors, show a film, or have an entire seminar over for dinner one night. You don’t want to bring donuts to your spin class or baseball training, of course, but you can liven things up in other ways. Hire dynamic instructors and coaches who aren’t afraid to make jokes, smile, show clients that they don’t take themselves too seriously. Maybe there’s a music video or film clip your aerobics instructor could show; maybe he or she could surprise the whole gym by taking the class outside of the studio one day and having them run a lap around the facility. A coach could bring a pitcher full of smoothies to practice. The possibilities are endless, so encourage your staff to be creative.

The more fun they put into workouts and practices, the more likely your members and clients are to want to stick with you.

Creating Infographics

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This season, to startlingly effective results, the San Francisco 49ers have been flooding fans with infographics. The great thing about infographics, visual representations of data or knowledge, is their quick, clear presentation of complex information. And the great thing about infographics designed by someone who knows what they’re doing is their quick, clear, and beautiful presentation.

Take, for example, the one the 49ers posted a couple weeks ago, just before their last game at Candlestick Park, where they played for 42 years (which I know from glancing at the infographic). It’s truly a work of art, and in addition to its stellar design, it gives fans all the detailed information they need to feed their nostalgia till long after the team moves to their new stadium later this year. But what I really like about this is that it’s a great model for any sports or fitness facility, whether you’re a stadium, an ice rink, a health club, a baseball center, or any other venue in the industry.

Any facility could design and distribute something similar to bolster support from clients, members, fans, or just the surrounding community. Make a timeline of your history, starting with when you first opened or when plans for your facility first began. Pick out the moments you want to highlight, and then make a list of interesting facts. You can mix up both number facts and fun-to-know facts: for example, the number of trainers you have, the number of young athletes you serve who have gone into professional sports, the number of Olympic medalists who have visited your facility, or: tidbits about celebrities who have visited, a description of the most outrageous kind of class you ever offered, and anecdote about a funny or moving incident that occurred. You can also include, as the 49ers did, interesting quotes about your facility from the people who work there. You can add a thank-you message, if your goal is to show appreciation for your members. What you choose to include is limited only by your imagination and your designer’s talents.

After you’ve got an infographic you’re happy with, send it out into social media-land. This is a place where infographics thrive, because they attract attention, so people like to share them; they provide a whole load of information at a glance, so there’s a quick payoff to looking at them; and they efficiently demonstrate to others the loyalties and interests of the individual posting them. Depending on the occasion — if it’s an important anniversary, for example, or if you’re sponsoring a big fundraiser — you can even turn them into posters to hand out. (Sometimes, they really do look good enough to hang on the wall.)

If you get positive feedback, consider creating infographics regularly. The 49ers did one every few days this season and got tons of comments and shares in response. Even if you do it only once a month, you’ll have found a great way to spread information about your facility, hold people’s attention, and dole out some eye candy.

customer satisfaction

Have You Created a Survey for Your Sports Facility?

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When my son was five and had great enthusiasm for building with blocks, a friend of mine asked him if he’s going to be an engineer when he grows up. “Maybe when I retire from professional soccer,” he replied. Almost from the time he took his first step, the kid has known that sports will always be an important part of his life. And so, since more or less that time, and he’s eight now, he’s used sports facilities of various sorts, engaging in some kind of training or game or competition or workout. But it was only recently that a facility did something that seemed so obvious I couldn’t believe I hadn’t encountered it before: It offered me a chance to fill out a survey.

The facility is a huge, multi-sports complex that caters to all ages. My son joined a soccer league there this fall. When the season ended a couple weeks ago, I got an email asking me to fill out a survey online about our experiences with the facility. Now, I don’t fill out every survey request that comes my way, but I leapt at the chance to do this one. Youth sports are so central to my life, as they have become central to so many families’ lives; like it or not, our plans revolve around when practice is, when games are, what the weekend commitment will be, and where tournaments are taking place. So it seemed important to make my voice heard in this regard, and I welcomed the chance to do it.

What impressed me was how thorough the survey was. There were questions you’d expect: “What sport is being evaluated?” “What gender is your child?” “What grade is your child in?” But then there were more intriguing questions: “What gender is your child’s coach?” “Did you play sports during high school or college? If so, at what level?” And then statements with which to “strongly agree” or “disagree,” or to remain neutral about: “The coach is approachable”, “The coach defines success as more than winning/losing”, “The coach treats players with respect.” Other questions solicited opinions about the coaches’ and facility’s communications with parents, about ways in which participating in the given sport helped the child, about what sources of information were being considered while answering these questions (discussions with children, coaches, or other parents, for example).

I realized that as much as the survey allowed me to voice my opinion, it also allowed the facility to gather an enormous amount of feedback about how its operations align with its clientele’s values. I liked almost everything about the facility, for example, but I did not feel that it made its Athletic Handbook policies clear to parents, and I heard other parents voicing the same complaint. If we all note on our surveys that this is an issue, will things improve? Will we know more about the policies upfront, and be kept better informed about what is expected of us and our children? That remains to be seen, but at least the facility now knows that that’s what we want.

Have you created a survey for your sports facility? Websites like surveymonkey.com make it easier than ever to design and distribute surveys. If you haven’t done it yet, think about all the data you can gather to help you better gear your services to your clientele. Better serving them can lead only to desirable outcomes — I know I’ll definitely be signing my son up for soccer lessons at the facility this spring.

Club One Relaunches as Active Sports Clubs

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January 6, 2014 – Fitness industry veterans Jill Kinney and Bill McBride opened a new club at the start of 2014, rebranding the former Club One Petaluma (CA) as Active Sports Clubs. The facility will be managed by Clubsource Development Partners LLC, founded by Kinney in 2006; she serves as the company’s chairperson, and McBride is its president and CEO.
“I made the decision to launch this new company and brand because I felt it was the next step towards delivering my vision,” Kinney told the online magazine Club Industry. Her company, Clubsource, is a development business that specializes in private community centers that provide a for-profit, contemporary alternative to financially strapped neighborhoods. “I truly see our role as one of serving the community, not just the members,” she said. “To take that to the next level, it required that we disengage from the Club One brand.”
Part of the new club’s focus will be to introduce products and services to the Petaluma area, McBride explained. The club will feature a farm-to-table organic café, small group fitness programs, and a series of workshops centered around personal improvement. It also will include a weight loss program that pairs members with personal health coaches.
“Active Sports Clubs promises to establish a unique and interesting facility model,” says Eric Willin, COO, of EZFacility, a fitness center management software developer in Woodbury, NY. “It is entering into a competitive market, but with industry veterans at the helm, it looks poised to succeed.”
The company may add more clubs in 2014, but for now it will focus on its main site while exploring options for expanding.

Wearable Tech

Be Indispensable To Wearable Technology Users

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This fall, my gym buddy acquired wearable technology. You know the drill: a sleek-looking wristband; an endless stream of personal fitness data collected, analyzed, advertised on social media; a self-regulated, continuously fine-tuned fitness plan based on the constant feedback. All well and good, but suddenly I found myself going to the gym on my own a lot more. With a sort of built-in trainer and a shift in fitness goals (now, instead of running for thirty minutes on the treadmill, she aimed to take 10,000 steps per day) my friend seemed not to need the gym so much any more — at first.

Wearable technology trends certainly threaten to change both the fitness and sports industries. With the ability to stay minutely informed about their progress toward fitness and competitive goals, exercisers and athletes acquire a level of self-sufficiency they haven’t had before, along with the realization that fitness and practice are everywhere, not just in the gym, not just at the training center.

But rather than fear these trends, our industries must embrace them. They’re inevitable, so there’s no reason not to. And once we accept and fully understand them, we can start thinking creatively about how to turn them into an advantage. The questions become not “How can we compete with wearable technology?” but “How can we incorporate wearable technology?” “How can we help our members or our athletes understand the data their devices are giving them?” “How can we be indispensable to wearable technology users?”
As I mentioned, my friend’s attendance at the gym waned only at first. After a month and a half or so, I began to see her back in her old places: on the treadmill, in the free weight area, in spin class. She was still wearing her bracelet.

“What happened?” I asked. “Did it stop working?”

“No,” she said. “I just missed everyone.”

For me, that reply seemed to answer many of those questions above. Even if you have a social media cohort that witnesses and observes your progress as you work out, the one thing fitness devices can’t give you is a community. Exercisers want other exercisers to work out with, plain and simple. Seeing others push themselves in the gym helps us push ourselves; commiserating with the person on the treadmill next to yours eases the pain; asking a trainer about the proper form for push-up rotations leads directly to improved performance and better results. As facilities that serve the fitness and sports industries, we have to jump at the chance to provide members and clients with a community, to make them feel nurtured, needed, and connected. Then they could wear entire suits of technology, and they’ll still show up at our doorsteps.

2014 Trends

Sports and Fitness Trends in 2014

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It’s that time again — time to make predictions. Here, based on what’s been big and what’s been growing, are some predictions for sports and fitness trends in 2014:

  1. HIIT Workouts. Everyone from the American College of Sports Medicine, to trainer Jillian Michaels, to USA Today, the Huffington Post, and a host of other domestic and international publications is citing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) as the top fitness trend in 2013, and they say it’s here to stay. As Michaels puts it: “Based on current research that suggests high-intensity interval training is the best way to achieve training improvements and body change results, metabolic training will continue to top the list of trends for 2014.”
  2. Right up there with HIIT workouts will be body-weight training. A “back-to-the-basics” approach that uses little equipment but requires a good deal of know-how, body-weight training became more popular than ever in 2013. It will continue as a trend in the coming year, especially used in combination with intervals and circuits.
  3. Sports tourism will continue to soar. In 2013, destination sports complexes, sports-related tours and camps, and adventure travel packages boomed; even as other tourist activities floundered, these flourished. In 2014, their popularity will only grow; in particular, complexes with established tourism programs will benefit.
  4. Express classes and workouts also will prevail, as people continue to look for more efficient ways to squeeze effective workouts into their busy schedules. Fueled by HIIT-style programs that take as little as thirty, twenty, ten, or even just seven minutes, the desire for quick, super-intense workouts grew in 2013 and will continue to shape consumers’ choices in 2014.
  5. Programs for older adults. As the population ages and the number of older gym-goers increases, classes designed for older adults will multiply. Says Colin Milner, CEO of Canada’s International Council on Active Aging, “By 2017, 50 percent of people who walk into a health club will be over the age of 50…. Over the age of 80, 46 percent of people cannot lift 10 pounds. There is a necessity to help people be stronger longer as people need to be driven by quality of life and not just longevity.”

There will, of course, be additional trends — such as more sports and fitness opportunities for kids, the proliferation of wearable fitness technology, a focus on staying fit as means toward health (more than as a method of weight loss), and more boutique fitness centers — but the ones detailed here are the ones you’re likely to hear most about. It’ll be fun to check in again a year from now and see how accurate this list is (and what looks hot for 2015). Happy New Year!

Louisville Slugger Opens New Sports Facility

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January 2, 2014 – Plans for a new baseball and softball complex in Peoria, Illinois, have been under way for some time, but only recently was the partnership behind the complex revealed: Louisville Slugger, the 130-year-old maker of baseball and softball bats, has signed on with developers to complete the project.
Featuring 10 outdoor youth fields, plus a 125,000-square foot dome for year-round play, the new $33 million facility will be called the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex. City officials expect the complex to host between 11,000 and 12,000 games annually, approximately 10,000 games more than Peoria has been hosting for a number of years at an existing facility. Projected to have a core reach of about a 300-mile radius, the facility will also host teams from around the country, including college teams.
“When a high-profile sporting goods company decides to help fund a new, landmark venue, it’s a big deal,” says Eric Willin, COO of EZFacility, a sports facility software management developer in Woodbury, New York. “A deal like this one stands to benefit the company, the complex, the surrounding community, and the athletes who use the facility alike.”
Louisville Slugger products will be sold at the venue, and the atmosphere will be designed to mirror a big-league experience, with walk-out-style dugouts, bullpens, lights, electronic scoreboards, and public address systems. Over a quarter million people are expected to visit annually.

Mossa’s Online Fitness Service Encourages Gym Attendance, Promotes Some Health Clubs

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December 20, 2013 – Mossa, the Marietta, GA-based company previously known as Body Training Systems, has partnered with Xbox to create an online fitness service that could eventually lead consumers to the gym and that will promote participating health clubs. Through the partnership, Mossa has launched Xbox Fitness, a library of workout videos from top trainers and brands, including Jillian Michaels and Tracy Anderson, as well as Beachbody’s P90X and Insanity. The videos teach home users workouts they can do at their own pace and then guide them into health clubs by offering a free pass to visit Mossa group fitness classes.
“With this unique Xbox Fitness partnership and the growing popularity of our group fitness programs worldwide, we’re entering a very exciting phase of our business,” said Mossa president Terry Browning.
Emily Wilensky, Marketing Manager of EZFacility, a fitness facility management software provider in Woodbury, New York, said the partnership is an exciting development. “We’re at the dawn of an age in which home workouts are easily accessible, personal devices provide data feedback, and trainers work with their clients over Skype,” she said. “Health clubs and other fitness facilities have to find ways to integrate these new technologies. A home workout video library that encourages gym attendance is a huge plus.”
Released in November, Xbox One, the platform that allows users to access Xbox Fitness, features precision Kinect technology, which gives users immediate feedback on form, power, and heart rate. Programs currently offered include Mossa Core Workout, Mossa Fight Workout, Mossa Groove Workout, and Mossa Power Workout.
Over the next four years, participating clubs that agree to honor a free pass given to Xbox Fitness users will be promoted through Xbox One.

Risk Management

Don’t Forget Risk Management

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My son calls me a scaredy-cat because I’m constantly throwing warnings out at him: “Don’t run on the ice, you could fall and hurt yourself!” “Be careful on those rocks; they look slippery.” “Please don’t climb any higher up that fence; if you fall and crack your head open, you’ll be sorry!” I’m not a scaredy-cat, I tell him; I just have to give the warning because if something actually happens, I’ll feel even worse about it if I failed to alert him to the danger beforehand. The better tactic, I know, would be to remove the ice, the rocks, and the fence before he can even test them, but out in the world that’s just not possible.  In the gym – it is!

Because of the nature of the fitness business, the level of risk is much higher than with other businesses. In order to make sure you’re protecting your clients — and yourselves, should any unfortunate accidents occur — it’s good practice to run frequent risk management checks. At least once a quarter, do a walk-through of your facility. Identify potential risks, ensure that you have adequate warning signs posted (you can probably leave out the part about cracking your head open), and evaluate whether you’re doing everything you can to reduce (or, better yet, eliminate) the risk.

What are the highest-risk areas? Well, the free weights and the machines carry risk of injury, of course. Your cardio court and other workout rooms should be carefully supervised at all times, with appropriate signage offering instructions, warnings, and advice about what to do if an injury occurs. You already know this, of course, and you know about the other danger spots too, but until something actually happens, it’s easy to become complacent about what could go wrong. So let’s review:

  • The Pool: There’s always the danger of slipping on a wet surface. Strictly enforce a “no running in the pool area” rule: Your lifeguards and pool attendants should aggressively monitor running and blow the whistle whenever they see it. Make sure many signs with big lettering announcing the rule — and other pool safety rules — are visible. Also make sure there’s nothing adding to the already risky fact of just having a pool — no algae or mats that could cause slipping, no hoses or cleaning equipment that could cause tripping.
  • Shower Facilities: As with the pool, showers are dangerous because of water. Your members sign a waiver when they join, but it’s your responsibility to make sure water-related dangers aren’t exacerbated by soap, oils, or other potentially hazardous shower-area materials. Train your locker room staff to keep a sharp eye out for anything on the floor that could cause harm.

All this is just for starters. Think through your own facility and the unique risks it might present. Do everything you can to prevent an accident from happening, and constantly check to make sure your safety measures are in place. Trust me on this one. If your mother were writing this blog, she’d tell you the same thing – don’t forget risk management.

Solution

Become the Solution

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You struggle with retaining members and signing up new clients. How could you not? With the proliferation of low-cost health clubs, wearable technology, home video exercise plans, and YouTube workout videos that go viral within hours, traditional fitness facilities face enormous challenges these days — and experts tell us we’re only at the beginning of what will be a sea change in the way the fitness industry operates. In this blog space there’s been a lot of talk about facing the challenges by building communities; investing in trainers, staff, and other human resources; and incorporating technology. Here’s another approach to consider: becoming the solution.

In a recent article for FitBusiness Insider, Pat Rigsby, fitness industry consultant and co-owner of both the International Youth Conditioning Association and Athletic Revolution, says that if you can pinpoint the group you want your facility to serve and then “become the solution” for that group — that is, be the place that group automatically turns to to fulfill its needs — then you’ll establish a strong business that can withstand today’s challenges.

When you become passionate about helping a specific group, Rigsby says, you simplify your business. As he puts it: “You know what you have to focus on. What to study. Who to market to. What your identity is.” He provides several examples: “In Boston, baseball players seek out Eric Cressey’s gym. In Edison, NJ, wrestlers flock to Zack Even-Esh’s Underground Gym. If you’re in Santa Clarita and you want to lose fat, you go to the Cosgrove gym.” In other words, if you establish yourself as the go-to place for a particular group in a particular area with a particular interest or problem, you’ll find you don’t really have to compete with new technologies or other fitness facilities. You’ll simply be the place where people go.

What if your facility is already established as a more general gym, one that has pitched itself as a solution for everyone? That can work in your favor. Keep your generalist side, and keep inviting in members who simply want a good workout. But in addition choose one group to focus on, hone in on their needs, and begin investing in the resources needed to fulfill those needs. Be the go-to place for that group while also providing others with their daily exercise fix.

Hope College Earns High-Profile Sports Facility Award

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December 12, 2013 – Hope College, in Holland, MI, received the American Sports Builders Association (ASBA)’s Outdoor Tennis Court of the Year Award in December. The college’s Vande Poel-Heeringa Stadium Courts were selected out of 14 tennis facilities in the United States that earlier this year were recognized by ASBA for their excellence in design, construction, and renovation.
Jorge Capestany, a manager of Hope College’s tennis center, said the courts, which opened in 2012, have had a noticeable impact on the college. “The state-of-the-art Vande-Poel Heeringa Stadium Courts have already made a difference in recruiting, lesson programs, and enjoyment for the Hope tennis community,” he said.
Eric Willin, COO of EZFacility, a sports facility management software developer in Woodbury, NY, noted the significance of the award. “To be named the top tennis court facility in the country, out of thousands of facilities, is quite an honor,” he said. “The positive effects the facility has had on the college as a whole goes to show how important a solidly engineered sports center can be to local communities.”
Featuring 12 full-sized courts, and designed for competition, instruction, and casual play, the center boasts elevated seating for spectators. Earlier this year, it was named one of the top 20 tennis facilities in the country by the United States Tennis Association. It was built by local firm GMB Architects and Engineers, in consultation with Alex Levitsky of Global Sports and Tennis Design Group in Fair Haven, NJ.

fitness business

The CEO Pledge

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Have you heard about the CEO Pledge? It’s a campaign promoted by the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity (NCPPA) to encourage CEOs to recognize physical activity as an important driver of employee health and business performance. In other words, it’s a great opportunity for health clubs to connect with corporate clients.
The idea is that company leaders promise to make their employees’ health and wellness — and their own health and wellness — a priority by providing opportunities and resources for physical activity before, during, or after the workday. They agree to implement at least six strategies from a list of suggested strategies to create a workplace culture of physical activity. The list of strategies is broken into three categories — behavioral, educational, and environmental/policy — and participants are encouraged to choose strategies from each category. Some of the suggested strategies include “organize onsite fitness classes,” “reimburse employees for purchases of fitness equipment or physical activity-related programs,” and “create an onsite fitness area or reimburse/subsidize the cost of an offsite fitness center membership.”

This is good news for fitness facilities, particularly because the campaign is pretty ambitious — its goal is to get every CEO in the United States to take the pledge. Why not make it easier for them to do so? Now would be a great time to reach out to companies in your area, asking if they’ve heard about the pledge and are willing to take it, informing them about it if they don’t already know, and offering special deals to organizations whose CEOs sign up.
While you’re at it, it might be a good time to review your corporate outreach program in general. Do you have one? Have you considered how corporate sales could positively impact your facility, and whether you have the infrastructure to support such sales? If you already have a corporate outreach program in place, is it robust enough? Have you kept up to date on the latest workplace fitness programs, read the studies about physical activity in the workplace, understood the issues, and come up with strong sales pitches?

With the CEO Pledge campaign under way, there’s an opportunity in front of you. Polish up your connections to corporate clients and knock on the doors of those CEOs getting ready to sign the pledge.

Continue reading “The CEO Pledge” →
careers

Tried-and-True Advertising

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Over at the website of the International Health, Racquet, and Sports Club Association (IHRSA), there’s an interesting post about advertising. It features three very different clubs and the three very different forms of advertising they use.

B-fit, a center for women in Turkey, identifies itself not as a fitness club but as a “women’s club.” It relies on word of mouth, creating activities, seminars, and services that give members something to talk about. Brooklyn Sports Club, in New York, uses event-based marketing, offering special events, such as indoor triathlons, self-defense classes, and Zumabathons, that are open to the public (for paid programs, members get discounts and others pay a slightly higher fee). Even if just one nonmember attends and joins, the cost of the event generally is covered, and the club comes out ahead. Re Creation Health Club in Australia relies on good, old-fashioned newspaper advertising. They make sure their ads are big and colorful, and they emphasize the ease of joining a health club these days.

I find it fascinating that not one of these clubs mentions Facebook or other social media. We hear so much about the importance of reaching out to all our audiences via electronic means. (In fact, on the IHRSA website, a post that appeared just a couple days after the advertising post says, “Technology in the fitness industry is here to stay. Not only should it be part of everyday life but, if you want your business to survive, it really needs to be incorporated into all areas.” The post goes to on to describe an important online survey the Fitness Industry Technology Council [Fit-C] is conducting for a technology trends report). But I wonder whether the technology-based methods of advertisement that are available today simply are not the best methods for the fitness industry. Judging by the very small sample of clubs featured in IHRSA’s post, it seems that more personalized, bricks-and-mortar–based methods are preferred.

It’s good to know and worth pondering. Maybe Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and all the other forms of social media out there are fantastic for building a brand identity and for adding a personal dimension to communications from facilities to their members and clients (and that personal dimension is crucial in an industry so reliant on building relationships with individuals who are managing their own health). But for getting your name out, and for selling memberships and programs, it might be best to stick with longstanding, old-fashioned, tried-and-true advertising (for now, at any rate).

Continue reading “Tried-and-True Advertising” →

High-Intensity Interval Training Tops Annual List of Fitness Trends

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November 25, 2013 – In the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACMS) annual list of fitness trends, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) took the top spot for fitness trends for 2014, knocking out of place educated and experienced fitness professionals, the trend that has topped the list for seven years. This is the first time that HIIT has appeared on ACMS’s list.
“When a trend shoots to the top during its debut year, you’ve got to stop what you’re doing and pay attention,” says Emily Wilensky, Marketing Manager of EZFacility, a health club management software developer in Woodbury, NY. “Fitness facilities that haven’t yet incorporated HIIT programming into their offerings should use this news as a prod and start strategizing ways to do so.”
A number of studies in the past year have concluded that HIIT can produce similar—and sometimes superior—gains in fitness compared with longer, more moderate-intensity training methods. Consumers have lauded the technique for the relatively low time commitment it requires and its quick and noticeable results. Some fitness professionals, on the other hand, worry that HIIT is not right for everyone, because it can lead to more injuries and higher risk of heart attack or stroke than other methods, but most acknowledge that clients are demanding it in high numbers.
Other trends to score well on ACMS’s survey include body weight training in the number 2 spot, educated and experienced fitness professionals in the number 3 spot, strength training in the number 4 spot, and exercise and weight loss in the number 5 spot.