Category: Blog

Forming Ties

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Last week a small contingent of people from EZFacility visited with a variety of counterparts at our sister company, Member Solutions, in Pennsylvania. The purpose of the meeting was to exchange ideas in order to find out in which areas each company excelled, and in which areas we could use some improvement.  We’re happy to say that this meeting was quite the success in that both companies were able to glean a vast amount of knowledge from each other and exchange additional ideas for the future.

At EZFacility, we encourage our own clients to keep up to date in the industry and swap tips with colleagues in order to remain relevant. One of the best environments to accomplish this is at a trade show, which is what these events are all about in the first place.  At a trade show you’ll not only find vendors that can be incredibly helpful in solving various problems, but other business owners like you that can offer up advice on how they run different aspects of their facility.

Staying informed on what’s going on in your industry is one of the most important things you can do for your business. Continuously being aware will ensure that you always know what your current and future customers are looking for in a gym, health club or sports facility.  This all goes back to the basics of opening a business: finding a need in your market, then meeting those needs for a variety of customers within your demographic. How do you go about identifying those needs? Forming relationships with others in your industry and finding out what is particularly successful for them, in addition to of course, listening to the needs of your customers.
Come back soon for more tips and ideas for building your business.

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The Importance of a Mobile App

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On the heels of our recent announcement regarding the launch of MemberMe, we thought it would benefit our clients to know the importance of reaching their members through their smartphones.
Here are just some of the vital stats that you might be interested in:

  • Mobile use in general is increasing 39% year to year, while app use is doubling year over year
  • 6.8 million iPhones and Android smartphones were activated last holiday season alone
  • Market share for smartphone operating systems is split almost 50/50 between iOS (iPhone) and Android.  All other smartphone operating systems (including Blackberry’s RIM system) make up less than 10% and have been shrinking in their market share significantly every quarter
  • Pew polling and research estimates that 35% of all US adults have phones with apps on them
  • The number of app downloads in the last week of December 2011 was 1.2 billion worldwide (half were from the US)

Our goal is to arm our clients with these facts and help you in taking the right steps to reach these smartphone and app users. You might ask yourselves, “What does this accomplish for my business?” By offering an app for your business, you’ll have a valuable tool at your disposal to help you retain members. It also sets you apart from your competition in the eyes of potential members, giving you the leverage you need in a very competitive industry.

MemberMe provides your business with a different avenue to engage members in events that you are holding, and also creates an easy way for them to book classes and share this with their friends on Facebook, turning this into not just a retention tool, but a promotional tool as well.

Feel free to download MemberMe and take a look at what an app for your business can look like. Just type in “MemberMe” in the App Store search bar and download. Here’s a QR code that will take you right to it or you can download it from iTunes here.

Handling Difficult Customer Situations

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We’ve all had to deal with difficult customers at some time in our lives; it comes with the whole “running a business” responsibility. At some point you have to ask yourself if this difficult client is really worth having around. Are they mistreating your staff? It’s essential to keep your staff positive and uplifting, but having one truly bad client can cause the mood to go awry.

Before jumping to the conclusion of eliminating this client from your business, there’s a good chance you can solve the problem by having your staff get down to the root of it. So how do you empower your staff to handle difficult situations like this?

  • Set boundaries – tell staff exactly what they can or cannot do. Role playing for this particular situation can be helpful to get them used to different scenarios.
  • It isn’t personal – remind staff that the issue with the client isn’t personal. Relieving their self-doubt or impatience is one step towards enabling them to confidently take charge of the situation.
  • Coach your staff – let them know that listening to the client more so than speaking can lead to an easy way of turning the situation around. If the client feels like they are being listened to, it can set things back on track for the difficult customer.
  • Support them – ensuring your staff that you will support them in difficult situations with this client will in turn, empower them and give them the confidence to better deal with the client.

Once you give your staff the tools they need to deal with difficult customers, you may soon find that you don’t need to step in as often, and turning a fussy customer into a happy one will begin to happen more often.

How to Keep ‘Em Coming Back

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We know that in most cases, the longevity of a business is only as good as the clients it maintains, so keeping clients happy and ensuring they come back is one of the most vital things you can do for your business. While it’s important to continue to secure new members, it’s also essential to keep the ones you have. That’s why we’ve outlined a few keys to keeping your customers happy and coming back.

  • Great Product – Offering a quality product is the best way to keep clients happy. Not giving them a reason to complain will in-turn give them no reason to leave. Maintaining your gym or facility in the best condition possible will prove to be one of the best ways you can retain your members. Check out our blog post on Club Vitals for help on good equipment maintenance. Additionally, making sure you have well-trained staff and trainers is also an integral part of offering a quality product.
  • Excellent Value – Giving new members a great introductory offer and following that up with other money-saving promotions is a good way of showing customers that you care about them. Always make sure you price services appropriately.
  • Courteous Customer Service – Showing customers that you’re out to make their lives as simple as possible is a smart way to keep them coming back. We know that “not giving them a reason to complain” can often be easier said than done. Rise to the challenge of taking care of whatever problem they might have. By appropriately and quickly addressing their concerns, you’ll show that you are truly interested in their health and well-being.
  • Referrals – Having a member refer your business is the ultimate compliment. Not only does this boost your sales and profits, but you’ve just further ensured that this customer will keep coming back – and coming back with friends too! Don’t forget to reward your members with perks for bringing in a friend. See our post on Perkville on how to start rewarding your members with minimal time investment on your part.

What all of this boils down to is making sure your members are happy. Doing whatever it takes to make this happen will ultimately lead to the success of your business.

Thanks for reading and come back soon for more tips!

Are You Prepared For Growth?

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One of the greatest qualities of a successful business owner is realizing that your business is growing and having the foresight to address this growth properly to ensure your business operates smoothly. As a health club or fitness facility owner, it’s important to make sure that your club management software is growing with you every step of the way.

For example, maybe you started off three years ago with a software provider that had just the right amount of features for your business. Have you checked in recently to see what they’ve added? The release of new features and functionality that may not have been applicable to you a few years ago, could wind-up being extremely important to your business today. Take the time to protect your investment and check out any new tools and perks your software provider has recently implemented in order to make the management of your facility easier.

On that note, it may be time to check in with your account manager and see what new features you could add to your software suite. Don’t have any software yet? Make sure you find something that can grow with the speed of your business, as you don’t want to have to switch to a new provider right in the middle of a growth spurt. After all, your goals should always be to move forward, grow, and evolve in order to keep members happy and maintain a strong, profitable business.

Check back often for best practices and tips!

Adding Value to Your Business

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As many of our clients may have noticed recently, EZFacility has been endeavoring to add more value to the services we provide our global customer-base. On this note, we’d like to encourage our customers to continuously add value to their own business in order to keep members engaged and excited about the services you provide. Whether it’s setting up a simple rewards system (enter Perkville!) or by adding a special service to a package that you currently offer, your clients will notice and appreciate the added value.

Additionally, adding value to your business will go a long way in helping you retain members. Often, by keeping things “new” for existing customers, you’ll find that more and more members will stick with what you’re offering.

 Other great ways of adding value to your gym or sports facility includes offering a wider range or schedule of classes that members can select from, or even promoting a special two-for-one on certain group-centric services (like group fitness or batting cage rentals) to encourage people to bring friends with them to your facility. The possibilities are endless and require little effort on the business owner’s side when it comes to incorporating this type of value. However in the end, the payoff will be huge because members will always choose the best value for their money, which in-turn ensures that your business continues to grow.

Studies show Viral Referral Systems are the most effective tool for marketing

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We’d like to introduce guest blogger, Aaron Grove, from Share your fit. He reveals one of the most effective marketing tools and how you…our clients…can take advantage of it. Share your fit is a new referral system for fitness and health clubs and is an innovative way of spreading the word on your business. EZFacility has partnered with Share your fit to provide customers with another means of growing and improving their business.

By Aaron Grove
A recent poll of businesses showed that half of all health clubs count on referrals for 75% of their business. After all, referrals are the most effective and affordable way of increasing your sales and growing your bottom line. We all know referrals are integral in growing your customer base, but they take work.  Most gyms do not have a formal process or system in place for referral generation. In fact, most do not even ask for referrals or they ask incorrectly.  When you factor in your current customers and new members into a structured referral system that allows for exponential growth of memberships, it makes for an efficient, effective, and non-invasive way to generate referrals.
Did you know…

  • Referral-generated customers are the least expensive, most profitable, AND most loyal source of new business?
  • Referral-generated customers also tend to buy quicker, negotiate less, buy larger quantities, and refer more business to you?

Now, most members do not want to “sell out” friends to an invasive sales process, but are willing to send a personalized email with their name attached to a free pass.

Share your fit is a non-invasive landing page branded specifically for your club.  This page can be the homepage for your sales desks, the front desk, and even at a kiosk set up in the middle of your gym. As new and current members attend your gym, you offer a small incentive (maybe a week of free personal training) in exchange for them sharing a pass to your gym with family and friends.  Members can attach a personalized message as they share what they like about your club, when they workout, or the success they have had with their workout routine/trainer.  Everyone who views or receives a pass has the potential to multiply into additional referrals through Share your fit, even if they never make it to your club (in the fitness industry, only 30% of set sales appointments actually show up).  Share your fit decreases attrition rates, by helping build a “family atmosphere” in your gym.  Members are always more loyal and motivated when they work out among friends.

Share your fit is powered by pickagym.com, an online directory of fitness centers.  If a consumer receives a free pass to a gym that they have never heard of, they are able to learn about the gym by viewing video tours, testimonials, and a virtual gallery.

Gyms implementing the Share your fit referral system see an average increase in sales between 10% and 30%. The more it’s used, the more effective it becomes. All leads can be tracked and managed, so that no potential business slips through the cracks. Share your fit features a risk free 60 day money back guarantee. Contact us now to see how our state of the art referral system will be the most efficient and effective generator of new business your gym has ever experienced.

Making the Most of Your Second Highest Revenue Generator

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Typically, the highest revenue generator for a gym is memberships. The second highest revenue generator is personal training and it’s essential that you do everything you can to ensure that it is well taken care of. With a new year comes the opportunity to revamp your system and how you capitalize on this revenue generator.
As always, there are a few key elements that will play a role in how successful you are.

Marketing

Be sure that your members are aware of what services you provide and make clear the benefits and value of each of these services. Additionally, targeting the right members will lead to better results and allow your sales person to confidently sell because they know they are dealing with someone who is the right candidate for personal training.

Sales

Once the marketing has done its job, the sales staff takes over with a script at the ready persuading members to invest in this service (personal training). Be sure to identify objections you will need to overcome as being prepared for these will ensure a smoother sales process and show potential customers that you’re prepared for anything! Lastly, be proactive when closing the sale by assuming which package they want to purchase, not if they would like to purchase one.

Tracking

A vital step in the marketing and sales process is to track all consultations in order to determine how trainers performed and what sort of results they are accomplishing. Being able to identify which trainers are performing well and which ones need assistance will prove to be an important piece of information to have for making the entire process successful.

Having a plan in place to market and sell your personal training program will inevitably result in higher member retention (your highest revenue generator!) in addition to an increase in personal training revenues for your gym.

We hope these tips are helpful and stay tuned for more ideas and suggestions!

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Piecing Together the Ideal Marketing Plan

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We’d like to give some helpful tips in rounding out your marketing plan for 2019 and making all the components come together in a way that is beneficial to your business. It’s not one particular method or tactic that will make your marketing plan successful, but using every channel available to you. Below is a list of marketing ideas that go above and beyond:

1. Business Appreciation

Work with other local businesses; you promote their businesses and they promote yours.

2. VIP Passes 

Create a no nonsense business card inviting people to a free trial class or week. Feel free to send staff out to nearby supermarkets and hand out the VIP passes to drive more traffic to your gym or facility.

3. Week Free Passes 

Hand out this pass to all new members to give to friends. This then leads us to a referral program…

4. Referral Program

Create a referral program where your current members get rewarded for referring others to your club or facility.

5. Two, Four, Six, Eight, and 10-week Calls 

Follow-up with people who have tried out your facility. A reminder of their time spent there will lead to a lot more conversion and give potential customers a sense that you already care about them.

6. Buddy Weeks 

Begin a “bring a buddy” program where your members are encouraged to bring a friend to try out your club or facility. This will also offer great support for your referral program.

7. Any Kind of Community Marketing 

Exhibit and attend local fairs, events, and tournaments. You’ll find a diverse market of people you can expose your business to while supporting other local businesses.

8. Anyone Who Asks You to Advertise or Donate 

If a local organization is doing a fundraiser, instead of taking an ad out in the local journal, give them passes to distribute at their event. Your cost will be minimal and the activity is guaranteed to get someone through the doors to experience your gym or facility.

9. Meet with Larger Businesses 

Offer to give businesses with many employees a free membership of your choice (whether it’s one month or three months). Let management know the value of the free memberships and let the owner sell it. The owner will be giving the memberships as a gift from him or herself. The owner benefits from the employees’ good will and you benefit from new leads.

10. Quality Control 

The goal must always be to create unbelievable motivation about your business. A happy client is someone who will continually stay with you, spend money, and be a raving fan. Given the opportunity, a happy client will talk about you continuously. That client will refer you every chance he or she gets. See “The Building Blocks of Customer Loyalty” post on how to keep your customers happy.

Seamlessly combining these elements into your marketing plan is the most important thing you can do in order to maximize marketing efforts. One of these components alone will not work without the others. It’s a good idea to spend some time thinking about how to use the marketing channels and resources you have at your disposal and how they will help grow your business.

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The Building Blocks of Customer Loyalty

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While much of the battle is attracting new customers to your business, a key element to a successful business is retaining these customers you worked so hard to get. Like any crucial business activity, it is worth putting time and effort into doing it right. Sometimes following up is difficult and takes a large amount of work, but in the long run it will pay off for you 100 times over. Don’t let your customers slip away as keeping an existing customer costs far less than getting a new one. Below are tips to keeping your customers happy and coming back for more!

Send thank-you notes 

Take the time to tell customers that you genuinely appreciate their business. The thought will remain with them for a long time. A small gesture like this will stand out in their minds because most of your competition won’t send that you notes.

Mail postcards 

Make the message of your postcards meaningful if you want to have customers look forward to receiving them. Customers should want to keep the cards handy, especially if you keep it exciting with a “Health tip of the month” or “Quote of the month” type of theme. In these cases it may be best to avoid being promotional as they will appreciate information that is beneficial for them.

Send email updates 

Provide customers with information on product sales, special events, customer service updates, etc. Thinking of them as your personal press releases will ensure customers receive information at least once per month and will help build momentum. Over time, it gets them excited to be involved with your gym or facility and motivates them to give you referrals.

Follow up on health issues 

If you find out a customer has been sick, call periodically just to offer support. Send flowers or a card if the situation warrants it.

Offer referrals 

Keep records of which of your customers are self-employed. A great way to encourage loyalty is to refer people to your customers’ businesses. If they do, record the information which will enable you to help them through referrals, and chances are, they will return the favor.

Ask for post-sale feedback 

Demonstrate that you care about the quality of your service. Call customers and ask questions such as: Are you pleased with the service you received? What would you like to see improved? What product or program would you like to see more of? If you could change anything what would it be?

Send out 20 “great job!” cards per week 

This is both a fun and exciting task. It helps boost morale and keeps everyone excited. A simple card that tells a customer that you think he or she is doing a great job really goes a long way.

These tips will help you take your company to an entirely new level. Following up on all aspects of your customer interactions shows your customers that you are actively involved in keeping them thrilled with the service you provide. And when you ask customers for feedback and implement their suggestions, they feel a sense of ownership in what you’re doing and become even more loyal to your business. This is a great way to build your empire.

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Realizing Your Website’s Fullest Potential

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A website for your business isn’t just recommended, it’s essential! It’s also important to ensure that you maximize this resource that you’ve put so much time, money and effort into. Below are a few steps you can take toward setting up an opt-in form on your website in order to begin using your website to its fullest potential.

Keep up with people who have visited your website

There is a reason why they were on your site and following up can only lead to good things; half the battle is already won once you have their contact information! This is also a great opportunity to keep them updated on any new developments including class time changes, new offerings, and deals – all of which may have been factors they took into consideration before signing up.

Reward them for signing up 

Offer them an incentive for giving their contact information. Be sure that the offer is relevant to your industry, otherwise it may not make the connection you’re hoping for. Perhaps if they sign up, they get to try out a free class or get evaluated by a personal trainer. Creating the right offer will kill two birds with one stone; you’ll have their contact information and they’ll want to come in to your facility or gym to try out what you’re offering.

Draft follow-up emails 

Now that you have their information, what do you do with it? For starters, you may want to create a “welcome” email that you can send on the fly as soon as someone signs up. After that initial email, keep them posted by sending them your newsletter and informing them of any new offers to new members. Having some emails pre-drafted will be a huge time saver in the end and can all easily be done with your club/facility management software. Utilizing the email marketing function, you can create separate lists for non-members or people who have specifically requested information on your website. You’ll find that this is the easiest way to set up and keep track of emails.

We hope these suggestions have been useful when it comes to making the most of both your website and club/facility management software. Come back soon for more tips!

Keeping Up-to-Date in Your Industry

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It’s been over a week since we attended the Club Industry show, and it got us thinking about how important it is to be present at these sorts of industry events. While it produces significant leads for us, it also serves as an ideal avenue to connect face to face with some of our clients. It’s great to receive feedback from our current clients and not to mention the fact that this is the perfect opportunity to answer many questions they may have. Furthermore, we’re always connecting with others in the industry leading us to form great partnerships that benefit not only us, but our own clients as well.

That being said, we encourage you to take part in industry events and shows. You’ll have the opportunity to not only exchange ideas with your fellow fitness colleagues but become inspired by what others in the industry are doing as well. Being a part of these types of events is also important in order to stay up to date on the latest trends in your industry. While it’s vital to stay true to your own business model, it’s just as vital to keep up with the ever-evolving needs of consumers. You’ll find that just by intermingling with them, you can learn how to roll with the punches and stay relevant.

Gaining industry knowledge will serve in helping you improve your business and better service your customers. In the end, keeping up with your industry’s evolution is essential to being successful in today’s business world. Stay on top of it and later enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Some of the major upcoming industry events include:

  • Athletic Business Conference & Expo – December 1-3, 2011
  • IHRSA 31st Annual International Convention & Trade Show – March 14-17, 2012
  • NIRSA Annual Conference and Recreational Sports Exposition – March 27-30, 2012
  • United States Indoor Sports Association’s 2012 Facility Operators Conference & Trade Show – June 11-14, 2012

Check back often for more ideas and tips and we’ll hopefully see some of you at these events!

Using Member Triumphs to Boost Your Success

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As many of our clients may have noticed, we’ve been doing a big push around securing testimonials and success stories from our customers. There’s really no better way of showing potential clients that we provide an excellent product than having a happy client say it!

That being said, we’re going to pass along some tips on how to get the right testimonials from your members for your club or facility. One or two sentences from a satisfied member can go a long way to improving your company’s image.

  • Reach out to members that have gone out of their way to give you a compliment in the past. The likelihood of them being open to giving you a positive review is high and therefore should be taken advantage of.
  • Ask members to use different resources to give comments or reviews. A few examples can include your company Facebook page, Google reviews, or industry sources. These are areas where potential members will be looking to see what others are saying about your club or facility. Set up your member so that they can easily find whatever resource you want them to post a review on. For example, if there is a specific industry source that you would like for them to comment on, send them the link in the email for quick and easy access.
  • Make extra use of these same testimonials by placing them in their own section on your company website; the first place people will look to get information. By finding testimonials and success stories easily on your website, potential clients will have little reason to look for them elsewhere.
  • Finally, go the extra mile to get a video testimonial. Maybe you’ve helped a member achieve their goal or attain a noteworthy result, take advantage of their hard work and your own hard work by asking them to do a video of their story. Your management software should allow you to keep track of member results; access them for reference in determining who may be a good fit for a success story. This will give you great content to put on your website or should you have it, your YouTube channel.

The process of searching for the right members for customer testimonials should be easy if your club or facility is in good running order. Starting off with those that have come to you and let you know that they love what you’ve done for them is the simplest. From there it should be easy to reach out to them with a quick email.
Thanks for reading and come back soon for more tips and ideas!

Good Customer Service Results in Higher Member Retention

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Providing good customer service is essential for member retention and spreading the (good) word on your club or facility. It’s important to ensure that staff members give meaningful service to your customers in order to show that you value their patronage. There are a few simple steps that gym and facility owners can take in order to deliver excellent customer service.

Greet members

Greeting members when they check-in is an easy way to build relationships with your customers, especially with membership software that displays their information upon check-in. This makes personalizing the greeting a more effective way of connecting and showing that you value them. It’s also a great opportunity to speak with them prior to their work out and find out if they have any questions or concerns. Sending them away with a sincere parting will ensure they leave with a positive feeling and experience.

Address and listen to members

Identifying and addressing problems is another essential component of keeping your members happy. By being proactive, you’ll be able to nip issues in the bud. Additionally, frequently asking members their opinion on what can be improved will assist in finding and fixing any problems. Gym and facility owners can easily do this by utilizing their software to send out an occasional email requesting opinions and comments from members.

Reward members

Rewarding members for being loyal customers will show your appreciation for them and the business they give you. Even the smallest show of gratitude can go a long way to improving the image of your club or facility. Using your management software, you can identify long-time members and reward them with a free month of membership or personal training session.

Make Good on Promises

Gaining and keeping loyalty from your members is integral to the success of your club or facility. Keeping promises and making promises you are sure to keep will cement member loyalty to your facility. Members that feel you are undeserving of their trust may reconsider giving you their business. The rule to this one is simple, keep any promises made.

By following these steps, you can be sure that customers will always remain happy and that you’ve pushed your club or facility to its fullest potential. Adjusting customer service to be completely about your member is a full-proof way of increasing member satisfaction and retention, ultimately leading to the total success of your club or facility. As always, stay tuned for more ideas and news from EZFacility.

Benefits of Using Software to Manage Your Facility

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Our next post is dedicated to those still on the fence about investing in software for your club or facility. We’re going to outline the numerous benefits of having software and how it can prove to be fruitful.

  • Time Saver – Having software for your day-to-day club or facility needs will free up time for you to spend with your customers. It will make remaining organized simple and allow you to gain more productivity and efficiency. In the end, the additional time will allow you to dedicate more resources and people-power to servicing your customer and signing up more members.
  • Ease of Use – When choosing to implement a club management software tool for your business,  making sure that it is easy to use is absolutely vital. Features that are user friendly and designed to support multiple scheduling scenarios will make managing your club or facility a breeze. Furthermore, selecting a service where training is thorough and provided by industry professionals is important to the future success of your business.
  • Increase Profits – Utilize your facility better by improving scheduling of venues, trainers, and classes with software; eventually this will lead to higher revenues and earnings. Additionally, choosing software that has a low-monthly fee with no hidden fees is most likely to be affordable and allow you to increase profits easily.

Outsourcing billing and collections is also helpful in saving both time and money; finding it all provided by one company is even better. There are numerous benefits of using full service billing in and of itself. By having a third-party bill collect membership dues, you can significantly lower your expenses and free up time better spent elsewhere. Outsourcing will also allow you to reduce the amount of delinquent accounts and boost membership retention and renewals.

EZFacility has a proven track-record of clients who have improved their business using our software. An example of a client significantly increasing membership since they began using software for their club is a small Virginia-based fitness center that increased membership by 88%. Another includes a Community Association utilizing the software for multiple venues and nearly doubling membership in half a year due to our flexibility and in-depth functionality.
Also, even though you may not need all the features software can offer you right from the start, keep in mind that your business is growing, and you may one day need some of this advanced functionality.

We hope this has been helpful in making a decision about choosing software to help run your business. Thanks for reading and come back soon for more tips!

Making the Most of Referrals

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Take advantage of the good service you deliver to your customers and as a result, the referrals they can provide to you in return. If you have a solid product or service, then making the most out of it should be simple. Referrals are the most promising source for leads, especially coming from a satisfied existing member.

A few tips to making the “Buddy Referral” system work:

  • Create an enticing incentive for current members to bring friends into your facility
    • Giving a reward, such as one month free membership in return for getting a friend to sign up – is money wisely spent. This should be simple to do with your membership software, and the return on investment will be higher versus money spent somewhere else.
  • Ensure that the offer for the guest is special and worthwhile
    • Offering a complimentary week to experience your club or facility will allow guests to determine whether it’s a good fit for their lifestyle and needs. Sending emails utilizing your management software should make following-up with prospective members easy, and allow you to keep track of all guests / prospects coming through your doors.
  • Produce appropriate marketing materials to bring awareness of the promotion.
    • In addition to sending follow-up emails to prospective members, making sure that current members are aware of the offer is vital. To bring awareness, send emails to all current members (again, this should be simple to accomplish with your management software) letting them know of the offers or perks, and be sure to have plenty of signage throughout your gym with details.

Here at EZFacility we’re big fans of being efficient. One of the best ways to make the most of our efforts is to let our customers do some of the marketing for us – by referring EZFacility to other people in the industry. We know that the best way to accomplish this is to keep our level of customer satisfaction extremely high, and we encourage our customers to do the same. Don’t be afraid to let your club or facility speak for itself.

That’s all for now but check back soon for more ideas and news.

Use Your Computer Software to Increase Revenue

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Being a successful business owner means using all available tools and resources at hand. If utilized to its fullest potential, your software can be one of the most valuable tools at your disposal. We encourage you to get to know your software and all its capabilities as this is vital to increasing your revenue.

Here are a few key features that should be utilized to maximize profit:

  • Reports / Data Management
    • Estimate what cash flow will be by utilizing your software to predict what next month’s billing will come in at. Pulling reports will help you identify where problems may lie, making it easier and quicker to adjust for the following month
    • Utilize components of reporting to sort out member profiles including which members are billed monthly, prepaid, short term, promotional, cancelled, or expired. Ultimately this will help you decipher where revenue can be increased and which members to target as monthly members are more likely to stay longer and are a greater source of revenue.
  • Email Marketing
    • Know which of your members are frequent users and which are sporadic users. Use your software to appropriately target them with emails and promotions encouraging them to come more often or remind them that you appreciate their business.
    • Utilize the email function to send out communication regarding your facility. Keep members posted on the latest promotions and news and they’ll appreciate you connecting with them.
  • POS
    • With the point-of-sale feature, track all services sold. This makes it simpler to account for trainer commissions, available sessions, and outstanding balances and will allow you to view reports according to the type of sale.
    • Take advantage of the employee time clock included in your software. This will eliminate time wasted on adding up timecards and allow you to have all the information in one place reducing the risk of an error.

Finally, using one company to provide all software and billing services in addition to the follow-up work on delinquent accounts will allow you to focus on customers; knowing that should a problem arise, it’s necessary to contact only one company to fix the issue. The less time spent dealing with software, the more time staff and owners have to spend with current and potential customers, ultimately leading to a revenue increase.
If you’re paying for your software… make the most of your investment and use it to its greatest capacity.

Check back often for tips on how to maximize profits for your business.

Keeping Up With Gym Membership Increases

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The number of gym memberships has significantly increased over the past decade. In 1998, 29.5 million Americans belonged to a gym and in 2010 that number rose to 40 million and despite the recession hitting most households, Americans did not cut gym membership.

That being said, it’s important to be prepared for the ongoing growth of your facility. Staying organized by tracking all invoicing, payments, payroll, and commissions is essential in order to keep expanding and remain successful. Part of accomplishing this is making sure you have a ‘one-stop-shop.’ Software that takes care of all of this for you and makes it simple to pull reports will free up time to connect with customers individually.

Functions that good software should perform include:

  • Back office management

  • Front desk management

  • Billing and payment processing

  • Scheduling and activity management

  • Marketing and customer relationship management

  • Financial and demographic reporting

With these capabilities at your fingertips, business owners will be able to increase both revenue and productivity. It’s also especially important that the software be a web hosted service as this eliminates the hassle of having to install hardware or software onto the computer. With Software as a Service (SaaS), security and privacy are of utmost importance. When considering SaaS, asking the right questions will ensure that your data is safe. A few questions to be answered before choosing software include:

  • Is your production environment housed in a state-of-the-art hosting facility?

  • What are the security arrangements for the facility? Are they in place 24/7/365?

  • What type of infrastructure do you host data on? Are there virus protection arrangements in-place?

  • Do you utilize an independent third party to run periodic external and internal vulnerability scans?

  • How often do you back up data, and where are they stored?

  • What level of data encryption is utilized to protect website transactions?

  • What is your privacy policy?

Lastly, it’s a good thing that the health and fitness industry is doing well and is projected to continue to do so; just make sure your business is ready to keep up!

Stay posted for more ideas on long-term success for your business.

How to Turn Leads Into Customers

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One of the greatest qualities of successful business owners is knowing how to turn leads into customers. Characteristics like dedication, perseverance, and drive that apply to a star in sports can also be utilized for growing your business, and are necessary in order to build your customer base.

Part of what determines success, is having the right tools in order to reach the right people and market. It’s crucial to be persistent when following up with leads, as they have already expressed an interest in your company and therefore, half the battle has been won. A multi-functional software system is essential and makes delivering your message simpler; because it is nearly impossible to determine when your lead will be ready to become a part of your club or facility, it’s important to stay in front of them until the time is right for them. Keeping leads posted on club updates and promotions will be made effortless with software that has the ability to do perform this task. When thinking about growing your business, keep in mind not only the day-to-day functions, but also the bigger picture; have a long-term goal in mind.

Tips for converting leads into customers:

  • Send updates on your club or facility regularly to leads. Software that keeps a database of these leads makes things easier. Set up a schedule in order to be consistently in front of your leads.

  • Keep track of all communication as remaining organized is vital. Again, software that does this for you will ease the amount of time and work spent on lead follow up.

  • Log developments for all leads. Maintaining a structured system showing progress on each lead will make sure none are being neglected.

  • Be ready to provide additional information on your company should a lead become more interested. The ability to send off information quickly will elevate their perception of your company.

The key to being able to do all of this is having software that takes the brunt of the work off your shoulders. Time can instead be spent getting leads and fostering a good relationship with current customers.

Come back soon for more tips and ideas for growing your business.

Targeted Marketing Campaigns with EZFacility

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Make the most out of our software features by going beyond the scheduling, management and billing functions. Because EZFacility software keeps track of your client demographics, clubs can easily identify their largest opportunities for customer-base growth. Our software features top commercial email marketing software that allows you to send emails that are targeted to the right group.


A few examples of how this function can be used to target the right members:

  • Membership or Package About to Expire – Remind members to renew their membership or training package before they expire. This gives them the opportunity to continue with uninterrupted gym or training time and keeps cash flowing for your facility.
  • Birthdays – A member’s birthday is coming up; email them notifying them of a free personal training session in celebration of their birthday. This is a great way to have them try out something new at your facility that could convert to additional business from an existing member.
  • Past members – Notify past members of a great sign up offer. By keeping past members posted on new offers via email, chances are if they see a great one, you’ll lure them back in.
  • New Program/Class Alerts – Send a targeted email to members that have participated in similar classes/programs in the past. They’ll appreciate a suggestion tailored to their interests and will assure members that their facility is keeping things fresh and interesting.

Use the demographic reporting in EZFacility to find out where the holes are in your demographics. This makes it simple to find out what age group or gender needs additional targeting and focus. Perhaps, your club needs more Senior- level classes or extra babysitter services during the day for those stay-at-home moms looking to stay fit. With EZFacility’s Marketing tools, these gaps can be easily found and marketing strategies and campaigns can then be implemented.

Hope this helps in generating new ideas on how EZFacility’s software can be used for marketing to all your clients utilizing unique and innovative approaches.


We will, of course, continue to keep you posted on new developments and information.

Customer Success Story: Gold’s Gym of Regina

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Skye Kaiss, owner of two Gold’s Gym locations in Regina, Saskatchewan and an EZFacility customer, spoke with EZFacility about the success he has had using EZFacility management software to streamline his personal training program, increase client & staff retention while generating savings of over $8OK/year.
Over the last few years, Gold’s Gym in Regina has been actively selling $200,000 of personal training between its two locations on a monthly basis. Members could choose to pay for the personal training in full, or take advantage of a multi-level financing plan offered by the club. With plan lengths of three, six and twelve months, members were provided with purchase flexibility while taking steps towards achieving better health.
Of the $2.4 million in annual personal training sales, 75% were purchased using one of the available financing packages. Of these financed annual sales, 15% were never used and the payments were subsequently defaulted on by the member. Since Gold’s Gym paid out commissions on these sales in the payroll period immediately following the sale, they were experiencing an overall loss of revenue due to the fact that commissions were paid in-full on these sales once completed. Initially, Gold’s attempted to institute a policy of taking back commissions on defaulted sales, but this was not a popular policy with the sales staff in the least.

Solution

Although not using the full power of EZFacility, the Regina Gold’s Gym locations did implement EZFacility to manage the Personal Training program in both locations from a scheduling and session-management stand-point. Utilizing the feature-rich EZFacility architecture, Skye was able to institute a policy where salesperson and trainer commissions would be paid out as each session was conducted and completed. As each session was logged as completed in the software, both the salesperson and the personal trainer would receive a commission for that session. If the personal trainer was also the salesperson then they would receive two commissions.

Benefits

Initially, the most noticeable benefit is a savings of 10% in payroll expenditures on a monthly basis due to linking the payment of commissions directly to session’s completion. And while this did not immediately eliminate the fact that 10-15% of sessions get paid for but never used (which usually results in those members not renewing their membership or referring family, friends or colleagues to the gym), it did offer a significant customer service benefit. As a result of the salesperson and personal trainer only receiving commissions based on sessions completed, both began to maintain contact with the members to provide support and encouragement to keep the member committed to the training plan. Additionally, as the salespeople were accumulating a bank of as yet unused sessions, the attrition rate of sales staff was also reduced as the unused sessions represented unrealized commissions that kept them tied to the club for a longer period.
Combining all three benefits, Skye Kaiss and his Gold’s Gym facilities realized an estimated savings of $70-80K annually between both clubs, based on an estimated $1 million annual operational revenue from personal training services.

Listen to the full interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvB6lg4bLgQ&list=PLsgguQXyZyxwbx_CFNLeZ538Vp9dgqqd8&index=3

How to Succeed with EZFacility

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We know time is tight and your goal is to see the benefits of EZFacility right away. So here are a few best practices to help accelerate your company’s success.
Even before you login, you will want to focus on 3 key areas:

  1. Identifying a business champion
  2. Defining clear goals to start with
  3. Committing to good habits in alignment with these goals


Let’s explore each of these, and see where to lean more:


Identifying a business champion


A champion can be anyone in your business – and since your’re reading this, it might be you. As a champion, you will help your company adopt EZFacility successfully. You don’t need strong technical skills; you just need to be able to communicate effectively. You will need to communicate with management to understand their needs, communicate with staff to show how EZFacility will help them, and communicate about the quick wins you achieve once you start using EZFacility daily. Celebrating these quick wins is a great way to help everyone in your organization see the benefits of this amazing new system.


Defining clear goals right from the start


While EZFacility offers hundreds of features, our most successful customers start with a simple goal – such as increasing customer service or reducing phone calls using Online Registrations. Trying to solve every challenge at once can lead to being overwhelmed and slowing down your implementation. So start by writing down your top 1 or 2 key business goals.


You then need to create a simple process map, as it is very helpful to define this before you begin using and customizing EZFacility. If for example, your goal is a decrease in phone calls, you will want to map out the process that will get you there.


Once you define your process, it becomes easy to customize EZFacility to help you achieve those goals. After EZFacility helps you reach your initial goal, you will be able to implement more sophisticated processes that save time, money, increase sales, and create happier customers.


EZFacility allows you grow over time, versus having to solve everything up front. So simply repeat the steps of setting a goal, defining your process, and then building the solution – and you’ll continue to celebrate quick wins regularly.


Committing to good habits in alignment with these goals


As you grow, you’ll want to make sure your staff enters their info consistently in the system and keeps it up to date as well. EZFacility helps keep track of the day-to-day elements that are important to your business, and the quality of this information is critical to a successful program. Good habits begin when all your users agree to the terms that are used to describe your process. Be sure to train your staff, not only on how to use EZFacility, but also on your pre-defined process and terminology.


Integrating EZFacility into day-to-day operations using scheduling, billing, and customer management is a great way to keep information up to date. The more staff that “live” inside of EZFacility, the more it becomes a trusted source of “go to” information. To help everyone see the importance of keeping your information up to date, run your departmental and company meetings based on EZFacility reports and dashboards. For example, a weekly sales review can run like clockwork if your sales managers used the Revenue report from within the system. Our most successful customers remember this maxim – “If it isn’t in EZFacility, it doesn’t exist”.


Ensuring your success


We are committed to ensuring your success, so we make it easy to find the resources that will help you succeed. The single place to go whenever you are trying something new is https://support.ezfacility.com. Here, you will find how-to videos, user guides, F.A.Q’s., best practices and more. And don’t forget, you can always search our entire knowledge base and reach-out to our support team by clicking the Help & Training link located at the top of the page directly within your EZFacility system.
Thank you for choosing EZFacility! We hope this overview will accelerate your success with our system.
Check back often for best practices and new ideas.

Is Your Club Primed for Growth with Personal Training? Part 3 of 3

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In this final part of a three part post I have outlined below the remaining two of what I consider four key reasons for implementing a strong personal trainer scheduling and management solution as a component of your club management software:

  1. Enhanced Visibility Into Your Business

    A good system will provide the ability to view departmental performance in real-time, yet the power lies in its ability to uncover inefficiencies and provide insight. Creative club owners armed with this information can see how to better monetize facility resources and staff, and help to improve the overall profitability of their club. This information can help to uncover inefficiencies in the use of a trainer’s time each day, as well as help to more quickly and accurately determine when another trainer should be added to the days scheduled, etc. It can also help to identify which trainers are consistently converting free trials into revenue-generating customers, and which trainers are struggling with this extremely critical aspect of their jobs. All of this various information should help club owners and managers answer the key questions that will help them streamline the operations of their training business and improve the revenues derived as a result.
  2. Improved Customer Service

    Real-time visibility into your club’s daily processes also translates into improved customer service for your members. For example, when training clients call in to check on trainer availability, payments owed, or to change an appointment, a good scheduling and management system will provide these answers right at your fingertips – giving the member the answers they need, when they need them. A growing number of club owners are realizing that a powerful trainer scheduling and management system is an ongoing way to deliver enhanced business performance and in turn, significantly improve customer service.

Hopefully the information outlined in this three part post will help to show why researching and implementing a powerful trainer scheduling and management system, either stand-alone or as part of your core club management software solution, is an important process for your facility – and will help to prime your club for long-term growth and success.

Is Your Club Primed for Growth with Personal Training? Part 2 of 3

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In this second of a three part post I have outlined below two of what I consider four key reasons for implementing a strong personal trainer scheduling and management solution as a component of your club management software:

  1. Improved Operational Control

    The software system selected should provide club owners and trainers with an instantaneous view into daily processes to make sure operations are proceeding smoothly. Is a certain trainer available at a specific time today? Does my 2 o’clock appointment have any pre-existing medical conditions or owe a balance for a prior session or package? These are all questions that should be able to be answered by the new system with a quick glance at the screen or with one click of your mouse. By spotting trouble early each day, small problems can be dealt with or eliminated completely before they have a chance to accumulate and become large ones.
  2. Consistent Performance Reports & Financial Analysis

    A good trainer scheduling and management system enables a real-time view at how your business is performing, which yields reports that are more consistent and accurate in nature. Traditional reports are often out of date by the time they arrive on your manager’s desk, and usually after unexpected problems have already cropped up. A good system should provide customizable reports covering a variety of critical areas such as daily schedules and rosters, invoices, payments & customer statements, payroll reports for export to 3rd-party payroll providers, and management reports for club performance & financial analysis.

In the final post in this series I will outline the final two of the four key reasons.

Is Your Club Primed for Growth with Personal Training? Part 1 of 3

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Software that offers strong personal trainer scheduling and management functionality is gaining attention as a critical component for improving the operational processes that impact your club’s growth on a daily basis. How well your club streamlines its operations, improves trainer productivity, reduces costs and increases profits, will be a determining factor in your facility’s overall future success. With the popularity and revenue gains that club owners have seen with their personal training business in recent years, implementing a powerful club management software and billing system that includes a very strong trainer scheduling and management component has become that critical “must have” for a club of any size.


If you haven’t yet implemented a scheduling and management system within your club (either as a part of your core club management system or on a stand-alone basis), there are a variety of key items for you to consider as you begin the selection process:

  1. Is it user friendly – i.e. can it be used by staff with just novice computer experience?
  2. Does it offer detailed management of training packages and other service offerings?
  3. Does it allow for detailed tracking of trainer payroll, commissions and varying pay rates?
  4. Does it provide personal training specific management reports for club performance & financial analysis?
  5. Does it give your personal training clients access to book new sessions or buy new packages right from your website?
  6. Does it offer the ability to integrate credit card or direct debit functionality so that you can charge your customers for services in real-time? Or better yet, does it offer the option for a full-service billing and collections component as part of the software, so you don’t have to worry about chasing customers for overdue payments?
  7. Can it be accessed from any web-connected computer – both inside your club or out?

A good trainer scheduling and management software system focuses on these sets of issues with an eye on executing and managing them more efficiently on a daily basis. This attention to detail can result in improved operational control, better visibility into your business, improved customer service, and more consistent employee performance.


In the next post in this three part post I will begin to outline the 4 key reasons for implementing a strong personal trainer scheduling and management solution as a component of your club management software.