As much as you love seeing and helping your members get fit, you don’t get to do that if you’re spending all day in your office under a mountain of paperwork.If you’re running a gym and feeling bogged down by the business side of things, you’re in luck. Considering that health clubs are a
$27 billion industry in the US, there’s software available that’s designed for your specific needs.If you’re weighing the pros and cons, here’s how the right gym software can help your business’ bottom line.
How Gym Software Improves Your Productivity and Profitability
Did you know gym software can save you more money than it costs in the long run? Here’s how.
1. Avoiding a Scheduling Snafu
Depending on the type of gym you have, chances are that you have some type of schedule. Maybe you schedule classes like Zumba and yoga, or perhaps your members can schedule time with your personal trainers.That’s all well and good until you have a scheduling error. One mistake can force you to refund hundreds of dollars, offer freebies and membership discounts, or even cause you to lose members.The right software, on the other hand, can offer a simple way to create the schedules you need. It can make it impossible for you to double-book an instructor or a space, preventing your worst scheduling offenses.
2. Keeping Membership Paperwork Organized
If you’re like most gyms, your members sign a contract when they start their membership and may need a new contract on occasion. Those contracts are there for a reason, and if you lose paperwork, it could cost you in a major way.Gym software can keep track of all that paperwork for you. Everything is in one place and you can access it from wherever you happen to be.Some software can help you keep up with the paperwork maintenance as well. It can alert you when a member’s contract renewal is coming due so you can follow up. In some cases, it can take care of the entire renewal process by emailing those members and letting them renew online.In that case, you don’t just benefit from more organized, reliable paperwork. You also save hours of administrative time so you can focus on bringing in new business instead.
3. Reports at the Push of a Button
As a business owner, knowing what’s going on with your company is half the battle in running the business well. If you don’t know what information to track or if preparing reports take too much time, chances are that you won’t keep up very well.The right gym software, on the other hand, can track the relevant information and produce the reports you need in seconds. At the drop of a hat, you can find out your membership trends, expenses, profit margins, and more.
4. Streamlined Payment Processes
One aspect of running a business that everyone hates is
collecting on unpaid invoices. It’s never fun to goad someone for money, but if you don’t, your business can sink in no time.Gym software has the benefit of handling your invoicing process, tracking unpaid invoices, and sending reminders in many cases. That’s less time you need to spend on invoicing and payment processing so you can focus on recruiting new members instead.
5. Better Security
How do you make sure only paying members can access your gym? How do you catch people who are trying to free-load?If you just have members coming in and telling front desk staff their name, you’ll get scammed left and right. But what’s the alternative?At high-end gyms, the answer is a tech-savvy check-in system. Maybe your members have a barcode they have to scan. Perhaps you go the extra mile and do
fingerprint check-ins.The right gym software can provide you with any of these options. It’s a great way to tackle loss prevention and make sure you’re collecting money from everyone who’s using your gym.If you have an issue that prevents a member from using your gym, like nonpayment or a threat of violence, these systems can help too. You can block a previous member’s access in a matter of seconds to keep your business safe.
6. Added Incentive of Convenience
Convenience is a major driving force in consumers’ choices today, and gyms are no exception. That’s why your software can be the factor that makes a member choose you over your competitor.Advanced gym software can offer a member portal where members can control their membership online. This could let them see their contract information, schedule classes or training sessions, make payments, and more.
7. Fewer Pieces of Software to Manage
Throughout this article, we’ve discussed a wide range of technological advantages you can get from your gym software. Perhaps the largest advantage of dedicated gym software is that you can get all these functions in one program.Many gyms have a check-in system, bookkeeping software, scheduling software, a mass emailing program, and more. Managing all those items can be expensive and time-consuming while leaving you prone to errors. It’s easy to forget to renew a subscription when you have five or six subscriptions to manage.If you invest in specialized gym software, though, you can get all those
features to run your gym in one program. That’s one bill to pay, one piece of software updates to keep up with, and one log-in to remember. It also means less training time for your staff because they aren’t trying to learn five different programs.
Choosing Your Gym Software Wisely
You may have noticed that many times in this article we used the term “the right gym software.” Not every piece of software on the market will give you the same features and advantages. The key is finding out what you need and looking for software that checks off all your boxes.To find out more about great gym software,
try our specialized gym software today.
