According to recent statistics, 16% of Americans work out more than they used to at the beginning of the pandemic. Things are looking up for fitness center managers!
The best way to encourage new members to join your gym and take advantage of this spiked interest? Improve your services.
Sometimes, success isn’t linear, and you need to make an effort to keep your customers interested.
Keep reading to learn the five ways fitness center managers can improve their property for customers, including new facilities and technologies, employee training schemes, and more.
Invest In Training For Employees
Your employees are representatives of your business and play an essential role in improving the customer experience.
The sky’s the limit for customer service – if you think it’s too much, think again. Good service never goes unnoticed.
Investing in training for your employees can improve the customer experience in your fitness center and can help to strengthen the bonds between your employees – making your fitness center a more enjoyable place to work.
Your training can include team-building exercises, workshops, and quality training to upskill your employees.
As an employer, it can be beneficial to help your employees progress in their careers by offering specialized training for personal training, fitness instruction, and other opportunities that can help your staff members become more valuable employees.
Offering training can help you to retain more staff. Often, customers build relationships with gym staff, and a high turnover rate can affect the social element your gym offers customers –
So it’s in your interest to provide employees with training and keep your staff happy!
Provide Top Security For Customers
Your customers will be put off your gym if their belongings are stolen while on-site or if an intruder commits a crime on the property.
Your customers deserve to work out in peace, and they need to feel their belongings are secure while they swim, exercise, or participate in fitness center classes.
To provide top security for customers, you need to prevent intruders from entering the property, as the center is for customers only.
A gym access control system is one of the best ways to secure the fitness center from intruders while ensuring that your customers can enter quickly.
If you’re looking to offer luxury fitness center features, you might provide a mobile-based access control system or a facial recognition system to permit entry to the property.
Your customers will be impressed with your high-tech security and won’t be inconvenienced should they forget their access card when visiting the gym.
Invest In New Gym Equipment And Offerings
The better your offerings, the more customers you will attract. Providing ample gym equipment and new gym equipment will help you to keep your existing customers motivated.
There are many new offerings you could consider for your gym, including:
Dining Options
If your customers work out and socialize in your fitness center, offering dining options with healthy foods will help to make your space more pleasant and will also increase your profits.
Adding a juice bar or cafe to your fitness center will attract more customers.
Adding More Equipment
If your squat racks or treadmills aren’t enough to meet customer demand, you might consider adding more gear to your gym to fulfill your customers’ needs.
Adding new classes encourages your gym members to explore different ways of working out and keeps things fresh.
If your customers get bored with their usual workout, they might stop coming.
Adding Spa Facilities
Spa facilities are a huge investment, but they can increase the demand for memberships at your fitness center.
The best way to figure out what your gym needs is to ask your customers. Use social media and QR code surveys to determine what kind of new facilities your customers would love.
Use A Customer Management Software
Customer management software can help streamline how you organize your customers’ payment information, invoices, personal information, and more.
Keeping track of your customers’ plans and payments becomes increasingly difficult the more customers you have and the more your business grows.
Customer management software keeps all your customer information in one place.
Your employees can log into the software to update customer information while working and access real-time data, so they’re always up-to-date on their customers’ plans and payment info.
Making a mistake regarding your customer’s payments and plans can damage your reputation, and you could lose a customer.
So, using software to keep track of customer information benefits your overall business health.
Keep Gym Equipment Clean And Properly Maintained
If your gym is dirty, this will put your customers off, and you could lose members.
Similarly, if you don’t replace or maintain broken equipment, your customers won’t be able to perform their workouts. Who wants to work in a dirty gym with damaged or faulty equipment?
Not only does broken and dirty equipment inconvenience and disgust your customers, but it can also lead to injury and the spread of germs.
Since the pandemic, gyms have had an added responsibility to clean equipment and provide customers with the tools to clean equipment before and after use.
Going to the gym shouldn’t put your health at risk, and you could be held liable if a customer is injured due to faulty equipment.
Conclusion
As a fitness center manager, you’re responsible for ensuring your customers receive the best possible service.
They are valuable patrons of your business, and by treating your customers well, you can attract more customers and retain members.
Keep the tips listed in this article in mind when planning any changes or additions to your fitness center to improve the customer experience.