Get the newest fitness industry trends, strategies and tips for health club owners and how they're redefining their clubs' performance and meeting the needs of the clients they service.
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Payments in any industry or sector are the core of what makes a business run. It’s obvious. Fitness club managers cannot maintain the upkeep, management or growth of their gyms unless their revenue comes in smoothly and on time. For members, paying membership fees are a necessary evil; one they would rather not have to engage with every month.
Leisure centers are attractive for members due to their vast offering of wellness resources. However, nowadays customers are looking for convenient means to become healthier.
As mobile solutions, such as to-your-door massage therapists, home-visit personal trainers, and subscription-delivered fit lunchboxes begin to gain popularity, people don’t have to leave the comfort of their homes to work on their wellness.
In charge of maintaining and configuring system processes, connecting central management systems to 1st party tools, and overseeing development of the Fitness One mobile app, Jake Curreri is endlessly experimenting with ways technology can elevate fitness experiences.
After working with PerfectGym to create their client portal, open API and PG back office manager last October, Curreri sat down with PG to catch up on how the club management platform is working for him and how the open API has helped his club’s staff and members.
“I enjoy working in the fitness industry because it is super dynamic. You have to stay on par to fulfill the clients' needs, but always keep budget in mind.”
Says Harm Cremer, PG client and Head Manager of the il fiore health centers chain in the Netherlands.
#fitness. How many times do you think that hashtag has been used on Instagram? A million? 50 million? A 100 million? The actual number would be more in the area of over 331 million.
For that number we can thank the social media influencer. No doubt, fitness influencers are a force to be reckoned with on Instagram.
With their millions of loyal followers and getting paid thousands of dollars for sponsored posts, the hype they have encapsulated around wellness has transformed Instagram into a paradise for effective fitness club marketing.
There are many facets to running a fitness club; processes, customer care, finances, and equipment maintenance are just some of those. Club owners need to spin a lot of plates at once to make a gym work. And if one plate falls and smashes it can sometimes spell disaster for the whole show.
Yes, fitness club management is tough.
But there is one secret weapon most clubs aren’t utilizing for their business: An advanced Point of Sale (POS) system.
In today’s digitally-driven market, consumers now have more control and choice over how they achieve their well-being.
This is in part thanks to how digital transformation has been disrupting the fitness industry and the trends that have driven more consumers to become members at gyms and fitness clubs.
The specific drivers of these trends include:
Pairing convenience and security may seem contradictory at first. But advances in automated gym entry controls have come a long way in the last few years. Now there are droves of solutions on the market, ranging from the simple gates to sophisticated high tech barriers.
But choosing from the technical rainbow of entry systems can be overwhelming. And the consequences of installing a temperamental or complex access control can hurt member happiness in the long term.
Users are craving new experiences that can incorporate fitness into their routines without relying on just a treadmill or a squat rack. This can be evidenced by the staying power of boutique club powerhouses like SoulCycle, F45, and OrangeTheory or the growing popularity of more unique studios that specialize in pole dancing, Zumba, aerial trapeze fitness, etc.
‘Survival of the fittest’. A saying which is just as apt in business as it is in nature.
Huge shifts are happening in the world today. Society is now a technologically focused, data-driven and digital-wielding entity. As a result, people are changing their thinking toward fitness and digital devices are affording them more control over how they implement fitness in their own lives.
