If you are thinking of upgrading your gym software and you are in the hunt for one that can better streamline your business processes, then it pays to thoroughly consider essential factors to be able to land on the best software solution for your gym. The fitness industry has evolved, going away from the traditional approach of managing gyms to provide convenience and flexibility to members. As such, your gym management software will play a vital role in helping you keep that edge over your competition.
What is a gym management software?
A gym management software is a kind of software whose features are designed to streamline the business processes present in managing a gym. These automated features, at the core, enable gym owners and authorized staff to manage leads and memberships, set up and monitor payments, manage class schedules and bookings, and generate reports to guide managers in making their decisions in a manner that can enhance member engagement, save time, and improve the business in totality.
No matter the size of your gym or even if you are a personal trainer, a gym management software can help you.
A Digital Solution
Recently, the love of people for fitness has grown. Thus, fitness centers and gyms have been popping across the globe. In fact, the current international fitness industry already makes over three trillion of revenue. With such a booming industry, gym owners are left with a challenge to work extra harder to provide an excellent experience to an increasing volume of customers. This is where a digital solution such as a gym management software can be of great help in ensuring customer retention, inviting new leads, and providing the best quality of service.
Gym management software are tailored fit for gyms that offer classes or memberships to clients. The program automates the tracking of gym employees and their respective shifts, tasks, and payrolls and gym members, including each of the members’ classes, schedules, and other information. All record-keeping and updating will be condensed into one software, giving gym owners a great platform to efficiently run their businesses.
It Streamlines Processes
A good gym management software features an integration of member management and members’ billing information under one platform. With it, owners will no longer have to maintain two separate books and ledgers to store relevant data which like other manual processes can be time-consuming and error-prone. With such helpful features, gym owners get to have better control of their time while staying on top of the business, i.e. more time to be used for other essential aspects in gym management.
Selecting a Gym Management Software
With the advent of technology, more gym management software providers are emerging from all over the world, leaving a plethora of options for gym software hunters. For the most part, these gym systems vary in terms of features and cost. As a general rule, the more feature a software comes with, the costlier it becomes. Hence, to get the best worth of your investment, you have to thoroughly take essential factors into consideration, e.g. your requirements, your budget, the other digital solutions the software can offer, etc.
When selecting a gym management software, start with asking whether that software can solve the issues and management problems you and your staff are currently facing. It should, at the least, have most, if not all, of these essential features:
- User-friendly Dashboard. This condenses all the features you will need in one page. Serving as your one-stop shop, all the solutions you’ll use are streamlined on a dashboard, facilitating a great learning curve for the users. This dashboard should show you portals to all the facilities, both member-related and employee-related.
- Membership Management. This feature gives gym owners and authorized staff a facility to better manage all the data of the members. This will automate data updating while ensuring that the integrity and accuracy of data are upheld. Meanwhile, members are given portals to their profiles, trainings and classes, scheduled bookings, and billing information.
With this streamlined perk, gym owners and staff will be able to save time that they can spend on other areas that need the same attention and management. With members given the facility to web check-in, unnecessary paperwork is eradicated and replaced with electronic filing and data storage, and membership management is made easier but more reliable. This feature moreover allows members to book via the website while gym owners and staff can set automated send-out of emails or SMS for promotional offers or personalized birthday greetings, enhancing business-customer relationships.
- Billing, Invoicing, and Sales Facility. This feature automates billing and payment processing, facilitating a well-organized flow. With it, gym owners will no longer have to redundantly remind members of their dues and chase them for their payments.
If you have allotted a huge budget for a gym management software, you should find a system that accepts global payments through a variety of payment options from cash to cards. Such offered flexibility is vital in this digital age and will surely give you that edge over your competition.
- Real-Time Reporting, Analysis, and Insights. This feature will help gym owners stay on top of the business by displaying real-time updates about how the business is performing on a periodical basis. With the right reports, gym owners will be assisted in improving customer retention and converting new leads into customers. By such reporting, gym owners are able to strengthen identified revenue drivers and will be able to make more informed and guided decisions. The key areas to be covered in the reports should include the following at the least:
- Lead conversion and management
- Membership sales and retention
- Attendance Rates
- Revenue Reports
- HR Reports
Website and Social Media Integration. With social media being the place where the majority of the internet users are lurking, it is no surprise how millions of businesses are establishing their social media presence to connect with their customer base. If you want to have the edge and a fair share of the social media market, your gym management software should have this feature. Aside from the visibility, this will extend your customer support platform to interested members.