IHRSA 2015 was a great success and ABC Financial would like to thank everyone who visited our booth.  If you did not get a chance to visit our booth or attend IHRSA, please allow us the opportunity to show you our latest enhancements which include Biometric Fingerprint Check-in and Membership Upgrade. Click here to request a demo of our club management software.

Below is an interview with ABC Financial’s CEO/president Paul Schaller talking about IHRSA 2015.

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March Mayhem is here and Club Marketing has gone mad with this one!  We are offering our best ROI retention management program: Friends are Free with a FREE email campaign to compliment it.   Help welcome your new club members with a top-of-the-line mailer delivered right to their mailbox!  It includes 6 coupons that your members can pass out to their friends/family and have a few for themselves.  Then follow-up with an email campaign with extra coupons.  Two of the best ways to get in front of your members.

We know getting members can be easy, but retaining them is a whole lot harder. Your members respond to rewards, just like anyone else does. What drives your members to participate? You know better than anyone else! Pick your coupons to meet their needs.  Change it up too! Your coupons and trial passes can be changed as often as you like. Seasonal offers, fresh offers and new ideas can all be used to liven up the program.  Our Friends are Free program is the best way to retain your memberships, plus the return on investment is huge!  For example, for each new membership has the possibility of gaining you four other new memberships! This well exceeds your return on investment. For example, a $1.75 investment could gain you one $30 per month membership, which is over 18:1 return on investment ratio just on your first month. For each of the prospects that join your club, you are not only seeing the return, but you now have another four potential members.

Email is at the fingertips of almost all of your members on their cell phones.  Our email campaigns are simple and so effective.  Use your free email campaign to offer even more incentives or just use it to inform your members.  Focus on member retention and health education.  You can communicate special offers or club discounts.  Club Marketing tailors your email campaign to your specific club.  Get the look you want right in the email boxes of your members.

What a pair!  What a way to retain your members.  It’s our March Mayhem final two line-up!  Call today.  This offer ends March 31, 2015. 

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By Bryan K. O’Rourke, MBA

You might have read the latest Wall Street Journal article  “Facebook Tests Bluetooth ‘Beacons’ to Feed Users Local Content”. This technology, termed “place tips”, is another example of the emerging digital presence concept, created by the ubiquity of smartphones continuously broadcasting user locations. Beacons so far have been tested to send promotions and ads to people in and near stores. Facebook with its 1.3 billion members, is experimenting with expanding the use of Beacons at select locations in New York and the potential for fitness facilities is enormous.

Some will think this type of technology is irrelevant at this point. Consider that a recent inMarket study on the use of beacons showed millions of these devices, with many costing only $5 a piece, implemented in retail stores resulting in a 19x increase in interactions with advertised products and a 16.5x increase in in-store app usage. The technology enables location based engagements by knowing when a customer is within a few feet of a specific location. For fitness facilities this could mean alerting members near the studio when a group fitness class will be starting, or promoting an available small group training spot through their mobile device when a member walks in the door. With “contextual buying” the opportunities are limitless.

In a world where competition for attention continues to intensify and where more traditional efforts like direct mail, email, banners and even paid search are losing their effectiveness, beacons are yet another example of how technology is fundamentally changing marketing. The less people see ads as pitches and more as information customized to meet their needs, including where they are and when they are, the more effective engagement will be.

As with any new technology there will be winners and losers who attempt adoption. Winners will help users phones act like concierges with personalized answers and advice as needed. Others who just push out promotions and messages will have trouble engaging audiences and will ultimately turn people off. Since connectivity and social media make “consumer experience” the ultimate marketing, beacons, among other technologies, will create an opportunity for brands to embrace new methods of delivering value.

So what does this mean for fitness facilities ? Why is it important ? To be successful brands must embrace the fact that consumers are changing and thus marketing is changing. With nearly 7 out of 10 fitness facility customers having smartphones and with many of them being used in facilities, having a specific strategy for how to effectively incorporate these technologies into business models will become increasingly important.

So what do you think ? Is contextual buying an important trend ? Should fitness businesses spend more effort on determining their strategies around marketing given the advancement of technologies like beacons ? Feel free to write and let me know at bryankorourke@gmail.com, or tweet me @bryankorourke.com .

Bryan O’Rourke serves as President of the Fitness Industry Technology Council, is CEO of Integerus Advisors and CSO of Fitmarc and the Flywheel Group. These organizations collectively serve over 800 fitness facilities in the US, dozens of global organizations and over 5,000 instructor professionals. Bryan’s an entrepreneur, consultant, executive, investor and former club owner who has worked in the health club and fitness industry for 18 years. IHRSA named him one of 13 to watch in 2013. He has presented at industry and corporate conferences on four continents and is widely published and quoted in periodicals like Inc. Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. To learn more visit bryankorourke.com and follow him on twitter @bryankorourke.

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By: NetPulse

A personalized health club app can enhance your members’ club experience to the point where they’re never more than a phone tap away.

You don’t have to be a tech analyst to see what’s happening. Did you know that over 80% of health club members own a smartphone? And nearly all your members carry their smartphones around everywhere, including at the club. Apps are the best time killers for Americans, and according to a recent Nielsen report, the average number of apps smartphone users’ access each month is approaching the 50 benchmark. If ever there was a time to rethink your approach to member experience, this is it. Keep your members connected to your club with an app that is designed to catch their eye with an immersive, professional and user-friendly interface.

How will your mobile app make your club stand out?

To begin with, a customized app will draw in the attention of potential club members thanks to its appealing design and easy-to-use functionality. It will also provide existing members with the opportunity to manage their club services, review their fitness progress and access optional features instantly, empowering them to take matters into their own hands and freeing up your staff’s time for other activities.

Registration, check-in, class viewing, social sharing, payment and profile management are some of the basic app functions that members have come to expect of their health clubs. But your app will be able to do so much more than that; try the Netpulse platform and enjoy location-based deals, club purchases using the club card on file, group fitness schedules with enrollment capabilities, workout tracking, barcode check-in, push alerts with club news, reward programs, referrals and access to all club social media platforms.

Each time members and prospects download your club’s app they are essentially subscribing to you. This means they will receive instant communication from you via push alert notifications. Push alerts pop up on the home screen of their phone like text messages for maximum member and prospect connectivity.  Push alerts should be used to communicate breaking club news, promotions and to drive members into different aspects of the club and points of entry into different departments in your mobile app.  They can be spur of the moment ideas or scheduled and setup in advance and sent to everyone in a targeted geographic area.

Alerts are the most effective, efficient, widespread and focused means of communication with your members because they reach out, over a device that is private, personal and permanent.

Affiliate programs are also supported by the Netpulse app platform. Give members access to a broad range of discounts and special offers provided by partners. It’s a win-win situation for all those involved, and these little perks can put you ahead of the competition.

Your app can be the answer to every question your members may have. Train your staff to remind members that the app is a convenient way to find quick and easy solutions. Have staff help members with the download, and ease their workload significantly from then on. Leave the rest to us and enjoy your business with all the new, exciting things it can offer.

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We recently took on a client club whose sales were on a steady decline. Of course, we heard the normal push-backs such as too much competition, time of year, rates are too high, marketing is not working, etc. One of the first things we will normally do is listen in to call-tracking results on incoming calls – most of this is tied to direct mail marketing. In this particular case, a prospect called in asking about membership rates. Not only did the club representative not follow the provided script, but when the caller volunteered that she may have called the wrong club, the club rep offered to find the phone number of the competitor. You may be thinking this was a new rep that was answering the phone prematurely…..unfortunately, it was the club manager.

Do you know what your salespeople and front desk staffers are saying over the phone?

92% of customer interactions happen via the phone. 85% of customers report dissatisfaction with their phone experience.

Do you have a written phone script? If not, you need to get one and it should be memorized to the point of being second-nature. Regular training and role-playing should be done to be sure everyone is on track. And be sure to listen to your call tracking notes…this will only be important to your staff, if it’s first important to you. You must inspect what you expect.

A customer is 4 times more likely to buy from a competitor when ignored.

Are you ignoring your customers?

Many clubs will put a significant effort into getting the phone to ring and people to walk through the door, but then don’t maximize the opportunity to increase membership sales when the salespeople fail to follow up.

48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect.

25% of salespeople make a second contact and stop.

12% of salespeople only make three contacts and stop.

Only 10% of salespeople make more than three contacts.

80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.

The biggest reasons we find salespeople do not follow up like they should – they simply don’t know what to say. Web leads, for example, on average, require 8 attempts before contacting….you may speak to some web leads right away which means someone else make take 16 attempts.

The key to successful follow up is to commit to it, get creative on different ways to do it and understand that speed is power.

Do you know what your salespeople are saying? Can your salespeople pass the test? If you would like for us to phone shop your club, just email jthomas@fmconsulting.net or call 800-929-2898.

Now, go learn that script!

Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting and turnaround firm specializing in the fitness and health club industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars and workshops across the country on the practical skills required to successfully build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. Visit his Web site at: www.fmconsulting.net.

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Creating Customer Experience vs. Selling Customer Service

The fitness club market is overwhelmed with selection for the fitness-minded, from the abundance of health clubs to the variety of services. Clients have their pick of hours, locations, types of classes and equipment, cost, and availability of experienced trainers in just about any gym they walk into. Only one service remains unique.

You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied. ~ Jerry Fritz

Remarkable customer service is the one way a fitness club will consistently set itself apart from competitors. Promoting good customer service seems cliché. It is common personnel campaigning and common customer marketing. But today’s common knowledge of customer service boils down to making sure staff is friendly, available, and helpful in selling product.

Today a fitness club succeeds by creating a remarkable customer experience rather than selling good customer service. In successful business Ritz-Carlton’s words, customer experience, “enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.” Developing remarkable customer experience at a fitness club starts with understanding a client’s wishes and needs or, put more simply, why a person is at the gym.

Creating Customer Experience at the Gym

Today’s customer is limited in motivation, accustomed to technological ease, and mindful of exercise options at home or a park. Part of the client’s “unexpressed need” is the ability to start right into their workout, free of discouraging hurdles.

Technology is one of the best assets a gym has to “instill well-being” in offering a Ritz-Carlton kind of remarkable customer experience in meeting this need:

• Enrollment processing using health club software is fast and easy without the awkwardness of paper or complicated online forms or disgruntled staff using or disgruntled clients completing them. A first impression is still key in developing customer experience.
• Automatic fund collection in health club software manages a client’s credit card, debit card, or checking account on file empowering staff to focus on enriching the client’s experience with gym services and empowering club members to impulsively join a kick-boxing class or grab a refreshing drink. No one need count change.
• Check-in with a health club software enabled key fob, key tag, or pin code could be a thoughtless moment for staff and client. Creating a remarkable customer experience is staff using that moment to look the client in the eye to offer a friendly, personal greeting.
• A gym app to check on H.I.I.T. class schedules, schedule a time with a personal trainer, or update their account information meets a distracted client’s real-time needs and with push alerts give them needed motivation to work out and go to the gym.

Technology is just a tool for creating remarkable customer experience in a fitness club. Recognizing useful tools for creating remarkable customer experience comes from first considering the client’s needs.

Attentive staff focused on individual needs delight clients. Clients delighted with experience attract others. Fitness clubs with remarkable customer experience surpass competitors.

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All business owners know that in order to continue growing their business, the business must implement a marketing plan. Depending on your clientele, location, business type, and marketing personality, this will take on different forms. One popular marketing angle across business types is to work on increasing the visibility of your brand, thus creating the ubiquitous “household name.” Once you’ve built your brand and become a familiar name in your community, you will find more customers coming your way. While the marketing has done its job, there is a next step in adding and retaining health club members: You must implement a follow-up system.

When a guest visits your club, or uses a free trial membership, you must reach out to those guests to create a sale. Instead of creating a system from scratch, health club software can help you. Modern health club software has a variety of lead management capabilities including a general information database to manage members and leads, a plan-ahead function that allows you to assign a task to each lead, and follow-up tasks to complete after the initial check-in with a client. The most important aspect of this software is that it creates a systematic and partially automated approach to lead follow-up.

What’s the benefit to automation? Simple. Because your health club software can take care of some tasks semi-independently, employees spend less time managing follow-up. Follow-up is also consistent, which increases conversion while decreasing time spent on record keeping.

Other Benefits:

• All information is stored in one place
• Every employee can seamlessly participate
• Employee time can be spent helping customers and visitors in the club, because many of the tasks can be automated
• Get rid of paper to-do lists that can get lost or forgotten

Picture this:

Joe is working the front desk in the morning around ten a.m. when Sally comes in to look around. He inputs her information into the computer, including assigning a follow-up task—a text message or email. Two afternoons later, Micah comes in to work, opens the computer, and checks all tasks assigned to that afternoon. He notes that there was an automatic text sent to Sally, who has responded with plans to come in and sign up that night. The nightshift worker is able to check all notes made about Sally when she arrives, thus creating a feeling of organization and cohesiveness for the customer about the club.

Alternatively, Sally may have been debating between two health clubs. When she receives the follow-up text, she decides to go with your club, because she perceives a high level of customer service.

Health club management software is something no health club owner should do without. While health club software most often includes other useful functions, such as employee record-keeping, class scheduling, and customer check in, you should definitely look for software that also allows you to manage customer records and leads. Your to-do list will thank you.

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The profit boosting new year’s season is just around the corner and in order to be completely prepared, now’s the perfect time to take advantage of traditional holiday attendance slow-downs to ramp up your health club management battle plans.

Every year the cycles of health club activity seem to follow the same patterns. Thanksgiving brings loads of calories and a sabotaging spirit to peoples’ fitness routines. With the shorter days, added parties and carb-loaded meals, your members are more likely to read fitness magazines on the couch than they are to fill your spinning classes.

So consider this holiday slow-down an opportunity to prepare. Follow these 10 tips to make sure your health club is ready for the wave of activity just weeks away:

1. 1. Organize your new year’s health club management strategy. Establish clear 2013 goals for department managers.
2. 2. Prepare your front line reception employees on the health club software processes for member check ins and give them strategies for dealing with high traffic volume challenges.
3. 3. Get your equipment in order. Clean and service fitness machines.
4. 4. Have fans and cleaning equipment ready to keep health club entrances clean and grime free.
5. 5. Build your reserves. Stock your pro-shop with winter friendly outdoor fitness gear.
6. 6. Revamp your billing services to include electronic funds transfer (EFT) capabilities.
7. 7. Have your personal training staff develop health club challenges and welcome-to-fitness packages to launch on January 1.
8. 8. Consider adding a web-based gym software application to encourage more member engagement with your club.
9. 9. Incorporate electronic membership and personal training agreements for higher efficiency.
10. 10. Organize the troops. Review first aid and emergency procedures with employees.

Health club management can really be equated to battlefield supervision. You’re dealing with dynamic scenarios where hundreds of customers are engaging with your club and placing a wide variety of demands upon your staff and systems. And like achieving success on that battlefield, your level of preparedness will directly affect your ability to enjoy great results in the year to come.

Is your health club ready for the 2013 push? Request a health club software demo to learn how you can streamline your operations and boost your bottom line.

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Fortunately, with the right health club software you can make quick, fact-based decisions that help take the pain out of membership retention. Here are some ways in which the right software helps you make those important business decisions:

1. Report customization. Standard reports are handy time-savers, but they don’t always include the information you want. The right software will allow you the ability to create an unlimited number of customizable reports.Once you have identified the custom report types you need, you can analyze data and determine what’s really happening at your health club. For instance, are you seeing spikes in new membership that sync with certain types of promotions or class offerings? Or are you seeing memberships lapse during unusual seasonal timeframes? The reports you view may indicate what you can do to increase membership rates in nearly any season or scenario.
2. Enhanced templates. Reports that come pre-loaded into your health club software serve a useful purpose as well. With every new release or update, you can usually expect additional templates to be offered. Be sure to examine these new templates carefully, as most will be built to help you analyze useful data that you may not yet have considered.
3. Mobile access. As a health club owner or manager, you can’t always be on premises and you may not have the ability to haul a laptop PC with you everywhere you go. But, you probably own a smartphone.Your health club software should allow mobile access to reports. That way, if you have a few minutes to spare while you’re out and about, you have a tool handy with which you can analyze your reports.

If your current software isn’t helping you make effective business decisions, consider how much better your club could be functioning with the right product in its hands.

To learn more about the capabilities of health club software we offer, request a demo from ABC Financial.

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