An efficient means to operate has always been vital for businesses to thrive and keep up with the competition. That said, a lot of gym owners have realized that it is never only about investing in the latest workout tools and equipment and employing the best trainers in the area. Operational efficiency, or the capability of the gym to provide its quality services to gym goers in the most cost-effective manner possible, is also necessary. And this, exactly, is what gym management software intends to deliver.
The Positive Points of Using Gym Management Software
A good gym management software can help gym owners better manage their members, employees, and the overall business in a cost and time-efficient manner. Here are the ways how:
Automated gym membership management
Gone should be the old, time-consuming, and inefficient ways of managing gym membership. The modern gym management software intends to eradicate the paper-and-pen approach, and introduces a computerized way, of doing it. It features a facility where authorized gym staff can key-in the member’s data to be then stored in a centralized database. Unlike the manual approach, the authorized user will just have a series of clicking and typing to do to carry out the job. With it, it will also no longer take a lot of time to retrieve, view, and update the members’ information.
One beneficial feature of premium gym software with a mobile application is how it enables members to access their accounts and request a customization of the programs and services they are enrolled in via mobile. The app can even provide multiple payment options to members with the help of their integrated billing and payment feature wherein gym members can simply pay their monthly dues online in lieu of cash.
With this feature, gym owners are given the time and opportunity to focus on enhancing other areas of the business.
Automated administrative tasks
A gym management software automates the following administrative tasks that used to eat up the staff’s time.
MEMBER SIGN-IN – A gym management software can easily scan the key tag, a QR code, or a biometrics data it issued or tagged to a gym member once the latter signs in or out of the gym. We will no longer be seeing any pen and paper in this process.
AGREEMENTS – This feature automates the paper-driven terms and conditions signing. The system will just capture the new member’s signature electronically.
SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT – With the gym management software’s built-in scheduling system, staff can easily monitor services, schedules, and classes without manually marking dates on the calendar. The latter can be so time-consuming; meanwhile, the automated scheduling already does the checking as to whether a particular class is already full or can still accommodate more students, and a lot more.
PAYMENT COLLECTION – Gym owners used to do this manually by assigning staff to call members one by one to remind them of their dues and assigning another staff to collect the payment. The gym management software eliminates such a time consuming and inefficient approach by sending out automatic notification to members and accepting payments via mobile banking; allowing the staff to work on something else and giving the members a convenient way of settling their bills.
REPORTING – One of the best offerings of gym management software is how it automates the reporting process. The system is able to retrieve reports in just a matter of seconds and can even schedule reports generation daily, weekly, or monthly, as long as the user sets it. The reporting covers daily billing statements, monthly billing statements, membership club account deposit summary, daily delinquency, invoicing, and even reports showing which services or classes are most availed and enrolled in to help gym owners come up with better business decisions.
Gym management software providers have aimed to automate the abovementioned tasks not only to attain time efficiency but also to minimize errors that are frequent in the manual approach of doing them. With the right software, a gym’s business growth will surely be facilitated as the information that can be fetched from the reports can help gym owners come up with a guided decision when it comes to strategizing and running the capital.
Provides an employee portal for better employee management
In terms of managing employees, the gym management software can also come to the rescue especially when it comes to scheduling in light of an integrated time clock.
With this feature, registered and authorized employees can securely access their accounts wherever and whenever they prefer depending on their access rights to check and manage their own schedules. The automation moreover enables them to set their availability dates and manage their classes and appointments.
Lead generation for potential customers
Some gym management software not only assists in administrative and internal management tasks but can also help in advertising the gym’s services to new prospects, and converting the latter into new leads.
If the gym has a dedicated sales outreach team, it can take advantage of this feature to invite market engagement through automation campaigns.
Final Considerations When Choosing a Gym Management Software
Finding the best gym management software is not easy. With a plethora of options, the selection process may even get overwhelming.
This writer has personally experienced the pain points of dealing with large cloud-based products like MindBody and Vagaro that are tailored to everyone and every kind of fitness business. You might consider checking out smaller software options such as PushPress, which offer specific plugins and enhancements for specific types of gyms and athletic disciplines.
A lot of gym software will differ in terms of features and more often than not, the more features built within the software, the higher its price becomes. While a multi-featured gym management software will surely benefit your business, it will not pay off unless the features can be utilized in your gym setup.
Practically, if you want to get the best value of your gym software investment, the following features should be a priority:
- It has a mobile app. Millions of people nowadays are avid mobile users. Probably the majority of the people with which we engage in social media, are even connected via their mobile devices. You can never take advantage of that statistics better unless your gym management software can be accessed via mobile.
- It can be integrated with your existing website. While maintaining two different software is doable, the efficiency of operations might be in question. It’s always best to have a gym software that can be integrated easily with your existing gym website for a seamless, consistent experience.
Tags: Business, gym software, management
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