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features
Software: Soft power
With the coronavirus pandemic forcing gyms across the world to temporarily close their doors, staying connected to your members digitally has never been more important. Software suppliers tell Steph Eaves how they’re contributing
Published in Health Club Management 2020 issue 4
Virtuagym
Joeri Nanov,
global director of marketing
By using our personalised branded fitness app, gym and studio owners can stay connected with members at all times.
The app keeps clients engaged through push notifications and allows members to easily access digital training plans and the world’s largest 3D workout library (which can be done at home).
What facility does it have to help clubs build a community of members?
Our Community Club feature means customers can mass-message members or target them individually with one-to-one messaging.
Helping our customers build a community is a key focus for us. Our app has a social sharing feature that allows members to create personal profiles, post updates and pictures to share their progress and stay connected outside the gym.
It allows fitness professionals to set challenges and track their members’ successes on a leaderboard. That means you can reward the most active members in your digital community.
In what other ways will your software support operators to rise to the challenges presented by COVID-19?
Virtuagym @Home is a new seamless integration of our Virtual Trainer and Video On Demand feature to help gyms and studios take their businesses online. It includes thousands of animated workouts and provides gym members with access to bespoke training plans, which are carried out in-app and performed by 3D characters.
The tool helps health club operators to mass assign a variety of workouts and track progress of their members. Video On Demand offers digital workouts that members can do at home without equipment – different categories and difficulties make the feature suitable for all types of audiences, from hardcore workouts, cardio, Zumba, HIIT training and dancing to meditation and yoga classes.
“Virtuagym @Home is a new seamless integration of our Virtual Trainer and Video On Demand features to help gyms and studios take their businesses online”
Fisikal Ltd
Rob Lander, CEO
Our solutions enable push-out of regular messages. These can be sent via email and push notifications to achieve a variety of outcomes: eg. automated, generic messages sent to large groups of members or bespoke messages to sent to individual members.
Members can also send messages when they have queries or need advice. Our software enables a two-way, 24-hour support system. During a time when limited physical contact is advised, this will be crucial.
What facility does it have to help clubs build a community of members?
Through our solutions, operators can embed social channels, eg. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, within the platform and apps, creating a branded environment where all communications between facility and members and member groups can take place.
The platform also enables the creation of Smart Groups. This feature allows operators to send content via video and PDF to specific groups of members or staff, helping ensure individuals receive only the information which is relevant to them.
In what other ways will your software support operators to rise to the challenges presented by COVID-19?
It enables operators to move the fitness experience into a digital environment, maintaining contact and services without physical intervention. Virtual classes (either stored in an open-access library or unlocked at specific times), workouts of the day, training plans, nutritional advice, assessments and PARQs are all possible, delivered direct to members, wherever they are located, via an intuitive app.
Content is customisable and can either be imported or created from our library of pre-loaded videos. During times of physical distancing, our solutions also enable two-way communication. This creates opportunities for social interaction when individuals may feel isolated.
“Virtual classes, workouts of the day, training plans, nutritional advice, assessments and PARQs are all possible”
Legend Club Management
Sean Maguire, CEO
We provide automatic functions for bulk communication by email, text and mobile app notification, as well as displaying notifications on member accounts online and on the smartphone.
In addition, we offer expert support services through our Legend Leisure Services division to provide these campaigns at short notice on behalf of and to an expert level for clients.
An LLS run campaign is particularly useful at times when clients may be without some key staff.
What facility does it have to help clubs build a community of members?
Legend’s online capabilities, combined with its powerful smartphone app and its integrated digital marketing services (web/email/SMS/app/social media), allows clubs to highly customise communication to each individual member and membership segment, and therefore build a close knit community of members based on the insights and personalised communication campaigns available as standard in Legend.
This is further supported by the automatic alerting and calls to staff action driven by Legend BI.
In what other ways will your software support operators to rise to the challenges presented by COVID-19?
Legend’s payment services and business continuity planning are powerful benefits to clients during these unprecedented times. Payment services include the Legend BACS Contingency service, which has been offered free of charge to clients, which allows Legend to act as a backup payment processor for direct debit in the event of an issue with club admin or key personnel.
Legend business continuity means clients can all work from home on Legend without disruption. It also ensures that Legend’s services, up-time guarantees and around-the-clock support hours are maintained.
“Legend’s payment services and business continuity planning are powerful benefits to clients during these unprecedented times”
Ashbourne Membership Management
Grant Harrison, sales director
Our member app, YourApp Plus, allows club staff and personal trainers to contact individual members via an instant messaging portal. Personal Trainers can broadcast virtual workouts to all members as well as assign them to specific clients. We also equip each club with a management dashboard. Here they can send out emails, texts or push notifications to specific groups of members and targeted individuals.
What facility does your software have to help clubs build a community of members?
When members initially download YourApp Plus they have the ability to tick areas of personal interest, which then highlights those with similar fitness habits and goals. Additionally, clubs can upload challenges and leader boards to their app with the aim of bringing members that share similar interests together. We have seen huge success from these features, combined with the instant messaging, in creating communities within clubs.
In what other ways will your software support operators to rise to the challenges presented by COVID-19?
The integrated nature of our payment collection and software solution has allowed Ashbourne to react quickly to the current situation. Rather than simply freeze all direct debits, we worked with partner clubs to create a workaround that allowed loyal customers to contribute to the club and reduced cancellations. An email was sent to members giving them the option to contribute a portion of their direct debit, the full direct debit or freeze their membership. We’ve also updated our software to engage members while their club is closed, by creating an on-demand workout video library.
“We worked with partner clubs to create a workaround that allowed loyal customers to contribute to the club and reduced cancellations”
ClubWise
Joanna Taber, marketing manager
The FitSense member app provides a great platform by which to provide a remote service, by allowing clubs to create and send tailored workouts to members using the FitSense Workout feature. FitSense mobile push notifications also provide a crucial communication channel and can be used to notify members of new workouts, offer training advice and tips for staying on track and motivated as well as status updates on the temporary closure.
What facility does it have to help clubs build a community of members?
The FitSense member app has community-building features including a feed that integrates with social media. Members are able to keep up to date with other members of the club, as well as share their at-home workouts, support each other’s efforts and participate in group challenges.
In what other ways will your software support operators to rise to the challenges presented by COVID-19?
To further strengthen FitSense for use as a remote training platform, we are working on some developments that will allow clubs to offer an automated remote service through weekly workout plans, designed by fitness professionals.
Workout plans will be sent to members using our integrated automated CRM tool. Members will be notified of new workouts via push notification and email. This automated service will take the pressure off clubs, freeing them up to focus on their opening strategy.
“We’re working to enable clubs to offer an automated remote service through weekly workout plans, designed by fitness professionals and sent to members using our automated CRM tool”
Premier Software Solutions
Leonie Wileman,
chief operations officer
Automated marketing is a vital tool for keeping in touch with members when they’re absent from the club. It can help you to advise of changes in opening hours, cancelled classes, or explain the steps you’re taking in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Simply select the audience criteria for your message, create your template and schedule it to be sent to members via either email or SMS, at a time of your choosing.
How will your software support operators to rise to the challenges presented by COVID-19?
If you decide to run at reduced capacity or close your business, Core can help to make the process as simple as possible. There are several steps you can take within the software, depending on your business requirements. These include scheduling options such as limiting online booking or rescheduling/cancelling classes from home.
Financial options include reducing membership rates to discourage cancellations, pausing direct debits, or extending memberships to cover time lost through business closure. All the while, you can monitor any revenue lost due to COVID-19 through cancellation reason codes.
“Financial options include reducing membership rates to discourage cancellations, pausing direct debits, or extending memberships to cover time lost through business closure”
Fibodo Limited
Anthony Franklin,
managing director
fibodo empowers individual PTs, and therefore gives them the tools to engage members online. This has three key benefits: members continue to be motivated and provided for whilst away from the facility, PTs are assisted in maintaining revenue and client bases, and the operator’s brand is championed by its key audiences throughout.
What facility does it have to help clubs build a community of members?
fibodo commercialises the sale and delivery of interactive online one-to-one and group sessions, providing a far greater experience and communication channel between members and grass-roots providers. Communications are at the heart of everything fibodo does, whether this be posting notices, sharing session videos or notes with members. We captured all session data in a bespoke analytics dashboard, so the operator can understand individual PT performance member trends.
In what other ways will your software support operators to rise to the challenges presented by COVID-19?
fibodo has created fit4thefight, which aggregates spare capacity from all PTs so partners can promote through a simple channel. fit4thefight went live on March 30th and already has 30,000 available bookable sessions.
“Fibodo commercialises the sale and delivery of interactive online one-to-one and group training sessions, providing a far greater experience and communication channel”
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