Leveraging Your Club Software Platform for Optimal Results

On October 11th and 12th—just prior to IHRSA 2021 in Dallas, Texas—ABC Fitness Solutions hosted its first-ever live User Summit.

During the summit, ABC product experts from various functional domains, including sales, reporting and analytics, consumer engagement, and payments, spoke to new product features and trends in their respective areas.

The discussions focused chiefly on ABC IGNITE, the company’s new solution suite. Pairing reimagined core competencies with newly expanded capabilities—including a simplified interface, frictionless workflows, flexible billing platform that allows for multiple payment plans, and visualized reporting dashboards—ABC IGNITE redefines how fitness operators and members interact with technology to reach their respective goals. It’s the realization of a product vision geared to streamlining operations, driving growth, and enhancing member experiences for club clients at every step in their journey.

The following key takeaways and insights from the summit highlight some of the ways ABC IGNITE can be optimized across the operation.

Igniting Sales: Keegan Dowling, Vice President, Customer Success

Among the best ways to configure a CRM platform to optimize conversions and upsell opportunities is market segmentation. Gaining in-depth knowledge about the needs and wants of your members is key to driving profitability.

GymSales identifies and groups contacts by their original lead source and marketing campaign. Data can be grouped by membership status, goals, interests, and group personas. GymSales then tailors and automates SMS text messages and emails with targeted one-to-one and campaign messaging. It’s part of a powerful, automated sales engine that helps generate increased ROI from your marketing spend.

In the bigger picture, CRM is a means to protect your business and ensure continuity.

By understanding and delivering on the changing needs and expectations of their consumers, clubs remain relevant and vital to their members. CRM solutions like GymSales identify those needs and make it easier for operators to promote and consistently communicate the value their facilities provide, thus driving higher engagement. During the height of the pandemic, for example, clubs that communicated with their customers throughout the shutdowns and re-opening were more successful in retaining and re-capturing members.

Engaging Members: Kelly Card, Chief Engagement Officer

Member engagement has been redefined through the delivery of member-centric Total Fitness Experiences with mobile-enabled capabilities. The member experience is no longer something that happens only in the club.

ABC Fitness Solutions’ IGNITE Engagement custom-branded app is a proven, effective way for club operators to deliver a differentiated, member-centric Total Fitness Experience that fuses the best of in-club and personal fitness experiences for members. The app allows members to connect more holistically with their club, giving them control over classes, appointments, and account self-service, all while being coached in and outside the club on their physical, mental, nutritional, and inspirational needs—when and where it is convenient for them.

For example, members have shown a decided preference for tracking their strength and cardio sessions. These can be activated in the mobile app or from the club watch app. Habits and goal tracking are also very popular. Top habits completed include step counting and digital detox before bed. In addition, members have high engagement with storing their key tag to their Apple Wallet—booking classes nearly 50% of the time when they browse for one—and updating their profile and payment information.

Similar levels of member engagement are expected with appointment booking and meal tracking, both of which are coming soon.

Payment Technology: Jeremy Waxman, Vice President of Product Sales

Fintech is a disruptive force for the financial and other business verticals, including fitness, particularly as it relates to innovations in payment technology.

Among the key trends driving the evolution of the payment experience is Millennials as the largest “buyer” generation. They have a mobile-first mindset requiring easily accessible and quick payment methods, the same experience they have across all industries.

Optimizing payments include using mobile technology to positively impact collections. According to SMS Marketing Statistics 2021 For USA Businesses:

• 90% of customers prefer text messages over direct phone calls

• 48% of consumers prefer direct communication from brands via SMS text message

• SMS has a 19% CTR, compared to 4% emails, and 1% Facebook

• 95% of SMS are read and responded to within three minutes.

ABC is taking all of these trends into consideration in developing the long-term roadmap for IGNITE Commerce. There is a tremendous opportunity to innovate this category for gym owners and the launch of IGNITE Commerce is just a first step.

Actionable Insights: Priyanka Kalia, Product Management Director

Access to consolidated and accurate data—delivered on-demand—is everything for a business.

From the ability to identify and communicate with prospects and customers at the moment of intent to appropriate staffing based on time, day, and season, club owners need data to make faster, more intelligent business decisions. IGNITE Insights renders club data visually through easy-to-read dashboards. Among the most anticipated reports from the platform’s Analyze and Customize products include:

• Member Intelligence. View member tenure and spend by age group, gender, and membership type. These insights allow club operators to understand the spending patterns of members to drive upsells to similar customers and focus on prospects that fall into these categories.

• Business Performance. Proactively monitor club progress and performance against set targets with a 360-degree perspective on business operations. More importantly, get it on-demand rather than receiving and reacting to insights at the end of the month.

Insights like these can help operators quickly identify outliers and the root causes on which to act. Take, for example, a club with decreasing revenue. The data can immediately show whether it’s caused by a decrease in new membership sales or an increase in members canceling. A deeper dive can highlight the specific club or salesperson responsible for the change in revenues, expediting decision-making regarding the best possible action to take.

A consolidated view of operations surfaces insights that are otherwise not possible with analysis done in silos.

To learn more about how ABC Fitness Solutions can help your club maximize its performance across the operation, visit their website.