Seven digital solutions that provide more control over your fitness club

When you own a fitness club or manage one, you have many responsibilities, and you must make many decisions daily about everything concerning your business. This sounds familiar, doesn't it?

One of our clients' main dissatisfactions when we first meet them is that they don't have enough control over all the operations, particularly those performed at the reception desk.

More precisely, control over sales and the way members enter the club. That is because sometimes individuals would take advantage of the fact that the staff was busy with other members and enter the gym without a valid membership.

At the same time, the staff at the reception desk has so much work that they are prone to make mistakes that could have severe consequences for the entire business. For instance, they would fill in forms erroneously or forget to add an item to the cash register.

There is a fine line between overseeing your team and becoming a guardian constantly supervising it. I'm confident that your employees would not love having you or other managers constantly looking over their shoulders and checking everything they do.

But that doesn't mean you should not be aware of all the goings-on in your club. At the end of the day, it's your business and source of income, so it's crucial to know everything about it.

Therefore, if you don't want to be present at your gym non-stop and make your team feel like you don't trust it, you can use various digital solutions that will help you gain control over the business without hindering the activity of your staff.

I assume I don't have to explain why you cannot manage a proper fitness club with tables in Excel. However, management software is essential for any business, even more so for a gym.

There are multiple digital solutions integrated with management software that can help you maintain control over your gym from a distance.

Cash register integration

This is one of the simplest integration any management and retail software can have. But it is also one of the most important for any business.

Depending on local legislation, each sale made by your business must be entered into records for tax purposes, one way or another. That means you have to issue a fiscal receipt for every sale you make.

With a cash register integration, your staff doesn't have to enter the amount in the cash register. Instead, they can simply sell memberships, services, or items from the management software, and the cash register issues the receipt automatically. And your employees don't have to waste time entering the amount manually.

This way, you know for sure that all sales are registered for tax purposes and the amounts are correct.

Another benefit of this integration is a faster sales process for any item or service at the front desk. This will undoubtedly be a benefit for both your staff and clients.

Sell memberships and services online

If you want to streamline your sales process even more, you can implement an online sales system so that your members can purchase memberships on their own.

That way, you can reduce even more the work volume of your team and minimize the possibility of human error.

Services purchased online are entered into tax records automatically, and members receive an invoice as soon as the payment is processed successfully. Meanwhile, members can choose the membership they want and enter their personal information.

Members can purchase memberships and services whenever they want with such a system, even outside your club's working hours.

Read more about: 5 steps to starting selling memberships online at your gym (and how to skip over them)

Various permission groups in your management software

No matter how many buttons and features your management software has, it is crucial that not all your employees have access to all the information available there. It's not necessarily about trust, but more because you are sure no unauthorized employee changes data by mistake.

Let me give you an example. Let's say you have 2 clubs that use the same management platform with a shared database. The staff at the reception desk should not have access to all the information about the club they are not working at. Otherwise, surely, you'll have at least one employee that made a change on the wrong club or sold a membership to the wrong member by mistake.

However, if each team member has access only to the features and sections they need for their work, the chances of human error will decrease dramatically. At the same time, they won't get confused by many sections and buttons, which are mostly of no use to them..

A detailed history of all operations

How do you react when you find out that someone in your team made a mistake, but you don't know who? Do you confront your entire team and force the person responsible to admit their mistake? Do you say nothing and hope it won't happen again? Do you give a warning to your entire team?

Well, If you have a detailed history of all the operations performed by each team member, all these issues can be solved a lot easier. That is because you'll know immediately who made a mistake and why. Then you can talk to them in private and correct it without creating tension between your employees.

At the same time, you will have the opportunity to help that employee learn and understand the parts of their activity they have questions about. Most of the mistakes performed by employees are because they don't know how to use the software or don't know what to do in certain situations. So a mistake can be a great learning opportunity.

Member profiles with photos

The easiest way to control who enters your gym and avoid fraud is by having the photo of each active member.

More precisely, you should have a detailed profile, including the photo of each member with an active membership. Then, when they check-in at the front desk, your staff can easily identify them and confirm their identity. All this without requesting any form of ID.

Otherwise, some members can easily "lend" their membership to other friends and relatives, and you won't be able to spot that. But, having their profile photo, they won't be able to do that at all.

Access control systems

If you want to control the access to your club even more, then your best solution is an access control system.

Depending on the system you choose, the member will check in at the reception desk or not, then they will have to go through a turnstile or a speed gate where they must scan their member card. That can be an actual card or a QR code in an app.

With this system, you will avoid situations where individuals without membership enter the gym when your staff is busy with someone else.

At the same time, an access control system will make members feel safer, knowing that no unauthorized people will be able to enter the gym, particularly the locker room where they leave their belongings.

Detailed reports in real-time

If you want to know exactly what's going on in your gym, whether you are there or not, you will need a series of reports.

I know nobody likes to spend hours staring at Excel files, these reports are crucial, and without them, you can't know how your business is doing. Even if you are there all the time. Only with the help of these reports you can make decisions based on data and not suppositions.

It's equally important to have access to all the data in real-time, so you don't have to wait until the next day or some other time frame for you to get the answers you need.

Get reports on the club's sales, check-ins, class bookings, attendances, or PT sessions. Only then you will be able to calculate the retention rate, after how many months members drop out, and the best-selling products, most popular classes, or trainers.

These reports should give you all the answers about your fitness club. Or, you'll have to base your most important decision on your and your team's guesswork, which is not always reliable.

Actual numbers don't lie, and they will show you the exact status of your business and its growth potential.