There is unprecedented growth coming into the fitness industry as more and more people start valuing health and wellness. As growth comes to the industry, gyms must prepare by building tools that will streamline operations so they can serve clients better and retain them for a very long time.
The fitness industry is expected to grow by 33.10% every year until 2028. And while growth is always good news, businesses in this industry should be ready if they want to sustain the momentum.
To prepare for the challenges in fitness business management, gyms should start using club and membership management software. In this article, we look at what these solutions provide and what benefits they’ll bring to gyms if integrated into their websites.
What Are Club and Membership Management Software?
Club and membership management software are software solutions designed for clubs, schools, event companies, and fitness businesses. They help streamline and automate various aspects of managing a membership-based organization.
15% of businesses that use club and membership management software are gyms and fitness centers and for good reason. They provide all kinds of features and capabilities that improve operations across the board. Some common features of these software solutions include:
- Membership Management — The best membership management software allows you to manage member profiles, including personal information, contact details, membership types, and renewal dates. It helps track member attendance, and membership status and facilitates member communications.
- Online Member Registration — Using membership management software for your gym enables prospective members to sign up for memberships online. These tools let new members and clients fill out forms through your website. This streamlines the registration process and eliminates the need for manual data entry.
- Automated Payments — After signing up, the software can also provide tools to manage and process member payments. It supports recurring billing for membership fees, tracks payment history, and offers secure payment processing options.
- Class and Event Scheduling — These solutions allow you to create and manage class schedules, book appointments, and reserve spots for classes or events. Members can view and sign up for classes online, and the system can handle waitlists and cancellations.
- Communication Tools — Club and membership management software often come with some form of communication feature to help keep clients and gyms connected. Some communication channels include email notifications, newsletters, and messaging capabilities. These tools facilitate member engagement, event announcements, and general communications.
Benefits of Integrating Membership Software to Your Website
Now that you know what club and membership management software can do, you’re probably wondering how you can benefit from integrating it with your website.
Integrating club and membership management software with your gym’s website can bring several benefits. Here are some key advantages:
1. Better Member Experience
Integrating the software with your website provides your members with a seamless and unified experience. With such a system, your clients will be able to easily access information, register, make payments, and manage their memberships online. This enhanced member experience can improve user satisfaction and increase your client retention rates.
2. Capture New Clients Online
The digital frontier has expanded every business’s ability to gain new clientele. Club membership tools allow your gym or fitness center to tap into that growing trend. While a website is a great way to drive traffic and give information, a club and memeberhsip management software gives you a way to turn visitors into clients by providing a way to sign up on the spot instead of going to your location to start the process there.
By integrating the software with your website, you can reach prospective members who can then conveniently sign up for memberships online. This will save time for both the member and your staff and even increase signup rates.
3. Automate Your Payments and Accounting
After clients sign up online, they’ll likely want to have a way to pay online so they can just show up at the center and start their fitness journey. Integrating a membership management app with your website enables automated payment processing.
Members can securely make payments online, and the system can handle recurring billing for memberships or other services. You can also integrate this with your accounting software. What is accounting software and why should you connect it with your membership system?
These are tools that help you manage your cashflow and company finances so your business remains financially healthy. Integrating this into your booking system will automate revenue tracking so you can see how well your gym or fitness center is doing from a financial standpoint. A direct integration gives you access to data analytics and insights to help make better business decisions, which leads to the next benefit.
4. Make Data-driven Decisions
A software integration between your membership software and website will centralize member sign-up data so you can manage and analyze signup trends. That way, you can review gym signups over a period of time and look for ways to improve those numbers.
Moreover, you can also track post-signup membership statistics like attendance, completion rates, membership lifetime, and other relevant metrics. This data-driven approach helps you find avenues and ways to improve your services.
5. Enhance Communication
Communicating with your gym members is crucial in maintaining their membership with you. This will help improve your gym’s profitability and give you more time to journey with your clients so you can have a bigger impact on their fitness journey.
Communicating more effectively with your members also helps you upsell new programs and services to increase your average revenue per customer. You can send automated emails for membership renewals, special promotions, class schedules, and other updates.
6. Provide Member Self-Service
Having a website to membership management software integration for your gym or fitness business also empowers your members with self-service capabilities. When you have this, your clients can update their personal information, manage their class schedules, and access personalized workout plans through the website.
Implementing something like this in your business improves member satisfaction, giving them a reason to stay loyal to your company. It also reduces the workload for your staff because it transfers many administrative tasks from your internal team to your clients.
7. Efficient Staff Operations
Integrating the software with your website allows your staff to access membership data, track attendance, and manage schedules more efficiently. This means that they will be able to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on providing better customer service.
For instance, your team now has a more efficient way member’s account information through a membership system. They can see if they have attended a recent class, or check their schedule for upcoming events. This will allow them to provide your members with a more personalized and responsive experience.
8. Marketing and Promotions
Creating a website-to-membership portal integration will also allow your business to leverage your website for many marketing initiatives. You can run online promotions, offer discounts, or create referral programs to attract new members.
The software can help you track and analyze the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. This way, you can attract more members and make your gym more profitable.
9. Scalability and Growth
An integrated online membership system can be a valuable tool for any gym that is looking to grow and succeed. An integrated online membership system can help your gym scale and accommodate growth without sacrificing efficiency.
A membership management system gives you a way to handle increasing members, classes, and services by automating many of the tasks involved in managing a gym. This includes tasks such as processing payments, tracking attendance, and scheduling classes. By automating these tasks, the system can free up your staff to focus on other aspects of running your gym, such as providing excellent customer service.
More Room for Growth
When all has been said and done, integrating club and membership management software with your gym’s website has a world of benefits that will help streamline your gym or fitness center. We’ve only discussed a few of the most compelling and immediate ones.
With less administrative work and more room for growth, your business can grow to the next lever. If you want to improve your gym’s operations, integrating club and membership management software with your website is a great place to start.