Jenny Hutchins

Selling sessions in blocks or courses has become increasingly popular due to its efficiency, revenue security and customer retention. Whether your business operates in line with term times or you want to offer standalone courses, in this blog we’ll cover 5 key considerations when it comes to managing your sessions in blocks or courses.

Are courses or blocks right for your customer?

As with most decisions in business, it’s important to start with an assessment of your customer or target customer. When reviewing whether a course/block of sessions is right for your customers it helps to consider a few headline questions:

• Do you assess your client’s progress frequently or set short-term milestones?
• Is there a scheduling reason that courses/blocks may suit your customer better than other models (i.e. pay-as-you-go/memberships)? For example, are you targeting parents that have more availability during school term time? Or kids where it’s often vice versa?
• Can your customers afford larger one-offs or twice over-term payments?
• Would a perceived lack of flexibility in scheduling put them off?
• What, if any, service would customers want when you’re not running courses?

When considering these questions, it is perhaps not surprising that many of our business customers who operate this model do so because:

• They focus on parents as a demographic, effectively dove-tailing with school terms
• The structure is particularly popular with Pilates and yoga modalities
• Other programs where clear end results over a period are a focus often use them, with many personal trainers offering either 1-2-1 or small group training courses/blocks.

Your decision-making process can, of course, also be supported by considering whether alternative business models would work better:

• In instances where courses/blocks make the most sense, it’s often the case that a membership model might be perceived by your customers as too long-term, or a waste of money (as regular commitments mean it wouldn’t get used for much of the year)
• Whilst pay-as-you-go can supplement course income, running that by itself may also be seen as lacking a desired certainty of attendance for customers and, indeed, income for you as the business owner

How to think about retention

A reason we often hear for using memberships over courses is that the former encourages greater retention, as it doesn’t require a regular review / re-purchase. With this, it’s assumed that by surfacing the buying decision regularly you can increase the chances for the customer to cancel/not re-buy.

In our experience, and based on the data we see, this is not a valid assumption and we believe it rests on some antiquated thinking. Whilst memberships are absolutely a great model for many businesses, having a recurring, ongoing, payment does not in itself directly increase customer retention. Customers are now, perhaps more so than ever, very aware of their outgoings and rights with regards to cancellation and just because a payment is automated does not mean that it is unknown or unnoticed.

In our experience, when businesses build a course-centric customer base the ongoing requirement to commit to the next course/block serves to increase retention. This is because it introduces a ‘fear of missing out’. This is to say that customers can be made aware that spaces are limited, the course is popular, and if they don’t recommit then they may lose their space with no guarantee they’ll get it back. This in turn increases their propensity to turn up to sessions and make use of their allocated space. It therefore actually serves to have a positive impact on accountability, far more so than with a membership where the available sessions are entirely optional/bookable.

In addition, you can increase the ‘fear of missing out’ by layering extra privileges on buyers of your past course/blocks. For instance, you could offer a priority purchasing window for your next course/block that’s only accessible to those that bought the previous one. This adds immediacy to the buying decision and, again, drives repeated attendance and accountability which will assist in retention (our industry-leading Priority Access feature can help here).

How to handle swaps and drop-ins?

One understandable gripe we repeatedly hear on our consults is the time it takes many to administer week-to-week swaps when courses/blocks are running. Illness, transport, childcare, and holidays are common themes that can cause customers to miss scheduled sessions and want to swap into different courses/blocks’ weekly sessions.

Whatever you decide to set for your cancellation policy for sessions, if you’re offering a swap/credit, the process needs to be easy and manageable.  Ensure you find a system, like Gymcatch, that can handle the customer cancelling and rebooking of their spot across courses/blocks without having to contact you.

With regards to drop-ins, these can be a nice way to both enable swaps, but also boost income if your course isn’t full. The main thing here is to ensure that you’re not opening up too many spots too early (i.e. too far before their start time). It’s important to remember that for every drop-in you sell, that reduces your total course capacity (until that session is complete) by one. So drop-ins at premium pricing are really best used either when they’re made available close to the start date of the session, or if there’s considerable excess capacity in the course.

What to do outside of course term time?

Where courses/blocks are run across school terms, we see two approaches to non-term time. One approach is to leave the calendar clear. This can give customers a break, and the flexibility to manage childcare without feeling like they’re missing out or guilt for non-attendance. This can also give the business owner some valuable time to refocus on pre-marketing the next courses/blocks and general admin that’s difficult to do during the period of delivery.  If you hire space and variable business costs, it can also mean that you don’t necessarily continue to incur in-term overheads.

The second option we see deployed successfully is for a more flexible set-up over the period. This might be where you allow only pay as you go, or class pack / bundle-bought sessions. This can be a great way to boost non-term time income and gives those that want to maintain their routine the ability to do so, all without in any way prejudicing those that can’t.

How to launch or migrate to a new booking system?

If your booking system doesn’t allow for all of the above, then there’s potentially a decision to be made to migrate to one that does. If you are moving from pen and paper, then planning a launch in between courses/blocks is no doubt a good strategy and can ensure everything kicks off with minimum disruption. If you’re not digitally confident look for 1-2-1 onboarding as part of the offer. At Gymcatch, we pride ourselves on ensuring that all customers receive the onboarding support they need. If you are migrating from a system that doesn’t provide these solutions, or that you’re over-paying for, then thinking about the following can be helpful:

• When are you going to switch? Again, in between courses/blocks can make a lot of sense, but equally the system may be able to import/add customers to existing courses/blocks, which may make for a gradual switchover while you’re still seeing customers regularly face-to-face to smooth the inevitable (if hopefully infrequent) questions that come up.
• Can you import customer data and create their accounts for them?
• Is it easy for customers to claim their accounts?

If you would like to speak about the above and discuss your online booking software needs, then please book a free consultation here or if you’d like to give Gymcatch a go for free for 1 month, you can get started here.

Whether you’re just starting your fitness business or have been up and running for some time, we can all agree that we not only want life, but also our business to feel as stress free as possible. We all know running a business is hard work, but that’s not to say there aren’t opportunities to work smarter, not harder! 

In this blog we discuss shortcuts to success to consider that can help in saving time, money, and ultimately some of that business-owner stress as you start or return to your business after the Summer holidays.

Automate

I’m sure you expected this shortcut, especially from the point of view of a booking and management software company, but ultimately if you can save time and stress by automating processes you’ve been doing manually in your business at a lower price than hiring a team member to do them, then it’s a no brainer! Whether it’s securing payment on booking so that you don’t have to chase customers, automating your cancellation policy so that you don’t have to have those awkward conversations or simply collecting important information from customers the first time they book with you. However you want to automate your business, it can offer a great time and cost saving – especially if you choose a system that provides value for what you need rather than overpaying for something that works for the larger companies. 

Outsource

In an ideal world, as fitness professionals, we’d be able to automate almost all processes in our business (apart from teaching!), but there are some aspects that require human involvement. For example, with social media, you could bulk schedule your content as doing so one-by-one, and at times for optimal engagement, but this can be time consuming and easy to forget. This is where you may choose to outsource this work to a social media expert to save you time and allow you to keep growing your business whilst you focus on your zone of genius; bringing exercise to your community.

Insure

We can often overlook the legal side of things when it comes to gaining success in our businesses, but having the correct insurance in place is not only a legal requirement, but can also save us if difficult situations arise. Ensuring that you have the correct insurance in place and are meeting your insurance’s requirements will protect both you and your customers and allow you to run your business confidently knowing that if anything does come up, it can be dealt with quickly, easily and with as little disruption as possible.

Invest

It’s easy to think about investment in terms of location, premises and equipment, but more important is investing in yourself and your continued education. All too often we can undertake our initial qualifications in order to start becoming a fitness teacher and then not continue our education since we’re busy being in our business. This helps with not only staying on top of the latest fitness trends but also to ensure you can cater for an ever evolving client base. 

Rest

When you’re self-employed it can be all too easy to work those 12+ hour days, doing admin on a Sunday and having no downtime. With many business owners being on the constant cusp of burnout, it’s so important to take the time to actually rest and switch off. Registered psychotherapist Natacha Duke, MA, RP says that “it can take anywhere from a few months to a few years” to recover from burnout and although everyone’s recovery from burnout will differ from the others, it’s safe to say that this is something that all business owners want to avoid! 

Taking shortcuts in your business can help you to save time, reduce stress and focus on your zone of genius, allowing you to rest as much as you can to avoid the dreaded burnout and ultimately make your fitness business as successful as possible!

If you’re wanting to automate your fitness business, you can find more information on Gymcatch’s great value fitness and wellness booking and management software here. Get in contact to book a demo with one of the team or start your free trial.

We’ve all been there before, receiving that last minute message of “I’m sorry, I won’t be able to make it today” be it at 6am or 6pm, it can be frustrating. 

Cancellations can not only result in a loss in revenue, but also a poor level of communication between yourself and your customers which is one of the most important aspects of customer service. 

A clear cancellation policy can provide a fitness provider with the power to confidently run their sessions knowing that both themselves and their customers are protected.

Within this blog we will discuss aspects of a cancellation policy that you may want to consider when creating your own.

What should you consider when writing your cancellation policy:

• Contact information
• Cancellation without penalty 
• Timeframe 
• Cash or credit refund
• Consequences 
• Agreement 

Contact information

It’s always a good idea to start any cancellation policy with your contact details so that you are making it as easy as possible for your customers to reach out to you if they do need to cancel a session. It is within this section that you can specify whether you would like them to contact you directly or cancel their session manually on your booking system.

Cancellation without penalty

Are you going to allow customers to receive a cash or credit refund if they provide you sufficient notice of cancellation? Some businesses do not offer refunds at all (this is more typical with block bookings of a recurring session) where others provide a refund no matter when a customer cancels. Most businesses fall somewhere in between these two, but we appreciate that every business model is different so this is an important aspect to consider.

Timeframe

If you’ve decided to offer a refund when a customer provides sufficient notice of cancellation, then you will need to decide on a suitable time frame for how long before the session starts a customer can cancel and still receive a refund. The main thing that you need to consider when deciding on your cancellation period is allowing enough time to maximise your chances of selling the space that your customer is cancelling. If your sessions are frequently fully booked with a waitlist full of customers, then you can afford to have a shorter notice period, whereas if your sessions are harder to fill, then perhaps a longer notice period would be better suited.

Cash or credit refund

Some fitness providers like to offer their customers a full cash refund if they cancel in line with their policy, however if you’d rather keep the money in the business, then a refund credit may be the route to go down. Using a booking software like Gymcatch can help you with this automated issuing of a refund credit if a customer cancels in line with your policy, freeing up more of your time to do what you love!

Consequences

If you’ve decided to issue a refund when a customer cancels in line with your policy, then it’s important to decide what the consequence is if they don’t cancel with enough notice. Most fitness providers will simply not offer a refund when a customer’s cancellation is actioned outside of this notice period, however those who offer full cash refunds upon a successful cancellation, may consider offering a 50% cash refund as a consequence. 

Agreement

Once you’ve written your cancellation policy, the next step is to make it easy for customers to agree to it. Whether that is ticking a checkbox or signing your cancellation policy, making sure that your customer has read and understood your policy will help to avoid misunderstandings since they’re fully aware of how your business operates.

A cancellation policy can be presented to the customer both manually or automated through a booking and management software. With Gymcatch you can automatically present customers with your cancellation policy the first time they book with you without having to lift a finger, helping you to minimise the number of cancellations. 

Our online booking software and management system lets you set your cancellation policy to suit your business needs. You can choose to automatically issue customers with a credit that lets them book a replacement class if they provide you with enough notice and although cancellations are inevitable, when this happens, our waitlist feature allows you to fill up the cancelled space fast with no added admin time!

Social media has become ever more prevalent over the last 20 years. Whether you solely use Facebook or have gone on to the likes of Instagram or the increasingly popular Tiktok, we can all agree that social media plays a big role in our everyday lives and an even bigger one for fitness business marketing. 

When used correctly, social media can be one of the most powerful ways to market your business due to having access to an unlimited audience at no extra expense. 

Whether you’re creating a community on a Facebook group or want to show more authenticity and creativity over on Instagram or Tiktok, having a social media marketing strategy will help to convey your message and what you offer clearly and successfully, making advertising your business on social media easy, fun and a no brainer!

In this blog post we look at the ways you can create a successful marketing strategy for your fitness business during this social media age. 

When planning your social media content, it’s important to consider the 5 pillars of social media marketing:

• Education 
• Personal 
• Entertain
• Social proof
• Sales

Education

Offering value driven content on any social media channel will set you apart from the rest and your audience will see you as the expert in your field. Customers often purchase and invest in fitness providers since they want to learn more about health and fitness from a professional so that they can apply this to their everyday lives. At the end of the day a fitness professional’s main job is to teach, so if you’re able to give your audience a taste for what you could possibly teach them, it will keep them coming back for more!

Personal 

Sharing your personal story on social media is always a great way to connect to your audience and potential new customers. We all love seeing a personal transformation, but what will create that deeper connection is showing your audience that you’re not only human, but have been exactly where they are right now. You understand how they’re feeling and their pain points and struggles which will help them to feel seen and understood by you and in turn build that possible new relationship and trust between you two. 

Entertain

One of social media’s main purposes is to entertain us and provide us with that quick dopamine hit. If you’ve been on social media for a while, you’ll notice that your algorithm can quickly change based on what content you’re regularly consuming, so as a fitness professional it’s so important to include an element of entertainment within your social media marketing so that you can keep your audience engaged and increase those touch point chances. 

Social proof

Providing your audience and potential new customers with evidence of what you can offer them will make you more credible and be seen as an expert to them. Whether that is testimonials, before and afters or showing behind the scenes elements of a day in your life as a fitness provider, this will help tap into the basic human instinct to follow the actions of others, building trust, credibility and reducing barriers to making that first purchase from you. 

Sales 

We’ve educated, shared, entertained and provided evidence, now we can’t forget to tell our audience how they can actually purchase from us. It can sometimes feel a bit ‘hard sales’ telling potential customers how they can work with you, but given it takes on average eight touchpoints (this number can vary depending on the industry) before a customer buys from you, it’s important to make this part as easy as possible for them.  

Once you’ve mastered your social media marketing pillars it’s time to create a visibility plan. Remember to take into consideration what social media channels your target audience are on, possibly investing in a scheduling software so that you can bulk create and schedule content and being realistic with how much available time you have to invest in your social media marketing. 

You can find more information on Gymcatch’s fitness and wellness booking and management software here. Get in contact to book a demo with one of the team or start your free trial.

Streamline your personal training bookings with our intuitive class booking and management software. 

Whether you offer 1:1, 2:1 or small group personal training sessions, Gymcatch ensures a hassle-free experience so that you can say goodbye to the complexities of manual systems and enjoy a simple and streamlined approach to managing schedules, bookings, payments and client interactions, enabling you to do more of what you love!

Over and above everything you’d expect to manage booking and payments, our PT focused features include:

Control visibility of your sessions 

Visibility management on Gymcatch is a great feature for personal trainers, enabling you to set your ‘open sessions’ as public and those for regular clients as private, ensuring you can both take new bookings and ensure clients’ regular spots are protected.  

You also have an automated waitlist feature that is included within our base plan to ensure that, no matter the size of your personal training sessions, you’re giving yourself the best chance to fill the space. 

Run business your way 

Personal trainers need the best of both worlds; a booking system that takes care of automation and recurring clients, whilst also the flexibility to give existing clients the option to book more or new slots. 

We give clients and Admins full control over packages and credit booking, ensuring you can let those that want to book and pay by themselves the freedom to do so, whilst also managing, or part-managing clients that don’t want that responsibility or small admin.

Easily onboard and upsell to customers 

Running a goal orientated course of personal training sessions is a great way to get new starters onboard or even upsell to existing customers. On Gymcatch you can easily create a course for a set number of sessions over a specified period of time and when either you or your customers book onto this course, they’ll automatically be booked onto all of the sessions within it. Saving both yourself and your customers time!

Quickly and tidily schedule your availability 

As a busy personal trainer you’re going to have a lot of identical sessions within your schedule showing your availability, whether that’s to book in with yourself or other trainers at your gym. Not only can you easily create a recurring series of sessions for these availability slots, but you can even use our consolidated sessions feature to group identical sessions each day for a tidier view on your schedule.

Experience the ease and efficiency of our personal training booking software, where managing your sessions becomes as fun as teaching them! Simplify your workflow, enhance your customer’s experiences and streamline your processes so that your business can create a community where accessing exercise is easy and enjoyable.

If you’re wanting to streamline your personal training business, then feel free to book a call with one of the team here.