One of the most important things for a successful fitness coach or business owner is having a personal training CRM. With all the personal training software available today, a CRM platform is more than just client management. It’s a way to improve the efficiency with how you handle a prospective client, nurture them through acquisition, and then hold them accountable so they can hit their fitness goals. Just as critical is how you can use the software to manage a personal training team, developing them into great fitness coaches while also securing your clientele base.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to overlook the importance of a CRM platform, especially if you’re a new personal trainer making the transition to running your own business or opening a fitness studio. The short answer is, the faster you can use technology to manage client interactions and progress, the faster you can scale your business. And, if you’ve got the right personal training CRM, you can further grow by using it to manage your fitness coaches you have working for you.
Here, we’ll simplify and explore:
- What is a CRM?
- Why is it important in the fitness industry?
- What are the critical features you should look for?
What Is A CRM?
CRM stands for customer relationship management. This type of technology is critical for any business who is customer-centric and values client relationships. These types of companies realize success is a result of the ability to develop good interpersonal relationships that keep customers returning for the service or product. Similarly, any company that has a complex sales cycle can also benefit from a CRM platform. In these instances, a CRM will track where a lead is in the buyer’s journey and automate interactions or alert customer support and sales team for valuable outreach needs.
To summarize, A CRM does the following:
- Maintains a client profile
- Manages the process from lead to client or customer
- Serves as a communication platform to provide valuable customer support
- Manages other areas of the business such as payment and contract terms
Why Is A CRM Important In The Fitness Industry
Customer relationship management is critical in the personal training world for three primary reasons. The first is removing the painstaking customer acquisition process. The second is to manage client relationships and communications– one of the most critical parts of being a personal trainer. And the third is maintaining team and trainer oversight as a gym owner. We’ll explore all three here.
Easing The Client Acquisition Process
The personal trainer dream is to help others with their health and wellness, not to do sales and follow up. In fact, when an aspiring personal trainer starts working, they’re often disillusioned by the fact that gyms don’t typically simply hand over clients who are willing to pay. Instead, it’s common for a new fitness professional to have to sift through old leads, find new prospects, and create compelling reasons why the person should become a paying client.
A personal training software that has a good CRM can help alleviate this process. It digitally stores lead information including contact information and personal fitness goal aspirations. Then, it automates the communications coming from the health club and, usually, the personal trainer. And, if the communication is unique, rather than automated, it can alert the coaches that it’s time to follow up. Email, SMS text messaging, and even video communications can all go through a good CRM.
The best fitness coaches are great at motivation and accountability. It’s part of their natural interactions. And, by skill, they assess a client and then create the best workout plan possible. Therefore, the client acquisition process should be as easy as possible for a trainer, it allows them to focus on motivation rather than sales and lead tracking.
Client Communication Management
A great personal trainer doesn’t just shine during a client training session. Instead, the best fitness coaches create valuable client relationships and remain top of mind with the client. Therefore, regular and meaningful communication is key for a client (and ultimately a fitness business) to be successful. There are four types of client communications a personal trainer or fitness studio owner should use. Most people using this type of software will only make use of follow up and appointment reminder communications. However, using the platform to serve all four will create the best coaching experience possible.
- Follow Up And General Reminders: This can include a reminder of an upcoming training session or payment notification. It can also include general information like changes in health club hours or services.
- Education: This should include tips and tricks that will help clients be successful on their fitness journey. It can come in the form of email newsletters, SMS text messaging, calls and more. For example, a trainer can offer nutrition tips like what a portion size of lean protein looks like. Or, they can provide recommendations for what they should focus on during an upcoming workout.
- Motivation: A valuable role that a personal trainer serves is that of a motivational coach. Even something as simple as “All progress happens outside your comfort zone” can help push a client just a little more. Therefore, using a CRM to send mass motivational communications is great for fitness.
- Accountability: One of the primary reasons why a client seeks a trainer in the first place is for accountability. They need someone to make sure they show up to personal training sessions, stick to their nutrition plan, and prioritize their health and wellness. Using a CRM for client communications can support client accountability. For example, send a message like “Hey, I haven’t heard from you in a while. Is everything okay?” or “Don’t forget to log your foods today” are just a couple examples of how to add communication accountability to the customer experience.
Using a CRM for these reasons is helpful in traditional big box gyms. But, some of this communication comes in when the member goes into the gym to work out on their own. Private fitness studios or a “by appointment only” fitness club rely on external communication even more. Since the client won’t have social influence except when attending personal training sessions, creating a customer relationship becomes even more important. And, in the world of online personal training, it’s critical to sustain the success of your business.
Maintaining Coaching Team Oversight
Gym owners are usually former personal trainers themselves. They built a business from the success they saw coaching clients to results. However, these new business owners quickly realize their business will only be as effective as the personal training team working for them. While coaching individuality is essential, fitness clients also must have a standardized, valuable relationship. Therefore, the last element of a personal training CRM is the ability to maintain oversight with the fitness coaching team.
- Standardize Client Expectations: Through the use of a CRM, gym owners can quickly identify clients who aren’t receiving the same intentional communications as others. Remember, it’s not just about oversight. It’s about the entire client experience, including educational, motivational, and accountability oriented communications. With Naamly, none of your client texts will fall through the cracks, our smart communication tracks messages that require your attention.
- Professionalism Of Communications: When all client – trainer communications go through one CRM platform, it’s easy to keep a watchful eye on the professionalism. A gym owner can make sure the interactions are appropriate, within boundaries, and related to client success.
- Client Retention: It’s no secret that fitness coaches develop strong relationships with their clients. This happens to an extent where the client will follow the trainer to a new place of business (resulting in attrition). And, in even worse cases, sometimes a personal trainer intentionally builds a clientele base just so they can move on and start their own business. When all communication goes through the system, the client develops a relationship with the fitness studio- not just one trainer. It also helps to protect the security of client information. Collectively, this allows the gym owner to reduce the likelihood that a trainer steals a client. Features in Naamly allow you to effortlessly oversee every interaction between your team and your clients, so they provide the same great care and experience that you would yourself.
CRM Features To Look For
Regardless of whether you’re a new personal trainer trying to develop business or a successful gym owner, there are a few key features you should be looking for in a personal training CRM. Make sure the software you’re looking for has these:
- Lead Nurture Automation: This includes automatic communications and notifications for when it’s time to take the next step in converting a lead to a paying client.
- In Platform Communication Variety: People like to connect in different ways. Therefore, look for a software that offers in-platform communication variety including text messaging, phone calls, email, and video messaging.
- Client Progress Tracking: You’ll want to keep everything in one place. Rather than relying on spreadsheets or a separate app, look for a personal training software that allows you to include a client’s fitness goals and progress.
- Nutrition Plan Oversight: Even if you don’t offer nutrition services, you can’t get away from the importance food plays in fitness. Part of being a great personal trainer is accountability to general nutrition guidelines. Look for a feature that allows you to check in on the client’s nutrition tracking and habits to help hold them accountable.
- Fitness Coaching Team Management: Make sure you have oversight into what your personal trainers are doing, including using the software to its fullest capabilities. This will help you maintain quality control over personal training services, retain clients, and even develop personal trainers in an objective, data – oriented way.
Learn more about Naamly today! You’ll see how valuable the communication management feature alone is!
Want to see it in action? Schedule a Naamly demo to see how it can work in YOUR fitness business.