Managing bookings in a health club is an important part of operating a health club. The success of this area relates to the effectiveness of member onboarding an ultimately member retention.

We take a quick look at 5 tips for improving your health club’s bookings.

Embrace technology

If your health club is still using pen and paper booking sheets for managing your member’s bookings for fitness consultations, program demonstrations etc. its time to STOP. Not only is this the most time consuming way of managing health club bookings but it also leads to the most errors. There is nothing more annoying to a member to turn up to a health club appointment and be told they have been doubled booked. This is all to common when using a paper based booking system. Using an electronic system at front desk or within the health club is quick, easy and can have rules established that eliminate the possibility for error.

Based on availability

Ideally your electronic booking software should be based on trainer availability. This structure limits the chance of error because you can only book based on a trainer being available. Once that resource has been taken up, there is no way to make a booking. Having an option to filter a trainers availability is also key because certain members like to be booked with certain trainers. By filtering the availability of trainers you can then more easily book members in with their favourite trainers which leads to deeper relationships and improved retention rates.

SMS reminders

One of the biggest battles with onboarding new members is no show appointments. Not only does this waste the available time of a trainer it also kills momentum and can contribute to poor retention. You want to ensure your show rates are as high as possible, particular with onboarding initial appointments. One of the best solutions for reducing your health club’s appointment no shows is by using SMS reminders. A good health club booking system will allow you to send SMS reminders to confirmed appointments. This process should ideally be automated and not reliant on a staff member physically sending them each day. This one addition can improve show rates by 20-25 percent and lead to more effective member onboarding.

Outcomes reporting

Now that you have the right appointment software in place, being able to monitor the outcome of appointments is just as critical. Being able to easily report on outcomes is now a pre-requisite for managing health club appointments. This would include how many completed appointments there were in a given time period, how many no shows, how many cancellations etc. This allows a health club manager to review the onboarding and retention activity done. More importantly, reporting on outcomes should allow you to identify specific member’s who have missed certain key appointments to ensure they stay on track and not become a retention risk.

Integrated with retention functionality

Health club appointments tie in closely with member onboarding and retention processes. They are the face to face element that is the foundation of member support. Ideally a health club booking system should tie directly into retention based tasks and actions. This may be a follow up phone call 3 days after a specific appointment type or a follow up email after the completion of another type of appointment. These actions can be staff driven or automated communications like email or SMS. Without tying retention follow up activity into your there is no way a health club can properly managing their member retention plan.

Ability to book online

A final added tip is to look for a booking system that has online capabilities. This is the cherry on top if the previous points have all been covered. This allows members to follow a booking link to book a health club related appointment online. This can save a significant amount of time with booking existing members for appointment such as re-assessments and support sessions. An online booking link can be set up to be automatically sent out in an email after a certain time period. For example 60 days where they can then book their re-assessment without taking up time at front desk.

Would you like these functionalities for your health club?

You may wish to explore FitDesk’s booking system which is used by leading health clubs all throughout Australia.

For more information go to
http://www.greenedesk.com.au/gym-and-personal-training-bookings/