Beta testing for mobile-friendly and independent Scheduling Reimagined is underway. Learn more about the streamlined user interface and intuitive experience that simplify days for you and your staff.

Some Enhancements Include:
– Streamline interactions for instructors to book, rebook and log off
– Simplify navigation and workflows by leaving scheduling open in its own tab
– Customize your display with day, week, and list views
– Easily adjust instructor availability
– Minimize check-in time with bulk class updates, e.g. recording all “present” or “no-shows,” at one time

Learn more about the streamlined user interface and intuitive experience that simplify operations for you and your staff. Look for a full release at the end of September 2022!

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Discover the best in fitness technology and profitably grow your business to your ultimate goals, whatever stage you’re in right now.

From start-up to scale-up to enterprise-level growth, whatever your business stage, Clubessential Holdings fitness technology and services create the foundation you need for success and profitability. With unmatched global experience and breadth of offerings, our solutions are made by and for fitness business owners with an unwavering focus on delivering an exceptional experience.

With 9,150 fitness businesses, over 350 employees, 13 million members, 10 million app downloads, and used in over 17 countries, the Clubessential Holdings Fitness technology and services has everything you need to build your business.

Discover the best in fitness technology and profitably grow your business. Download an infographic to see what’s right for you.

The leading full-suite provider in-studio fitness and wellness club management, ClubReady is designed to scale your business from the start.

“I love ClubReady. It’s turned into my lifeline for everything. The software is amazing. The reporting tools have helped me a lot just as a business owner, looking at it from a different lens than maybe my GM does.”  – Irina Kapetanakis, Club Owner, Rumble Boxing

The world’s most strategic fitness companies rely on Exerp for the foundation of their business, including 40% of the biggest operators in Europe.

“Exerp brings an advantage in reducing TCO given the operational efficiencies they deliver, coupled with the fact they do not add on transaction fees within their license cost model.” – Jeff Zwiefel, Executive VP and COO, LifeTime

A pioneer in mobile marketing, myFitApp is an open, flexible, independent, and digital marketing platform for the fitness industry.

“The App is simple to use, and effective. The @home solution is an invaluable tool to help us stay connected to our members. We don’t know how a club could operate without the features offered by myFitApp!” – Kevin Doyle, Club Manager, Westpark Fitness

TAC Software provides the spa, fitness, and thermal bath industries with membership, and access control software to enhance member experiences and streamline operations.

“We have been working with TAC for more than 10 years and we still believe that we have chosen the right program and the right company. The reporting of this system is sensationally detailed and enables both the highest quality for the guest and maximum competence in controlling.” – Marc Traubel, Hubertus Alpine Lodge & Spa

With a global mission across eight brands – Clubessential, ClubReady, Exerp, foreUP, Innovatise, PrestoSports, TAC, and Vermont Systems – Clubessential Holdings offers forward-thinking technology and services which help more than 10,000 customers attract, engage, and retain members and fans for life.

Which solution is right for you? Find out in this infographic.

Canceled flights. Shorter hours. Slower service – if the place is even open. Empty shelves. Forced into self-serve lanes and self-help channels everywhere. The view across industries is maddeningly repetitive: we’re often paying more and getting less. And people are tired of it.

Late in 2021 the term “skimpflation” appeared to describe how businesses and service providers everywhere have been cutting many expected services and carved operations out of their comfort zone to a bare-bones existence. There are many directions to point the blame, but whether you choose to call it the great resignation or the great assessment, there’s no doubt that workers leaving their jobs in droves had an impact.

Hopefully, that’s not the sparse experience members have when they come to your club, but it will take a change in the way you approach many things to keep that from becoming reality. Across the street, the restaurant industry now employs one million fewer workers than in 2019. That’s just one industry, but the result is that competition for service workers is fierce while customers still want and expect a great experience. Delivering future experiences that wow your members will take creativity. Following are three areas for fitness clubs to focus.

The fact of the matter is employees have options. As Shep Hyken wrote in Forbes, “An employee experience that creates loyalty is every bit as important as a customer experience that creates customer loyalty.” Good employees don’t leave for money alone. They want to be empowered to do their job, improve, and feel appreciated. Word gets around about bad experiences.

What you can do:

• Recognize your employees. Take the extra step to communicate with them in meaningful ways that show you value them.
• Give them the tools they need to focus more on their core responsibilities. If there are administrative and other tedious tasks that you can automate or lift from their plate, take advantage of them.
• Compensation is always top of mind. The fact is that hourly wages are rising, but don’t limit your options to just cash. Consider additional education opportunities, prime time slots, or other benefits that can impact how employees feel.

No one in the club industry would choose skimpflation as an operating strategy – it’s completely against our idea of service. But that fact is that staffing will continue to be an issue. That’s where a variety of technology can play a critical role. Technology empowers your staff to do more with fewer resources, quicker, and with less effort.

What you can do:

• Your members are mobile – use mobile technology to ensure you can connect with them, wherever they are.
• Digital payments – Remove friction in the transaction process for both members and staff – and collect more data in the process
• Track Performance – Results matter. Performance tech enables easy tracking of results by members and staff as well as the ability to offer challenges instantly and over time that build member engagement.

More than 10 years ago every Starbucks around the world knew their loyal customers’ names the minute they walked through the door. Clubs have to do better than that today. Proactive communications in a member’s preferred channel are key, at the club and anywhere. Knowing preferences is one thing, anticipating other things might interest them another.

What you can do: 

• A well-timed SMS message reaching out with a special invite or email about an upcoming event of personal interest to the member can do wonders.
• Recognize their life events and fitness milestones both in communications and in person.
• What are the next steps for members and staff? Planning ahead for your members’ fitness journey keeps them engaged, avoids plateaus, and builds your business bonds. Looking ahead for your staff gives them motivation and their own goals to aim for.

Innovative fitness clubs and boutiques will continue to deliver outstanding experiences across the board despite the challenges they face. The key will be to focus and concentrate their associates where they have the most impact and use technology where appropriate to fill the gaps and empower staff to accelerate member experiences.

Has the role of technology changed, or just been accelerated? There’s been plenty of discussion on the increasing role of technology during the pandemic. Many brands have been applauded for their ability to quickly implement solutions that serve their customers and offer extended value.

But I’ve struggled with this narrative. Often these stories are positioned as ‘innovations’ when in reality the technology existed for a long time and the brand’s use of it was catalyzed by the pandemic. Or better yet, the brand used the technology all along but now it’s viewed as a competitive differentiator. Look at Domino’s PULSE system. They invested in that technology to improve the customer experience and streamline their supply chain back in 2001. Domino’s continued to invest in enhancing the solution as the expectations around customer experience evolved.

One term tossed around a lot is ‘omnichannel’. Fitness studios are recognizing the need to present whenever their members want, on whatever channel those members prefer. This further complicates the need to create and send highly personalized communications across all channels and target and segment dynamically according to the audience. Studios must understand how to use social, profile and website data to trigger automated communications for immediate engagement with potential as well as existing members. Businesses must design and deliver 1:1 communications in order to effectively engage potential customers.

When we look at the fitness industry we see a similar trend. Websites and email tools, reservation systems and mobile POS solutions, and SMS and mobile app channels have been around for many years. When studios were impacted by the pandemic, businesses with those tools already in place found themselves in an envied position, while others quickly implemented the systems required for improved engagement. It was also exciting to see studios identify new uses for these tools in order to manage capacity restrictions and contact tracing.

If we dive deeper into the fitness studio industry we see these same trends play out across marketing and communications. Many studios have extended the use of mobile apps, email marketing, SMS, and virtual fitness class systems. Staff can communicate with current and prospective members utilizing digital body language to ensure the context of the communications match the recipients’ state of mind. With tools like email marketing and SMS, virtual communication can be more frequent, consistent, and relevant. These same tools can also be used for communicating among staff. Studios can also ensure that all staff are clear on procedures and adjusted operations by sending push notifications through the studio’s app, as well as email and SMS.

As the return to studios continues to surge, businesses recognize the need to scale their communications in order to retain their members, as well as win new ones, in this highly competitive fitness market.  Communication management must extend beyond the four walls of the club.  Automated communication tools allow studios to send reopening email marketing campaigns to introduce members to new class procedures, and updated waivers, as well as automate things they never expected in order to target member and prospect communications. Studio mobile apps can also send push notifications with class offerings and availability and new safety measures. For those members who prefer SMS communications,  studios can enable texting from an existing business phone number, or send and receive texts on computers or mobile devices. It’s a powerful way to build member engagement, encouraging members after workouts and reconnecting with at-risk members that aren’t entering the club regularly.

Because many studios have had to scale back staffing, internal automation is essential to day-to-day operations.  Omnichannel technology streamlines operations while also developing strong member relationships and loyalty with tools like controlled freezing and unfreezing of member accounts. With the self-check-in tool available via a web browser or mobile app, studios can flex their staff where they are needed most, while also providing members safe contactless class check-in. Utilizing contract and agreement tools, studios can easily adjust, send, and accept waiver policies with updated health and safety protocols and requirements around local and state requirements as well as their studio’s updated policies.

A member-first mindset requires an expansion of the member experience to encompass everything the studio does, from hiring and leadership development to marketing, payments and billing, logistics, and IT infrastructure. Gaining this in-depth engagement knowledge about members is possible because technology is allowing clubs to collect Voice of the Member data, and bring out valuable insights from that data with speed and precision.

Hybrid fitness class models will be a competitive advantage for studios moving forward, offering the flexibility of class accessibility with live-streaming classes, or having an instructor teach a handful of people in person, while simultaneously broadcasting that workout to people logged in online.  Some studios may also want to provide access to pre-recorded classes that reside on the studio website.  Hybrid class offerings are omnichannel experiences personified.

One additional benefit of omnichannel experiences is that fitness studios are spending as much time examining experience data as they previously did with operational data. Fitness studios have been inundated with data to help them optimize operations. However, this valuable O-data (operational data) is typically fragmented, stored in various systems, and difficult to align into a narrative that informs business decision-making. The Experience Economy is now forcing studios to look beyond the O-data and also evaluate the X-data (experience data). This X-data is providing the insight behind ‘why’ things happen. Spending on experiences has grown 4X faster than spending on goods and services. As studios have evolved how they operate in the pandemic-clouded experience age, standardization is essential. Top-performing fitness studios are now utilizing reporting and analytics solutions that fully integrate their X- and O-Data, collect information across their studio, and provide best practice methodologies, controls, and tools. By combining X- and O-Data studios are seeing the impact of their improvements on key metrics like revenue, sales, profit, engagement, attrition, and much more.

It’s evident that technology has accelerated inevitable change. The challenge for studios in 2022 will be to harness that data into learnings that drive decision-making. Fitness studios will need to derive clarity through these continued times of uncertainty, expand business opportunities with hybrid fitness class offerings, scale operations with limited staff, and ever-changing procedures, and strengthen member loyalty with strong communication and member-focused payment practices.

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