5 ways gym owners can automate client communication

If a typical day managing your fitness business includes feeling overwhelmed by your overflowing inbox and missed calls, you're not alone. It's a common reality for business owners who manually manage customer communication. 

Being available 24/7 may sound like a good thing, but it often means limiting connections with your customers. This can directly impact customer retention and your business growth.

Fortunately, automating your gym management software can quickly resolve this stressful process. Here's how you can use Zaps—Zapier's automated workflows—to improve and strengthen your communication with your members, resulting in a better customer experience.

Table of contents

• Why you should automate your gym software

• Add new customers to your mailing list

• Send your customers texts

• Follow up with your members

• Send a customer survey

• Celebrate when your members reach their goals

Why you should automate your gym software

If you're managing your communication all on your own, you're limiting the amount and quality of interactions you have with your members. Not to mention your admin time will only increase as your business grows.

By automatically sending your customer details and contact information to your preferred marketing channels, you can regularly connect with all of your members smoothly and seamlessly.

Setting up automated workflows drastically reduces your administrative tasks and helps you create better relationships with your customers. Your workflows can start when your members perform certain actions in your business, such as signing up for a class, purchasing a new membership, referring their friends, and so on.

With automation, you can skip:

• Sending out mass or individual emails for repetitive tasks

• Manual confirmations for memberships, payments, and registrations

Which means:

• The right right people get the right information with less admin time and stress

• Your members know about your services, schedule, new classes, updates, and more without any gaps

• More time freed up to focus on building personal connections with your members

Here are the top ways fitness businesses automate their communication with their members.

Add new customers to your mailing list

Start engaging with new members the moment they sign up or purchase a new membership through your newsletter and email marketing. Your members want to hear from you, and sending out regularly scheduled newsletter communication ensures they do so without requiring you to manually send out mass emails. 

It also helps you segment specific communication for your clients. Rather than adding new members to your email lists one by one, let automation do the job for you and get them on the correct lists.

Whether it's adding a new customer to a specific list when they first sign up or adding them to a different list when they purchase a new package or memberships, these Zaps will ensure your members are in their proper channels.

Send your customers an SMS

Email is a great way to stay connected with your customers outside of class, but not everyone keeps as close of an eye on their inbox as they do on their phone. This is where automated SMS updates come in handy.

Automated text messages help you communicate information to your members when they perform a routine action, such as signing up for your business, registering for a class, or purchasing a new membership. With a Zap, you can automate the messages your members receive and when they receive them. You'll save time by not manually sending out mass messages to keep your members informed, and you'll also be covered in case a member doesn't check their inbox often.

Follow up with your members 

Sometimes you don't have a chance to say goodbye to your members after a class or session. Or you might want to know what they thought about a service you provided. Follow-up emails are a great way to check in, see if they have any questions, and get their thoughts. 

Follow-ups are invaluable, and automation helps you keep things personal and connect with your members at scale. A "thank you and see you next time" will always be appreciated by your members, even if that message is going out to multiple people at once. You can also make suggestions on other similar services to try. 

With these Zaps, you can automate follow-up emails to customers who attended a specific class or session or used a certain service.

Send a customer survey

Customer surveys are an excellent resource to gauge how your clients feel about your business and can help you collect customer feedback and recommendations from all of your members at once. 

You can send one out after a customer has been with you for a certain length, after you launch a new service, or if you're considering adding a new service and want to know what your customers think. You can also send surveys to customers who cancel so you can better understand what led to their decision and if they'd consider returning in the future. 

Using Zaps to send surveys to your members automatically will help you collect this intel faster and in an organized fashion. 

Celebrate your members when they achieve their goals

Celebrate all the wins with your members. When your members hit their goals (like their weight goal), achieved a milestone, or referred a new member, you can automate sending a note or gift to congratulate them on their accomplishment or to show your appreciation.

This gesture shows your members how important their successes are to you, and they'll love the personal touch you've added to make their achievements that much more special. 

Use these Zaps to celebrate your members when they hit their goals.

That's all there is to it! With a little automation, you can enhance your customer experience and improve communication with your members. All you have to do is turn is start building your Zaps.

This was a guest post from Jessica Armstrong, Community and Partnership Manager at TeamUp. TeamUp offers gym management software for gyms, studios, and personal trainers, plus in-person, online, and on-demand services. Sign up for your 30-day free trial. Want to see your work on the Zapier blog? Check out our guidelines.