How to Improve the Experience of Your Gym Customers

Owning and operating your own gym is the peak of fitness industry excellence that you can achieve. Keeping your own gym operating successfully, however, can be quite the struggle, especially given the popularity of mega-chain gyms that can attract customers more easily. At the end of the day, what will help you garner and keep clients at your gym is to focus on providing the best gym experience possible. By providing a high-quality gym experience, you are likely to keep gym goers at your gym. Here are a few ideas to help you improve the experience of your gym customers to keep them coming back for more.

Listen to Their Feedback

The first and arguably most vital place to start when looking to improve the experience of your gym customers is to listen to your customers’ feedback. It is always easier to keep customers than it is to get new customers, and the best way to keep customers is to listen to their feedback and implement the changes they want to see. Your customers will have a wealth of ideas for what to improve at your gym that they would be happy to share with you if you ask. Then, if you listen to them and improve your gym the way they want, you are both improving the experience and showing them that you care about their feedback and want to adapt to their needs, something customers love.

Offer Rewards for Achieving Goals

The gym going experience is one of a journey of self-improvement. People go to the gym with goals in mind, whether it is to lose some extra weight, get stronger, put on some more muscle, increase their energy levels, get more flexible, or just feel better, the gym is a place where people strive towards their goals. So, what better way to improve the gym experience than to further help your customers achieve their goals? Your gym can and should offer your customers rewards for achieving their goals. By keeping track of your clients’ goals and helping them track their progress and rewarding their achievements, you can help to foster a space of encouragement and positivity while helping them achieve their goals.

Make it Social

Think about most commercial gym spaces. While they may have a lot of equipment, employees, locations, and resources, they are lacking in one very important area that smaller gyms have always had a leg up on – social interaction. You should do everything in your power to help foster a social environment at your gym, including for those who don’t fit the gender norms. The more connected your clients feel to each other, the better. A great way that you can try to do that is by launching a mobile app with a social feature at your gym. Allowing your clients to post about their goals, their progress, etc. will help them connect and help each other on the way towards their goals.

Protect User Data

If you are using the internet to take or receive payments from your clients, then the most important thing that you need to do for your customers and their experience is to protect their data at all costs. When customers are the subject of a data breach thanks to your gym, they are far less likely to continue trusting you with their patronage. Outsourcing IT services can help you focus on your business specialty. When you outsource IT, you are trusting professionals to protect your information and allowing yourself to focus on why you became a gym owner in the first place.

Update Gym Equipment

At the end of the day, what many people are paying for when they sign up for your gym is access to your equipment. If your equipment is broken, dirty, old, or outdated, then your clients are going to notice and have some strong feelings. You want your gym clients to feel like they are using the top-of-the-line equipment in the fitness industry, not leftovers and hand-me-downs from a gym that just updated their equipment. You need to be continually updating your equipment offerings, regularly replacing the oldest machines in your gym with new machines. By offering your clients the newest in gym technology they will have a better experience.

Offer Amenities

This is a basic answer, but many gym owners ignore this advice in favor of searching for other ways to improve the experience of their clients. Why is that? Well, because adding amentias can be expensive and difficult, but it is the best way to improve your customer’s experience. Consider adding things like a sauna in the locker room, massage tables, a smoothie bar for post workout shakes, or even things like warm towels or free samples of products like protein powders and PR workouts can help your clients feel a more luxurious gym experience.

Offer Classes

Another pretty basic step to take for a gym that many smaller gym owners overlook is the power of a fitness class. For many people who go to the gym, the idea of having to work out alone can be scary and seem impossible if they don’t really know what to do. Offering classes is a great way to get clients coming back and staying involved with your gym when they aren’t comfortable planning their own workout routines yet.

Be Specific with What You Do

The final piece of advice for you to improve the customer experience at your gym is to be specific with what your gym does. While big box gyms and commercial gyms can seemingly do it all, it is because of their vast network of resources that they can offer so much. Your smaller gym, however, would do better to really focus on one aspect of working out like weightlifting, CrossFit, HIIT, or yoga. Find ways to optimize the customer’s experience for that type of exercise. This will help your clients feel that they are getting an experience unique to your gym that is helping them achieve their specific goals. Owning and operating a gym is a great business endeavor if you love exercise. But the only way to stay successful is to constantly improve the client experience at your gym. Follow these eight tips for the best ways to improve your gym experience for your customers. Read this next: What to Know When Hiring a Treadmill Repair