subject: Club Software And Dealing With Multiple Aspects Of Fitness Center Management [print this page] In the past decade or two, software vendors have developed club software designed to deal with multiple business processes and procedures involved in a fitness centers day-to-day business activities. Old-fashioned gym centers used different software applications to deal with billing and accounting, time tracking or scheduling, while most modern-day sports centers are equipped with contemporary integrated software modules that deal with all aspects of running a successful gym: from accounting and billing, to marketing and sales force automation, to customer support, scheduling and contact management.
Actually, these gym management solutions feature functionality incorporated into sophisticated, and much more expensive, software like customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems deployed by large multinational corporations. However, modern-day fitness center software is quite affordable also in part due to addition to monthly payment schemes offered by reputable software vendors. In fact, decent gym software features the core functionality of an advanced CRM or ERP platform, lacking only some custom options and functionality designed for the specific purposes of large multinational enterprises.
Billing and accounting module would deal with sales tracking, budgeting, and payroll, while built-in contact management capabilities allow club owners to manage contacts easily with both customers and suppliers. Advanced club software solutions usually feature CRM capabilities, while a small gym can benefit from a contact manager designed to work in an environment where a single sales person is performing various tasks within the company.
Sales force automation (SFA), however, allows both small and medium sized and large gym chains to benefit from functionality allowing enterprises to use fewer sales persons to contact and manage their customers. Furthermore, decent gym software applications are able to boost customer retention level by increasing overall customer satisfaction, through improved marketing, personalized billing, custom scheduling, and enhanced interaction between fitness center personnel and clients.
Easy to use gym software is capable to offer even analytical capabilities designed to allow gym managers in tracking customer behavior, which in turn allows for improvement of the overall quality of service. In addition, customer tracking functionality can be used to customize training schedules and offer personalized service to clients, resulting in greater customer satisfaction and creation of loyal customers. The same applies to appointment management functionality incorporated in virtually all contemporary fitness management systems. Actually, club software is capable of dealing with the entire process of documentation management, including emails and other types of electronic messaging.
Unlike sophisticated ERP solutions, integrated gym management modules are usually developed with ease of implementation in mind, allowing fitness centers to deploy such software within hours and start use it immediately. Typically, a ready to use solution would feature interface with a reasonable learning curve, thus enabling average users to get familiarized with the software within days. Some enterprises underestimate the importance of such ease of use, while it is considered as crucial element of overall business efficiency improvement offered by integrated software solutions.
Marketing strategies also play an essential role in the process of attracting new customers in times of narrowing consumer spending, with growing number of fitness centers management benefiting from integrated software in developing and managing successful marketing plans. Nevertheless, gym owners should take advantage of the entire set of functions incorporated into club software because these applications provide fully functional business management solutions.
