Utilizing Phone within Your Fitness Facility | And Integrating It with Gym Management Software

In a world of digital automation, texts, and social media, it’s sometimes easy to forget about some of the fundamental tools of a small business, especially in the fitness industry. These seemingly simple or “stock” instruments can feel so rudimentary sometimes that we set and forget them early on. Too often, owners forget the overall impact these things can have on their marketing, brand impression, and user experience. 

One of these core tools that we will examine today is the phone. However, we will not initially dive into automation or gym management software integration; instead, we will primarily focus on the more basic functionalities.

Make Business Phone Numbers About Business

While you may prefer to text, email, or direct message clients and leads, phone calls are still an option for reaching out. But why does this matter? Operating as a business, it’s standard practice that your fitness facility has a phone number associated with it for various reasons – LLC/corporation establishment, website contact section, or even your gym’s Google Business Profile for your organic search leads.

When you, the fitness facility owner, are establishing your business, remember that the number you set will be the business’s phone line going forward. Even if you are a one-person operation, having a dedicated line for your business helps separate ‘you’ from the fitness facility. From managing incoming calls to professional follow-up, dedicated phone lines help set yourself up for growth, being more manageable by others, fitness membership management systems, or standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Business Phone Numbers Are Relatively Easy and Inexpensive to Setup

When building a fitness business, from franchised gyms to single-owner personal trainer studios, it’s vital to establish your business as a separate entity—even just for your mental sanity. Therefore, having a separate number dedicated to the fitness studio is a huge service you can do for yourself and the company as it grows. But it might not be as hard as you think.

If you assumed that you would have to go out and buy a new phone and phone number for your business, you might be pleasantly surprised to read on. Call forwarding services and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) are two impactful business resources. These tools enable you to have calls routed seamlessly from one number to another, sent to different team members, or be easily managed from applications hooked up to personal cellphones as well systems – like gym management software or fitness studio-focused customer relationship management (CRM) tools. 

With a wide range of options, features, and pricing available for any size of business or structure, you can easily browse the various solutions to find the right one for your gym. However, if you are just starting your business and/or are looking for a free option, many fitness studios and small gym owners use Google Voice as an initial dip into this type of automation.

Professionalism, Branding, and Best Practices for Your Gym’s Phone

Once you’ve established a dedicated business phone number, it’s time to jump into leveraging this tool as a marketing and customer service resource. So, let’s start with one of our largest pain points with the small fitness business market currentlyt in this topic category: customize your voicemails! Stock voicemail messages are a terrible first impression for potential leads reaching out to you via the phone.Being greeted by a generic message from a semi-robotic sound voice is not a great experience nor comforting to a customer’s confidence leaving a message. An additional point we advocate to avoid is just addressing the message with your own name – again, you should be focusing on establishing your business’s brand and building your fitness facility’s persona to distinguish itself in the market.

When recording a customized voicemail, remember it is a simple opportunity to greet people with your business’s name, the area you serve, and even your fitness facility’s specialty or points of distinction. This not only satisfies to be a professional greeting that confirms to potential clients that they are leaving a message at the right place, but it also serves as that great first impression branding opportunity to distinguish yourself from the marketplace and show your value. 

Recommended Best Practices For Your Gym’s Phone Number

• Set a dedicated phone number
  • Make sure the number is consistent on website, social profiles, marketing materials, and indexed listing sites
• Understanding of how you want to utilize phone and voicemail in your gym’s sales funnel
  • Do you want an automated line with self-service commands for the user to select?
  • Do you want the phone to go directly to a voicemail?
  • Do you want calls to go to employees or yourself?
  • Do you want to direct callers from phone to another communication channel like email, text, or form-fill on website?
• Voicemail details commonly utilized
  • Facility’s name
  • Hours or where to find them
  • Where additional information is located
  • When your business follows up with messages
  • Where else can they reach out to you with inquiries (if you prefer another contact mechanism other than phone)
• Forwarding service for team members
• Standard operating procedures (SOP) established for how to handle calls, messages, and follow-up
• Integrate with your studio or gym’s membership management software or fitness CRM system

Example voicemail script for fitness studios, gyms, or training facilities:

“You’ve reached <Gym Name>, <City/Region>’s premier personal training studio for <Audience/Selling Point>. We’re sorry we are unable to take your call at this time. Our hours and availability are posted on our website: www.<Your Website>.com as well as our membership packages, training options, and facility information. If you would like a member of our team to call you back, please leave a message with your name, phone number, and message, and we will reach out within 24 hours. Thanks <option: add business tag line opportunity>.”

AutomatingYour Gym’s Phone Without Removing the Human Aspect

Of course, the idea of following up with calls to make sure leads actively engaged sounds nice in theory. However, do you actually see it getting done properly and consistently within your business? There is a good chance that if you’ve already been neglecting phone calls or voicemails, you won’t be too eager to make the shift now. This is why we recommend setting up automation within your sales funnel to help keep leads cultivated through a series of self-servicing materials and steps. Additionally, by integrating your phone system (VoIP) with your fitness studio or gym’s member management software, you can better track, record, report, and follow up with leads as they progress into a “hot lead” status.

As we discuss in deeper detail in our marketing campaign development section, focusing on your ideal customer’s journey through their sales journey, you can plan to optimize your materials and interaction points to be as automated as possible. This automation between your gym’s marketing campaign, phones, and membership management program not only reduces the amount of manual work you or your gym staff need to do to follow up with leads, but it can also be a more effective way to keep early leads “warm” and interested. Leveraging automatic follow-ups via SMS or email based on certain time periods is just one example on how automation can be added.

But the biggest thing to keep in mind is making sure your business and sales process still feel human. And while we always want automated interactions to be helpful, genuine, and practical, we understand that there is always the need for human interaction as well. To maximize staff time, energy, and effectivity, we recommend reviewing your sales process and funnel and figuring out the primary points where you need a human to interact and properly build that into your system. These human touch points are typically seen for gyms towards the end of the funnel as potential clients have remaining questions before they sign up, booking a consultation, or having them come in to fill out paperwork or receive access codes/fob key for the facility.

Making A Splash

Whether you’re running an established gym, a new personal training studio, or planning to open a fitness facility of any kind soon, remembering to properly leverage core elements of contact within your business can go a long way. From first impressions leads and branding opportunities to call forwarding between employees and interconnectivity with your gym’s membership management software, the business phone number is a fundamental marketing tool that could help make your fitness business just a few calls away from making a big splash in your local market.