features
Health club software: In-club tech
In the first of a new series looking at the world of health club management software, industry players share their latest in-club software developments and forecasts for the industry
Natalia Repta,
Marketing communications manager,
Perfect Gym
What are you doing that’s unique?
Perfect Gym Solutions is a software as a service (SaaS) solution, purpose-built to service the fitness industry. With over 1,000 clients servicing over two million gym members across 40 countries, Perfect Gym Solutions is one of the largest and fastest-growing SaaS applications in the fitness industry. Our platform comprises a comprehensive package of modern, modular, customisable products for the end-to-end management of fitness clubs, sports facilities and gyms.
What are the benefits of your most recent software launch?
Perfect Gym launches new features and modules every year, according to market expectations and client needs. For 2018, we intend to launch our new mobile marketing platform for B2B and B2C, allowing club owners to generate leads more quickly and communicate with current members more efficiently. We will also introduce AI to our system to improve data quality and provide client behaviour predictions.
How do you make your solutions user-friendly for facilities and consumers?
An intuitive interface as well as clear instructions are crucial to make the work of any employee as easy as possible. We focus both on functionalities as well as design when developing new features, because we understand that every second wasted on understanding a complicated system means a potential loss for the business.
“For 2018, we intend to launch our new mobile marketing platform for B2B and B2C, allowing club owners to generate leads more quickly” -
Natalia Repta, Perfect Gym
Stefan Drummond,
Founder MD,
EZ Runner
What’s different about your offering?
We offer a huge range of features under one roof via a highly configurable system that allows clients to pick and choose the elements they need. Our ethos is centred on providing a long-term solution – as a client’s needs evolve, so does our system.
What’s your most recent software development?
Gamification. We’ve added this to our loyalty/retention systems, allowing operators to create individual journeys for their customers. Clients can add points to their classes and challenge their members to follow different pathways, such as holistic and strength.
What projects are you working on at present?
Our work with children’s gym group Gymfinity Kids has been interesting and motivating. It’s a gymnastics club with a difference, creating tailored lesson plans suitable for all levels and abilities. EZ Runner has been developing online capability for parents with multiple children to access. We’re also focused on providing the functionality that our clients need to better manage class scheduling, with the added ability to amend or add classes at any given time.
What’s next for EZ Runner?
The next generation of our customers will know a world that has always had access to the internet. Ensuring that we can service their expectations is the primary thing that keeps us going. Online services play a big part in our current offering, so we’re always looking at how people interact with brands online and how we can make it easier for our customers to book online.
“We’ve added gamification to our loyalty/retention systems allowing operators to create individual journeys for their customers” - Stefan Drummond, EZ Runner
John Cline,
Founder,
Fitli
Can you tell us about Fitli’s offering?
Fitli was founded with the vision of creating a fitness and wellness marketplace. Our platform was launched with that in mind. However, marketplaces don’t just spring up overnight, something has to come first, and in this case, supply is the most critical factor. So, we’re currently focused on creating great scheduling and booking software for small fitness and wellness businesses.
What’s your most recent piece of software?
We launch new software enhancements every month, which are based on customer feedback. At the beginning of the year we launched a quick booking feature that allows operators and clients to quickly book multiple classes. In February, we introduced digital waiver enhancements allowing businesses to host their waiver on our site, presenting it as a pop-up when clients click on it.
What are the current health club software trends?
On the technology side, there is a big focus on mobile. Clients love booking and purchasing on the Fitli app. We see lots of potential to expand the app’s capabilities to allow things like automatic check-in based on GPS or communication of real-time stats from client to trainer during workouts. The sky’s the limit!
What next for Fitli?
We’ll be launching a series of enhancements oriented towards supporting families, like sharing packages and paying for each other. This will help our existing customers, but also make it possible for Fitli to start serving more businesses in other sub-categories.
“We see lots of potential to expand the capabilities of the Fitli app to allow things like automatic check-in based on GPS or communication of real-time stats from client to trainer” - John Cline, Fitli
Kevin Teague,
Senior vice president and MD of Europe,
Mindbody
What’s different about your offering?
Mindbody’s strengths are that it is feature rich and can handle high-volume business. We also have a deep tech partner network for those that want unique offerings and a large suite of APIs that customers can use to build their own products. However, the biggest differentiator is our consumer marketplace, with some 60,000 businesses able to publish their services in our Mindbody app, Google and Bing searches.
What’s the best update you’ve made to your software lately?
Most recently, we’ve released dynamic pricing. It uses the same algorithms that airlines use, adjusting each service’s price based on a multitude of factors, such as popularity, time before the service or high-and-low thresholds set by the business.
What consumer trends are really influencing software developers?
Wellness has become highly customised and experience-focused with consumers willing to pay for a high-end experience. One very important shift in consumer behaviour is the realisation that they need to partner with companies they may have seen as competition in the past. For example, yoga studios should be partnering with spin studios, CrossFit with massage therapists, and so on. We have been trying to shape our software to support this type of marketplace.
What’s next for Mindbody?
Our vision is that we will double the wellness engagement of consumers in the UK and Europe within the next 10 years. It’s all about presenting the best wellness offering through our marketplace, and driving more business to customers, connecting the right service to each consumer’s unique need.
“The biggest differentiator is our consumer marketplace, with some 60,000 businesses able to publish their services in our app, Google and Bing searches” - Kevin Teague, Mindbody
Latest news
Legend ahead of the curve on customer data
With the implementation of new data protection rules looming in the UK this May, users of leisure management software company Legend can relax in the knowledge that all system updates for the new regulations have been produced and are automatically included in free six-weekly updates for all customers.
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the result of four years of work by the EU to bring data protection legislation into line with the new, previously unforeseen ways that data is now being used.
Legend has completed a full series of briefing sessions, delivered at no extra cost to its customers to educate, inform and help ensure businesses are fully prepared for the upcoming implementation of GDPR.
McFIT partners with Wexer to expand virtual fitness offering
Leading European operator the McFIT Group has unveiled plans to roll out its Cyberobics virtual fitness offering across its entire estate via a partnership agreement with digital fitness specialist Wexer.
The announcement marks a significant ramping up of its virtual fitness provision and will see McFIT exclusively use Wexer as the platform through which it will deliver its Cyberobics virtual classes.
Paul Bowman, CEO of Wexer, said: “With its incredible Cyberobics classes and cinema-style virtual studios, McFIT has already shown itself to be world-class both in the creation of virtual content and in the execution of virtual fitness experiences. As a result, McFIT is seeing the same attendance levels in its virtual classes as in its live classes.”
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