How to survive PEAK season

This is going to be tough, we’ve seen it all - the eye-rolling, the foot-tapping of gym users who ae waiting in line for the cardio machine and grimly stare at the clock. This scene is all too common during peak season at any gym. The lines for the treadmills and elliptical machines get longer and longer, and the group exercise classes get more and more crowded. The good news is that we have some extremely practical tips that you as a owner or manager can take to prevent these situations and therefore help members remain satisfied.

Roll up your sleeves

During peak times it is crucial to have enough well-prepared employees on the floor in order to check-in members, give away keys to lockers, sell at the bar, sign up new members, plus answer all questions of those already training or struggling with some machines. If needed hire additional staff during seasonal peak times. If possible, to save time and money, retain the same solid seasonal employees from year to year, rather than hire new ones every season and loose time for training them. Be sure to plan well ahead with Perfect Gym software management whole staff working schedule to avoid long queues to reception, huge accumulation of customers in locker room etc.  If you really want to be smart, not only in peak season, think about self - service devices to improve the user experience.

Off-Peak memberships

Because of their working times or other commitments, many people don’t have a chance to exercise during off-peak times. But for those with more flexible schedule, a reduced-price off-peak membership could be enticing and worth trying. An off-peak membership allows members to exercise only during nonpeak hours, such as late mornings and mid-afternoons. By promoting such offer you can have two immediate results: new memberships signing up and taking advantage of reduced price and shifting some old members to new training time. If you observe such a trend, than it means you should have less crowd in peak time. All of this you can easily monitor with your Perfect Gym management software so you will be able to quickly react if not everything will go according to your plan.

Get creative

Planning ahead with a super smart software will make the Peak Season the most enjoyable time of the year. Almost like Christmas but with more sweat.

Even with lots of staff on board and great discount offer for off-peak membership, You still may come across unhappy and grumpy members who cannot use their favorite machine or participate in classes they’ are interested in. This is actually an excellent opportunity to introduce these members to machines, exercises and classes they’re not familiar with. Many gym freaks  get stuck and continue with the same old routine for very long time without great results. You have a chance to help these members expand their fitness regime: encourage them to try new cardio machines, show them new weight exercises or persuade  them to try a group exercise class they haven’t experienced. Of course not all of customers will be super excited, but at least some of them might be grateful for showing something new and compelling. In order to easily pick such cases and find solution, work closely with your staff in Perfect Gym software as to check usual customer’s preferences and check what actions personal trainer took. The software will also help you set up some beginners or introduction classes.

Be step ahead

Take all possible precautions before peak season starts and you will be full of work again. Simply ask people to enroll for classes in order to avoid overcrowding groups. Let know members before so they will appreciate that they can train in proper conditions.

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