Gyms are still reeling from the pandemic and facing competition from at home options like video on demand. However, recovery is coming, and there’s a good chance for growth. According to an IHRSA survey, 49% of people who canceled their memberships in the pandemic are ready to rejoin a gym.
In this time of opportunity, district managers will play a key role. With their high-level view of operations, regional managers are in the perfect position to keep all locations aligned and drive sales. However, they face some practical challenges.
District managers have a wide range of responsibilities and little time to spend at each location, so they can’t always personally ensure operational standards are met. But if some of the locations fail to keep the gym clean or maintain equipment, new memberships drop. To do their jobs and grow revenue, district managers need an efficient way to monitor and manage all locations at once while freeing more time for sales and marketing.
Fortunately, tools like digital checklists and digital field audits help district managers make the most of onsite time, improve accountability, make employee’s lives easier, enhance training, and maintain brand consistency. In short, they help district managers create operations that attract and keep new members.
Attract Your Niche Members With Consistent Brand Values
Today, gyms cater to different segments of the exercise market. Whether your members are looking for a high-energy experience for serious athletes or a low-key, friendly place for beginners to start their fitness journey, everything from the wall paint to the staff uniforms have to reflect the brand.
With a digital checklist for daily tasks and a mobile audit for regular quality assessments, your district manager can ensure each location is living up to brand standards. General managers run audits daily or weekly to track how members are greeted and checked in, whether supplies like towels and water are available, and how clean the locker rooms are. Employees follow checklists daily to make sure they carry out essential tasks. And the digital tools upload results to regional managers wherever they are. They know how each location is performs every day and can fix problems fast.
Make a Good Impression on Prospects With a Clean, Safe Environment
Any time prospective new members enter the gym, you want them to see a clean operation running smoothly. There shouldn’t be any health or safety hazards such as water on the floor, refuse, broken equipment, or dirty laundry. People want to exercise in a clean, comfortable place. In fact, cleanliness and a nice atmosphere are as important as price for people choosing a new gym membership.
Digital checklists ensure that employees follow safety procedures and complete cleaning tasks. If there’s ever a problem, district managers know immediately, and they can use the checklists or audit applications to deliver remediation steps directly to the location manager or an employee. Once the remediation is done, the system will upload the status. With the digital apps, district managers ensure cleanliness and safety across all locations more efficiently so prospective members always get a good impression.
Turn Staff into Effective Salespeople
District managers need help with their sales efforts from staff. Checklists help them define what employees can do to support sales and follow up on their work. For example, front desk employees and managers can collect leads from the website or other campaigns, follow up and qualify interested prospects, and nurture the connections.
Fitness instructors and floor staff can upsell services such as personal training or special programs to current members. And they can share promotions and referral programs to encourage current members to bring in friends and family. Referral marketing is one of the most power sales strategies for gyms.
With checklists, district managers can customize daily tasks for specific promotions and change them as programs come and go. They can identify employee actions that seem most effective in driving sales, such as upselling personal training, and add those actions to everyone’s checklist or use digital audits to ensure staff are making the offers as expected.
Increase Sales and Retention With Happy Employees
District managers are responsible for cultivating a positive work environment, and happy employees attract new members. But unhappy staff can drive prospects away. Digital checklists help regional managers improve employee morale because they make workers’ jobs easier, by giving them clear direction about what to accomplish every day. New employees get up to speed faster and feel more comfortable with their work, which lowers turnover.
Checklist results are tracked over time, and managers can use the data to motivate their teams and generate excitement in the workplace. For example, they can offer performance-based bonuses and run competitions between locations for the highest adherence to standards.
When it’s time for quarterly reviews, managers have the data to congratulate people on their accomplishments and identify areas that need work. A review process based on data becomes a productive conversation, and employees feel that managers take an interest in their careers, which in turn increases employee satisfaction and loyalty
The checklists also help employees complete work more efficiently. They can get basic work done faster and spend more time interacting with members. Members like the community environment of a gym, and interactions with staff make them feel welcome and boost retention rates.
MeazureUp Helps District Managers Grow Sales
MeazureUp’s DigitalChex and AuditApp mobile applications give your district managers insight into performance at every location every day. They have a bird’s eye view of what each team is doing and how well they’re following procedures. And if there’s a problem, they can address it directly. With MeazureUp’s solutions, staff take accountability and district managers focus more time and resources on growing sales.
MeazureUp’s apps have been refined and updated based on years of feedback from users in the field, so you enjoy best-in-class features:
- Easy customization of checklists and audit items for basic tasks and special events
- Real-time performance updates
- Photos, videos, geo-location tagging, and date-time stamps to validate results
- Performance charts and graphs based on employee, location, region, or time span
Give your district managers a competitive edge. Try MeazureUp for free.
