How To Rollout Personal Training Software To A Multi Location Fitness Business

by Matt McGunagle

When you run a large gym enterprise with multiple locations, it’s easy to spot recurring issues that are making the day-to-day operations of your personal trainers more complicated than they need to be.

Software and internal documentation that maps out proven processes are the perfect solutions for helping to fix these organizational challenges. The problem, however, lies in figuring out how to effectively implement personal training software to your training teams across multi-locations. Without a strategy in place software you’ve paid for and released can easily sit unused and become a wasted investment.

If you’re looking to improve your personal training services and implement new software in your gym enterprise, we’ll show you how to do this effectively in this post.

Want to know how to add hybrid personal training to your fitness business? We’ll show you how in our in-depth guide.

DEFINE AND DOCUMENT YOUR PAIN POINTS AS A BUSINESS
Whenever you're looking to add a new software solution, there should be a very specific problem identified that your team is experiencing to guide the investment decision. Without a real need for it, our company is going to struggle to realize the return on time and money from the software.

The first step in the software procurement process should be spending time with your team to define and document the pain points of your fitness business. What needs to be more streamlined? What is your team missing that could improve customer retention?

Once you have this information, not only will you find the process of looking for a software platform that meets your needs much easier but the team members that potentially will be using the applications will be much more willing to welcome the new tool and more likely to actually use it in the long-term.

StrengthPortal is a software platform for gym chains, gym owners, and personal trainers to manage and grow training services. With an extensive exercise library, strong workout programming and tracking tools, rich client profiles, and reports, we take care of the management of your gym so you can easily onboard clients, personalize programs, and increase your training service revenue.


Photo by Jason Goodman / Unsplash

ESTABLISH A SOFTWARE ROLLOUT PLAN ACROSS GYM LOCATIONS
When we start the process of releasing our software with a new customer we work together to build a rollout plan to ensure that return on investment is realized.

First, we always suggest identifying a few pilot gym locations with interested team members willing to take on the challenge of being the first users of the software for your business. Once these locations and users have been established step two is to document the metrics you will track and use to analyze whether the software launch is going well.

To establish the right metrics, here are some questions your team should discuss:

  • How many users will be using the software platform?
  • What is the target usage, or engagement, that we want as a company to ensure we are seeing a benefit from the software?
  • What are the specific outcomes that the software can produce from the users that we should track?
  • What is the timeframe we should use to organize our metrics?

Once you have your metrics in place that are easily trackable, it’s easy to write up a full plan for rolling out the software to more locations once the target numbers are hit. By following this same process you can expand to each cohort you’ve laid one by one.

ASSIGN PRODUCT OWNERS TO LEAD THE ROLLOUT
When launching software at a new gym club you’ll need to have a dedicated team member who is responsible for onboarding and managing the software usage. This person should understand the location’s needs and become an expert in the software to aid the rollout. In the fitness and personal training world, this usually is the gym's general manager or fitness manager.

This team manager will be responsible for documenting how best to use the software, tracking progress, and establishing the onboarding timeline.

From our point of view as a software company it’s also helpful and more efficient from a communication standpoint if we have a dedicated point of contact to work with during the onboarding process. When these responsibilities are split between different team members, it makes it much more difficult for the software company to give a quality service, so it’s worth the effort figuring this out up front.


Photo by Scott Graham / Unsplash

SCHEDULE CALLS WITH MANAGERS TO OWN REGIONAL AND CLUB ONBOARDING
Before any contracts are signed, you should know who your company's account manager will be at the software company. At StrengthPortal we assign a dedicated account manager for each multi-location account so our customers have one point of contact to work to help make the software a success across multiple locations.

When we onboard our software with new clients, your account manager will schedule several calls with your company's account manager, or product owner, and the pilot managers to chat through the plan and maintain a regular communication cadence during the rollout.

In addition to these calls, you should also arrange team calls that include trainers from each gym location. Including the day to day users of the software platform in these calls helps get everyone on the same page and achieves a greater buy-in for using the new tools.

ADD PERSONAL TRAINING SOFTWARE TO YOUR FITNESS BUSINESS
It may seem overwhelming to implement new management software to multi-locations, but it’s important to remember that learning any new tool is a challenge.

By investing in the right software with a dedicated team behind it, implementing a new tool can pay dividends for your gyms down the road.

At StrengthPortal, we do all we can to make the rollout process of our software as easy and streamlined as possible. With a dedicated account manager helping with the strategy and implementation, we’re confident you’ll see value in the software now and in the future, making it a worthwhile investment.

Reach out to us today to schedule a free call with the StrengthPortal team to find out if our software is the right fit for your multi-location gym enterprise.