Before Jocelyn Solomona discovered PushPress, she was used to receiving complaints about her gym’s app from members. From difficulty reserving classes to consistent glitches, the app was causing frustration everywhere.
“It put me on a search to find better software,” said Solomona, who owns Aiga Performance in Newport News, VA. She and husband Leland opened the gym in 2015 and specialize in coaching youth athletes.
When Solomona began her search, she came across PushPress and noticed an immediate difference.
“From the first demo I was like, ‘Wow, they have really thought about everything,’” she said. “So we switched and we haven’t looked back. And it was a very smooth transition.”
Two years later, instead of fielding complaints from members, the Solomonas couldn’t be happier. Not only is their branded app user friendly and intuitive, they’ve used PushPress to completely refine operations for their entire business.
Six Ways PushPress Helps Fitness Businesses Thrive.
1. Generating and Converting Leads.
With their old gym management software, Jocelyn recalls that leads would consistently fall through the cracks.
“People would visit the website or word of mouth, but it was hard to keep track of everyone,” she said.
But now, Aiga Performance uses PushPress Grow. Leland said this makes the couple better prepared to handle leads, as they get funneled through the pipeline properly. They particularly like texting - versus emailing - and have found it helps them close leads quickly.
As a result, lead capture has gone from 30 to 100 percent, while conversion to membership has increased from 45 to more than 70 percent.
Jocelyn added, “Grow tells us how people heard about us and how they’re coming to us, and so we really don’t miss any leads.” And because of Grow’s quick response time, “Prospects are really satisfied about how quickly we’re able to get back to them.”
2. Accessing Important Metrics.
PushPress has also made it a lot easier for the Solomonas to keep track of all important business metrics. In addition to revenue and retention numbers, they can track simple things too. For example, Jocelyn loves that she can see how well received the monthly newsletters are.
“Before, it was hard to get feedback on who was actually reading the newsletter or how many clicks were generated,” she said. “I love the analytics and statistics (with PushPress) because now I’m getting direct feedback about what’s well received and what isn’t.”
Leland added, “It has been easier to track and manage and forecast because now we have all of the data and information right in front of us. And before we were kind of just guessing.”
3. Creating and Selling New Programs.
The landing pages in PushPress Core have been instrumental in helping the Solomonas introduce and sell new programs as they have grown.
For example, they realized about a year ago that there was a demand for training athletes as young as nine years old. So they created a program called Discovery that caters to younger athletes. As a result, more than 50 kids have participated. And nearly all of their parents found the program through the website, and signed up on the landing page.
4. Upselling Clients.
During the off-season, Aiga Performance trains a variety of sports teams. And in the past, most of the athletes stopped attending when their season started.
But now, the Solomonas use PushPress Grow to convert them into regular, paying members. They simply tag each athlete in the software and send them offers designed to keep them training year-round.
“That has been huge,” Jocelyn said. She then added that they have been converting close to 80 percent of their team training members into regular members. This is up from just 20 percent in the past.
Pro Tip: Want to find out how PushPress Grow can help you increase revenue with the power of automation? Book a demo with our team today!
5. Training Staff.
As most gym owners can attest when hiring coaches, training can be time-consuming as you get your team up to speed.
Jocelyn said the the Grow courses on PushStart by PushPress have been particularly helpful for her and her staff. In fact, she’s made it mandatory for everyone to watch Grow 100, Grow 101 and Grow 201. And this has made a world of difference in saving her time while training their team.
“We have received a lot of positive feedback from the employees,” Jocelyn said. Now, after coaches complete the PushStart courses, she trusts that they know the software and can put them “in the driver’s seat.”
Finally, the Solomonas have been able to take ideas from the courses and implement them into their business. Most recently, one course led them to change the way they bundle their memberships. And as a result, they increased their average revenue per member.
6. Building and Maintaining Relationships.
Though many gym owners believe automation might remove the personal touch with clients, the Solomonas have found the opposite to be true. PushPress Grow has made building relationships and creating an unforgettable member experience even easier.
“We focus a lot on maintaining relationships,” Leland said. “We do things like go to our members' (sports) games and have such a big schedule of games that we go to every week. But it means a lot to them when we show up. And Grow has really helped us maintain that and stay on schedule with maintaining those relationships.”
Further, they’ve automated birthday and anniversary celebration texts, and they reach out to people who haven’t been to the gym in the last 10 days. Leland says it simply gives them a personal touch for their community.
“It lets them know we see them,” Jocelyn said. And this has been significant toward increasing gym retention numbers. The couple estimates that their annual client retention has risen from 68 to 78 percent since implementing PushPress Grow.
In Summary: Happy Community. Better Business.
Two years ago, Jocelyn and Leland Solomona switched to PushPress simply to appease their members, who wanted a better app.
“We just get so much positive feedback from our members,” Jocelyn said. “The most recent app (upgrade) had everyone blown away. They love the look and feel of our newsletter, and the user friendliness of navigating through our website or our branded app. It suits our business very well.”
What the Solomonas didn’t anticipate was improving operations, boosting retention and increasing revenue. Overall, PushPress has helped their entire business, and they’re not slowing down.
“Introducing Grow into our business has allowed us to actually refine the way we operate as a business,” Jocelyn said. “And for the first time, we feel happy and not crazy-overwhelmed to work on - and in - our business.”
