When Kurt Miller switched his gym to PushPress from another software company, the first thing he noticed was how differently he was treated by the PushPress team.
“It felt like a different approach. It felt very much like, ‘We’re here to help you.’ A lightbulb kind of went off,” he said. He also appreciated not feeling like he was talking to “a help desk reading from a script.”
The fact that almost everyone he spoke with at PushPress was also a gym owner, or a former gym owner, helped him feel even more understood.
This also led Miller to want to be part of the gym-owner team at PushPress. So today, on top of running South Mountain Community Fitness in Pennsylvania, he is an Account Executive for PushPress.
Miller continues to use PushPress software at his gym, which is beneficial in several ways. He’s been able to make a huge difference in his gym members’ experience and help his clients as a PushPress employee.
“We’re using the systems. We’re in the trenches with you, so we can meet clients where they’re at, ” he said.
Five Ways PushPress Helps Miller’s Client Experience
Celebrating Member Milestones
One way Miller celebrates his clients’ milestones is by recognizing when they hit 100, 300 and 500 visits. This is something PushPress has made a whole lot easier, he said.
Before PushPress, he would try to keep track of their visits, but his processes were unreliable and “very clunky,” he explained. But now the check-in feature on PushPress’ Grow software automatically notifies both the client and Miller when they hit a milestone class. This makes it easy to track exactly where everyone is. Nobody falls through the cracks, he explained.
“Set it and forget it,” he says of the system.
Each milestone is then further celebrated with a gift: Members get a Starbucks gift card at 100 classes, then gift packages at 300 and 500.
Pro Tip: Celebrate member milestones at your gym with PushPress Grow. Book a demo today to find out how easy it is!
Community-Building on the PushPress Social Feed App
For a while, private Facebook groups were a great way to engage the community, get dialogue going and distribute important information. However, Facebook has become a bit of a dinosaur in that respect, and many of Miller’s clients aren’t using it.
“It was sort of just collecting dust over the years and I didn't really know if my messages were going anywhere,” he explained about his private Facebook group. “Facebook felt like a black hole. It didn’t feel like it was moving the needle of engagement.”
As a result, member engagement started declining, he said.
Enter PushPress’ Social Feed, a tool that’s part of the members app each client uses to register for classes. This effectively replicates what a private Facebook group used to do.
Since introducing Social Feed to his community, his client engagement has improved tremendously, Miller explained.
Celebrate more: When a client hits a 100, 300 and 500 visit milestone, this information is also automatically populated in Social Feed, so other members are able to acknowledge the person’s accomplishments as well.
Best of all, Social Feed has improved client engagement tremendously, and has brought new members into the fold. For instance, Miller has a 69-year-old member who never had Facebook and who has “been tagging left and right.” He gets to feel like “he’s part of a community,” Miller said.
Selling Merch Simplified
Gone are the days where Miller has to manually process all kinds of merchandise payments at the end of the month, paying credit card fees on each transaction to boot. He remembers going transaction by transaction at 9 pm after a long day at the gym.
Now, with PushPress’ store app, members can easily purchase all kinds of products, from gear to supplements to events. At the end of the month they all get processed automatically, making purchases easier and more frequent. Meanwhile, Miller only has to pay the processing fee once, as opposed to on every transaction. In this sense, the app is sort of like a bar tab, Miller explained.
Further, the app allows members to pre-order tshirts and other apparel, making it much easier for Miller to stock inventory.
Sign-Up Simplicity with PushPress
Miller’s fundamentals program currently involves a number of one-on-one personal training sessions. However, he is in the process of switching to a system that offers prospective clients a free 45-minute introductory class. The goal is to get them in the door and “give them a taste of CrossFit,” Miller explained.
“It’s going to be a great top of the funnel to (help) get people into the pipeline,” he explained.
Then they can then sign up for the no sweat intro, followed by the one-on-one fundamentals.
With this change, Miller is hoping to bring new interested people through the doors more effectively. Since this is often the hardest step for new leads to take, he appreciates that PushPress makes it easy.
With Grow, prospective members are able to sign up for the introductory class with a few clicks, and without any additional work for Miller or his coaches.
Accommodating Visitors
Similarly, PushPress makes accommodating visitors much easier, Miller said.
Those who come in from out of town and want to buy a seven-day travel pass can do this online without fuss. It doesn’t create any additional work for Miller. He simply sends the landing page to the visitor and they’re able to reserve their spot.
“The only thing we need to do is get you a key fob and get you working out. It’s less steps that we have to do to get you doing what you want to do, which is working out in my gym,” he said.
Pulling It All Together
When Miller switched to PushPress, he had no idea what he was missing. Four years later, he would never go back, and he couldn’t be happier to be part of the PushPress team.
“It’s such a hard working team of people and it feels like the first couple months of owning a gym. It’s constantly evolving and changing, but it’s all so fresh and new and exciting and I think we bring that energy to helping gym owners dominate their day,” he said.
He added: “With my 15 years of experience in this industry, and 10 years of that owning a gym, I truly feel like a gym consultant, as well, and I think that’s what a lot of us feel like. We want to help gyms succeed.”
