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The full closure of gyms and leisure centres during the pandemic was, without a doubt, devastating for the industry and, many business owners breathed a sigh of relief when they were finally able to open their doors once again. Although this is, of course, great news, re-opening post-COVID-19 has presented its own, unique set of problems.
The weight is over
As the world begins to crank itself back up again and businesses look forward to a near-normal summer, gyms have a significant set of obstacles to overcome. To begin with, many gyms have lost customers during the pandemic as lots of people discovered the cost and convenience benefits of swapping to online classes and exercising at home. This has meant that gyms are starting off on the back foot by having to proactively find new customers to fill these empty membership slots.
As with any venue-based business, gyms need to optimise customer numbers within their space in order to be profitable and, herein lies the problem. With customers demanding that safety measures such as social distancing are in place – along with the fact that business owners need to protect against closure should their staff need to self-isolate – a unique dilemma is formed. Balancing safety with profit will be at the front of gym owner’s minds for the foreseeable future and, the good news is that this is possible by getting hold of an effective and affordable scheduling tool like Booksy.
A matter of time
As we know, COVID-19 is transmitted from person to person through contact and through droplets in the air and, this can be exacerbated in gyms and leisure centres where people are sweating and breathing more heavily than usual. Because of this, it’s essential that gym owners keep contact to a minimum by encouraging social distancing. The most effective way to do this is to properly manage the number of people who are inside the venue at any given time by changing gym visits to a by appointment basis.
Booksy is a scheduling app on steroids and it can significantly help gym owners to keep staff and customers safe while fitting in as many customers as possible. A website and app, Booksy allows businesses to manage customer numbers by using artificial intelligence for more efficient scheduling.
The first advantage of Booksy is that customers are able to use the app to schedule their own appointments. In 2021, customers much prefer to be able to book online or through an app rather than having to make a call and, so, this method ticks that box for customer satisfaction.
Secondly, Booksy saves gym staff a huge amount of time which means that key members of staff are freed up to focus on important tasks – which can be a lifesaver at a time when gym managers are under more pressure than ever before.
Boxing clever
The real beauty of Booksy though is in the fact that it is able to intelligently schedule gym time for customers. The clever app can not only manage the number of people in the gym, it can even work out how long each customer needs based on previous visits.
For gym owners, this system allows the business to continue to run efficiently while keeping contact to a minimum in a bid to reduce transmission of the virus.
Treading carefully
As we move forward, UK gyms are continuing to put customer safety first by keeping other initiatives in place, including:
- The wearing of masks when not exercising
- Extra cleaning and sanitising
- Hand sanitiser stations
- Contact free payment
With the latter point, Booksy can also help here by allowing customers to make payments through their app both for their membership and for any products or refreshments bought while on the premises.
As if that’s not enough, Booksy can also help to keep the wheels turning for gym owners by providing some great features for product inventory and management, including ordering. As with other kinds of businesses, many gyms are struggling at the moment due to the ‘pingdemic’ which means that alerted staff are being forced to self-isolate for up to 10 days and, getting onboard with a multifaceted tool like Booksy can pull its weight – almost like an extra member of staff just when gyms need it the most.
For many people, gyms like Anytime Fitness Gym in Wantirna South is essential for both their mental and physical wellbeing and, it’s incredibly important that they are able to stay open and continue to operate as normally as possible, whatever may happen regarding the pandemic. Improving cleaning, providing sanitizer and managing customer numbers can all help significantly in making this happen.
