If you were to make a simple flowchart for your personal trainer business, a quick overview of the same would be: To increase revenue, you need to focus on customer satisfaction, which means employing client management tools or a personal trainer software to streamline the offline or online personal training process.
As the fitness industry gets more competitive by the day, fitness businesses have to compete on who provides not only the best fitness services and programs but also the best customer journey.
For instance, during online training, are you just prescribing the same schedule to multiple clients, or are you taking the effort to customize fitness programs, track client progress, and connect with clients through chat and video calls?
Many personal trainers, even with an intention to provide a seamless client experience, fail to do so because of mismanagement and lack of time. A personal trainer software assists not only in personal training but in client onboarding, communication, scheduling, management, and much more.
Here is a mix of old and new features of the FitBudd Platform that will help you in your business growth. Using these features, you can generate leads, save time, nurture client relationships, simplify your personal training experience, and much more.
Also read: How to create workout plans for your clients
1. Latest Product Update: Message Broadcasting
Starting on a high note, this new feature has been highly requested by fitness trainers who have been using the FitBudd platform for a while now.
One of the key advantages of personal training software is simplifying communication between personal trainers and clients through in-app messaging.
So far, one-on-one chat has been the most used feature as it eliminates the need to communicate over various channels such as emails, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. In-app messaging allows personal trainers to keep all conversations and one place and save time spent otherwise switching between different communication channels.
And now, with our latest update, that is Message Broadcasting, you can share important updates, news, announcements, reminders, and much more with multiple clients at once!
Yes, messaging all your clients (or a selected group of clients) is possible, and it will save time and effort.
To send messages in bulk, follow these simple steps:
- Sign in to the web portal and navigate to the 'Messages' tab on the left side of the screen.
- You will get two options - Direct Messages and Broadcasts. Select 'Broadcast'.
- Now, you will be able to see the pre-built and curated list of groups in the second panel, such as
- All Clients (all your clients across all categories)
- Leads
- Active Clients
- Completing Soon (clients whose one-time purchase plans are about to complete in the next 7 days)You can also send a broadcast message to a custom group. To create your custom list of clients, either click on the “+” button on the top right of the second panel or click on the “Send to Custom Group” option, present below the pre-built list.
- Once you have selected a group, type in your message in the third panel.
- The message, once sent, will appear in the group in chronological order. You can see all the recipients of the message you sent by clicking on the recipient count.
You also have the option to delete a custom group. Just select any custom group and click on the menu icon on the top right of the third panel. Click on “Delete Group” to remove the same from the list.
Help article: Send Broadcast Messages
NOTE: Your broadcast will be shared as a private 1-1 message with all the clients in the selected group. The clients can follow up on the broadcast message via direct message.
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While we are on the topic of client communication and how personal training software makes the process seamless, let's address why personal trainers still use external apps such as WhatsApp and emails.
The main reason behind this is that many personal training software do not have voice messaging and the option to attach files in their in-app messaging system.
This means, personal trainers can only send text messages, which is great but also inefficient and time consuming sometimes.
With FitBudd, personal trainers and their clients get an enhanced chat experience, contributing to a better customer experience in totality.
So, what all is possible? Keep reading to find out!
Send Audio Messages in Chat
For the times you want to share an update but are too lazy to type and calling is out of the question, audio messages will be there for the rescue!
Here's how you can share audio messages (a.k.a. voice notes):
- Go to a client's chat. You will be able to locate the audio button on the bottom left, besides the typing space. On clicking the audio button, a pop-up will open to record the message.
- Click on the microphone icon and start recording your voice message.
- Click on the stop icon to stop the recording once done.
NOTE: The maximum duration of the audio message is 90 seconds. - Once the recording is done, you can either -
- Listen to the recording
- Send it to the client
- Delete the recording to start over
- The shared recording will appear in the chat section.
Send Short Videos and Documents in Chat
In the case of in-person training, guiding clients and giving certain instructions is quick and easy. But giving similar instructions may get tedious in the case of online training.
This is where videos and documents simplify the situation.
For instance, a situation where a client is not able to understand the right posture or form to perform an exercise. While you may have added guided tutorials in their fitness plan, sometimes further guidance is required. In this case, you can hop on a video call/live session with the client or simply send a video of yourself explaining how to perform that exercise.
The latter is undoubtedly quicker and can save time for both parties.
Similarly, you can have a bunch of files and videos in place that you can send to multiple clients over and over. These could include instructional manuals, motivational videos, pictures, etc.
Here's how you can access this feature:
- Go to a client's chat. You will be able to locate the 'attach' option on the bottom left, besides the audio message option.
- Upon clicking on this paperclip 'attach file' option, your file browser will open.
- Now select the file you want to send and voila!
NOTE: Likewise, the audio, video, and other documents can be sent from the Client App as well.
Things to remember before using the Enhanced Chat Feature:
- The maximum duration of the audio message is 90 seconds.
- The size of the video to be shared should not be more than 16MB.
- The size of the file to be shared should not be more than 5MB.
- Supported document types are: image/png, image/jpg, image/jpeg, video/mp4, video/mov, video/webm, video/ogg, video/quicktime, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .pdf
3. Add Personal Notes
A personal trainer software offers the ultimate online training business experience because it acts as an all-in-one platform for your personal training and client management requirements.
While exercise library and workout builder, nutrition planner, attendance tracking, client check-ins and progress photos collection, fitness assessments, payment processing, etc., are the main features of a personal trainer software, the little nuances are what contribute to making the training and management processes seamless.
One such small but a very helpful feature of the FitBudd Trainer Portal is the ability to 'Add Personal Notes'.
During personal training sessions, whether online or offline, or just while checking in with a client, a personal trainer has to make notes. Sometimes trainers make mental notes or simply use a pen and paper to jot down crucial details about a client.
With this product update, personal trainers can take down notes for a particular client right there on the Trainer Portal and refer to the notes whenever they want. The best part? These personal notes are truly a trainer's personal notes as they are not visible to the clients.
So feel free to scribble down essential notes, reminders, and anything else you'd like to remember for later.
Here's how you can add a personal note:
- Sign in to the Trainer Portal and navigate to 'Clients' or 'Check-ins' on the main menu in the left panel.
- Now, select a client to open their profile on the right.
- Once the client profile opens up in the third panel, you will be able to see different categories below the client's name, such as onboarding, schedule, chats, and so on. One of the categories will be 'Notes'. Click on the same to continue.
- On the bottom right side, there will be a blue '+' button. Click on it to add a new note.
- Now all you have to do is type in whatever you want and hit 'Save' once done.
All your personal notes will get saved in this section. You can continue adding new notes and edit or delete past notes as per your convenience.
4. Connect With Leads
Many personal trainers are able to deliver incredible results and client experience to their active clients through their mobile apps.
If you have been following FitBudd, you would be acquainted with our two offerings - Silver and Gold Plans.
The former plan enables personal trainers to coach clients on the already published FitBudd Client App, whereas the latter (Gold Plan) enables fitness coaches to publish their own Custom Branded Fitness App.
While many features of the Trainer Portal are accessible by both the users, the Gold Plan trainers certainly get access to some exclusive features, such as 'Connecting with Leads'.
After this update, personal trainers can not only connect with clients who have purchased their fitness plans but also with new leads.
What does this mean for a personal trainer?
It means you get the opportunity to connect with potential clients, nurture, persuade, and consult them, and finally turn them into paying clients.
How can you connect with leads?
You can both chat with them or schedule a video call. Here are the steps you can follow:
- Sign in to the Trainer Portal and navigate to 'Clients' and then select 'Leads' from the drop-down menu.
- Now, select a lead you want to connect with to open their profile on the right.
- Once the profile opens in the third panel, you will be able to see the basic details and categories.
- To chat with a lead, click on the 'Chats' category and start typing a message. This is similar to how you otherwise chat with active clients.
- To schedule a video call, click on the menu option (three vertical dots on the top right beside 'assign plan'). Select 'Schedule a Video Call' and fill in the mandatory details in the window that opens up. Hit 'Book' once done.
NOTE: A lead can also start a chat with the personal trainer, so don't be surprised if a lead messages you to consult about your training plans. It just means they are interested in training with you, and you're on the right track!
Also read: How to Maintain Client Relationships and Engagement During Their Vacation
To Sum Up
A successful PT journey or the success of a personal training business depends on how the client's experience is.
You can train unlimited clients or onboard more clients every week, but until you are able to build a meaningful relationship with your clients, steady growth is hard to achieve.
A client management application or a personal trainer software are the tools that help businesses in achieving just that - automate scheduling and streamline training processes so that you can focus on what truly matters.
With constant feedback from personal trainers who have been using the FitBudd Platform, we are able to introduce new features and updates to help make your personal training business smooth and scalable.
For more product updates, keep a tab on the Product Features section of the FitBudd Blog and subscribe to our updates so you don't miss anything important!
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