While owning a Pilates Studio is a satisfying and rewarding journey, it is still as demanding as any other business. Managing the finances and the staff, dealing with investors (if any), hiring the right people, and ensuring the studio brings in profits rather than losses are just some of the challenges you have to deal with.
But all these are nothing compared to the biggest challenge of all – finding ways to retain old clients while still attracting new ones. In other words, how to increase the bookings in your Studio. Here are five tips that will help you find a solution to this problem:
- Offer High Quality Service
Every customer is attracted to quality service. It makes them feel special and appreciative of your services, especially if you treat them like they matter. In return, they will keep coming back and might even refer their friends and family to you. Offering high-quality service in your studio should therefore be the first step towards increasing your bookings.
Some of the high-quality services you can provide are:
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- Creating Fun and All-inclusive Programs:
Because Pilates exercises are mostly flexible, they can be made to fit anyone in the community. Creating programs that suit anyone and everyone will make your clients appreciate your services. For instance, you can have programs like Pilates for Expectant mothers, Pilates for Athletes, Kid’s Pilates, and Pilates for Beginners.
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- Hiring highly-qualified Instructors that fit your brand:
Pilates is an exercise that requires constant coaching and teaching. The quality of the instructors you hire therefore goes a long way to determine if your clients will stay or leave.
Hire highly-qualified instructors that fit your brand and who can build a good relationship with your clients. If you cannot afford highly-qualified instructors, encourage the ones you have to pursue a continued Pilates education or use a fitness instructor software to help them connect with clients. Additionally, a fitness instructor software contains a fitness management program that can guide the instructors.
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- Take Members on Pilates Retreats:
Retreats are a great way for your clients to get away and unwind away from the studio. Offer occasional retreats at a reduced price to keep your regular members entertained and to attract new clients. You can also host special events in the studio and invite guest instructors regularly to keep your clients engaged.
- Use Studio Booking and Scheduling Software
As your business expands, so does the number of your regular and prospective customers. With time, it becomes increasingly difficult for you to manage the booking system and schedule appointments. This can be dangerous to your business, as it will not only discourage prospective clients but also turn away the existing ones.
What you need is to invest in a good Pilates Studio booking software to handle your booking system. Apart from making it easy for clients to book appointments online and increasing attendance rates, good studio booking software makes it easy to manage class schedules with the scheduling software that comes with it.
- Promote your Brand on Social Media
Social media is the way people interact and engage nowadays and if you want to attract new bookings, your need to create a social media presence for your studio. First, make a social media plan that suits your business and brand.
Identify your target audience by determining what kind of customers you want to attract to your studio. Then research which social media platform they are most likely to use. Is it Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? What kind of content would they most relate to? Is it videos? Photographs? Tweets?
After answering all these questions, set up the social media profile and start posting content to increase your brand’s visibility. Your content can vary depending on the message you are trying to pass. For instance, you can upload live videos of clients doing Pilates in your studio, or post promotional flyers that include the pricing of your services.
- Offer Referral Programs and Rewards to Members
According to a study, 84% of people trust business recommendations from people they know and are more likely to visit the business they are referred to. Get your regular members to refer new clients to your studio by offering them Referral Discount Programs and Rewards.
Referral discounts can include cutting a percentage off a client’s payment plan while Rewards given can include a Gold Membership Card that exempts them from paying for some classes. Apart from attracting new customers, these referral programs and rewards systems also increase the customer loyalty of the existing members.
- Provide Virtual Training Sessions
Since we are living during the Covid-19 Pandemic, some clients might not be comfortable with training in the physical studio. To cater to them, provide virtual training sessions over video conferencing tools like Zoom or Google Meet to guarantee their attendance. This flexibility to these developing times will in turn attract more and more clients and retain the ones you have.
In Summary
More and more people are becoming aware of the importance of health and wellness experiences and because of that more Pilates studios are opening up. For a studio owner, it can become increasingly difficult to stand out to potential clients. But if you know what attracts clients and keeps them coming back, these people can be your new regular customers.
By offering unique, engaging services, thoroughly marketing your brand, using the best studio booking software, and keeping your clients in mind all the time, you will book more clients and make fitness management profitable to you and your staff!
