While some locations have reopened and are back to offering in-person training, many are still closed and delivering virtual coaching only. Regardless of your club’s current situation, virtual training and services are here to stay. You may have members that chose virtual training from here on out. Make sure that you are capitalizing on these opportunities by creating a virtual training SOP (standard operating practice), reviewing your marketing strategy, and training your trainers on delivery and expectations to ensure you can continue to serve your clients and members.
Create a Virtual Training SOP
Recognize that virtual training does differentiate from in-person training and therefore should have its own standard operating practice (SOP). The SOP should define best practices for starting, delivering and executing virtual training. As part of your SOP, you should include:
- The platform you are going to use (Zoom, Google Meet, MindBody Online, etc.).
- Establish your pricing; are you going to keep pricing consistent with in-person training or offer virtual training at a discounted rate?
- Define a scheduling and cancellation policy that is clear to your trainers and clients.
- Practice effective delivery of a virtual training session with your team before your roll out services to your clients.
- Check-in regularly with trainers and clients to continually improve on your new service.
Define Your Marketing Strategy
As with any new service, you need to create your marketing strategy around virtual training. Who is your target audience, are you focused only on existing PT clients or are you extending your reach to all members? Recognize that marketing is going to look different depending on your target audience.
- Create marketing to highlight and showcase your different products and services available.
- Create a FAQs document that outlines questions that might be asked by members.
- Offer complimentary sessions and over-deliver on their training experience.
- Ask current clients for feedback, if they are having a good experience, they are more than likely to share. This can later be used as part of your marketing.
“Very impressed with the support and flexibility of Active Wellness to accommodate us during this unprecedented time. Excellent support and help from Brando. He was supportive, flexible and ingenious with the limitations.”
– Madhu I.
Train Your Team
Virtual sessions do not come naturally to all trainers who were great in the club. Make sure trainers know the expectations of virtual training delivery and customer experience. They should be up to date with the SOP, pricing and FAQs as they are the ones directly dealing with the client.
- Trainers should always be early and logged into the session at least 5 minutes before the scheduled start time.
- Trainers should be in proper uniform and interact professionally, just as if they were in the club.
- Trainers should be asking the client for feedback at the end of each session; could you hear my cues okay, what could I have improved on, etc.
- Trainers should provide feedback to the rest of the team and leadership on areas of improvements and/or best practices.
As part of this blog series, we will review and discuss alternative virtual programming and services outside of personal training and group exercise to help enhance your community, engagement and outreach. Contact Active Wellness today for any of your virtual programming needs.
Kiley Mutschler | Senior General Manager
Kiley supports teams across the US and Canada. She is staying connected to her teams via Google Meet and onsite where accounts have been able to reopen. Kiley has enjoyed spending more time outdoors and is continually working towards new personal fitness goals during this time!
Nathan Capuchino | Senior General Manager
Nathan is located in the bay area and oversees sites from San Francisco to Silicon Valley. Utilizing Google Meet, Nathan maintains contact with his teams and clients alike. During the extra time spent at home, he has been enjoying working on house projects and improving his home.
