Having lots of online training clients is great, but not if you can’t keep track of all of them!
As a personal trainer or fitness instructor, one of the toughest battles is getting clients into your gym, group fitness classes, or even your online training program. Ok, but what happens when all of those clients start appearing and don’t stop? YES! Business is booming, you are making money and all is good; however, then you might run into more problems – too many clients for you to handle and these clients don’t get the attention they desire or pay for.
I’m going to discuss the “problem” of dealing with an overwhelming amount of specifically online training clients. If you use Trainerize (a great app to run your online training business through!), there are many features they have added in to make client tracking a breeze even when you are overloaded with clients. Even if you don’t use Trainerize there are many ways you can avoid client overload, work overload, or increased stress trying to make sure everyone is taken care of properly. The last thing you want is for an online personal training client to feel neglected or forgotten about leading them to end their training contract with your business
Here are a few ways to stay on top of client tracking…
1. Create Systems
Make sure you have a system created for each step of your online personal training process and have email responses pre-written for each of the steps (you might not use these in every circumstance, but it’s good to have a template so you are not typing the same email out over and over again). Creating these templates, intake forms, and specific systems can be time consuming initially, but they will save you plenty of time in the long run. Having easy to follow systems in place also makes it easy for you to outsource certain tasks such as check-in emails, client reminders that they have missed a few workouts, client reminders to update they body stats etc. Outsourcing the easy tasks will save you more time for client programming and client check-ins etc.
2. Create Reminders in your Smartphone
Once you sign up a new client and provide them with a new program, create reminders in your smartphone calendar with all the dates you want to either be reminded to check-in with them, when they will be needing a new program, when they need to update their body stats, and any other reminders you might need for each client. Create the reminder to come one day prior to check-in day and then the morning of also. This is a system that has worked for me so I am reminded in advance and add it to my to-do list for the following morning. If you do not use a smartphone then get an agenda or calendar specifically designated for online training, put it in your office where you will see it each day, and mark all the important dates on that calendar.
3. Trainerize Email Updates and Homepage Reminders
If you use Trainerize for your online training programs, it has many great features to make sure you stay on top of all of your clients programs. Not only does it have a messaging system through the app so you can chat with your clients easily, but when you log in you are automatically directed to your news feed homepage which gives you instant information on which clients have programs ending soon, which clients missed workouts, which clients completed workouts etc.
It’s a great way to quickly check-in and make sure everyone is doing what they should be doing and taken care of. Even better you can receive daily email summaries of all of your clients, so you can feedback each day who completed and who skipped their workouts. I like this feature and I also tell all my clients about it, so they feel a little more pressured to get that workout in no matter where in the world they are they know I’m watching their every move!
With Trainerize you can also go into each client’s workout plans to see what kind of weights they are lifting and if they have increased from starting their program etc. This is a great way to make sure client’s are progressing themselves properly as they go through their workout plan as some people might not now to increase their weights as they continue to get stronger, for example.
As personal trainers and fitness professionals we are in the customer service business first and the fitness business second. The key to gaining new clients and keeping current clients is to make sure each clients feels special and that you are truly able to help guide them and motivate them towards their fitness or weight loss goals. In order to make each client feel like this, you need to be organized and provide each individual client the attention they need and deserve (based on the package they are paying for etc.).
I suggest setting aside 1 to 2 hours each week to work uninterrupted on your online training business, whether it be client programming, checking-in with current clients, fine-tuning your systems, or marketing in order to continue to help more people improve their health and fitness level.
Sounds simple enough, right? Now try it yourself with a 30 day free trial of Trainerize.