We’ve all been there, whether it was signing up for a class or making an appointment, and by the time it rolls around, we’ve forgotten about it. Enter the notification. Timely notifications are the best way to remind your clients and members about their sessions and appointments with you. That gentle reminder ensures your classes stay full and your clients get the most from their memberships.
But notifications do more than remind your members and clients they have a class coming up. They're a great marketing tool, a way to keep engagement up with your members, and can keep your clients updated with their progress. In this guide, we'll take you through how you can use notifications from your dashboard to maintain good communication with your clients.
Photo credit: Feel Good Health and Fitness
How notifications can build a better customer experience
Using notifications you can easily send automated reminders to your customers about their classes, any schedule changes, updates to your business, or anything you feel that your clients need to know before heading to your class.
Your notifications can be email alerts that you have set up as automated emails through our integrations, but you can also create in-app notifications. With in-app notifications, you don't have to worry about emails getting lost in an inbox. Your clients will get your reminders and alerts straight to their mobile devices wherever they are provided they have some internet coverage.
- Keep your customers accountable. With timely notifications, your clients are made to be responsible for keeping their scheduled classes and appointments. You've done your bit of reminding them. Now it's over to them to make sure they make the session they've reserved.
- Reduce the amount of time spent going back and forth. Notifications that remind members they have reserved a session, the date and time, venue, and with which instructor answers all of their potential questions. It means you won't be inundated with queries about the upcoming class.
- No waiting by the phone. With no need for clients to ask numerous questions, there's no need for you to constantly be fielding phone calls confirming dates, times, and venues. You can get on with the important stuff; leading great classes and sessions.
- Customers can build a routine. Routine is a key part of building a fitness regimen that's successful. Your notifications help remind your members at first, but then they become a key factor in helping them to stick to the daily routines they've built themselves.
- Shows your reliability to clients. Once you've set up your notifications, you actually don't have to do anything. TeamUp's software takes care of the rest but it shows your clients that you are reliable. They know that you're going to be reminding them about their upcoming sessions.
Top notifications for building retention and keeping classes full
Focusing on some core notifications at the beginning ensures that the most important messages are set up and ready to go. Regardless of the focus of your fitness business, there are certain essential notifications that every fitness business owner should have in place.
Pre-class notifications
When a client books a class or appointment, your client will receive a confirmation email. And while this confirmation is helpful at the moment, pre-class notifications better serve to remind your clients about their upcoming class closer to the actual time of the class.
It confirms all the details about the class or session. As well as the date and time of the class, include the venue details, from the address of your gym or studio to the room they'll be in.
Remind them which instructor is taking the class. Including all the relevant information for your clients cancels out the need for them to get in contact to confirm any details making communication between you and your members simple, clear, and effective.
Post-class notifications
A post-class notification is a nice touch for clients. First off, you can thank them for attending the class. You can thank your customers for a great class or leave them tips of what to do after class.
Post-class notifications also give you the chance to remind them to sign up for their next class or to remind them when the next session is open for reservations. Keep their eyes on the prize with words of encouragement to achieve their fitness goals.
You can also use your post-class notifications as a mini newsletter. Outline any new memberships and what they will offer your current members. Announce any new classes that are coming up, and tell your clients about any promotions you have to keep your customer engagement going.
Keep reading to find out how to use milestone notifications and build engagement with your members
Milestone notifications
Milestone notifications don’t just help you build engagement with your clients. They also show clients how far they have come. They can see their progress in front of them which will only serve to spur them on.
Milestones can include a congratulatory message for completing a course, an anniversary of being a member or achieving their personal best in a session.
Congratulatory emails let them know that they have really achieved something. Celebrating a member's achievements helps to keep them engaged and working on achieving their goals which in turn helps you with retaining members.
Waitlist notifications
You want your classes to stay as full as possible. If someone cancels their spot in class, waitlist notifications can help you fill that spot.
The first person on the waitlist will see that they now have a spot in the class. They can then decide if they can or still want to attend your class or give up the spot. If that happens, the next person on the list can have the same opportunity.
Read on for some more ideas of notifications you can use to deliver a seamless customer experience
Useful notifications to enhance the customer experience
You can also use your notifications to build a rapport and increase engagement with your clients. Creating a good customer experience goes further than classes and sessions. Showing clients you care and that you're keeping an eye on how their memberships are progressing shows that you are involved in their progress.
Happy birthday notifications
When your customers fill in all their details at sign up, they fill in their date of birth as a part of that. This means you can create an automated notification to go out on their birthdays. This added touch means a lot to clients. Let your clients know you’re thinking of them on their birthday and invite them to a class to celebrate.
Low pack notifications
For clients who purchase a membership pack with a certain amount of classes, sending a reminder when they have used most of them gives them the push to purchase the next set. You want to remind your members before they've run out completely so that they don't lose their momentum and encourage them to get into a routine.
Class confirmation/cancellation
Your clients want to be sure that they have confirmed or cancelled a class or an appointment. Clicking the relevant button isn't enough to assure them that you're aware of the change to your schedule. A confirmation or cancellation email lets your members and clients know that they have successfully completed their desired action. This is another notification that gives clarity to your communications and means you avoid having to get bogged down in phone calls or emails from them asking for confirmation.
Membership notifications
Membership notifications let your clients know that they have successfully selected and paid for their membership as soon as the transaction is complete. Not only that, but if they sign up for a recurring membership, they will receive a notification to remind them that payment will be taken from their account by direct debit or monthly bank transfer.
Referral notifications
Similarly, if one of your members has referred a new client to you, a notification or email letting them know that their friend or a family member has joined your fitness business is a chance to say thank you, but also to let them know that you have registered the new client and your loyal member can now enjoy the perks of your referral program.
When notifications really come in handy
- Keeping up engagement during Christmas and the holidays.
- When your clients and members head out on vacations.
- For clients who have to vary their class times because of busy work schedules.
- Sending out reminders about your on-demand content in your post-class notifications.
- Informing your members when you have any new offers or promotions.
Learn how to get notifications set up and ready to go in your dashboard
How to set up notifications in your dashboard
To set up notifications in your dashboard head to the section on the left-hand side labelled “Notifications”. There you will see notification options for the:
- Customer lifecycle which includes invitations, family, sign up, referrals, happy birthdays, and slipping away notifications
- Customer membership lifecycle which include membership confirmations and purchases, low packs, and notifications for payments
- Class and Appointment registrations which include registration, pre, post, and milestone notifications, waitlist notifications, and notifications regarding class updates and reservations
- Class and Appointment notifications for specific instructors and staff
- Course registrations which include all notifications related to course registrations and sessions
- Store and Payment notifications which include order confirmations and receipts for all purchases
To begin setting up a notification for any of the following categories you will first select the notification you would like to set up. In this example, we will use the Pre/Post/Milestone Notifications. Start by clicking on that option and selecting the green + Add notification button.
You will then see the option to build your email and set the conditions such as when it will be sent, for what type of class, or a specific venue.
You will also see the milestone advanced option to send a celebratory notification anytime a condition is met or when conditions are met for a specific number of classes or length of membership.
When it’s time to create the email you can use placeholders to auto-generate your customers’ name, the class name, date and time, venue and so on. Once your email is created, select the blue Create button and your customers will start receiving the notifications before your classes.
Additional resources
- Customise your email notifications by adding email triggers from your dashboard.
- Add milestone notifications and pre-class and post-class notifications and send emails to remind your customers about appointments and online classes.
- Find out how to use attendance reports to keep track of who is coming to class.
- Explore the fresh new design of your TeamUp dashboard.
Explore all the tools in the TeamUp dashboard to help you deliver the best customer experience when you sign in to your account or sign up for a free 30 day trial.