According to ACSM’s Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends 2016, the demand for trainers is ever-increasing. However, the relative high costs of personal coaching are still prohibitive for a large amount of people. Technology can help! There are several ways to provide coaching models to this target group in a way that is both affordable and sustainable for your business.

The Coaching Pyramid
It’s important to realise that coaching does not have to be an all-or-nothing deal. Between one-on-one personal training and complete self-management, there are various other gradations of coaching, each with a different target demographic. Applied to your current client base, you’d probably see it as a pyramid: the higher the level of personal attention, the higher the costs for both club and client, and the fewer people willing or able to afford the service.

Self-management
At the very bottom of the pyramid, there’s the self-management approach. Present mobile app technology now allows you to give your clients access to default workout plans and tools for progress tracking through your gym app, completely automated at minimal extra costs. Software providers like Virtuagym even offer all-digital upsell opportunities to this group. Personal guidance is minimal to zero, aside from perhaps an initial tour through the gym and its equipment.

Collective coaching
A step up from the self-management approach is collective coaching. The use of mobile apps and optional wearables now allow clubs to coach a large number of clients simultaneously. Trainers can distribute workouts, nutrition plans, recipes, motivational messages, challenges, and so on with a single click.

While collective coaching won’t allow you to cater to every single need of your clients, it does allow you to provide a level of personal attention to many at minimal cost. Personal feedback can be offered in various tiers (think weekly, monthly or quarterly) allowing for affordable coaching for all and an interesting source of additional revenue. On top of that, experience shows that blended coaching models (coaching in combination with self-management using an app) also boost member retention.

Wearables
Already mentioned above, wearables are an easy way to diversify and increase your revenue. Your staff can advise your clients to purchase wearables which seamlessly integrate with your club and coaching services. Moreover, tracked data can be made accessible to coaches. This way, wearables can be seen as the missing link between your club and your clients’ daily lives. Wearables work great in combination with collective coaching – without in-person contact, coaches can still remain up-to-date on the progress of a large number of clients, and efficiently guide them where necessary.

Expand Your Offering
The advice to take away from all this would be not to choose between these various forms of coaching, but rather to expand your offering. A great example is personal training companies expanding their services with lifestyle coaching, combining a personal intake and follow-ups with self-management. The same can be done by health clubs, who often have thousands of existing clients who they can cater these services to.

By diversifying your offer as a gym, you can not only increase your retention and revenue from existing clients, but appeal to new demographics as well.

You can even use online coaching tools keep a line open with ex-clients. Even if they choose not to use your gym services in your club, you can still earn revenue and more easily draw them back in once they’re ready to become your client again.