Fitness Providers are constantly looking for engaging strategies in order to innovate in their businesses, and many gyms are focused on Wearable technologies. This serves the purpose of acquiring and retaining members. Wearables can be agame changer for improving upon that experience.
A wearable device is a piece of technology added to clothing and/or accessories that are worn on an individual’s body. They are designed so as not to interfere with the body while performing exercises, including standard activities that occur at a gym.
The real value lies in the fact that Wearables provide important data, gamification features, and engagement through socialization that can be very powerful for gyms chains, ultimately increasing membership acquisition and customer retention rates.
The conversation about data continues, and the Fitness industry is certainly not different from Healthcare, Banking or the Insurance Sectors. We would like to dive deeper and share more insights with you.
a) Data from wearables will increase customer lifetime value. The fitness industry and its use of technology is traditionally very elementary. As wearable technology clashes with the old fashioned, physical side of the gym, there is an opportunity to extract value out of members based on the immense amount of data generated by wearables. Fitness companies can identify which members have the tendency to buy based on their behaviour, giving them the ability to communicate with customers the right message at the right time and with the right product. At the same time, gyms can identify which customers are more likely to disengage with Fitness and intervene with measures to keep them engaged, whether that’s a free offer on a beauty session, access to fitness classes to re-engage them, or a simple fitness consultation to go through any existent barriers.
b) Wearables can engage members for long term retention and added motivation. Fitness providers can make wearables an integral part of a customer overall experience at the gym by integrating their use into fitness classes, one to one training sessions and by inviting people to connect with each other on social platforms provided by the devices vendors. Data from the devices make it easier for fitness providers to know when to send a push notification, class reminder, a nutritional tip, etc.. Wearables can also be used to make the the Fitness centre a social space for gym lovers, encouraging members to connect with each other inside and outside of the gym space.
c) Wearables improve personal training performance and paid Fitness program. Fitness providers can use wearables as a value add part of their offer. Personal trainers can track their clients’ activities and nutritional intake, even when they aren’t at the gym. The Fitness trainer can monitor the client to make sure that she/he is sticking to the training program and be available to offer support.
d) Wearables typically provide tracking, content, coaching and meaningful insights.At the most basic level, wearables give fitness lovers the ability to track their progress. Avoiding training simply for the sake of training, wearables can provide feedback on individual fitness sessions as well as their improvement over time, allowing customers to make meaningful adjustments to a fitness program in order to get better results.
e) Gamification can make going to the gym a lot of fun.Wearable fitness trackers, particularly those that are synced up with the Fitness provider ecosystem, are a great resource for gamification as they can turn any workout, whether it’s a group exercise class or simple fitness session, into a challenge/ competition. The benefit of using challenging mechanics in a “non-game,” i.e. exercise, is that it will motivate fitness customers to get things done and will engage them further in the process.
f) Social and digital connectivity are key factors in a millennial’s gym experience.Wearable devices will give fitness lovers another way to connect with a fitness community in a meaningful way. Exercising can be a lonely game, the more social fitness providers can make exercise, the more customers are likely to enjoy the experience of coming back to the Fitness centre and adhere to their personal fitness targets.
If you are looking for effective ways to Innovate using Wearable Technologies, please do get in touch with us
