Zen Planner Q&A with Axistence Athletics

The best thing about my job is that it gives me a front row seat in watching our clients’ success. Even better is that I get to chat with these customers to understand how and why they are successful. This week’s chat is with Ryan Humphries, Co-Owner, Fitness & Outdoor Instructor at Axistence Athletics, located near us in sunny Denver.

The description on their website further goes on to note, “there are many gyms out there with a goal to get people better at exercising; that’s not us. We want you to get better at life. What does that mean? Depending on who you are, it could mean being fit enough to enter the CrossFit Games, qualify for the Boston Marathon or just be able to keep up with your grandkids for a weekend without going through a bottle of Ibuprofen.”

As a background, Axistence combines aspects of weightlifting and gymnastics with species-specific movements such as running, jumping, crawling and climbing. They say, “everyone likes to think that they have the best fitness system. The truth is that everything works, nothing works forever and there is always room for improvement.”

I’ve gotten to experience just how special this gym is a couple of times. Once when we were lucky enough to shoot a video there and again when I attended a video launch party at a local brewery. The cheers from their members every time one of the owners spoke was close to deafening during the launch party. (My six-year-old who came with me had to keep putting her hands over her ears). When your members can literally drown out a football game, you know something special is happening.

Zen Planner:

Ryan, how has Zen Planner changed how you run your business?

Ryan Humphries, Co-Owner, Fitness & Outdoor Instructor at Axistence Athletics:

Zen Planner has changed the way we run our business in many ways. Without Zen Planner in place, we would be tracking people down every month trying to make sure that they’ve paid. We would also have to have 10 separate whiteboards to make sure we’re remembering things like birthdays, milestones such as hitting 100 classes and ensuring that new members get the information they need when they first begin.

I’m not sure how businesses like ours were run before software like Zen Planner was created. I imagine that they just hired someone who was in charge of all that stuff. I’d rather not have an entire paycheck going to someone who constantly has to review our financials and member retention. Zen Planner’s subscription-based monthly service that is WAY better!

Zen Planner:

Has Zen Planner helped you grow or achieve any business goals?

Ryan:

Zen Planner has helped us grow and achieve several business goals by keeping tabs on our prospects and current members. Someone can be excited to come in, but if they don’t sign up on day one, we need to stay in contact with them. Rather than taking time away from the business and tracking down every prospect that comes in to ask about their workouts or manually send out emails, we can simply log them into the system and Zen Planner takes care of it all for us. It may seem impersonal, but it takes the personal touch to the next level, without the added work. Once a prospect is entered into the system, we have a series of emails that continue to build value and position ourselves as the experts in our field. The emails ask questions that the prospect then responds to, keeping that person engaged with us. Eventually, this person may become a member as a result of our consistent follow up.

Zen Planner:

What is the most amazing thing about Zen Planner?

Ryan:

The most amazing thing about Zen Planner is the people. (Editor’s note: I swear on bibles that I didn’t ask him to say this!) The team at Zen Planner is not only great at what they do from an IT perspective, but they take the time to listen to their client’s questions, comments and concerns. However, Zen Planner doesn’t just listen like other companies I’ve dealt with in the past, they take direct action to improve any issue that may be affecting the client’s business. It’s a brilliant relationship really because we know that we can trust them to act in our best interests. I also love that they are constantly improving their software. If I were not in business for myself, I would really give some thought to working at Zen Planner.

Are you interested in learning more about how Zen Planner’s member management software can help your gym, studio or school? Schedule a one-on-one live demo with one of our Business Coaches today.