How Village Fitness Experienced a 235% growth in just 12 months, using Zen Planner’s Gym Management Software

Meet Village Fitness: From One Gym to a Growing Fitness Empire 

It’s not every day you meet a gym owner who’s also a doctor of physical therapy, but that’s exactly who Matt Klingler is. Alongside his wife Nicole, Matt runs Village Fitness, a boutique gym with two locations in Los Angeles. What started as a small dream to help people over 40 reclaim their health through strength training has now grown into something much bigger. 

The goal? To scale from two locations to 20 within the next 10 years. That’s right—Matt and Nicole have their sights set on building a fitness empire, one that’s focused on creating lasting health transformations for people in their 40s, 50s, and beyond. But they didn’t go into this with grand visions of becoming fitness moguls overnight. 

Matt reflects on their early days: “In actuality, I don’t think I really knew what I was looking for at the time. You don’t know what you don’t know.” 

Running a gym comes with enough challenges, and when they opened their second location near Pasadena, they quickly realized just how much they needed to tighten up their operations. More clients meant more systems to manage, and juggling two gyms turned into a balancing act of epic proportions. 

But here’s where the real story begins. Instead of letting the chaos take over, they doubled down on improving their systems. And one of the biggest factors in their success? Zen Planner’s gym management software. 

Village Fitness is living proof that you don’t need a massive team or endless resources to scale—you just need the right tools, a growth mindset, and a commitment to making things better one step at a time. 

The Big Decision: Why Zen Planner Over Mindbody? 

When Matt and Nicole Klingler first started planning Village Fitness, they knew they needed gym management softwareto help run their operations. But deciding which one? That felt like a shot in the dark.  

After attending a couple of fitness conferences, including Perform Betterand the Fitness Business Summit, they started weighing their options. The two major contenders? Mindbody and Zen Planner. For a new business just opening its doors, the choice between two seemingly similar platforms wasn’t easy. But there was something about Zen Planner that stood out. 

“It just felt like Zen Planner had the features that we wanted,” Matt explains, though he admits that in the early days, he didn’t fully understand the scope of what Zen Planner could do. They wanted a system that could handle scheduling billing and client management—but as Matt would later discover, Zen Planner had far more to offer. 

Eight years later, it’s clear they made the right choice. Not only did Zen Planner grow with their business, but it also helped them take their gym to the next level—especially after opening their second location. What started as a decision based on instinct turned into one of the most pivotal moves in their growth journey. 

In hindsight, Matt now sees that Zen Planner wasn’t just about picking the right software. It was about choosing a partner that could evolve with them, from automating lead follow-ups to building more efficient systems that allowed them to focus on what they do best—helping clients transform their health. 

Systems Save the Day: How Village Fitness Automated Everything with Zen Planner 

Automating Lead Follow-up: From 10 Calls to 30 Per Week 

One of the first things Matt tackled was their lead follow-up process. With two locations and a growing number of clients, manually tracking leads and booking calls became a logistical nightmare. Enter Zen Planner Engage, the built-in CRM that allowed Village Fitness to automate almost everything. 

Before Engage, they were booking less than 10 phone calls per week. After building out their automations? That number jumped to an average of 30 calls per week—without adding extra staff. Engage seamlessly integrated with their Facebook ads, triggering automated follow-up texts, emails, and even voicemails. 

Now, when someone clicks on a Facebook ad for Village Fitness, they’re immediately prompted to book a call through Engage. If they don’t, they get an automated text within 15 minutes reminding them to schedule. And if they still don’t take action? No problem—another friendly text or voicemail follows up, all without any manual effort from the team. 

“It was like turning on a faucet,” Matt says. “The calls just started coming in.” 

Automating Client Experience: Personal Touches without the Headaches 

But the real game-changer? Automating the client experience from the moment someone books a consultation. Zen Planner’s appointment-based automations allowed Village Fitness to send appointment reminders, follow-up messages, and even personalized texts—all automatically. 

One of the quirkiest (and most creative) things Village Fitness implemented? They hired a local DoorDash driver to deliver books they’d written about health and fitness to potential clients’ homes. Once a consultation was booked, an automation in Engage triggered a message to Angie, the DoorDash driver, with the client’s address and instructions to deliver the book. Angie would take a picture of the delivery, upload it to Engage, and the system took care of the rest. 

Not only did this give clients a personal touch before they even stepped foot in the gym, but it also showed them that Village Fitness went above and beyond. And it was all done through automations that Matt and his team built in Zen Planner. 

Cleaning Up Processes: More Time for What Matters 

By automating lead follow-up and client interactions, Village Fitness wasn’t just improving their workflow—they were creating space for the personal interactions that really matter. Matt reflects, “We were spending so much time on admin tasks that we didn’t have time to focus on our clients the way we wanted to. Now, that’s all changed.” 

Whether it was a text reminder about an upcoming session or a personalized email following a workout, Zen Planner took the heavy lifting out of the day-to-day operations, allowing Matt and his team to focus on building relationships and delivering a top-notch fitness experience. 

The Secret Sauce: Turning Fitness Clients into a Community 

Coffee, Kombucha, and Connection: The Little Things Matter 

Matt and his team started by making small but impactful changes. They revamped their lobby area, adding comfortable seating and—here’s the kicker—offering clients freshly brewed coffee and kombucha on tap. “It sounds frivolous,” Matt admits, “but it worked.” 

Before long, clients were hanging out in the lobby after their sessions, chatting with each other and with staff. What started as simple hospitality quickly grew into something much more valuable—an organic community of people who bonded over their shared fitness journey. 

It wasn’t just about the workout anymore; it was about the experience. The coffee, kombucha, and relaxed post-session atmosphere gave clients a reason to stay, linger, and form connections. And as any gym owner knows, a tight-knit community means better retention. 

Zen Planner: Automating Member Engagement 

Behind the scenes, Village Fitness used Zen Planner to make sure the client experience extended beyond the gym walls. With the Engage platform, they built out automated follow-ups that went beyond just appointment reminders. For example: 

• Birthday messages and special offers. 

• Personalized check-ins after someone’s first week. 

• Automated “we miss you” texts to clients who hadn’t been to the gym in a while. 

All of these small touchpoints helped build relationships and kept clients engaged, even when they weren’t in the studio. 

“Most gym owners focus on the actual coaching and the product,” Matt says. “But what they miss is the systems piece, the people piece, and that’s what really makes a difference.” By using Zen Planner to streamline the operational side, Village Fitness was able to put more energy into what mattered most—building a strong community. 

From Magic Shows to Ice Baths: Fun Events That Keep Clients Coming Back 

Village Fitness also focused on creating unique and fun experiences for their clients beyond workouts. From hosting magic shows at their studio to partnering with local businesses for ice bath and sauna events, they made sure their clients had reasons to connect outside of the standard fitness class. 

“We try to do one thing a month,” Matt explains, whether it’s a nutrition workshop, a group hike, or a trip to a local farmers market. These events don’t just attract new clients—they give current members another reason to stay engaged and bring their friends. 

Overcoming Growing Pains: How Village Fitness Turned Struggles into Success 

Cleaning House and Getting Organized 

Faced with the reality that their second location wasn’t going to make it without significant changes, Matt and his team made some tough decisions. They cleaned house—bringing in a new manager, restructuring their staff, and revisiting their entire client experience. 

But perhaps the most important step? Diving back into Zen Planner to completely rebuild their systems. Matt and his team took a deep dive into the software, reworking their automations, memberships, and reporting processes to create a smoother, more organized operation. 

“We redid all of our automations, all of our memberships, and built custom reports within Zen Planner,” Matt says. It wasn’t just about fixing problems—it was about creating systems that could scale with them as they grew. 

The Results: A Complete Turnaround 

The results were nothing short of remarkable. After making these changes, Village Fitness saw their client numbers skyrocket from 51 to 171 in less than a year. “Things just took off like a rocket ship,” Matt says. By focusing on the right systems and people, they not only met their goal of breaking even—they surpassed it. 

Embracing the Growth Mindset: Make Zen Planner Work for You 

Customizing Zen Planner to Fit Their Unique Needs 

Village Fitness didn’t settle for the pre-baked automations Zen Planner offers—though they could have easily gotten by with those. Instead, Matt and his team put in the time to build their own systems, tailored to their specific workflow and client journey. 

One of the first things they did was automate their entire lead follow-up process, ensuring that no potential client slipped through the cracks. Whether it was sending a personalized text to someone who filled out a form or triggering a voicemail reminder for upcoming consultations, everything was automated through Zen Planner Engage. 

Automating Every Step of the Client Journey 

After streamlining lead follow-ups, Village Fitness turned their attention to the client journey—automating everything from booking confirmations to intake forms. Zen Planner allowed them to integrate appointment-based automations that personalized the experience for each client without adding more to their team’s workload. 

Maximizing Efficiency with Two-Click Reports 

If there’s one thing Matt loves, it’s data. But spending hours digging through spreadsheets? Not so much. That’s why they decided to streamline their reporting process, creating custom Zen Planner reports that Matt affectionately refers to as their “two-click rule.” 

“If we can’t get to a number within two clicks, we don’t track it,” Matt explains. 

What Gym Owners Can Learn from Village Fitness 

Lesson 1: Don’t Rush Growth 

It took Village Fitness six and a half years to open their second location, and Matt is perfectly fine with that. “Scaling too quickly without the right systems is a recipe for stress,” Matt warns. 

Lesson 2: Master One Thing at a Time 

It’s tempting to want to do everything at once—especially when it comes to running a gym. But Matt’s advice is simple: “Get really good at one thing at a time and optimize that before moving on to the next.” 

Lesson 3: Use the Tools You Already Have 

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to run a successful gym. Zen Planner offers a wealth of functionality, from scheduling and billing to lead management and automations. 

Lesson 4: Systems Are Your Best Friend 

As passionate as you might be about fitness, you can’t rely on passion alone to grow your business. Systems are what will carry you through the day-to-day challenges of running a gym. 

Your Path to Growth Starts with the Right Tools 

Village Fitness’s story shows that growing a successful gym isn’t about luck—it’s about having the right systems, a clear vision, and the determination to keep improving. Whether you’re running one gym or looking to open your second (or third!), the lessons from Matt’s journey can help you avoid common pitfalls and set your business up for long-term success. 

Ready to take your gym to the next level? With Zen Planner’s gym management software, you can streamline your operations, improve your client experience, and grow your business with confidence. [Request a demo today] and see how Zen Planner can work for you!