Leisure centre goers are looking for more than just the right equipment and classes when they visit. They’re looking for the right experience.

A seamless, simple experience. One that isn’t slowed down with needless admin. An experience that lets them work out when they want, with no hoops to jump through.

Your team also wants to focus their efforts on this experience. They want to support members in their fitness goals, instead of handling paperwork and filing forms.

Adopting self-service technology will help you to serve the needs of both members and staff, allowing your team to step back from operations and focus on customer experience.

What Is Self-Service Technology?

Self-service technology is any system or application that lets your leisure centre customers manage their own experience without needing support or input from your team members.

Usually managed from a mobile phone or computer via an app or a member portal, self-service technology is typically used for new member sign-ups, class bookings, and membership updates.

How Does Self-Service Technology Support Members?

Adopting self-service tech helps your members by making it quick and simple for them to handle those all-important tasks that stand between them using your leisure centre.

The right self-service system:

• Allows for quick and easy membership sign-ups and renewals, with no need for phone calls or physical forms
• Gives members access to your leisure centre automatically, with no need for queues
• Makes it simple to refer friends and family without having to fill out forms
• Lets members book the classes and activities they want, at the time they want, without having to ring reception or drop in to add their name to the list

How Does Self-Service Technology Support Your Team?

Because self-service technology lets members handle admin tasks themselves, it reduces the time your team would otherwise spend processing memberships and payments or filling out paperwork.

The right self-service system:

• Eliminates the need to spend time chasing payments and renewal information
• Frees your team from needing to stand at the front desk manually checking passes and membership status
• Removes the need to handle paperwork for new full or temporary members
• Replaces time-consuming telephone & in-person bookings with online bookings

That extra time can then be spent adding value to your members’ leisure centre experience, running classes, and building personal relationships with your members.

How Can You Offer Self-Service Technology?

Offering and implementing self-service technology can be surprisingly simple. It’s all a matter of incorporating three elements to meet all of your members’ needs:

1. An online portal – to let customers book classes, sign up for memberships, and renew expiring ones
2. Access technology – to link your leisure centre’s doors to your membership database and ensure paid-up members have access
3. Automated emails – to remind members that renewals are due, that payments have been missed, or to share discount codes

Implement these three things, and you can make it easy for your members to handle their own admin. This will free up your team to focus on other areas, like improving user experiences and supporting members in their workouts.

All three elements of self-service technology can be managed from one simple piece of leisure management software. A tool like Legend will help you deliver self-service tech across all your leisure centres, making life easier for members and staff alike. See Legend leisure management software in action by requesting a demo with our experts.