Are you ready to take your fitness classes to the great outdoors? With the arrival of warmer weather and summer quickly approaching, many fitness trainers and coaches will be making their way to nearby parks and beaches to run their sessions outside. But before you run over to your nearest outdoor location, there are a few steps to go over and things to get in place to make it easy for your customers to attend your classes.
Having booking software that is properly set up and ready to go is really important. From updating your venues and classes to collecting payment in advance and making sure you have the correct safety information on hand, let's dive into the TeamUp tools and features that can help ensure your outdoor classes are prepped for success and that your customers are offered the best class experience.
Arguably the most important tool for outdoor classes is the venue location. Similar to your in-studio or online classes, your outdoor classes and bootcamps will need a venue in order to be scheduled in your TeamUp calendar. As your location and venue will typically be an outdoor space, this is where having an exact location or specific area can be very useful in helping your customers find the exact spot where they need to be. In your preparation and location scouting phase, be sure to check out the surrounding area to see if there is any distinguishable landmark, monument, or object that you can use to make it even easier for your clients to identify on a map, within the TeamUp member app, or when arriving at your location on the day.
Once you have your spot you can create a new venue in your dashboard. You will be asked to fill out the name, type (physical vs. online) and description. This is where it's also helpful to remind your clients if there is something in particular to look out for that can help them find you.
Adding the address and the Google Maps marker to the location of your classes allows clients to use the map to direct them to the exact location. If your location already has an address registered with Google Maps, you can simply type in the address and it will automatically appear on the map. If you haven't already done so and are setting up your bootcamp or outdoor class long term, registering with Google Maps is worth doing.
You will now be able to select that venue whenever you create or schedule an outdoor class. This brings us to our next tool.
If you run a combination of indoor and outdoor classes, distinguishing your classes with a clear name and description can be very helpful for your customers, for example, "Bootcamp in the Park", "Outdoor Yoga", "Park Pilates". You can also be more specific in your description to help avoid any confusion and provide more details about what the class entails. If you have previously run outdoor classes or bootcamps and want to encourage your customers to attend, you can change up your classes, keep things fresh, and revamp your name and description to entice your clients to check that class out.
To add a new outdoor class in your TeamUp schedule, you will be prompted to fill in the name, description, visibility (who can see this in your schedule), and whether non-members can register (clients will need to purchase a membership in order to take a class).
Once you have created your class, you will be directed to the schedule page where you can begin adding repeating time slots. You will need to define when the class begins, the duration, the frequency of class, and whether it will be every week, two weeks, three weeks, or four.
Because you have already created your new outdoor venue, you can simply select that venue now from the list, as well as the instructors and class size.
Once you save your time slots, the classes will appear in your schedule and in your customers' timetable. You can quickly search and find classes by venue using the venue filter in your dashboard, while your customers can filter on the customer site and TeamUp member app.
Once your outdoor classes and schedule are up to date and your customers start getting excited about registering for a class, remind them that in order to attend, they need to book and pay online in advance. The last thing you want to do is welcome 20 eager customers and have to collect and manage payments on the spot. With spotty Wi-Fi or a potential lack of service, advance online payments are definitely the safer way to go. You can make this super easy for your customers by prompting them to pay when registering for class either through your customer site or via the member app. Even if you offer drop-ins on the day, your customers will still need to book ahead and pay via your TeamUp account if they want to participate.
There are a few different ways to ensure your customers pay in advance when registering. Remember your class type settings? Here you will see the registration settings including when registration opens and closes, as well as the price settings. You can adjust whether you allow drop-ins and which memberships can book your classes in advance. If your customer does not have one of the memberships you have selected, they will not be able to register for a class without purchasing that membership in advance.
To ensure your customers do not cancel last minute right before class, you can edit the registration settings for that specific class type or all class types.
Your customers will appreciate being automatically notified when they have successfully registered for one of your outdoor classes as well as reminded of class beforehand. You can automate and customise your notifications to include information about the location as well as what they need to know in advance. Using a similar message in your notifications and your class description will help make it clear and easy for your customers to remember and find the information they need for a specific class. You can also update your notifications any time before class if there are updates or adjustments to the specific location or time.
Notifications include booking confirmations, pre-class reminders and milestones to celebrate your customers when they have attended a certain number of sessions. Notifications are customisable and you can add email text, including placeholders, for example, a customer's name, class name, and date and time.
Pre-class reminders can be sent to confirmed attendees anytime before class, but remember to configure the send time so that your customers have enough time to get there!
If you have not seen some of your customers recently and want to check in and see how they are feeling before coming back to outdoor classes, request that they fill out an updated safety form. In an indoor facility or online you may not have to worry about other medical factors including allergies or sensitivities, so if you think a customer might be affected by those due to the location, it doesn't hurt to ask for those details so you are aware.
One of the best tools for checking to see who is attending and when is your class attendance report. See who's coming to classes and sessions, check which times or sessions are doing better than others, and use this data to make very important business decisions. You might find that running classes at a certain time boost attendance whereas certain classes at other times may have a smaller turnout. Run these reports at any time and know your business inside and out.
When viewing your class attendance report, you can apply filters by class type or venue to see a specific outdoor class or all of your classes. You can also use the report to check ahead and see how many customers are registered for upcoming classes.
With your tools and classes ready to go, nothing can stop you from giving your customers the ultimate outdoor fitness experience.
To learn more about your TeamUp tools and features for running outdoor classes and sessions, check out our software for group fitness and bootcamps.