In the 21st century, there is no escaping technology. Innovative tech is everywhere: in your home, at your work, at the stores you shop, in your pocket, and even on your wrist. Technological advancement has transformed every industry, and fitness has been one of the most revolutionised.
Technology has become a vital tool in client management and progress for Personal Trainers. One of the most effective ways to leverage fitness tech is for client motivation. Let’s look at how you can use technology to engage your clients and drive results.
1. Let clients see their progress.
When a client is in the middle of their fitness journey, it can be easy for them to forget how far they’ve come and only focus on how far they have left to go. When Lewis Agnew, the COO of My PT Hub — a business and client management software for Personal Trainers — was developing his business’s product, he understood the value of clients having a visualisation of their progress they could access at all times.
Seeing their journey through progress photos, fitness assessments, completed workouts, and other metrics makes your clients feel accomplished and renews their motivation to train. For Lewis, an added advantage is that trainers no longer have to constantly check in and update clients themselves by using technology to showcase client progress.
2. Use shared data tracking to boost accountability.
Accountability and motivation go hand in hand for Personal Training clients. New fitness technology, such as wearables and apps, have made it much easier for clients to track their own work and for you to see their metrics (often in real-time).
The use of quantified self-devices like fitness trackers is set to surpass 15 million people in 2022. You can take advantage of this trend to hold clients accountable and keep them motivated.
Here are a few ways you can do that:
- Have clients share data from apps and wearables with you directly. Knowing there’s someone else monitoring their effort will drive most people to work harder and more consistently.
- Use data from tracked metrics and logged workouts to customize a client’s training program as they go. An individualized fitness plan will yield better and faster results and nothing motivates better than seeing results.
- With data access and transparency, you can help clients set measurable and attainable goals based on their metrics.
3. Communicate with clients regularly to provide support and evaluate progress.
Another goal that drove Agnew, a former trainer himself, to help develop My PT Hub was enabling trainers to use technology to make each client feel like their trainer’s only client. Keeping in touch with everybody is nearly impossible with a full client load. But communicating with clients in between sessions keeps them more engaged and motivated to achieve their fitness goals. Technology that allows you to quickly, and in some cases automatically, communicate with clients offers an ideal solution.
Emails, texts, social media messaging, and chat apps enable trainers to provide direct support to their clients without constantly meeting up or making phone calls. You can offer fitness tips and motivating words through these mediums, answer questions, and even send workouts to keep clients moving when they’re not with you. Personalised attention will make clients perceive more value in your training services.
4. Engage clients through social media content.
As of early 2021, 72% of the public uses some type of social media. Meet your clients where they are online with quality content that engages, educates, and motivates them. Use platforms as a public forum to recognize clients as they progress toward and reach their goals — recognition goes a long way, not just for motivation, but for building relationships too. You can even incentivize clients to post about their own progress to help with accountability, offering a free session, written workout, or similar service.
Creating a private online group is another great way to use social media to benefit clients. Group members will be able to connect with one another and experience a sense of community that individual training typically doesn’t offer. They’ll also be able to support each other and get support and guidance from you. You could even run a special fitness challenge in your group to keep things interesting.
5. Offer virtual training services.
Virtual fitness is not a phenomenon exclusive to the coronavirus pandemic. Before the pandemic, online fitness was beginning to gain traction, and since gyms have reopened it continues to be popular. In fact, IHRSA reports that even though consumers have gradually returned to their gyms and studios, the use of at-home workout options still exceeds that of in-person options.
Virtual personal training can be a lucrative way to supplement your in-person services and keep client motivation and accountability high. You can build workouts online and send them directly to clients or use video options like 1:1 video chat, live streaming, and pre-recorded on-demand videos.
Use Technology to Deliver the Ultimate Client Experience
There’s no limit to what you can do for your personal training business when you have the right technology. With My PT Hub, you get a suite of advanced tools to help you run, organize, and grow your business. And when you let us take care of the heavy lifting, you can devote more time, energy, and resources to what matters most — your clients.
Sign up for your 30-day free trial of My PT Hub today to see how technology can transform your training business!