Scenario: A personal trainer, Cameron, greets her client, Rodney, and leads him through a workout while Rodney’s Apple Watch tracks his heart rate and active calories burned. For the following week, Cameron builds a training plan for Rodney, including a few independent workouts and daily habits, and Rodney completes them. The next week, a scheduling conflict pops up for Rodney when he’s supposed to meet with Cameron, so Cameron reschedules him for a session for the following day.
When you read this scenario, do you imagine Cameron and Rodney meeting in person? How are they communicating? Is there documentation, like printouts or PDFs?
What about through an app on their smartphones?
Cameron greets Rodney by sending a quick message, and they hop onto a 1-1 video call session for his workout. Then, Cameron builds out Rodney’s program for the week in the app, providing detailed instructions for exercises and reps. Rodney has a goal to be better hydrated, so Cameron sets an in-app goal to “Increase Water Intake” and assigns the daily habit of drinking 60 oz. of water each day—a habit that shows up in the custom daily to-do list, not just on Rodney’s phone, but on his Apple Watch, too. When Rodney’s unable to meet up for a 1-1, he reschedules with just a quick message to Cameron through the app, and they’re able to pop into a video call easily the following day, where she teases him for leaving her hanging.
Welcome to online personal training. Fitness professionals and fitness businesses around the world deliver training plans, facilitate coaching sessions, and manage client administration—all through our app, Trainerize.
A digitized fitness experience is the future of fitness. Technology is increasingly integrated into our everyday lives, but that’s only part of the reason to adopt tech in fitness! Using the app creates a better user experience for both trainers and clients, as well as for fitness studios and gyms. Consumers like Rodney enjoy a more holistic fitness experience, and coaches like Cameron can optimize and streamline their business operations. And most of all, tech provides the key outcome that every fitness business wants: stronger client engagement.
Why client engagement?
Because engagement is a critical, catch-all metric for online training. It includes how often clients use the app—which means how often they work out, track nutrition, practice habits, and communicate with their trainer—and how that engagement sustains over time. Regardless of a trainer’s programming, engagement is a constant—so it’s a pure, dependable measurement of a business’s health.
In addition, data shows that engagement with the app is a positive indicator of client retention and brand loyalty. Plus, many trainers use Trainerize to expand their business model, increase their service and product offering, and diversify their revenue streams—which results in business growth. There’s no doubt that building strong client engagement is what all fitness businesses want to see.
Engaged clientele builds meaningful relationships and higher levels of accountability in coaching! Here are three top reasons why technology is the key to unlocking client engagement.
Communication
Many personal trainers use spreadsheets, PDFs, and notebooks to create training plans for their clients. They also use text, email, and DM for discussion. This works, but it can be quite manual, and it doesn’t exactly scream professionalism.
By using the app to centralize communication, there’s one place for programming, goal-setting, and chatting—so trainers don’t have to worry about losing track of conversations between email and DM. It also keeps trainers and clients aligned on goals and elevates transparency for both parties to work toward the same outcomes. When a client completes a workout, checks off a habit, or sends a question, the trainer gets an alert and can respond immediately—building more opportunities for the client to respond, engage, and prioritize their program. Plus, trainers and studios can enjoy a custom-branded app that oozes that professional vibe.
Tracking & data
Data is a hot topic in our ever-connected world, but most trainers don’t want to record and crunch numbers manually! What if the data just showed up through wearable devices? Streamlined collection makes trend analysis simpler, which empowers trainers to work smarter and stronger to support their clients. Tech can gather consistent data, and trainers can translate it into action.
Not only does the act of monitoring progress help to engage clients on a daily basis (checking off habits, completing workouts, and tracking meals), it also builds better motivation because effort is clearly recorded and outcomes can be celebrated. (Taco rewards, anyone?)
Lifestyle integration
When you ask a personal trainer why they chose their career, it’s common to hear that they wanted to help people. Using an app like Trainerize creates the opportunity to go beyond workouts and impact lives in a bigger way. Trainers can extend coaching to building healthy lifestyles. An effective way to do this is to assign daily habits that influence healthy behaviors—like drinking more water, committing to a bedtime routine, or hitting a step goal.
Committing to a personal training routine can be intimidating for clients—but habits are a much easier sell, and using technology to drive those healthy habits is the key. People are already on their phones and using their wearable devices all day, so why not use the technology to their advantage? The app can trigger key reminders that will build long-term commitment to a healthy lifestyle—in real time.
For hundreds of thousands of people like Rodney and Cameron, tech is building stronger client engagement than ever before. Digitizing the fitness experience doesn’t just mean putting workouts online and shifting meetings to video—it means building more communicative, more integrated relationships between clients and trainers.
The future of personal training is technology, and the future of fitness technology is real people. Trainerize isn’t a replacement for a gym or trainer; it’s a conduit between the experts and the clients that builds the best possible relationships for the biggest results. Client engagement comes with the right tools—and tech is leading the way.
Author Bio
Trainerize is the fitness software making fitness accessible by empowering fitness professionals and businesses worldwide to reach, engage, and motivate more people to change their lives for the better. With Trainerize, clubs and coaches can use mobile fitness technology to spark member engagement, build online communities, and tap into the growing market of digital fitness enthusiasts.
By combining workout and nutrition tracking, meal planning, habit coaching, client communication, in-app payments, and access to the world’s best fitness and business add-ons, Trainerize is the all-in-one fitness software that allows fitness businesses to extend the experience beyond the gym.
