AI Chatbots have become a natural part of most people’s lives. We interact with them when we visit a website, need quick customer service, or respond to an ad. However, many gym owners still don’t understand artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities or how to use chatbots to grow their gym businesses.
📖 Read more: 5 Ways AI is Changing Gyms Today
Chatbots allow you to engage and connect with your members through multiple channels, making them a potentially valuable addition to your overall digital strategy. This is why it is beneficial to know what areas chatbots can improve and learn how to use them to increase your gym’s efficiency.
In this guide, we provide the answers to questions about chatbots and how to use them to boost your gym operations, including the following:
- What are chatbots?
- What benefits do chatbots offer gym members and owners?
- How effective are chatbots for gym success?
- How can chatbots boost peak performance in your gym’s essential areas?
- What’s the best way to implement chatbots in your digital management system?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Let’s dive in. 👇
What are Chatbots?
Chatbots or virtual digital assistants are software applications that can simulate human-like conversations with you, typically via text or voice communications. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), chatbots can understand and respond to your inputs conversationally.
They can perform a broad range of duties, including:
✅ Answering frequently asked questions
✅ Providing customer support
✅ Booking appointments
✅ Managing accounts
✅ Acting as an instructional guide on websites
Over half of U.S. companies use chatbots to optimize vital business areas, and gym owners are a growing segment of this group. In addition, using chatbots to automate routine interactions with prospective and present members can help reduce operational costs and allow your staff to focus on high-priority tasks.
How do Chatbots Benefit Members?
Chatbots using AI and machine learning offer many advantages for members.
Here are four of the most impactful benefits for your members: 👇
1. Fast, 24/7 Interaction
Potential and current members can quickly and easily access the information they want, even during peak periods. This feature is beneficial when your staff is unavailable or your gym is closed. 24/7 interaction also eliminates wait times and enhances the buyer’s journey.
2. Personalized Communications
Today’s consumers realize that bots collect personal information. In fact, a recent consumer survey revealed that 59% of chatbot users expect these apps to use their personal information for future interactions with a business. This means many consumers will share personal information in exchange for improved customer experience.
3. Promotes More Consistency
Have you ever been in a situation where you made progress with one customer service agent before being switched to another? When this happens, the agents often ask you to repeat the details of your issue, which can be frustrating.
On the other hand, chatbots can make your members’ customer service journey seamless. This advantage is possible because chatbots operate on predetermined frameworks that allow them to draw information from a single source simultaneously. They also provide neutral guidance, regardless of how long the conversation continues and the customer’s mood.
4. Omnichannel Support
When your members need to interact with your gym, they can do so by:
- Cell phone
- Social media
- Messenger, WhatsApp Business, or other messaging apps
Chatbots allow members to smoothly take conversations across platforms and pick up where they left off on any channel or device.
How do Chatbots Benefit Gym Owners?
Chatbots can enhance member experience and enrich your gym’s business’s health in many ways.
Here are several benefits your gym can get from implementing chatbots. 👇
1. Leveraging Member Intelligence to Upgrade Services
AI chatbots track how your members respond to the information they provide. As a result, they can perform the following tasks:
✅ Gather and continuously analyze member responses to offer more precise and personalized responses
✅ Use machine learning to determine the best response for a given situation
✅ Provide you with refined and targeted data to help you make better data-driven decisions
Chatbots can detect slight nuances in your members’ language to understand their emotions clearly. For this reason, they are one of the most effective tools for gauging the sentiment and preferences of your current and potential members.
2. Reduction in Customer Requests
Chatbots intercept and deal with potential member complaints across emails, online chats, and phone calls, drastically reducing the need for human involvement. As a result, your staff can have more time to concentrate on more profit-making activities.
3. Allows You to Anticipate a Member’s Next Move
AI-powered chatbots can interpret intent and member sentiment based on user language and phrasing. This feature gives you and your staff additional personalized knowledge when engaging a member or determining what to offer them. You can also use member insights to personalize communications with members or avoid conflicts with them.
4. Increase Sales
Chatbots can perform manual, time-consuming sales tasks, such as:
- Information collection
- Engaging website visitors
- Scheduling sales meetings
- Qualifying leads
By proactively conversing with potential members, chatbots can guide them through your sales funnel. They can highlight your gym’s features and answer questions. For this reason, chatbots can be effective in:
✅ Increasing conversions
✅ Automating upsells and cross-sells
✅ Reducing bounce rate
Since real-time guidance can substantially influence a decision, chatbots can be the pivotal factor in a buying or managerial decision. This is especially possible when combined with a premium gym management system provided by Kilo.
How Effective are Chatbots for Gym Success?
Chatbots have made a measurable impact on helping gym businesses reach their goals.
Here are some facts that support chatbots’ transformative qualities. 👇
Customer Experience
74% of consumers expect websites to provide digital assistants to help with their interactions with a business. These statistics highlight chatbot’s benefits to these customers and gym owners:
💡 62% of chatbot users feel that chatbot AI can accelerate responses while tending to their specific needs.
💡 By 2025, AI-powered chatbots will manage 95% of customer interactions. This means chatbots will assist 19 out of every 20 customer interactions.
💡 69% of chats with chatbots don’t require human takeover to complete the process.
💡 Chatbot usage can save businesses up to 30% in customer support costs.
💡 69% of consumers prefer to use chatbots to receive an instant response to their questions, even self-service queries.
Marketing and Sales
AI chatbots like those in Kilo’s Gym Lead Machine can help your gym achieve impressive new member recruitment and sales results. These statistics support our claim:
💡 57% of businesses report that chatbots have yielded a significant ROI with minimum cash output.
💡 55% of companies get more high-quality leads with chatbot use.
💡 67% of US. Millennials purchase from brands through a chatbot.
💡 According to PWC.com, 73% of customers stressed the importance of chatbots in their buying decisions.
💡 Chatbots drive 77% of a company’s ROI by excelling in market segmentation and targeted product ads.
Operations
Juniper Research has projected that chatbots will save businesses around 2.5 billion hours of work. Take a look at these other operation-related statistics:
💡 A chatbot interaction costs an average of $0.50 - $0.70.
💡 Chatbots can potentially automate 30% of staff-related tasks.
💡 Digital assistants can assume 30% of live chat communications and 80% of routine duties usually performed by you or your staff.
💡 61% of business respondents reported that chatbots can improve productivity through automated task follow-ups.
The effectiveness of chatbots in your gym depends on their design and implementation. This is why choosing a premium digital gym management system like Kilo is wise. With some of our gym software plans, you can receive well-developed chatbot features geared to help your gym get optimal results in performance and profitability.
How to Use Chatbots for Better Performance at Your Gym
Now that you understand the definition, benefits, and effectiveness of AI chatbots, let’s discuss how you can best apply chatbots to each aspect of your gym business.
Customer Support Automation
You can implement chatbot technology to add 24/7 support to your member services. In addition to free-form communication, your members can get instant answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about membership details, classes, operating hours, pricing, specials, and many other topics.
👉 When you have a chatbot feature with a software solution like Kilo’s, your members can book or cancel classes through the chatbot. They can also receive real-time updates on class availability and reminders. This feature can significantly enhance customer experience.
Chatbots can relieve you and your staff of tedious workloads by assisting members with upgrades, renewals, and payment processing. As a result, members can easily manage their accounts, allowing you and your staff time for more devoted work for your clients and profit-oriented tasks.
Personalizing Fitness Assistance
Integrating AI chatbot assistance with the services that you provide for your members can ensure a personal approach and consistency. For example, a chatbot can recommend workout routines, track progress, and offer tips based on your members’ preferences, limitations, and goals.
Chatbots are exceptionally effective in helping your members reach their nutritional goals by providing meal plans and nutrition tips tailored to their unique food preferences and eating habits. You can also offer members the option of using chatbots as simulated virtual trainers. This advanced chatbot feature can suggest exercises, routine changes, and adjustments.
Feedback Collection
The most effective gym management decision often stems from member feedback. Using a chatbot to automate collecting feedback can yield exceptional benefits. For example, you can use AI chatbots to get instant feedback when your members finish classes or personal training sessions. These real-time insights can be valuable for improving services and member experience.
📖 Read more: Using NextGen Technology to Grow Your Gym
Another compelling reason to implement chatbots is the advantage of automatic follow-ups with members who have not participated in a while. This feature allows you to reconnect with absent members and encourage them to return by offering assistance or incentives. For this reason, using chatbots for feedback and follow-ups can increase member retention.
Marketing and Engagement
Using chatbots for marketing and engagement can be profitable in many ways. Here are some of the most profounds ways chatbots can boost your marketing and engagement efforts:
✅ Chatbots can assist potential members through the membership buying journey, including sign-up and orientation.
✅ Your gym’s promotions and updates can be more impactful with automated messages concerning specials, promotions, events, and new services.
✅ Digital assistants can ensure your members feel connected to your gym with personalized messages based on their activities and interests.
✅ Automating the management of the gym’s loyalty and referral programs makes it exceptionally easy for members to redeem rewards, check their status, and refer friends and family through the chatbot.
The chatbot’s speed, accuracy, consistency, and personalization contribute to your marketing and engagement activities and can improve your gym business’s performance.
Gym Operations
Chatbot utilization can transform every aspect of gym operations, especially in these two departments:
👉 Staff management: Like with member services, chatbots can free up management time by helping schedule staff shifts, handle general HR inquiries, and assist with gym staff onboarding.
👉 Inventory management: When you integrate chatbots with your inventory system, they can track supplies, notify you when supplies get low, and place orders automatically.
In addition, chatbots generate critical data insights into operation-related trends that can help you make more informed decisions about improving gym operations.
What’s the Best Way to Implement AI Chatbots?
The smartest way to implement Al chatbots in your gym business is to partner with a gym management software company like Kilo. This will ensure seamless integration and optimal automation benefits.
A robust software platform like Kilo manages various aspects of gym operations, including member management, schedule, payroll, billing, and inventory control. You can also get Gym Lead Machine to handle marketing and sales tasks.
When selecting a comprehensive system through Kilo, you can effortlessly integrate chatbots to automate all these processes. This leads to optimal efficiency and enhanced member experiences.
Kilo also provides all the essential APIs and tools to connect chatbots with your existing system, enabling real-time updates and precise data handling. In addition, a comprehensive platform like Kilo offers ongoing support, updates, and scalability. This guarantees that your chatbot solution matches your gym’s growth.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Here are answers to some common questions about chatbots for gyms: 👇
Q: Do chatbots require training?
Yes. AI chatbots require training to gain the knowledge and capabilities needed to assist your members and staff fully. During training, the bots develop a deep understanding of your members’ questions and comments. The process involves inputting data manually and allowing the app to crawl web content. Both methods are very simple to complete.
Q: What’s the advantage of manually inputting Q&As in chatbots?
Manually adding question-answer pairs allows you to customize your bot’s response. You can also fine-tune the chatbot’s knowledge base to answer specific questions from your members. All you need to do is access the chatbot’s settings, select the “Customize Bot Response” section, add a question, and add the corresponding answer.
Q: Is it challenging to integrate gym workflows with chatbots?
Yes. Integrating workflows with chatbots can be challenging, especially when dealing with legacy systems, highly customized processes, and fragmented workflows. These conditions usually require additional development work to ensure clear communication with the chatbot.
However, integrating workflows with well-defined processes and a next-generation gym management system is relatively straightforward. For example, Kilo’s gym management systems readily accept chatbot integration with robust APIs and pre-built connectors.
Next Moves
Chatbots are among the latest tools you can add to your gym business’s digital strategy to improve its efficiency and profitability. Your next move to leveraging chatbot technology to boost your gym’s progress can be as easy as booking a call with Kilo.
