Making sacrifices in the early days of a startup is usually the norm, but launching a startup at the onset of a pandemic was a totally different ball game.
Most of us are no stranger to the sacrifices needed when opening a small business; we eat ramen in the early days to take our husbands or wives out for steak in the future.
When we opened the “doors” of Gym Lead Machine to the world in Q1 of 2020, our team was required to make certain trade-offs to serve our clients. We stripped down to the bare essentials to make sure gym owners had what they needed to serve their members during the trials of lockdowns and the excitement of re-opening. You can read more about how our company has changed over the last year here.
The biggest sacrifices we had to make were regarding schedules and communication with our clients. To onboard as many clients as our skeleton team could, we worked 12 hour days and took sales and onboarding calls until our schedules were full. We could not take additional onboarding calls, nor could we “jump on a quick call.” At the height of the pandemic, we onboarded over 70 clients in one month. This meant that we also had to make sacrifices around how we could communicate with existing clients. We set boundaries; we did not take phone calls or ad hoc zoom calls. Everything had to be scheduled a week in advance. Our only form of ongoing communication was written emails to our help@gymleadmachine.com inbox. Our support team was spread thin (but they still maintained a sub 24 hour resolution time).
As a CEO, I know how important it is to talk to your customers, build relationships and hear feedback. While I knew what we were doing was important for our growth and our team’s sanity, I struggled with saying “no” to someone who needed more help.
We no longer have to say no.
Over the last year, our customer support team has more than doubled (and we’re looking for a talented Australia or New Zealand-based team member). We operate 7 days a week, instead of 5. We’re able to respond to you even faster than we did in 2020, and we are excited to offer more lines of communication with our team when you need it. We still love a well-written email to help@gymleadmachine.com, but we’re excited to communicate with you in so many other ways!
We want to offer you a pre-scheduled zoom call if you are struggling or want to build something outside of our stack. We may check in with you via phone or SMS, and yes, it’s really us! Please text us back – we love it! We also offer a live chat feature that lives in your GLM help library, and if one of our support staff is online, you can chat with them right away!
Ease of communication for our clients fits perfectly into our mission to make life easier for gym owners, and we can’t wait to talk to you more.
Want to learn more about the GLM system?
If you want to take a deep dive into learning about the GLM system or customize aspects of the software with the help of a specialist, we have also added a program for Enhanced Support. This 4-week program offers 10 Zoom calls with your personal Support Specialist. These calls can be for the gym owner or whichever member(s) of the team use the GLM system the most. Your Support Specialist can even assist with training new members of your team and helping acquaint them with the software! You can learn more about our Enhanced Support offerings here.
Signed,
Kaleda Connell
