You do not need to spend money to make your operation more efficient. Most clubs and organizations believe that going digital is the solution to many problems, and this is partially true. However, going digital does not help unless you increase efficiency with it. The reason why clubs, and companies in the service industry, need to go digital is mainly to obtain a certain level of efficiency whether we talk about marketing, sales, cost management, or people management. Efficiency will ultimately allow revenue to go up, costs to go down and customer retention to stay high.

The truth is that going digital can bring little unless you make the necessary adjustment to get the best out of it. Digitisation will work at the highest if it enables the simplification of the internal processes like administration, scheduling, payments, communication, etc. It must allow the company to cut steps and give people instant access to correct information about the program. For this reason, before going digital, clubs and organisations, will have to adjust to be prepared for it.

I wanted to share with you a few free adjustments you can implement to make your operation more efficient, with or without a digital solution.  

Centralization

Start by collecting all data into one place. All the information about your operation should be in one place only. Eliminate unnecessary files and bring information together. Very often different professionals use different files to handle their own schedule keeping others in the dark, and the changes they make to their documents do not reflect in the main database used by the club. They also use a different WhatsApp group for every communication channel. The more different files and sources of communication you have the more extra work and coordination you will have to manage. Whether you use excel or anything else, you need to have all changes to your program affecting one database only, and all these changes should be accessible to whoever is involved in the operation of the program.

Standardization

After all our data are in one place, you need to standardize your data. Try not to use too many different names for sessions, or too many channels of communication. It is ok to give freedom when assisting clients, but the more different things you and your staff must worry about, the more confusion you will create among clients and staff. You will notice that many different types of packages and sessions can be combined under one umbrella, or that clients do not care how they book a session, as long as they have quick access to what they want. By standardizing your booking process and collection of information about clients, you will be able to create simple tasks everyone can follow, avoiding confusion, mistakes, and unnecessary coordinative work.

Empowerment

Now that you have everything in one place, and you have a standard set of procedures, you can empower your professionals and staff to make changes directly to the central database, where all information about clients and schedules are. At this stage, your database should be simple and easy to handle. Now you can let your professionals update the necessary information without giving them the possibility to make bad mistakes. The secret is the simplicity of the process. If you simplify the tasks for your staff, you can delegate more work.

Streamline the Booking Process

The more options clients have when making a reservation the more difficult it will be to update the internal database when changes are to be made. Try to narrow it down and educate your clients about the most effective process you recommend them to do when requesting a booking. The longer the request for a booking stays unanswered the more work, potential problems, and potential revenue loss you will have. By creating a standardized process of bookings management, you will create a more effective operation. In addition, you and your staff will know where to find information quickly, and you will create a more transparent club environment. 

Even though some digital solutions can dramatically help you, there are many improvements you can make before implementing one of these solutions. The goal is to increase efficiency all around. Simplifying the processes you deal with on a daily basis will improve the work environment for you, and your staff, allowing your clients to get what they want quickly and without frustration.

At JogaApp, we help businesses to reduce costs and optimise their processes daily. Send us a message at contact@jogaapp.com and connect with a member of the JogaApp team to find out how we can help you and your business as well.