After the Corona pandemic, Gymfit had also lost some members - just like almost every gym. Sonny Schönbächler decided to make new investments and move forward to a fully networked training area, gaining many new members in a very short time. 15% growth and a 50% increase in young members are the proud result. Even the Swiss wrestling king Matthias Glarner is enthusiastic.
Find out everything in the statement video:
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Challenge: Corona and discounter
Former Olympian Sonny Schönbächler runs the Somasana health house near Zurich in Affoltern am Albis. In 1996, shortly after his Olympic victory in ski acrobatics, he took over the health house. On an area of 1700 m2 customers receive a holistic offer of fitness, health, wellness and beauty. The Gymfit gym offers fitness, group fitness and wellness on three floors. Here, the digitized workout space is best used by members.
Sonny on the beginnings and development of Gymfit: "In order to prevent customer churn and always stay up to date, we started working with EGYM in 2016. With circuit training and an additional 21 free-standing machines, we opened up a whole new world of training for our customers. From the beginning, quite a lot of new customers came to us, because word had spread. Thus, we continuously gained members and stood out from low-cost providers.
But then, unfortunately, everything changed: Corona, a horror for our industry! At the same time, a discount store opened in town and made life difficult for us with dumping prices. We then thought about how we wanted to set ourselves up for the longer term." Sonny and his team acted confidently, "We're so good and exclusive, plus we're better quality - we kept our prices and also invested in new electronic training systems in 2022."
Open mode attracts free weight athletes and young members
"We now have the latest EGYM equipment in our studio with Open Mode, the entire Smart Flex Park, plus new endurance equipment from Matrix," said Susanne Theofanidis, who has been with Gymfit for more than 20 years and has served as general manager since 2020. "Our customers really appreciate that we have made additional investments to offer them even more. We get a lot of positive feedback for that."
Sonny explains the benefit of Open Mode, "It's hit like gangbusters with young people. That's because everyone who has been training in free weights can now use EGYM. By determining their own weight, repetitions, training methods, etc., they are now discovering EGYM. And that's a huge step forward for us as well."
Digitalization also streamlines processes and reduces the workload on trainers - which in turn improves customer service. Says Susanne, "Fitness Hub and Trainer App have greatly simplified our workflows. We can show customers everything that concerns them directly or address them specifically - and, of course, we are always technically up-to-date thanks to the regular automatic software updates for the EGYM equipment."
Result at Gymfit: Rapid growth - loyal members
Gymfit owner Sonny Schönbächler is very pleased with the results of his studio: "Thanks to our networked training space, we have increased our growth to 15% in just a few months and, in addition, reduced our fluctuation to 20%. We actually only have departures due to private circumstances. Customer satisfaction is very high.
And memberships among young people, those under 25, even increased by 50% - that's a great success!"
Wrestler king Matthias Glarner is an EGYM fan
Matthias Glarner won the final in the Swiss national sport of wrestling in 2016, becoming the '2016 Wrestling King'. A few years later, he retired from top-level sports and continued to work in the sports industry: "Now, on the one hand, I'm a normal athlete and, on the other hand, I've started my own business with a partner and coach competitive athletes."
"I became aware of EGYM a while ago and realized that training with EGYM is simply fun. It always sets new stimuli and is incredibly motivating. The different training modes - including negative , explosive, isokinetic or adaptive training - are a valuable support for trainers. The performance data after each repetition, after each series, provides additional immediate value. So on the one hand you have a challenge between the athletes, on the other hand direct feedback: How good was I today? How far away am I from my big dream?"
Sonny Schönbächler concludes.
"Thanks to our networked training space, we've increased our growth to 15% in just a few months, and on top of that, we've further reduced attrition.
Memberships of those under 25 actually increased by 50%."
Sonny Schönbächler,Owner Gymfit Affoltern
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Source and image source: EGYM
Published on: 9 September 2023