Instructor incentives
…are a powerful tool in your business arsenal. Aligning your business goals and the goals of your employees is an important part of your revenue growth.
However, most studios may not be paying enough attention to creating effective incentive structures for their employees. Bonuses based around class attendance and commission-based bonuses for selling products and long-term memberships are two easy ways to implement incentives.
Per-class payroll should increase with higher class attendance
While this sounds like a fairly straightforward idea, there are many ways to implement this concept. The most basic payroll model reflecting this idea is a per-class base with a per-head bonus structure (i.e. $30 per class plus $3 for every head over 10 customers). zingfit even allows you to set percentage cuts of per-class net revenue. Either way, your payroll structure should reward the instructor for higher class revenues/attendance. Now, you might think you are only rewarding the instructors with the best class time-slots. But your instructors need to start thinking of themselves as studio marketers too.
Your instructors are your studio’s brand ambassadors
Encourage your instructors to advertise their upcoming classes and events, via their social channels, and helping fill the room to capacity—increasing their own pay, as well as the revenue of the studio. Many of the top brands I’ve worked with closely collaborate with their rock-star instructors who are active on social media to plan out these social posts. They engage their followers and help bring more clients into the studio. Whether it be an Instagram post before tomorrow’s class or a Facebook message with a link directly to their upcoming class, your instructors are a powerful media channel to advertise the awesome activities happening at your studio.
And practice what you preach—follow instructors and other studios on Instagram and Facebook so you know what they’re doing. Study your favorite brands’ approach to social media. And use it to build your own differentiated strategy that tells your brand’s story in the most entertaining way possible. And, if it’s doable in your budget, pay someone with experience to help plan and run your social channels. I promise you, those really “cool” social channels are not happening by chance. They are planning weeks and months in advance what they will talk about, write and show.
I follow many boutique fitness studios and their instructors on Instagram. Most of my feed is studio and instructor updates on upcoming classes and note-worthy studio announcements. Whether it be a guest DJ’s live set at a local spin studio, or the opportunity to see Noah’s abs in person(!), getting the word out through your instructors is important.
If you want to sell more long-term memberships or larger class packages, give your instructors an incentive to ‘recommend’ them to your clients
A few factors drive successful studios: great classes, a compelling brand story, and most importantly, excellent instructors. Clients are more inclined to purchase long-term memberships or larger class packages if their favorite instructors recommend them. Obviously, you don’t want your instructors pushing memberships at every opportunity. Your studio is not a bazaar. Most software platforms allow you to set commission rates for users on certain products, memberships, and class packages.
If you’d like to learn more about how zingfit is designed for the workflow of boutique fitness instructors and making their success your studio’s success, please drop us a line at sales@zingfit.com. We are happy to share more information on the platform and our ‘made for boutiques’ approach.
CLICK HERE to book a zingfit demo!
By Evan Welch – Sales Manager
