Gladstone software helps Virgin Active customise the fitness experience

When members check in to any of Australia’s Virgin Active Health Clubs the technology that enables their access (including the card reader, check in system and membership database) is all powered by software from Gladstone Health & Leisure.

Virgin Active has been using Gladstone’s health and fitness club management software for a number of years, a relationship that offers significant benefits for one of Australia’s best-known fitness, activity and lifestyle brands.

A subsidiary of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, Virgin Active currently has six sites across Australia, specialising in personalised fitness and lifestyle experiences to help its customers get fit and have fun ‘the Virgin Way’.

Gladstone software is also in use at several other Virgin Active sites outside of Australia, including its new club in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

While Gladstone Health & Leisure provides comprehensive software that works ‘straight out of the box’, it also offers possibilities for companies with very specific needs that want to customise the experience they create for their staff and customers.

Virgin Active Head of Brand and Marketing, Anton Brown, says having software that is highly configurable by design is essential for Virgin Active.

Brown explains “our software forms an integral part of the customer journey to deliver amazing workout experiences for all of our different member needs.”

While many leisure management software programs can be configured at some level, Gladstone software takes this one step further by enabling Virgin Active to develop additional functionality to support its unique requirements.

Through these additions, Virgin Active can offer a customised experience by designing everything to meet the specific needs of its staff and members. This extends from branding on the user interface to modules for frequent flyer points and laundry service management.

Gladstone software is also used to provide live data across Virgin Active’s sites, enabling members to be recognised at more than one site and giving them access to organisation-wide special offers.

Gladstone Business Manager Ian Wilcock says Gladstone’s software has a fully customisable Application Programming Interface (API), allowing businesses to develop the software in ways that wouldn’t be possible with other leisure and fitness software.

Wilcock advises “the system Virgin Active uses is very much theirs. It’s customised with their branding and their own user interface and, it’s been created to suit their specific needs.

“Bigger, more established chains recognise they need their own customised solutions. If you want to offer a premium service, sometimes you need to do something different that helps create your brand experience. Gladstone allows health and fitness clubs to do this.”

Wilcock says having a software platform that provides managers with the ability to better understand their business and administer some facets from a central point is also very valuable for businesses working across multiple sites.

In this way, Gladstone provides a solid foundation while also giving businesses the building blocks they need to develop their own unique software functionality in a single platform.

Click here to contact Gladstone Health & Leisure via their Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory entry.

Images: Virgin Active Pitt Street, Sydney (top) and Sir Richard Branson with members of the Virgin Active team at the announcement of the soon-to-open club at Sydney's Barangaroo. (below).

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