Online tools help Manukau Leisure's community gyms provide 'inclusive fitness'

With seven gyms operating across Manukau, from Mangere to Half Moon Bay, Manukau Leisure is the picture of a busy and successful Council business.
After many years of providing fitness facilities to the local community, memberships across the seven gyms is continuing to grow, achieving an impressive 24% increase in fitness traffic over the last financial period.
However, Manukau Leisure's may well be that their fitness staff have never lost sight of their commitment to their diverse communities thereby helping people realise their goals and lead active lifestyles every day.
Lucy Lloyd-Barker, Group Manager of Fitness for the organisation, says she takes great pride in this community-focused approach, explaining "we provide 'inclusive fitness' where all members of the community are welcome, regardless of their ability or fitness needs. We try to make our gym environments as non-threatening as possible so that the people who wouldn't usually step into a gym, but might need us most, will use our services."
All seven Manukau Leisure fitness gyms feature modern cardio and weights equipment, warm and friendly community atmospheres, as well as qualified, professional staff that provide support to make sure members achieve fitness results.
Lloyd-Barker adds "we make getting moving and staying healthy as easy as possible. Whether your goal is weight loss, sports training, rehabilitation or general fitness training, we're here to help. Everyone is different so we custom design exercise programmes to suit our members' needs."
A core part of Manukau Leisure's ability to serve their Community Gyms' customers effectively and efficiently comes through their membership billing services. For more than six years they have been using Debitsuccess to manage the collection of membership payments.
Lloyd-Barker adds "this makes things much easier for us and our clients. Over three quarters of our members pay for their memberships by direct debit."
Manukau Leisure also utilises Debitsuccess' Online Management Gateway, otherwise known as OMG, to provide an accessible option for those in their community that want to join online.
Lloyd-Barker explains "OMG is an online tool that Debitsuccess has provided us that means people can sign up to any of our gyms, from the comfort of their home, via our website.
"Because it's online, the system is paperless and, we're able to achieve savings in terms of administration time and costs. But it's also really easy for customers. It gives flexibility and control over when they pay, which is often an important factor to make customers feel comfortable with their purchase of a gym membership.
"Debitsuccess provides a very high level of service to us and our customers. They are the business admin specialists, which means we can get on with what we do best, inspiring vibrant, active communities."
Debitsuccess' full service billing solution handles all membership payments and customer service through a call centre, including any credit control on missed payments.
For more information about Debitsuccess call 09 4810 498 (in New Zealand) or 1300 305 011 (in Australia).

http://www.debitsuccess.co.nz