What is The Fit Guide and what does it represent?
The Fit Guide is the only global, independent rating system for premium fitness clubs and studios.
Our team of ‘experience evaluators’, as we call them, anonymously visit leading fitness clubs across the globe to assess the full client experience, much like Michelin Guide has done for 100 years for restaurants, and Forbes Travel Guide for over 60 years for hotels.
We represent excellence in the fitness industry. In fact, excellence is one of our values as a company, as we seek to elevate the standards of fitness to the same high levels as other, more established, industries.
If you’re a fitness-lover, The Fit Guide will help you find the world’s best fitness experiences. If you’re a business owner, we have resources to help you achieve true hospitality excellence.
What was the gap you identified and how does The Fit Guide fulfill this? What makes it stand out?
As someone who loves premium fitness, I’ve been to the many of the world’s leading fitness cities to check out the top experiences. I was often disappointed by the level of service and always thought that, as an industry, we should, and could, be doing better.
Clubs are now charging as much as $50 now for a drop-in class, and so we believe clients should be receiving great service and an incredible five-star experience every time.
After a conversation in early 2022 with our now co-founder Matt Lavender, we realized that while other industries have trusted and established independent bodies for recognizing excellence, nothing like this existed in the fitness industry.
On that day, The Fit Guide was born and, over the next six months, we worked with fitness industry experts to create the standards and develop our evaluation process.
How does The Fit Guide evaluate a client’s success?
Our evaluations are incredibly comprehensive, covering over 250 touch points across the complete client journey. This starts with a telephone enquiry before the visit, and then covers the entire in-person experience at the club split into different areas including the reception services, the class experience, the equipment and studio, and public areas. We even assess the club’s online presence and booking process.
At the end of the visit, the report gets edited and quality checked and the club is then awarded a rating based on the score from the complete evaluation.
To ensure that the scoring system accurately represents the experience, the process has been refined over hundreds of visits and thousands of data points, as well as many consultations with club owners and clients.
What is The Fit Guide’s contribution to the industry at large, and how does it do it?
When we launch in a city, we do a deep dive into the industry there, and draw up a shortlist of the leading 50 clubs. We see which clubs rank well on Google and other platforms, and gather insights from industry insiders on the ground.
Once we have our list we conduct our independent evaluations at each club, before reaching out to the club operator to discuss their how they did. Over the last year we’ve spoken to hundreds of clubs and been able to offer valuable insights into what they’re doing well, and how they can improve.
One of the most exciting things about this project is that, as we grow our presence across the globe, we expect to see industry standards raise. Just as the best restaurants in the world know that anyone could be a Michelin inspector, and deliver great service every time, we want to see the same level of accountability among fitness clubs that strive to be the best.
We provide tools and training for clubs to help improve their service and experience, which, on the service and hospitality side, have been built with Matt’s background in working with the world’s leading hotels. We also provide free resources which all clubs can benefit from.
The positive effect that The Fit Guide will have on the industry is really what gets us most excited.
How has technology impacted the fitness landscape in the last few years, and how does The Fit Guide makes use of it?
Fitness technology has really developed over the last decade, but we believe that the human touch and in-person connection won’t be replaced any time soon. However, while our process focuses primarily on the “in-real-life” experience, we have a whole category covering digital and technology.
This section looks at elements such as ease of online booking, website functionality and the technology that’s woven into the workout experience.
Internally, we have a comprehensive online portal where clubs can view their evaluation results and analytics, as well as access digital resources to help them improve. We’ll be developing this side more to help impact the industry at scale.
What are your TOP tips for running a successful fitness business or advice to people looking at starting up?
There are so many things I could say here! The wealth of data and information we’ve collected during visits to 250 of the world’s leading clubs has highlighted many areas where we need to improve, but if I had to pick one I would recommend that coaches and reception staff double down on the human connection part of the interaction.
The front desk team are often the first interaction a new client will have, so smile, learn and use their name, and show some genuine interest in them. In short, show them that you’re happy to see them and you want to help them have a great session!
If your whole team lives and breathes this value of building human connection, you’ll already be ahead of most of the industry.
Also, for owners and managers reading this, focus on providing service and hospitality to your team, as well as your clients. A happy and excited team will more naturally build a great place for clients, too.
What do you see in the future of fitness in the next 12-18 months?
I think we will see some interesting developments in the AI space which will make services like online programming a very cheap commodity. In contrast to this, in-person experiences will continue to grow, as people seek a special hour of their day and a community.
What will you/your team do differently given the chance? Is it still too late to apply this?
At The Fit Guide, we will focus on the in-person experience side of the fitness industry, with a mission to help clubs create incredible five-star experiences for their members each and every time.
If you consider yourself in the premium part of the industry, you’ll need to prioritize this to survive and do well.
What are some of the biggest challenges for you and your team to overcome?
Over the next 12 months, we want everyone in the fitness industry to know about The Fit Guide and be striving to achieve our five-star rating, which means achieving over 90% of our more than 250 standards.
Our team is working hard to get out the message that we’re here to inspire excellence and collaborate with the industry; to help it improve.
What is The Fit Guide’s underlying motto, and how’s this inspiring you and the fitness community at large?
We celebrate and build five-star fitness experiences. I’m not just a fitness business owner – I’m also a client of fitness clubs whenever I travel – so improving the world’s fitness industry inspires and excites me everyday, as I know the huge impact we can have on a person’s day, or even their life.
