Courtney Zwirn used to be at her gym, CrossFit Sango in Clarksville, TN every morning. And every evening. And even though they were closed in the middle of the day, “people would be messaging me asking to come in early,” she explained. Sigh.
And because Zwirn wanted to accommodate her members, she would come back to the gym early before the evening classes began.
Even the weekends weren’t a time to rest, and like many moms, Zwirn would drag her two-and-a-half year-old toddler to the gym with her, who would hang out upstairs for a couple hours.
“We’re also a big military town so a lot of our members work from 8 until 5 and they have trouble getting to class, so we wanted to be able to offer them more,” she explained.
This is why Zwirn decided to sign up with HybridAF, as it seemed like the perfect solution to her two-fold problem: Her desire to accommodate her clients, and her desire to avoid living at the gym, not to mention having her child spend his weekend there.
This is also why Tiffani Arndt, another gym-owning mother who is also a chief nursing officer, joined HybridAF with her gym CrossFit Ground Up in Hastings, Nebraska in 2020: She just didn’t have a whole lot of extra time.
Joining HybridAF has made all the difference, Arndt explained, not just for her, but for her members.
“It has been a really great thing for our members. It has offered great flexibility and has been a really big benefit,” said Arndt, who estimates that 40 percent of her members make use of the 24/7 access.
She added: “And as a gym owner, it has been helpful because there were always requests to come in and do extra things, and someone always needed to be there to open the door, and now we don’t need to. And it’s also just really nice to see the gym flowing throughout the day, nice to see the gym being used, and people can come in whenever.”
Further, because Arndt always knows what’s happening in her gym because of the HybridAF app, it’s a “sense of security,” she said.
The same is true for 46-year-old Ann Robatin Fuerst the owner of Essential CrossFit in Wilmington, NC.
Fuerst signed up with HybridAF in March, 2021 and it has been a game changer for various reasons, including helping with client acquisition and client retention, all the while allowing her to avoid burnout, as well as giving her a sense of security when she’s working out alone in her gym.
“If I’m there by myself at weird hours, having the door locked all the time except for member access only makes me feel safe so nobody random can walk through the door,” McClintock explained.
Further, like Zwirn and Arndt, having HybridAF in her corner simply means “me not having to be there all the time, so I have freedom,” she said, adding that she spends probably 50 percent less time at the gym now than she did before.
“The number one thing is not getting burnt out. I have days off now, and as a mother with kids there is nothing more important than spending time with my family while letting my members still have the ability to chase their fitness goals,” she explained.
And the best part is, Fuerst realizes that even though she isn’t there as much as she used to be, the 24/7 service has helped her acquire more clients and improve her client retention.
“People are able to come in whenever they want, so it’s a huge benefit. My clients love it,” she said.
