What is the difference between a yoga studio and a great yoga studio? If there’s anything that sets two brands in the same business space apart, it is the customer experience they provide.

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Customers who have a great experience with a brand are more likely to come back to the brand and recommend the brand to their friends and family.

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Simply put, ensuring your yoga studio members have exceptional experiences will not only help you retain them, but it will also make them your brand ambassadors, ensuring new revenue as well.

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We’ve poured over a lot of information and spoken to experts about how to improve customer experiences in yoga studios. Here’s a quick look at what we learned.

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Tried and tested ways to improve customer experiences

Yoga studios and other fitness businesses fall broadly under the service industry umbrella. This means your business and your reputation are only as good as the experiences your customers have.

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Here are some tried and tested ways to improve customer service experiences.

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1. Create SOPs for in-studio, live streaming, and VOD classes

While your yoga studio may be small right now, setting up standard operating procedures will ensure your customer experience remains consistent at all times.

Thanks to the pandemic, a lot of people prefer getting fit in their own homes, and fitness businesses have started live-streaming classes and on-demand video classes to cater to this crowd.

This makes it important for you to ensure that the curriculum is followed and the delivery mechanism remains consistent across all three platforms. That way, the customer live streaming yoga classes from home or downloading their VOD classes all have the same experience.

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2. Ensure teaching consistency

In addition to ensuring all yoga instructors and trainers follow the same teaching methods and curriculum across all platforms, it is also important to ensure all of them give all students the same level of engagement, irrespective of whether it is an online class or an in-studio session.

It also means that they treat all students with the same respect and pay equal attention to all of them. Ensuring all of this will mean you will need to first clearly define how you need them to train students and how you want them to build engagement.

Then, you will need to constantly monitor your teachers and enforce these standards.

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3. Set engagement protocols for your staff to follow

Consistency should not be limited to teaching alone, but should also extend to the way your support staff treats your yoga studio members. Here are some ground rules they should follow.

• All your staff should greet members and visitors at the door the same way, and ideally escort them either to their class or, in the case of visitors who either want to learn more about your studio or enroll themselves, to your office.

• Ensure that all emails and voicemails are responded to within 24 hours of receiving them. Ideally, they should be responded to on the same day.

• Define and enforce a policy for members who arrive late for their yoga sessions. Your policy should take into consideration the nature of the session. For example, a meditation session or anything that has to do with the spiritual aspects of yoga should not be disturbed mid-session. However, a session teaching postures will not be affected as much by latecomers.

• Very often, members are likely to have questions after their classes are done. Time your classes in such a way that your teaching staff always has time to answer these questions without having to worry about the next session getting delayed.

• It is also disconcerting when people are asked to clear out the floor in a hurry after their yoga session. Very often, it is beneficial for them to have a few minutes to wind down and maybe even discuss their learning with their peers over a cuppa. Keep this in mind while scheduling class timings for your yoga studio.

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4. Offer flexibility

A lot of yoga studios and other fitness businesses are rigid in their timings and the services they offer. However, a little bit of flexibility will go a long way in retaining your members.

For example, if a member cannot attend their scheduled session, allow them to reschedule it for a time that’s more convenient to them. If someone misses a yoga session, ensure they can take it at a later date without having to pay extra for it.

These small things have a huge impact on ensuring positive customer experiences.

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5. Pay attention to the physical space

The way you maintain your studio also has a great impact on the way your yoga studio members will feel about the space. Let’s break down the maintenance of your studio space into three aspects.

• The first thing people judge your yoga studio by, whether it is online or in person, is by the way it looks. Ensure the place is always clean, the decor is not overwhelming but classy, and the overall vibe is pleasing.

• The second thing is to ensure there are no unpleasant odors floating around because this will definitely be off-putting. Be careful while using incense and scents as well, because you don’t want those smells to be overbearing either. Try using natural aromas as far as possible.

• What people hear while they’re in a yoga studio makes a huge difference to the entire customer experience as well. Loud, jarring music is the last thing people expect from a place that’s supposed to be calming. Invest in a music license and play music best suited for your studio instead of playing whatever is on the radio.

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6. Encourage feedback

You should get regular feedback on what your customers think at least once every quarter. This will give you a better understanding of whether what you’ve got in place is working or not.

It is also a good idea to have a third party come in and review every aspect of your yoga studio, from the online and offline classes to maintenance. This will allow you to get an unbiased opinion of how others perceive your yoga studio.

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7. Identify and fix gaps

Feedback is of no use if you do not identify the gaps in your system and address these issues. Once you have identified the areas that need improvement, chalk out a comprehensive plan to get things into place.

Remember, asking for feedback and improving your services should be an ongoing process for you to ensure your yoga studio members have exceptional customer experiences.

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Use Bookee to enhance your customer experience

When you partner with Bookee as your yoga studio management software, we empower you to take your customer experience to the next level.

• We’ll build you a comprehensive, branded website and smartphone app so that your members can renew memberships and manage their schedules from wherever they are.

• Our platform will allow you to host online classes with ease, and offer VOD sessions to your members.

• Our detailed reporting system will allow you to track every aspect of your yoga studio operations, and fill in any gaps immediately.

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Learn more about the amazing features Bookee’s yoga studio management software offers by booking a free demo today.