Stretch Zone is a leading franchised stretching concept that offers proprietary, practitioner-assisted stretching sessions to help clients achieve an enhanced quality of life.
With a steady cadence of location openings, Stretch Zone has passed 250 locations and is on their way to 300, and is definitely in growth mode. One franchisee was even named Franchisee of the Year 2023 by the International Franchise Association -- she currently owns 22 locations with a goal of 40-50 in the next three years!
When you’re expanding that quickly, consistency and reliability are critical. From the beginning Stretch Zone has found that with ClubReady. “It’s enabled us to scale the brand by ensuring consistency across the locations,” says Keith Trawick, Chief Information Officer of Stretch Zone. Read more from our conversation about growth and what brands should look at when scaling their operations.
Why did you decide to partner with ClubReady?
Trawick: The founders of ClubReady had been in the fitness industry for quite a while. I was comfortable with their background and knew they were going to build something very successful.
What are the benefits to your club as a result of this partnership?
Trawick: ClubReady has its foundations in personal training and service-based booking. The ability to sell packages, sessions and how you manage and redeem those, fraud protection, etc. are all things a business needs to have in place to make sure that customers are taken care of. That was their bread and butter. They really focused on that more so than anyone else, and that was important to us because that’s the core of our business.
How did ClubReady help you scale from that initial corporate setup to the franchise setup?
Trawick: In addition to the things I mentioned before about ClubReady, they’ve also done a really good job at supporting franchises. Royalty management and fee collection were already baked into the system, and they had been well-tested and vetted. The ability to specify security, packages you sell, marketing goals at the corporate level, and having those propagate down to the locations was mission-critical functionality. It’s enabled us to scale the brand by ensuring consistency across the locations.
What are the benefits to your members as a result of this partnership?
Trawick: I think with most good software, the less your customers know about it the better job it’s doing. Are you billed correctly? Are you billed timely? Are your sessions managed correctly? Do you get the proper notifications via email and text message? The better things work, the less impact they really have on the customer. From that standpoint, just being able to count on the continuity and the business functions working has been a huge benefit to the customers.
Have you been pleasantly surprised by working with ClubReady in any way?
Trawick: From my standpoint, I think what we’ve seen with ClubReady is consistent, incremental improvement where quarterly and annually additional features are added, the product gets deeper. Our business model is relatively simple. So for us, reliability and stability in servicing our core business is what’s most important.
What else can you tell other club owners/operators about the benefits of working with ClubReady?
Trawick: What’s really important is the company and the support that stands behind it. Can you get somebody on the phone if you do have a problem? How does the company respond to challenges? The other important thing is the ability to train staff. Is the application intuitive? Does it make sense to people that have never seen it? Is it easy to navigate? Because what we see in our world is there’s just tremendous pressure with turnover on the constant onboarding of staff. And so, the easier the software makes it to onboard new employees, the more beneficial it is to corporate.
Planning for Fitness Growth
With an integrated suite, ClubReady offers owners, operators and anyone in the fitness business the tools they need to succeed and scale their business. Check out other customer stories and get a demo to see how ClubReady could set your business up for success.
About Stretch Zone
Stretch Zone is the leading franchised stretching concept that offers proprietary, practitioner-assisted stretching sessions to help clients achieve enhanced quality of life. It was founded by Jorden Gold in 2004 after seeing first-hand the benefits assisted stretching brought to his grandfather. With a steady cadence of location openings, Stretch Zone recently achieved its 257 location milestone. The brand has now set a goal to reach 300 locations in Q2 of 2023. As a pioneer within the health and wellness space, Stretch Zone uses its patented Stretch Zone Stabilization System to aid in increased mobility and muscle function. The system enables clients to accomplish Flex-ability for Life® with processes to train muscles to move with a greater range of motion, allowing for an easier golf swing or comfortable night’s rest. Clients are welcomed into Stretch Zone by nationally accredited practitioners, a relaxing atmosphere and secure equipment.