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11 Tips On How To Organise Your Personal Training Clients

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If you feel there aren’t enough hours in your working day, you may benefit from learning how to organise your personal training clients.

In this article, we’ll provide you with 11 of the best personal trainer organisation tips to provide you with more time to dedicate to growing your PT business!

The ideal way to expand your business venture is through OriGym's Level 5 Personal Training Courses, leaving you with plenty of clients to implement our organisation tips with.

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11 Tips On How To Organise Your Personal Training Clients

When you become a personal trainer, it’s vital you know how to organise personal training clients. We’ll provide you with plenty of tips in this section to help you effectively manage and organise your growing clientbase.

#1 - Use PT Software If You’re Wondering How To Organise Personal Training Clients

PT software for personal trainer organisation

Struggling with time management? If so, you may benefit from downloading some software to help with personal trainer organisation!

Personal trainer software helps you manage your schedule as you can integrate your work and personal calendars, allowing you to be more efficient with your time.

For example, as shown below from PT software Virtuagym, you can put time aside for administrative and marketing tasks, while reserving downtime to ensure you don’t become burnt out.

Virtuagym tips for organisation

This means that, while you’re training clients, you can focus on giving them the best experience possible, rather than worrying about the other tasks you need to complete.

Software also automates the booking process, meaning clients won’t have to go through you if they want to book a session. This is much more convenient as it saves you time and streamlines the process for clients as they can book at any time.

This means clients are less likely to cancel at the last minute as they can see all of your upcoming availability and choose a suitable time slot. However, if they do need to cancel, having software to automate the process makes it easy for them to manage their own booking and cancel in plenty of time.

cancel booking - personal trainer organisation tips

You’ll also be able to create an effective cancellation policy. This will prevent short notice changes, and help you maintain a good cash flow, but we’ll discuss the importance of cancellation policies later on.

Once clients have signed up, you will then have all of their details stored in one database provided by the software without the need to manually write them down. 

This allows you to see their SMART fitness goals, and track their progress easily. You can offer a much more personalised service, including sending them reminders of their session times and payment notifications.

With Virtuagym, clients have their own app which displays their unique exercise plans, performance statistics, and reminders of their upcoming bookings.

Virtuagym app personal trainer organisation

This makes it easier for them to manage their own fitness journey and gives them their own personalised experience. It also allows you to establish a closer working relationship with them, so clients will feel valued and satisfied with your service.

By integrating bookings, scheduling, and client information all into one place, the software allows you to analyse your business performance.

For instance, Virtuagym’s easy-to-use dashboard shows revenues, memberships, and member activity all in one place.

Virtuagym dashboard personal trainer organisation tips

This helps you understand client behaviour and see what the most popular options are, such as: 

  • Times
  • Classes
  • Membership 

Being able to see how many clients you can expect to train within a certain time frame helps with accurate financial forecasting. For instance, you can evaluate performance indicators such as cash flow and put strategies to make more money with your personal training.

You’ll be able to make business decisions more easily when implementing personal trainer organisation tips such as this one.

 

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#2 - Send Session Reminders To Clients If You’re Looking For Personal Trainer Organisation Tips

Send Session Reminders To Clients If You’re Looking For Personal Trainer Organisation Tips

When it comes to clients failing to attend their sessions, they may have a genuine reason. For instance, they may have had a family emergency, meaning they were unable to attend and forgot to cancel their session.

This means it’s important to be understanding as a personal trainer and show some leniency when it comes to client cancellations. With this in mind, you may provide some exemptions in your PT cancellation policy.

An example is shown below in Forever-Strong's cancellation policy, suggesting clients will receive a refund if they’re unable to attend due to illness, relocation, or a drop in income:

Forever Strong Cancellation PT Organisation

However, some clients may not attend simply because they forgot about their booking or forgot to get in touch with you regarding cancellation.

This will leave you waiting around and wasting time you could have spent with another client, writing programmes, or recruiting new clients.

To avoid this, and help with your personal trainer organisation, we’d recommend sending a reminder out to clients the day before their session. This could be in the form of a text or email and should encourage clients to contact you if they cannot attend.

Send reminder messages to organise personal trainer clients

Alternatively, you may ask them to confirm they can attend, so you have at least 24 hours to fill the slot if they can no longer make it.

For example, your reminder could read:

Hi (Client name), this is a reminder of your session with me at [gym location] tomorrow at [time]. Please contact me at [email address or phone number] to confirm your attendance. I look forward to our session!

As mentioned in one of our first tips for organisation as a personal trainer, you may also want to consider using personal training software such as Vagaro to do this. This software can automatically send reminders to clients once they’ve booked in.

Vagaro personal trainer clients organisation

Vagaro app personal trainer organisation tips

The client-facing personal trainer app does this via email, text, and push notifications, which clients can automatically add to their calendars, reducing the number of no-shows.

This means you’ll spend less time sending out reminders and can dedicate more time to training clients.

 

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#3 - Have A Separate Business Phone And Email Account For Optimal Personal Trainer Organisation

Separate Business Phone And Email Account For Optimal Personal Trainer Organisation

You may think integrating your personal and work contact information will help keep things simple. However, we’d advise against this and one of our tips for organisation as a personal trainer is to instead keep your work and personal lives separate.

Not only does this portray an air of professionalism and show you’re committed to helping clients, it also helps you set effective personal training boundaries

Clients may feel they can contact you at any time of the day if you’re using your personal phone number, meaning you never switch off. 

However, having a separate work phone means you can set times you’ll be available to reply to messages.

Separate Laptop For PT Organisation

If you have the same business and personal email account, you’re also likely to miss enquiries from potential leads. This looks unprofessional and could mean you miss out on potential clients who are likely to seek the services of another trainer instead. 

When creating a separate email account, your address should be different from your personal account. We’d recommend using the same domain name as your website - most personal training website builders offer this as part of their service.

For example, Chris Murray from CRPerformance has a professional email address which matches his website, which is BodyTransformation.co.uk:

Body Transformation Contact Info PT Organisation

This looks more professional, meaning potential clients are more likely to trust you’re a great personal trainer and submit an enquiry. He also has a work mobile number as well as a contact form for those looking to enquire about personal training services through the website.

 

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#4 - Tips For Organisation As A Personal Trainer Include Establishing A Clear Cancellation Policy

Organisation As A Personal Trainer Include Establishing A Clear Cancellation Policy

A standing operating procedure (SOP) is a set of instructions that helps you develop a step-by-step process for carrying out a routine operation.

SOPs also help with:

  • Increasing your business efficiency
  • Personal trainer organisation
  • Reducing miscommunication with clients
  • Preventing loss of earnings due to disorganisation

One of the most important standard operating procedures you should implement when learning how to organise personal training clients is a cancellation policy. Without a policy to abide by, you may find many clients cancel their sessions at the last minute.

Cancellation Policy Personal Trainer Organisation

Having a clear PT cancellation policy in place helps you avoid this situation as clients will lose the money they paid for the session if they fail to cancel within the set period.

You’re unlikely to be able to fill this empty time slot at such late notice and will lose the money you would have earned for that session.

In the long term, this loss of earnings will begin to have a negative impact on your revenues and could make your career as a personal trainer unfeasible.

Personal Trainer Organisation - Loss of Earnings

Clients must instead give notice when they cannot attend, so you can offer the session to others. There will be fewer gaps in your schedule, allowing you to use your time more efficiently as a personal trainer.

This also protects your earnings and allows you to establish professional boundaries with your clients, meaning you can continue to run your business efficiently.

A good cancellation policy should include:

  • A timeframe sessions need to be cancelled by
  • Consequences for clients who fail to cancel within this timeframe
  • A lateness policy
  • How clients will be reimbursed if you need to cancel at the last minute
  • How clients should cancel sessions, for example by text or email

For example, at MV Health and Fitness, they ask clients to cancel within 24 hours of their session time:

MV Health and Fitness Personal Trainer Organisation

They explain that if a personal trainer must cancel, clients will be able to reschedule or work with another trainer for the session. Their policy also includes contact details for clients who need to cancel their sessions.

 

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#5 - Track Progress By Performing Regular Assessments For Personal Trainer Organisation

Track Progress By Performing Regular Assessments For Personal Trainer Organisation

If you’re wondering how to organise personal training clients effectively, our next tip is to perform regular assessments or check-ins with your clients.

Asking the right personal trainer check-in questions allows you to monitor a client’s progress from the start of their journey to the present so you can set further plans to help them move closer to their goals.

Assessing progress at regularly organised intervals ensures clients:

  • Are aware of their goals
  • Know how they’re going to meet them
  • Have a rough time frame for achieving them

Being able to see their progress also helps keep clients motivated to continue with you on their fitness journey.

Personal trainer client organisation tips

We’d recommend conducting an initial assessment in a client’s first session. Depending on their goals, this could consist of taking measurements including:

  • Weight
  • Body composition
  • Strength
  • Endurance
  • Cardiovascular fitness
  • Feelings regarding their journey

You can then set a target to perform fitness assessments with clients on a regular basis, such as every 6 weeks, and then write a client progress report.

A progress report should justify the methods you’re implementing in a client’s training programme to help them reach their goals, meaning you should discuss what’s going well.

This doesn’t have to be focused on weight, as the numbers on the scales don’t always help show visible progress. For instance, you may instead decide to use photos to track a client’s progress. It should also contain a clear focus for future sessions.

personal trainer organisation tips weight loss

For example, if a personal training progress report reveals a client with the goal of losing weight is currently only maintaining their weight, you may suggest implementing an extra 10 minutes of cardio per session.

This will allow clients to see how you’ve helped them improve and show your services have been a worthwhile investment in their health and happiness.

The most effective way of keeping track of client progress is through using PT software.

As we’ve already mentioned, personal trainer software helps streamline your processes and allows you to work more efficiently, giving you more time to focus on training your clients.

PT software such as Vagaro allows you to keep all of your detailed client information in one place, as shown below:

vagaro client info tips for organization as a personal trainer

This ensures information such as their name, birth date, and data concerning the number of sessions that they booked is easily accessible.

  • You can also upload files to their profiles, including:
  • Images
  • Videos
  • Digital waivers
  • PDFs

When you come to check in with the client, you will have all of the information you need available at the touch of the button and will know how to organise your personal training clients effectively.

- - - -

Aside from learning how to organise personal training clients, check out these articles below to see how you can gain and retain clients:

 

Become a Master Personal Trainer With OriGym

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#6 - Tracking Potential Leads Is One Of The Most Important Personal Trainer Organisation Tips

Tracking Potential Leads Is One Of The Most Important Personal Trainer Organisation Tips

Along with focusing on delivering the best service possible to existing clients, you should be continually looking at how to get clients as a personal trainer. It’s common for those enquiring about your services not to sign up the first time they have contact with you.

This is because they may encounter barriers which prevent them from committing to regular personal training sessions, such as:

  • Financial worries
  • Perceived lack of time in their day
  • Little motivation for exercise

However, this doesn’t mean they will never sign up for your services, and in fact they’re more likely to with a little encouragement. You may need to contact them several times, whether face-to-face on the gym floor, through email, or on social media.

Personal Trainer Client Organisation Gym Floor

Also, if you’re a new PT starting out, it can be tempting to approach as many members on the gym floor as possible to begin building your client base. 

This is a good approach for getting your face known and becoming familiar with your potential client base, but doing this without keeping track of each potential lead can lead to confusion.

If you’re looking for tips for organisation as a personal trainer, we’d recommend creating a system that helps you keep track of all of your lead generation strategies, your potential leads, and your contact with them. 

This should include information such as:

  • Their name
  • Contact details, such as an email address, phone number, and social media handle if appropriate
  • Preferred method of contact
  • The date of your first and last contact with the lead
  • Result of the last contact
  • Number of times contacted in total before signing up

You may be able to do this through personal training software as recommended in our previous tip. Alternatively, you could use a simple spreadsheet to track all of the above information, as shown below:

organising personal training clients table

This allows you to identify the most effective method of contact, which will vary from client to client. For instance, they may not have signed up after your first approach on the gym floor but may have booked their first session after a follow-up text.

You can also colour-code your spreadsheet to indicate whether a sign-up has been successful or not. 

This helps you identify patterns in successful sign-ups so you can pursue those methods of contact further and means you can offer a personalised service to each potential lead. 

This will help each client feel valued and shows you’re genuinely interested in helping them achieve their goals. You’re also less likely to forget anyone and, as a result of knowing how to organise personal training clients, more people are more likely to recruit you as their PT! 

 

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#7 - Create Your Own Exercise Library If You’re Looking For Personal Trainer Organisation Tips

Create Exercise Library If You’re Looking For Personal Trainer Organisation Tips

For most personal trainers, their aim is to spend the majority of their time on the gym floor training clients. However, administrative tasks - such as creating personal trainer marketing strategies and  keeping on top of finances - can take up a lot of your working day.

Another hugely time-consuming task as a personal trainer is creating bespoke exercise programmes which are tailored specifically to the individual goals, needs, and preferences of each client.

As a Level 5 qualified PT, you’re likely to already have a good level of knowledge regarding the most effective type of exercises. For example, simple compound exercises such as barbell squats and bench presses are effective in recruiting several muscle groups at once.

Woman weightlifting personal trainer organisation tips

However, programming is much quicker if you have a library of exercises you can refer to and choose from when creating individually tailored programmes.

If you’re wondering how to organise personal training clients in this way, you could create a spreadsheet of exercises, separating them into exercises for different muscle groups. For instance, this may include exercises that target the:

  • Legs – Glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and calves
  • Upper body – Chest, back, and shoulders
  • Arms – Biceps and triceps
  • Compound movements – Target several muscle groups at once

You may also want to group them together based on the equipment that they use.

Alternatively, you could use personal training software to do this for you. For example, My PT Hub has a database containing more than 7,500 exercises with HD videos that can be built into workouts.

My PT Hub - How to organise personal training clients

You can also create custom exercises with your own videos, descriptions, and metrics, to deliver a more personalised programme to every client.

This makes it easier when writing a programme and training clients, as you won’t be jumping back and forth between different pieces of equipment. You will have a much more coherent programme, allowing you to fit more into your sessions!

personal trainer client organisation tips

As well as reducing the amount of time you spend programming, having a database of exercises to refer to means you won’t be wasting time at the start of each session trying to come up with a plan.

This is especially handy at peak times when the gym is busy and certain pieces of equipment may be taken. You can plan around this to avoid wasting time waiting for equipment.

 

Become a Master Personal Trainer With OriGym

Expand your PT business and attract more clients with our range of Level 5 Personal Training Courses!

#8 - Establish A Presence On Social Media When Learning How To Organise Personal Training Clients

Use Social Media When Learning How To Organise Personal Training Clients

As well as your email address and work phone number, another of the best tips for organisation as a personal trainer is to create PT Instagram and Facebook profiles that are separate from your personal pages. 

On these profiles you should:

  • Resist sharing personal information
  • Avoid referring to your personal accounts
  • Avoid sharing any activities that don’t relate to your work

These actions can come across as unprofessional and may put some potential clients off signing up for your services, even if you’re a great PT.

Instead, you should use your professional social media pages to share further contact information. For example, you could link to your website or landing page if you have one, encouraging users to see more and book a session with you.

As shown below, ashlea.fitness links to her website in her Instagram bio, taking users to a form where they can enquire about her services:

Ashlea Fitness Personal trainer organisation

The form helps Ashlea to gather information about the potential client, including:

  • Name and age
  • Email address
  • Instagram handle
  • Type of sessions they’re interested in
  • Goals

Not only does this make the enquiry process easy for the user, but it’s also an effective way of gathering and organising information on potential leads.

This allows Ashlea to get a better idea of the needs of her target audience so she can help meet them more efficiently. You may also want to share useful content that demonstrates your expertise and will encourage users to enquire.

This could include posts which show how to perform specific exercises correctly, as samsays_pt does on her personal training Instagram account:

Sam Says PT Organise Clients

Although we’d advise against sharing very personal information, you can share information which will help followers get to know you better as a personal trainer.

For instance, sharing a day in the life of a personal trainer, as celiworksout has done below, can help you to come across as friendly, approachable, and relatable:

Celiworksout - How To Organise Personal Trainer Clients

 

Become a Master Personal Trainer With OriGym

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#9 - Personal Trainer Organisation Involves Establishing Schedules For Collecting Client Testimonials

Personal Trainer Organisation Involves Collecting Client Testimonials

Sharing client testimonials and transformations on your personal trainer social media pages helps you build a community amongst your clients to encourage and support each other. 

According to Big Commerce statistics, 72% of consumers say positive reviews and testimonials make them trust a business more. This means you’ll want to collect and showcase a steady stream of testimonials to ensure you can continually show how you’re delivering a great service to your clients.

Organise personal training clients with recommendations

To do this, you should establish a schedule for testimonial collection. For instance, you may decide you will attempt to collect testimonials approximately 60 days into a client’s personal training journey with you.

This is a good amount of time for clients to begin seeing progress and develop a positive opinion of your services. As shown below, Reddall Fit asks clients after 12 weeks and then shares their testimonials on his Instagram page for followers and prospective clients to see:

Reddall Fit Personal Trainer Clients Organisation

Set a reminder to ensure you don’t forget and this will eventually become an automatic part of your process for working with and organising your clients.

Although establishing a schedule is an effective way of collecting personal trainer testimonials, it’s also important you don’t come across as pushy during this process, as it may discourage clients from giving positive reviews.

You should offer to check in with them casually so it comes across as an organic moment between PT and client. For example, if the 60-day mark is approaching, you could approach the client a few days before and ask:

Hi (client’s name), I’d like to check in with you to see how you think you are progressing.

I’d also like to see if there’s anything else I can do to help you move closer towards your goals. Is (date) after our session together a good time for a quick 15-minute chat?

Once you’ve had a conversation which focuses on the client and their goals, they may be more willing to post a positive review online. 

This is also a great time to ask if you can share their positive experience on your social media or website as a testimonial like Reddal Fit does.

 

Become a Master Personal Trainer With OriGym

Expand your PT business and attract more clients with our range of Level 5 Personal Training Courses!

#10 - Personal Trainer Organisation Involves Time For Continuing Professional Development

Personal Trainer Organisation Involves Time For Continuing Professional Development

You may have a jam-packed schedule full of client training sessions, programme writing, and recruiting new clients online and on the gym floor.

However, one of the most important roles of a personal trainer is to keep your knowledge of the health and fitness industry up to date. This is to ensure you can continually provide the best quality sessions for your clients and can build a reputation as a great personal trainer.

To build upon your skills and knowledge, one of the most important tips for organisation as a personal trainer is to schedule time into your working week for continuing professional development (CPD).

CPD to organize personal trainer clients

For instance, you may block out 2 to 3 hours per week on your calendar, so clients cannot book sessions during this time. You could then dedicate this time to reading journal articles, blogs, or conducting research online into the latest fitness trends, which can then be implemented into your own sessions.

Another of the best ways of doing this is by gaining a CPD fitness qualification. Here at OriGym, we offer CPD Fitness Courses in several areas, including:

This is an effective way of investing in CPD, as each course costs just €150.79 to enrol on or €570 for all six courses. They also take just one day each to complete, meaning the course can easily be scheduled into your week.

Once completed, you will be an expert in one of these areas and can hence expand the services you’re offering to clients.

For example, Jon Jones has boxing and strength & conditioning qualifications so can offer additional services to his general personal training clients:

Jon Jones boxing - Personal trainer organisation tips

By becoming a specialist in a particular niche, you may also be able to benefit from increasing the price point of your sessions for clients who are willing to pay more for your expertise.

So, although it may seem like an unnecessary task to add to your already busy schedule, keeping aside just one day for CPD can benefit your business and your personal trainer organisation in the long run.

#11 - Planning Specific Break Times Is Crucial When It Comes To Personal Trainer Organisation

Planning Specific Break Times Is Crucial When It Comes To Personal Trainer Organisation

Especially if you’re a new PT, it may be tempting to book as many clients in one day as physically possible to help you begin building your business.

However, you shouldn’t book back-to-back sessions all day as this could leave you feeling physically tired and mentally burnt out with personal training. You will be unable to provide the best experience possible for each client.

For instance, if you’re training all day on the gym floor, by the time it gets to your last client you will not have the same energy as at the start of the day. You may find it difficult to provide motivation or demonstrate exercises effectively.

tired after personal trainer client organisation

You may also find yourself sitting down, hardly speaking to clients, or even falling asleep! This is highly unprofessional and could lead to you gaining a bad reputation.

Also, as a PT you’re unlikely to be working a 9 to 5 day because many clients wish to book sessions around their own working day. 

This means you may be training clients from 7 to 8 am, 12 to 2 pm, and the rest after 5 pm. This can be a long day!

dedicate time to personal trainer organisation

For both of these reasons, it’s important to maintain your energy levels throughout the day, which you can do if you set time aside specifically to rest, recuperate, and recharge.

When it comes to knowing how to organise personal training clients, you should decide on specific times you will take a break. We’d recommend taking breaks between your busy periods, so you should schedule these during mid-morning and mid-afternoon when you can switch off completely.

rest after organising personal trainer clients

During this time, ensure you eat a healthy meal balanced with carbs, fats, and protein to help boost your energy levels. You may also want to take time to do something outside of work, whether that involves going for a walk or reading a book. This allows you to recharge mentally as well as physically!

To ensure you stick to them, decide on these times before the day and put them into your calendar so your schedule is organised.

If you have booking software, block these times out on your calendar so clients cannot book sessions in these periods. Being refreshed for every session is crucial for client retention and ensures you will build a reputation as a high-energy, highly motivational PT!

Before You Go!

Knowing how to organise personal training clients and your schedule is crucial if you’re hoping to run your PT sessions efficiently, build a loyal client base, and grow your business.

To continue attracting plenty of clients, check out our Level 5 Personal Trainer Courses so you can effectively expand your clientbase and put our tips into action to effectively organise them.

Find out more by downloading our course prospectus to see how you can successfully attract new clients.

 

Become a Master Personal Trainer With OriGym

Expand your PT business and attract more clients with our range of Level 5 Personal Training Courses!

Written by Rebecca Felton

Content Writer & Fitness Enthusiast

Graduating from the University of Liverpool with a first-class degree in English, Rebecca’s combined passions for fitness and writing are what brought her to OriGym. Rebecca is a keen gym-goer and specifically enjoys lifting weights. Outside of fitness and writing, Rebecca enjoys cooking, reading, and watching the football.

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