Jon Williams, COO, The Marlow Club
Luxury health and wellbeing club, the Marlow Club, delivers 250 exercise classes a week and has a very loyal community of members, who treat the facility as their wellbeing hub – their home from home.
COO, Jon Williams, reached out to Venueserve Fitness when lockdown first commenced in March; he needed an online offering for his 3,000 members that looked and felt like the club’s own: “It’s all about our members having a positive experience, every time they visit. When we switched to online during the first lockdown it was important this same positive experience happened virtually. Our online content had to look and feel like the Marlow Club.
“We gave our members the choice: to stick with us, to freeze or to leave. Those who continued with us gained access to our virtual membership. It was valuable income for the club, and I was humbled that 1,700 members continued to pay their full membership.
“It’s testament not only to the community and the brand we’ve nurtured over 17 years, but to the engagement Venueserve Fitness enables us to deliver. Our live streamed classes feature our instructors doing the classes our members love. It means the Marlow Club can be accessed anywhere and anytime. It adds value to our offer and aids our customer retention - it’s a service we will never be without.”
Marlow Club members have viewed the sessions almost 28,000 times to date, and since reopening in July, every live class is now streamed.
“You want to work out on
holiday – no problem. You
want to join in your favourite
HIIT session at midnight –
no problem. The Marlow
Club now operates 24
hours a day – globally!”
Williams says: “COVID-19 restrictions mean our classes run at 50 per cent capacity. Now, when members can’t get into a physical class they can still participate virtually. All the instructor has to do is turn on the camera and stream through an iPad – it’s so simple and so flexible. The platform is also secure. I have a duty of care to my staff and instructors and I don’t want them to feel vulnerable online; and Venueserve Fitness gives me that confidence and peace of mind.”
As a result, the Marlow Club now sells virtual-only memberships, and already has around 100 exclusively online members.
He concludes: “The future uses of this application are limitless. You want to work out on holiday – no problem. You want to join in your favourite HIIT session at midnight – no problem. The Marlow Club now operates 24 hours a day – globally!”
