|News & Know How| First Person CBI Spends 10 Minutes on the Line with
Kyle Zagrodzky Q
Kyle Zagrodzky is the CEO of Go Figure, Inc., based in Houston. He began developing club management software in the 1990s, after he and his wife, Brenda, opened nine franchised Curves facilities. In 1997, he introduced the iGo Figure Membership and Business Manage- ment program, which is now sold in 14 languages in more than 50 countries.
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To hear Kyle Zagrodzky describe iGo Figure software in detail, log on to
www.igofigure.com and click on “iGo Product Video.”
What, exactly, is data mining and how can clubs capitalize on it most effectively? What prompted you to develop the iGo Figure Membership and Business Management soft-
ware program? How can health clubs get the most out of the software they have? What’s the future look like for data mining?
Data mining is a method of processing large data sets to help identify trends, patterns, and anoma- lies, with the goal of gaining insights into what’s going on in many areas of a business.
For example, on a day-to-day basis, you can use member data to help increase retention by iden- tifying at-risk customers—ones with declining or erratic attendance patterns—or, conversely, VIP customers who maintain high spending levels.
You can determine where most of your customers live, define their demographic profile, and then target the most likely prospects with an effective ad campaign. You can also use data to help identify members who are part of a special population—for instance, ones with diabetes— and then tailor programs, service levels, and specific communications for them that they’d profit from. Or you can identify and establish partnerships with the businesses in your market that club prospects tend to frequent.
These are just a few of the ways that good data can help operators manage their businesses better. If they’re not making use of data-mining software at all, or aren’t fully leveraging the soft- ware they have, then they’re missing out on some major opportunities.
I first entered the fitness industry as a martial artist many years ago. In the 1990s, my wife, Brenda, and I opened nine Curves franchises in Houston, and, in 1999, we won the Curves Multi-Franchisee of the Year Award. I began designing comprehen- sive, all-inclusive membership and club manage- ment software to meet my needs as a club operator. When iGo Figure demanded more of my time, Brenda, an outstanding club operator, took over our clubs. We sold them eight years ago.
Over the years, my team and I have continued to design the product from the end-user’s perspec- tive. Today, thousands of clubs use iGo Figure, in 14 languages, in more than 50 countries. Our software offers integrated payment-processing and collection services in several of the countries we serve. And all of our users are encouraged to take advantage of our free one-on-one training, and have unlimited access to our powerful, Internet-based learning tools.
Technological advances are constantly improving on what club management systems can deliver, which makes this an exciting field. What we can accomplish today with a single line of code required 20 lines of code just a few years ago. User-interface concepts are much more flexible and simpler to design, which makes applications easier to learn. Now, nontechnical employees can perform the complex data-mining tasks that were once left to “the IT people” to complete.
For clubs to get the most from software, top management must recognize its value and prop- erly train the employees who will be using it. Clubs will obtain the highest return on their investment only if they leverage its capabilities to the fullest.
Social media may be the new frontier. People spent more time on Facebook than on any other Website in 2010. It’s becoming one of the best ways to get information directly to your members, and allows you to target ads locally, reaching your desired demographic. Some day, I imagine we’ll be able to farm data or write applications to work with sites like Facebook.
Once we do, the sky’s the limit!” —| www.
ihrsa.org | JULY 2011 | Club Business Internat ional 25
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