50 studios, one front desk, every message answered.
An Orangetheory Fitness franchisee running about 50 studios answers every Instagram and Facebook message instantly, with one automated front desk that knows each location and hands leads to the right studio’s CRM.
What it was. What it is now.
- Each studio answered Instagram and Facebook messages by hand
- Messages after hours and on weekends waited until staff were back
- Timetables, addresses and offers lived in different places per studio
- Booking an intro class took several back-and-forth messages
- One assistant answers instantly for every studio
- Answers 24/7, nights and weekends included
- One template, customised per location from a single source
- A guided path straight to booking
A fitness studio’s best leads arrive in its Instagram and Facebook inbox: what time are classes, is there an intro offer, where’s parking. Answer in minutes and they book a class. Answer tomorrow and they’ve joined the gym down the road.
Multiply that across about 50 studios, each with its own timetable, address, staff and offers, and the messages can’t be answered fast enough by people. Building 50 separate assistants would be unmanageable — the franchisee needed one system that still felt local to every studio.
What we found first
We mapped how a prospective member’s message travels, from an Instagram DM to a booked intro class, across about 50 studios.
| What we found | What it cost | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| About 50 studio inboxes, each answering the same questions by hand | Est. hours of front-desk time a day across the group | Automated: one system answers for every studio, instantly |
| Messages at night and on weekends waited until staff were back | Leads joining the gym down the road | Automated: answers 24/7 |
| Each studio’s timetable, address, parking and offers lived in different places | Wrong or inconsistent answers | Automated: one template, customised per location from one source |
| Hand-offs to staff lost the conversation | Staff asking the lead to repeat themselves | Automated: the right studio’s team notified in their CRM, with the full conversation |
| Membership freezes and cancellations | Need a human conversation | Kept human, by design |
Estimates are the working figures we used to rank the list, not numbers reported by the client.
One assistant, every studio behind it
For prospective members, and for the franchise
- Instant answers on Instagram and Facebook, day or night, about their local studio
- A smooth path to booking an intro class
- When they need a person, the conversation goes straight to that studio’s staff
- Every DM answered in seconds across all ~50 studios
- One assistant to manage, not 50 — an update to offers or policy happens once
- Staff only get involved when it matters, through their CRM
Four steps, every studio
- MessageA prospect messages a studio on Instagram or Facebook.
- RecognisedThe assistant knows which studio, and answers with that location’s details.
- Guided to bookingIt guides them toward booking an intro class.
- Handed offIf they ask for a person, that studio’s team is notified in their CRM, with the full conversation.
Timeline: November → December 2023, still live · Founder-led: designed and built.
Too many locations, too many inboxes?
Thirty minutes with the founder. You’ll leave knowing where the hours go, and whether an audit makes sense.