The fitness technology market has experienced explosive growth over the past several years. The pandemic accelerated digital adoption among gyms, yoga studios, martial arts schools, and personal training businesses — and the appetite for software solutions hasn't slowed. Platforms like Mindbody, Glofox, and ABC Fitness Solutions help fitness businesses manage memberships, class scheduling, billing, marketing automation, and mobile engagement.
According to Grand View Research, the global fitness app and software market was valued at approximately $1.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% through 2030. For software vendors serving this market, growth brings opportunity — and operational strain. Virtual assistants are helping fitness software companies manage that strain without overhiring.
Supporting Gym Owners and Studio Managers
Gym owners and studio managers are entrepreneurs first. They're focused on member retention, class programming, and keeping their facilities running — not on troubleshooting software. When they encounter an issue with member billing, class booking conflicts, or integration with their payment processor, they need quick, clear help.
Virtual assistants trained in a fitness software platform can handle first-response support with the right tone and knowledge: resolving common billing questions, walking studio managers through class template setup, helping operators configure membership freeze policies, and escalating technical issues to engineers. Zendesk's Customer Experience Trends Report found that 76% of customers say ease of contact is the most critical factor in their satisfaction with a support interaction — a bar that VAs staffing quick-response channels can consistently meet.
Onboarding Fitness Studios and Multi-Location Operators
Onboarding a fitness business onto a new platform involves migrating member databases, setting up class schedules, configuring membership tiers, and integrating payment processing. For multi-location gym chains or franchise groups, this process multiplies across each location — creating significant coordination work for the software vendor's customer success team.
Virtual assistants can manage the onboarding project coordination: sending configuration guides to gym managers, tracking progress through setup milestones, scheduling training sessions for front desk staff, and following up with locations that are behind schedule. This structured approach keeps multi-location rollouts on timeline and prevents the early-stage friction that leads to cancellations. Gainsight data shows that customers who complete onboarding within a defined window have measurably higher net revenue retention.
Sales Development for a Highly Fragmented Market
The fitness business market is highly fragmented — there are over 41,000 fitness clubs in the United States alone, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). Reaching independent gym owners, boutique studio operators, and franchise development teams requires persistent, segmented outreach across multiple channels.
VAs can handle the front end of this sales process: researching target fitness businesses, crafting personalized outreach based on business type and size, managing follow-up sequences in CRM platforms, and scheduling discovery calls for account executives. They can also support trade show and event follow-up after IHRSA's annual conference or regional fitness industry events. According to HubSpot, companies with consistent lead nurturing sequences generate 50% more sales-qualified leads — a significant return on a VA-powered sales development function.
Churn Prevention and Customer Success Programs
Fitness businesses have seasonal patterns — membership swells in January and drops in spring — and software vendors need to stay proactive with at-risk clients to prevent churn during slow seasons. VAs can execute churn prevention programs: monitoring product usage signals, reaching out to clients with declining engagement, conducting check-in calls, and flagging accounts that need intervention from senior customer success managers.
They can also gather testimonials and case studies from satisfied gym clients, manage review requests on G2 and Capterra, and support quarterly business review preparation.
Gym and fitness management software companies ready to scale their operations can find experienced virtual assistants through Stealth Agents, which places trained VAs with fitness tech and SaaS companies. Their team understands both the pace of the fitness industry and the support needs of growing software vendors.
As the fitness software market continues its rapid growth, the vendors with the most responsive and proactive client operations will earn the loyalty and referrals that drive sustainable growth.
Sources
- Grand View Research, "Fitness App Market Size & Share Report, 2030"
- IHRSA, "Health Club Industry Fact Sheet 2023"
- Zendesk, "Customer Experience Trends Report 2024"