Fast Five with Mandy Caldwell

With the festive season approaching many leisure operators are bracing themselves for the summer and school holiday rush and an influx of new members committed to being healthier and more active in the new year.

This month we put five questions to Jonas Leisure Development Operations Coordinator Mandy Caldwell, to find out some of her favourite time-saving tools and how leisure operators are dealing with today’s challenges.

What are some of the key challenges the industry is grappling with?

There’s been a shift in the mindset of leisure centre customers since Covid. There is now a demand for hybrid services and fitness offerings combining digital and face-to-face elements. Leisure operators are still adapting to this new way of doing things and how to best serve customers’ needs, while also contending with staffing and recruitment challenges.

Have you seen a good example of what leisure operators are doing to overcome this?

Yes, and I’d like to give a shout-out here to our Envibe tribe in Western Australia. Rather than taking on these challenges separately they’ve created an Envibe user group, which not only shares ideas and opportunities about the software itself, but also about current industry challenges.

What are some of the Jonas Leisure tools people are introducing that are really saving them time and money at their facilities?

One of my favourite time-saving tools is the Envibe Triggers and Online module.

Automated SMS and emails can be set up and sent using the module to provide effective, timely communication to customers.

The Online Customer Portal can be tailored for each facility a leisure operator manages and can be a real time-saver because it allows customers to self-manage things that would ordinarily be done by in-house staff. Think enrolments in classes, purchasing memberships, requesting and making payments for bookings and so on. This saves hours of effort so leisure centre staff can spend more time with their customers.

With the holidays and the new year coming up, what is one thing leisure operators should consider or have planned?

Consider what your leisure centre would like to offer customers over the holidays and in the new year. Would an intensive ‘Learn to Swim’ holiday programme be popular? Or perhaps a deal on new membership for people keen to get active or join the gym as part of their new year resolution?

Enough about work – what will you be doing over Christmas and the holiday break?

I’ll be spending time in the great outdoors – on the bike, in the yak, at the beach and in the bush.