Introduction

ACME fitness are a small group personal training gym based in England; currently on a single site with a view to expansion to multiple sites. They advertise primarily through Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and have a whatsapp link on their website which connects through to the owner's business mobile to deal with customer enquiries. They also have a contact form on their website, which is used to capture leads and enquiries.

They use a customer relationship management (CRM) application called Keap, which is considered market leading and has a host of integration possibilities; this is primarily used for email campaigns.

Problem statement

Acme Fitness have no dedicated admin staff, with sales, administration, onboarding and membership enquiries performed by trainer/coaches and the owner, who also works as a trainer within the gym.
Whilst automated and almost staff-free gyms have been around for a while (Pure Gym etc) these rely on extremely low staff costs and high membership; ACME fitness retains several personal trainers and operates at the higher/premium end of the market with a older, wealthier client base and a focus on customer satisfaction, progression and loyalty rather than volume.
Advertisements are funnelled through the website, and although this is content rich and professionally designed; there is not an immediate interaction between potential client and customer; therefore there is time for them to contact another competitor or lose the impulse/motivation which lead them to click on the advertisement; especially out of core business hours.
Each sales interaction relies on 1:1 communication between staff and potential client; with each interaction taking valuable time away from running the core business operations.

Client Solution

Colne proposed a website Chatbot implemented with Voiceflow, powered by a custom 'knowledge base' derived from ACMEs website, and a FAQ.

Immediate Interaction: Chatbots engage users instantly, providing immediate responses to inquiries, which can keep potential clients engaged and interested. This contrasts with contact forms, where users may have to wait for a response.
Personalization: Chatbots can ask personalized questions based on previous answers, making the interaction feel more tailored and responsive to the individual’s needs. This level of customization can enhance the user's experience and increase the likelihood of capturing a lead.
Higher Engagement: The interactive nature of chatbots can lead to higher engagement rates. They can maintain the user's attention longer than a static form by creating a conversational flow, making users more likely to provide their contact information.
24/7 Availability: Chatbots can operate around the clock, providing answers and capturing leads even when personal trainers are not available. This ensures that no potential leads are lost due to timing.
Qualifying Leads: Chatbots can be programmed to ask specific questions that help in qualifying leads, determining which clients are a good fit for the services offered. This pre-qualification process can save time by filtering out less relevant inquiries.
Feedback Collection: Chatbots can solicit feedback during interactions, allowing for adjustments in services or user experience in real-time, based on the feedback provided by potential clients.
Reduced Friction: Chatbots can simplify the process of scheduling appointments or signing up for trial sessions directly through the chat interface, reducing the friction associated with filling out forms and waiting for follow-ups.
Data Gathering: They can collect and analyze data from conversations, providing insights into common questions, concerns, or interests that potential clients have. This data can be used to refine marketing strategies and service offerings.

By integrating these advantages, a chatbot can significantly enhance lead capture and client engagement on a personal training website, offering a more dynamic and effective alternative to traditional contact forms.

Additionally, some case studies by Kia and Toplyne suggest a conversion uplift of around 300% compared to traditional contact forms.

Value qualification

When making solution proposals for clients, Colne strives to quantify and qualify the value provided by each solution. In this case, we can consider a slightly higher conversion rate through lead capture via the chatbot, although considering a 3x improvement in conversion potentially optimistic!

Assumptions:

Lifetime customer value is ~£1000; the gym operates a premium service so this represents the customer's membership for several months.
The Contact form currently receives around 200 submissions a month, with significant advertising spend.

Contact form submission to membership conversion currently is around 5%
Chatbot uplift in sales conversion is around 50% over the contact form; this is a conservative estimate relative to the case studies mentioned earlier.

With these assumptions, the business would expect an extra 5 conversions/month, resulting in ~£5,000 lifetime value; over a year this could result in 60 conversions or an uplift of £60,000 over the baseline value of 5 conversions/month.

When scaling this across multiple sites, the benefits scale further and reduce staff costs and time when dealing with routine sales enquiries.

Service Delivery

Phase 1: Chatbot implementation & Integration

This delivers a chatbot embedded in the ACME website, incorporating a 'pop up' dialog in the company's colour scheme and logo.
The chatbot has access to information on the ACME website, along with an additional up to date set of enrichment content. This is a form of retrieval-augmented-generation, where the model is able to access information outside of it's training corpus (data) to generate new text from freshly provided context.
The chatbot is able to answer routine enquiries and questions about the business specifically, without human involvement, 24/7 365 days a year, incorporating buttons for quick, straightforward user answers and text input for specific user questions. The chatbot workflow gently steers the user towards entering their contact information for a call back, with a natural flow of conversation. The user is prompted to ask further questions.

Timeline — Lead capture chatbot timeline

Phase 2: Prospect warm up

Phase 2 builds on the original workflow, by timing some key follow up emails to the captured lead.

These are automated emails scheduled by the Keap CRM or using make.com automations.

An introduction email, outlining the benefits of joining ACME fitness and a personal message by John, the owner.
After 7 day without contact from the prospect; offer a discounted trial.

Chatbots & Lead Capture