How to Onboard Your New Personal Training Clients - Step by Step

When a new client signs up for personal training with you, the onboarding process begins. From the moment a client says they'd like to train with you, the terms refers to all the stages you take them through.

As a personal trainer, how you greet a new client can make all the difference in how long they stay with you, whether they adhere to their program, and ultimately what results they achieve.

An onboarding process is an opportunity to establish a trusting relationship, answer questions the client may have about working with a fitness professional, and make sure the client knows what's expected of them.

Why Is Client Onboarding Important For Personal Trainers?

According to a survey conducted by Wyzowl in early 2020, over 90% of customers feel that companies could do better during new client onboarding. These are high expectations that don't meet reality.

Gladly conducted another customer expectations survey in 2018 and found that 59% of customers valued personalization more than speed when it came to customer service./

Consistent Service Delivery

In order to scale effectively and to ensure that every new client receives the same incredible experience, you must have a client-friendly system for getting them settled into your personal training business. 

Professional Standards

Transparent onboarding processes demonstrate to your clients that you hold yourself to a professional standard, and that you can deliver results. Referrals and new personal training clients are likely to come your way when your clients are happy. 

Systemised and Structured

When you have a clear structure to follow, you are less likely to forget the essential steps. You'll find a checklist at the end of this article that you can use to ensure that you have a system that is repeatable and doesn't require much mental effort to follow. Firstly, let's go over the steps you need to take to onboard your clients.

Step 1: Contract and T&Cs

The first step to taking money from your new client is to discuss the terms of your "business relationship" and even to sign the personal trainer documents together. By having clear terms and conditions that they read and sign up front, you can prevent unrealistic expectations about the coaching experience. 

You can have your clients sign a contract in person (keep it safe and give them a copy). Online coaching contracts should be signed digitally if you provide the service. HelloSign can help with this, and all signed documents are linked to a root folder in Google Drive. ​

Step 2: Payments

A prospective client said they wanted to train with you. Prices were discussed and the contract was signed. They are ready to begin. All they need now is a simple way to pay.

It is wise to setup multiple channels so they can choose what works best for them. There are some forms that only work for in-person clients, while others are preferred for online transactions.

Cash/Cheque

Some clients, especially older ones, may still prefer to pay you this way. Probably the least convenient option, might be more difficult to track, and you may need to remind clients when their next payment or package is due. If your client insists, you should accommodate them.

Bank Transfer

Transferring money between banks has never been easier with internet banking and banking apps. Even though you will still need to have the money talk to remind your client when the next payment is due, it will simplify your admin.

Recurring Payments

In order to avoid having to chase your personal training clients for money regularly, a recurring payment system is recommended when you charge your clients monthly. PayPal business account, Go Cardless and Stripe are all services that allow you to set up recurring payments of the same amount every week or month. 

A small fee is charged for each transaction, but that means you don't have to remind clients to pay. You can also set up direct debits through your bank, but your client must do this on their own.

Step 3. Informed Consent and PARQ

An Informed Consent document is crucial to your ability to best serve your clients. By signing this document, they agree that you may ask them questions about their fitness and health, and they give you permission to store all this information securely and in accordance with current data protection regulations.

Before starting personal training, the client must sign the PAR-Q either in person or online. The Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire is required by your insurance company.

It determines whether the client is ready to exercise and identifies if they require a doctor's clearance to do so. In addition to getting them to physically sign it, you can also collect a digital signature.

Step 4. Onboarding Questionnaire

In addition to the previous steps, this questionnaire could set you apart from your competition when it comes to client onboarding.

An onboarding fitness and lifestyle questionnaire is designed to collect information about your client's goals, current fitness level, lifestyle, and any other habits that may impact their results. In practical terms, their answers will tell you exactly how you can help them and what they need to do to achieve their fitness goals.

Google Forms, or Wufoo, is a free tool for collecting this information if you need to redirect them somewhere else after they've completed the form (such as a pre-recorded thank you video, or a link to book a call). If you want it to look impressive and want to embed it on your website, Typeform is also a great option.

As a Pro Tip: Instead of giving your client this to fill out themselves, sit down with them, ask them questions, and fill in the answers together. It's a great way to establish rapport and expand on any topic.

Information you may want to collect

• (Name, phone number, email address to add them to your list, home address to send them a card to welcome them, birthday cards, etc.)
• Demographics (age, gender)
• Injury history and current goals for training
• If they are training remotely from you, Typeform allows them to upload photos and videos of their gym.
• Training frequency
• If their goal is time-sensitive
• Exercises they like and dislike
• Nutrition Habits questionnaire - how many meals they eat, etc.
• Health Questionnaire - habits like smoking, alcohol, etc.
• Anything else that would be useful

Step 5. Email Touch-points & FAQs

You will have a lot of information about your client after completing step 4, so you can begin working on their fitness journey. While you are doing that, they can begin their educational journey if you provide them with some value.

Once you have their email address, you could send them an automated onboarding email. This could be a week-long series of valuable information. You will, of course, need email marketing software that can do that. All of these email marketing platforms are easy to use. You will then need to write the emails' content and add them to an automated campaign. If you don't want to write these emails yourself, you can outsource the job - email marketing is more effective than any other platform. 

By providing the new client with something that they can take away with them, you will be able to answer their questions and alleviate any buyers' remorse. How to book sessions with you, how to contact you, how you'd like check-ins to be handled, etc.

This document could be physical (where you print it out and hand them something to take home from the gym with them) or digital (delivered via email in that first part of your automated sequence). ​

Step 6. Welcome Package

Following your client's onboarding and going through your email automation, most personal trainers see their clients inside the gym and have little contact with them outside of that.

You could send them a thank you card, welcoming them to your fitness business. Send them a handwritten letter and post it to their home address - you could even include a "refer a friend" voucher to generate more leads. You could also include a "swag box" if you were looking to impress and you had enough budget for each client.

Step 7. Check-in and Social Media

Sending an email or text to your client to "hold their hand" while they are settling in is always appreciated. The first time you exercise or when you return after a break, they may be sore. 

Lastly, you may want to consider adding your clients to social media. Whether you connect with your clients through Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook is up to you. That way, they can decide if they want to connect. If you run a free Facebook group, inviting them to join your tribe might be a good idea as well! You can also introduce them to your other clients if your service includes access to an exclusive community!

The Ultimate Client Onboarding Checklist

As we discussed above, you could stop after step 3 and start training your client, and nothing would go wrong. Assume, however, that you would like to wow your new clients. In that case, we recommend going through the following checklist during your clients' onboarding process, so that they have a positive experience from the start.