How CrossFit Muse Went From Paper Attendance to Seven Years of Automation

CrossFit Muse sits in a 5,000 square-foot space in downtown Los Angeles. Richard Kittlaus owns it and coaches in it, and a meaningful share of the people training there have been doing so since the beginning. PushPress has been underneath all seven of those years.

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Introduction

A Downtown LA Gym With Day-One Members

“A lot of our members have been there since day one, which is about seven plus years,” Richard says.

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He credits the team as much as the programming. “We have an amazing team, very cohesive team, team that understands how important community is to our gym, to the growth of our gym, and then just fitness in general,” he says. “It's allowed us to stay very tight as a community and grow together.”

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The Problem

Attendance on Paper, Keyed In Later

The gym's starting point was the one most affiliates recognize, and it was entirely manual.

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“What we were using before was, you know, writing everything down and then inputting it in afterwards or inputting it in weekly,” Richard says.

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Writing it down is the easy part. Keying a week of it in afterwards is the part that gets skipped, and skipped data is a gym running on guesses.

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Software That Doesn't Fit How a Gym Actually Works

Richard's warning to other owners is about the cost of picking wrong: “Trying to shop around for software that might not be conducive to the way that you run a gym.”

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The Solution

From a Week of Data Entry to a Couple of Taps

“Now it's just a couple taps on the app and you're set and good to go,” Richard says.

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Built by People Who Sound Like Operators

The reason he stayed, in his telling, is that the product decisions feel like they come from inside a gym.

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“I feel like the people that have created PushPress, everyone that works with PushPress, it's almost as if they're gym owners and coaches and general managers themselves,” Richard says. “I feel like they understand the problems that we face with software on a day-to-day basis and they're almost like one step ahead all the time.”

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He extends the same read to support. “Their customer service is hands down one of the best in the industry that we're in,” he says. As a customer-service business himself, that is the standard he judges by: “We are a customer service-based company and I think PushPress embodies that with the ease of their problem solving and how quickly they attend to any issues that we have.”

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Grow Automations That Keep the Conversation Going

The retention machinery runs on PushPress Grow, the CRM and lead generation add-on to Core.

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“We love the workflow and automation system that we use with Grow to build the automation that helps keep continuous conversations with our members so that just again it helps retention,” Richard says.

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Booking and Retail in the Members App

Members do their own admin, and buy their own supplements, without involving a coach.

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“The ease and the use of the app to book a class, to purchase some protein, creatine, whatever it is. A couple of taps and you're done, which is great for us as well,” Richard says.

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A Committed Club With Its Own Rituals

Richard runs a Committed Club, and pairs the platform's automated in-app recognition with rewards he chooses himself.

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“What's big is our Committed Club,” he says: a “monthly appreciation post and confetti and rewards for the people that come consistently.” His verdict on the whole ritual: “it's just like a little small things that go a long way.”

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Result

Seven Years of Compounding, Both Directions

Richard's framing of the relationship is that both businesses grew into it.

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“I think I've been fortunate enough to have been with them long enough to see them evolve and also it's allowed us to grow and retain members as well,” he says.

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Retention as the Operating Priority

For a gym whose members measure tenure in years rather than months, keeping people is the whole game.

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“Community is the heart and soul of your gym. Retention is key as well,” Richard says.

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Conclusion

His Advice: Start There and Learn the Whole Thing

Richard's recommendation to a new owner is unusually unhedged.

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“I think in a style of gym that we run, PushPress is the only software I would use,” he says. “They understand the hardships that owners go through and simplify everything to make it easy for an operator, make it easy for the members. And with that, all the tools that you have with PushPress help retain your members.”

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Then the practical version: “At the end of the day, don't waste your time. Start with PushPress at the beginning and learn as much as you can about the software and use all the tools to grow and retain your members.”

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Ready to build a gym members stay at for seven years? See what PushPress can do for your gym. Book a Demo Today.