Automating the Front of House Experience with Reina Offutt of RTR Pilates

Front desk staff are hard to train and hard to keep. That high turnover can increase your training costs and become a distraction for your community and your staff.Reina Offutt had this in mind when she opened her second and third RTR Pilates locations in the D.C. area in 2012, so she decided to centralize her customer support team to one location and rely on instructors to unlock the studio and check-in clients before class.

Now, after 17 years in business, a sixth location opening this summer, and an incoming growth phase, Reina uses a combination of tech automations, a small remote admin team, and instructors to give her 1,700+ members a high-end experience without the overhead of front desk staff. 

Automate with tech

• Each RTR studio has QR codes on walls and window decals directing members and new leads to the RTR website where they can self-service and find answers to most of their questions.
• On the RTR website, the TrueLark chatbot can answer basic questions, book and cancel classes for members and funnel new leads. TrueLark’s hands-on onboarding allowed RTR’s team to build custom sales funnels and provide AI with location-specific information, like best places to park or holiday hours.
• Revel self-service check-out allows customers to purchase retail at a self-service iPad. Reina suggests minimizing the SKU’s to ensure members are purchasing the correct items.

80/20 support

While RTR relies on technology to automate ~80% of front of house tasks, ~20% of users require more high-touch support. Reina’s remote support team of four is able to service any of the 3,500+ people that come into the studio each week who might require extra help.

Instructor support

Instructors are the heart of your community. But there’s a chance they might push back at the thought of taking on additional responsibilities. With this in mind, Reina empowers her instructors to:

• Redirect to the QR codes whenever possible (which is most of the time!)
• Rely on short scripts that push to Intro Offers or redirect to the site.
• Pass out marketing materials, like pricing cards, which should be well-stocked at each location.
  
  

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