How do you stay relevant and attractive in the Fitness and Wellness industry for more than 35 years? The Norwegian fitness and wellness chain, 3T Treningssenter, has managed to do exactly that! Are you curious about how?
We’ve had a very interesting talk with Heidi Heggernes, HR director and long-term executive at 3T. Heidi shares her thoughts and experiences on how to remain a key player in a truly competitive industry – among others by using real-time data as a basis for business insights and decision making.
First of all: who is 3T?
3T is the largest and most versatile training chain in Central Norway. It has 17 facilities offering fitness, squash and swimming. Every week, 3T facilitates more than 800 group training.
In 2020, the 3T group celebrated its 35th birthday having been a part of the business of "Trim-Trening-Trivsel” since 1985! The first facility was located in the city of Rosten, Norway. It is to this day still one of the largest facilities in Norway with its impressive 6000 m2 filled with work-outs, weights and energy.
“Trim-Trening-Trivsel" are the keywords and core values on which the company is based. They can be translated into “Trim – staying in shape”, “Trening – training, workout”, and “Trivsel – well-being, happy and comfortable”.
3T has the advantage of having many locations relatively close to each other, giving their members a large variety of facilities and workout opportunities to choose from! Their prices are in the premium range and their members expect a high level of service and quality in their memberships. The various training centres are deliberately profiled in different ways so regardless of their members' preferences they will always find a facility that suits their needs!
A long term partnership – from Payments to Business Intelligence!
The partnership between 3T and BRP Systems go way back. 3T is a dedicated and highly experienced user of the BRP ecosystem – and has followed the development process closely. The strong relationship has led to many new possibilities and advantages for both parties. Most recent leading up to a strategic pilot case implementing BRPs Business Intelligence solution.
“Over the years we have kept a close eye on the value of new functionalities and add-ons that BRP offers us. Always looking to see how those applications may help us achieve our short and long term goals, but more importantly by being able to serve our members in a more efficient, professional and service-minded way. When we decided to proceed with the new BI-add-on application it was of utmost importance that we would make a thorough implementation throughout the whole organisation to ensure the highest effect and value! BRP and their partners always support us during implementation and follow up.” Heidi Heggernes, HR director and Executive at 3T, explains.
When 3T started working with BRP Systems, their main use was the functionality for automated recurring payments, Point of Sale, booking and resource management as well as sales supporting functionalities. This has developed over the years, and BRP is now present in most of the automated processes and digital solutions at 3T.
“Our current project includes implementing the new version of BRP Business Intelligence which is also being constantly improved. Once this is in place and the solution starts to add results in form of statistics and business insights, we will move forward implementing another new BRP add-on: 'Customer Retention'. This will help us understand and improve our members 'customer journey'. We really look forward to seeing the full effect on membership length, customer satisfaction and the improved service level.” Heidi Heggernes continues.
BRPs contribute to the 3T Customer Success
3T and BRP Systems have always worked together for mutual success and development. And besides product improvement and the addition of new features, BRP also contributes to the core processes and workflows at 3T:
"Well, BRP has always been very strong when it comes to payments and the cash flow for our entire business. Creating and supporting solid routines around the cash has always worked extremely well. Having these reliable routines and automated flows gives us predictability, stability and trustworthiness – both for our customers, our company and employees. Since we may “relax”, when it comes to these important tasks, we are able to focus our efforts on improving both customer and employee satisfaction.
We are on a continuous journey to improve ourselves. Without the stability in our systems from BRP, that journey would not be possible. When looking to find new ways of helping our members and customers to improve their health and wellness, we find that automated technological solutions facilitate that work a lot!.” says Heidi Heggernes.
Why focus on Business Intelligence?
It was during the global pandemic, while facilities in Norway and all over the world was closing down due to government restrictions, that 3T decided to implement the BRP Business Intelligence solution.
For a long time 3T had needed more automated reporting on various metrics in their business:
"The numbers, statistics and KPIs have always been available through different parts of our systems, but selecting the relevant ones, crunching them and producing the necessary insights, have up until now been too time-consuming and challenging. So when BRP informed us about their new BI modules we immediately jumped on the train.", says Heidi Heggernes.
The wish list from 3T included quick and easy access to correct and various data, which should be comparable with other metrics and KPIs over time, as well as shown in different dashboards. The numbers of interest would vary between the different facilities, so flexibility was another important key.
"An automated way of extracting, comparing, crunching and presenting the data was the way we wanted to go and fortunately all those criteria are met in BRP BI Solution.", says Heidi Heggernes appreciatively.
The intention, for 3T, was never to reduce staff or decrease the number of FTEs. They wanted to give their staff the possibility to focus on operational, value-adding work at the facilities and with the members.
"With the new BRP BI solution, we can now get the numbers we want, when we need them, compared to the data and time dimensions we are interested in. This will make us stronger both as a company and as a wellness provider – making us assured we are taking data and fact-based decisions.
In these uncertain times, we are convinced that such a way of accessing data and insights will be the key to taking the correct actions and strategic decisions to stay relevant and successful. For another 35 years and more!", Heidi Heggernes concludes in a contented manner.
We are very happy about our continued partnership with 3T and we are excited to follow their growth and development as they continue to explore the many benefits and possibilities of the Business Analytics Tools. We are excited to see what the future brings!
Key metrics from the implementation at 3T:
- 3T has reduced internal administrative work by 30% after implementing BRP BI Solutions.
- The implementation phase – from the initial dialogue until the BI Solution was in full production at 3T – only lasted 2 months!
- Due to the highly efficient implementation process as well as the new advanced insights from BRP BI Solutions, 3T expects full ROI after only 3 months!
Learn more about 3T https://3t.no/ or please contact us if you have any questions about the Business Analytics Tools or anything else. We are here to help!
