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January 3, 2024

How Sweat440 is Scaling Their Franchise-Focused Boutique Studio with Mariana Tek

Sweat440 built and designed their own software to run their HIIT studios exactly the way wanted, but ultimately realized it would cost too much to develop a polished and functional product that would work for franchisees. Their CEO and Co-Founder, Cody Patrick, had to decide if they were going to be a fitness company or a software company, and that’s when they started to search for a software partner.

Sweat440 built and designed their own software to run their HIIT studios exactly the way wanted, but ultimately realized it would cost too much to develop a polished and functional product that would work for franchisees. Their CEO and Co-Founder, Cody Patrick, had to decide if they were going to be a fitness company or a software company, and that’s when they started to search for a software partner.  

By moving to Mariana Tek, Sweat440 has been able to grow and franchise with ease. With the right data and insights for the corporate team, a powerful and easy-to-use custom branded app, and training for franchisees, the company was able to grow from 5 locations to 10 in just over one year.

Who is Sweat440?

Founded in 2018, Sweat440 is a HIIT studio with a unique approach to their class offerings. Instead of the typical fitness studio model that offers one class every hour, Sweat440 offers classes every 10 minutes. Customers can pop in at any time that works for them and start a class immediately, no matter how busy their schedule is.  

“We start classes every 10 minutes which allows you to jump into class whenever it suits you, so we've really overcome the objection of ‘I don't have time to work out.’ Our workout style is HIIT-based circuit training and what is great about us is we are a technology focused brand, so we are led by virtual trainers on TV screens.”


The Challenge:

Sweat440 started off by building their own software because they thought an out-of-the-box software wouldn’t match their scheduling needs. But ultimately, staff had to find workarounds to make up for the software’s lack of performance, meaning they were less productive and couldn’t spend as much time on client engagement. As well, their software did not provide the insights the corporate team needed to manage their studios and set them up for franchising.

“In studio, our teams were constantly having to find work arounds in ways to make up for any lack of performance. Also, at the corporate level, my ability to have clearance as to what's going on in the studios is lacking.”  

The limitations of their software were slowing them down and costing too much to continue using it. This spurred them to start vetting big contenders in the fitness software market to find a better replacement.    

“Ultimately, I had to choose between being a software company and a fitness brand. So, that's why we decided to focus our efforts on fitness and let the software be taken care of by the experts.”

Mariana Tek’s Solution:

For Sweat440, bringing everything in-house under one platform with a modern, polished look for new franchisees has been a gamechanger. With robust data access and all their client information easily accessible, managing Sweat440’s growing studio franchise became easier.

“Mariana Tek has a really nice, modern, polished look that represents the brand the way I want it to be portrayed. … When switching the Mariana Tek, we were almost immediately able to see the impact that it was having on our studio operations, as well as our customer experience and ultimately happier employees as well.”  

Cody and his team have also started using the Mariana Tek Biz App daily to check in on all his studios key metrics in near real-time. Giving insight into which studios are performing well and which may need some guidance.  

“As the owner operator, I can check in and see what's going on in almost in real time seeing the transactions that are happening. In the studios it's really cool, because it's much easier to check people in swap spots.”  

To further drive client engagement, Sweat440 uses the customizable 5th tab app feature to run challenges in-studio, and found it drove consumer engagement and class attendance, helping brand overall.  

Lastly, the Cody’s team has taken advantage of Mariana Tek’s Marketing Automation tool, to drive campaigns and lead conversion. Through emails and SMS messages, these tools seamlessly connect members who are new, have churned, or may soon churn to drive revenue; they call it an ‘integral part of our operations’, particularly how it integrates with their off-shore call center.

The Results:  

Cody’s team is driven by their strong brand and love of technology; they have ambitious plans to grow their business through franchising. By being able to access all key business performance metrics and provide a modern, sleek software solution for franchisees the business has grown from 5 locations to 10 in just over one year.

"Mariana Tek has solved a lot of problems to me when it comes to running the company. Most of those are great data access, reporting ability, to get it good insight ability to get what's going on inside of these videos without me physically having to be there: things like our total sales number projected sales numbers, cancellation rates.”

With Mariana Tek, Sweat440 has improved their customer engagement even further with the ability to see all their client’s activities and staff notes, ensuring every interaction is personalized and streamlined.  

“We have a call center that can know what's going on because of the communication between the multiple systems. One of the other great features that we're really enjoying is the ability to make notes on a customer's account. That way if there's two staff members at two different times, they can review that account we get the same information there's also helps a lot with us communicating with our call centers.”  

Future Plans:

As Sweat440 continues to grow their franchise-based boutique fitness business, they want to stay ahead of trends and continue optimizing their client experience. While changing to a franchise model can be challenging, Mariana Tek’s expertise and support are there to help every step of the way.

“They take a lot of the work out of onboarding a new franchisee. They essentially can do it for me with very little impact on my corporate team, so the training the support all those pieces are already in place.”  

When looking at future development, the fitness-obsessed team at Mariana Tek prides itself on listening to customers and helping solve their problems now and in the future.

“Mariana Tek is constantly evolving, they’re constantly developing. They ask for feedback from the business owners, and they actually take it to heart and they actually act on it. I see so much progress on what was already a great product.”

So why was Mariana Tek such a gamechanger for the Sweat440 team? Cody said it perfectly, “the single biggest reason I would recommend Mariana Tek is peace of mind. They know both software and fitness, so they know how to apply software to the fitness industry.”

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