With its rapid expansion to almost 130 studios, the BestFit Group was faced with the challenge of making its quality checks and work processes more efficient. Fabian Edelmann, Head of Operations and Sales, reports on how Lumiform has helped them to increase efficiency in the company, reduce paper consumption and improve quality assurance. Find out how Lumiform has revolutionized the daily work routine at BestFit, how the software has saved the company over 10,000 working hours and what other plans the company has for the future.
The BestFit Group
The BestFit Group is a major company in the fitness and health industry, which was founded in 2020 through the merger of the two established fitness chains jumpers fitness and AI fitness. Headquartered in Germany, the BestFit Group offers a wide range of fitness and wellness services and has become a leading player in the industry.
The challenge
Fabian Edelmann is Head of Operations and Sales at BestFit and has been with the company for 14 years. From seven studios and shift schedules with pen and paper to Excel spreadsheets to almost 130 studios (as of June 2024) and Lumiform as a digital tool for workflow optimization, quality assurance and documentation, Fabian has experienced a lot of changes and has significantly shaped the transformation of the company.
But with growth also came new challenges. Up until the 50 studio mark, the so-called club checks (quality checks) were still carried out using Excel, but after that the sheer volume of data could hardly be managed manually and BestFit decided to look for a digital solution.
The solution
“We tested two other apps in addition to Lumiform and Lumiform was the winner, particularly because of its simplicity for the end user,” Fabian explains to us in an interview. There is a relatively high turnover of employees in the studios, which is why it is particularly important for BestFit to provide a tool that is virtually self-explanatory.
For example, forms for different tasks are described and illustrated accordingly. “We can simply say to new team members: ‘You’ll find everything you need in Lumiform,’” says Fabian. “So you really don’t need any training in this sense.”
Lumiform is genuinely easier to implement at the front end than any other tool.
Another decisive factor that led to the decision to use Lumiform as a tool was the support. Especially the extensive onboarding and chat support in the software: “You always get an answer within a few hours if something doesn’t work or you have a question about the setup. That was important to us.”
The implementation
After extensive onboarding and the opportunity to test the Lumiform software with twenty licenses, BestFit quickly started the rollout at management level and involved all other employees in the studios in a second phase.
After the initial set-up in coordination with the respective club managers and a pilot phase of 8 weeks , Lumiform was immediately used across all locations for the club check in the BestFit studios and is still used in this area today.
“The final introduction of Lumiform to the studio employees went extremely quickly,” reports Fabian. “The end user doesn’t have to create any forms, they just open the app and it works.”
Results
With the club checks as the first use case, BestFit began its journey with Lumiform and has since been able to save around 150-200 working hours a year in this area of quality checks alone, which would otherwise be required to evaluate all the data manually.
But the quality checks are not the end of the story. BestFit now uses Lumiform in almost all work processes. This includes the following areas, among others:
- Cleaning feedback
- Employee feedback
- Service requests
- Location evaluations
- Transfer list for changing studios
- Start of the day
- Daily/weekly/monthly tasks
Example: Lumiform for structured employee feedback
The expansion to new areas was very organic: “When creating the club checks, we noticed that Lumiform is also well suited for our employee feedback thanks to the various evaluation options (from status to point system),” reports Fabian.
For the feedback meetings, all employees are rated in a matrix from one to five based on various competencies. These ratings result in an overall score, which is then used for the feedback meetings.
“That was actually the next use case that we built after the club checks,” Fabian continues. “Functions and roles can be rated differently, and it is possible to make different calculations.
Lumiform has saved us over 10,000 hours of micro-labor time per year
Example: Informed site assessments with Lumiform
In addition to using Lumiform for quality checks and feedback processes, BestFit has also successfully integrated the tool into its expansion strategy. When developing new locations, Lumiform plays a central role in making informed decisions and ensuring quality on an ongoing basis.
Location analysis and evaluation
When BestFit identifies potential new sites, the first step is a comprehensive site analysis, which was previously often documented in OneNote, resulting in rather unstructured continuous text. Today, the chain uses Lumiform to make these processes more efficient and clearer and to generate standardized reports.
During the on-site analysis, various aspects of the location are evaluated, such as the expansion status, the age of the equipment and the competitive situation. This data is systematically recorded in Lumiform, enabling a clear and comprehensible assessment. This enables BestFit to quickly recognize whether a location has been assessed positively or negatively and how it is likely to develop.
Quality checks before opening
Before a new studio is opened, BestFit uses Lumiform to carry out a final quality check. This checks whether the studio meets BestFit’s high standards or whether measures are still required to enable it to open. This systematic approach ensures that every new studio is opened in optimal condition.
Continuous location evaluation
Once a new location has opened, Lumiform remains an important tool. BestFit conducts regular assessments to check that the location is developing as expected. This continuous monitoring makes it possible to react to deviations at an early stage and take appropriate measures.
The structured data collection and evaluation with Lumiform has also been well received by BestFit’s investors. The clear and valid figures provide a solid basis for decisions and reduce the dependence on gut feeling. This contributes significantly to strengthening investor confidence and successfully implementing BestFit’s expansion strategy.
Outlook
BestFit plans to further expand the use of Lumiform and integrate it into even more areas of the company. One major goal is to involve facility management more closely in order to make monthly club inspections more efficient. Occupational health and safety and fire protection are also to be mapped using Lumiform in the future. Maintenance logs for ventilation systems and fitness equipment are also on the list of planned enhancements.
“We see great potential in the further use of Lumiform, especially in the areas of facility management and occupational safety,” explains Fabian Edelmann. “Our goal is to digitalize all relevant processes and make them more efficient.”
Another project is the management of the almost sixty company vehicles, including accident prevention inspections and accident reports, via Lumiform. BestFit is also aiming to integrate Lumiform into Microsoft To Do in order to further optimize task management and transfer the measures directly into the familiar system.
We see great potential in the further use of Lumiform, particularly in the area of facility management and occupational safety.
Recommendation
Fabian recommends that other companies with similar use cases or similar structures try out Lumiform: “Just give it a try. In the end, there’s nothing to lose.” He emphasizes Lumiform’s flexible models, which allow both monthly and annual payments. This allows companies to get started risk-free. “The added value you get from using Lumiform is enormous,” he concludes.
We would like to thank BestFit for the excellent cooperation and look forward to many more joint successes in the future.