Most executives treat regional managers like glorified supervisors. The people who check in on locations, put out fires, and report numbers back to headquarters.
Unfortunately, this perspective wastes valuable talent.
Instead, your regional managers could be the backbone of your scaling fitness operations: coaching local leaders, building a high-performing culture, and making decisions that directly impact retention and revenue.
But they can’t do that if you’re not giving them the tools and authority they need.
When your regional managers are properly equipped and empowered, they raise the bar for your brand across every location. And this leadership trickles down: better managers create better staff experiences, which create better member experiences.
For instance: 87% of members who experience positive onboarding stay active after six months. Your regional managers should be building that experience and spreading it across every location.
The question is: Are you letting them?
In this post, we’ll share how you can better leverage your regional managers for scaling fitness across multiple locations—and how ABC Glofox can help.
TL;DR
Regional managers can help keep your brand’s standards consistent across locations. Combined with ABC Glofox’s centralized reporting and automation, regional managers can scale operations while ensuring every single member feels at home, no matter which location they visit.
Table of Contents
- Why Regional Managers Are Essential to Scaling Experience
- 5 Ways Regional Managers Scale Member Experience Across Locations
- How ABC Glofox Supports Regional Managers in Scaling Member Experience
- Measuring Success: Signs Your Member Experience Scales Well
- FAQs – Scaling Fitness with Regional Managers
Why Regional Managers Are Essential to Scaling Experience
Here’s what happens at most fitness brands when scaling fitness operations:
The founder (or executive team) makes decisions at headquarters, location managers execute them on the ground, and regional managers just… report on whether things are working or not.
This model breaks down fast as you grow. Founders can’t be everywhere. And location managers need more support than occasional check-ins. Soon, your brand standards start to slip with every new opening.
Smart operators use regional managers differently:
- They give them real authority to coach, make decisions, and solve problems without waiting for approval from HQ.
- They make sure regional managers have the systems and tools to spot patterns across locations—what’s working, what’s not, where you’re losing members and why.
50% of new gym members quit within six months. When you run multiple locations, churn adds up fast. Regional managers who can spot these patterns early and fix them save you real money on retention and revenue.
With over 115,000 fitness businesses in the U.S., the brands that win give their regional managers the authority and tools to actually lead, not just supervise.
📝 Learn More: Everything You Need to Know About Franchise Management
5 Ways Regional Managers Scale Member Experience Across Locations
1. Creating and reinforcing brand consistency
Your brand is the sum total of how members feel when they walk through your doors, how staff greets them, and how you handle problems.
Regional managers help protect these elements as you grow. They visit locations regularly to experience your brand the way members do. They notice when something feels off or when service drops.
When they see a location with exceptional member retention, they identify what’s working and help other locations replicate those practices. 45% of members stay because of positive staff interactions, so these coaching moments matter for retention.
2. Coaching leaders who deliver the experience
You can’t scale yourself, but you can scale the leaders you train.
Regional managers need to spend time coaching location managers to solve problems on their own. Instead of giving answers, they should ask: “What would you do here?” This lets location managers grow.
Coaching pays off when scaling fitness operations. Every location manager who thinks ahead becomes more valuable to your brand. They solve problems, build strong teams, and improve things without waiting for headquarters to tell them what to do.
Regional managers can also spot future leaders—the front desk person who could manage, or the instructor who could run programs—and help nurture their growth.
📝 Check Out: Staff Management in Multi-Location Gyms
3. Turning data into scalable action
Regional managers look at data and figure out what it means. For instance, they analyze attendance reports for patterns. Why are three locations struggling on Tuesday evenings? What’s making location seven do so well with retention?
This turns reactive management into proactive strategy.
When they find something that works at one location, they make sure every location knows about it and can use it. Member retention strategies only work when you use them everywhere.
4. Localizing the global brand
Consistent doesn’t mean identical. Regional managers know which parts of your brand can’t change—core values, service standards, signature experiences—and what can flex to local needs.
For instance, your Austin locations might need different class times than Minneapolis locations because of weather. Suburban locations might draw more families while urban ones draw young professionals, so they may need different programming.
Regional managers make these calls without hurting your brand. They know when to push back on headquarters and when local changes help members. This matters when scaling fitness businesses into new markets, where balancing brand consistency with local fit determines success.
📝 Check Out: Scaling Your Fitness Brand Across Multiple Markets
5. Building culture across locations and teams
Culture doesn’t grow on its own.
Regional managers create connections across locations by:
The Customer
Engagement Playbook
for Your Fitness
Business
Discover more - Running regional meetings where local managers share what works
- Setting up friendly competitions between locations that drive results while building team spirit
- Celebrating wins across their region
This directly impacts member experience because culture shapes how your team shows up every day.
Members feel that energy when your staff feel connected to something bigger than their one location. This approach to staff development and retention creates teams who learn and succeed together.
📝 Explore: How to Write a Franchise Manual for Success
How ABC Glofox Supports Regional Managers in Scaling Member Experience
Most regional managers spend hours logging into different systems for each location and piecing together reports manually. It’s not their fault—it’s a tool problem.
Centralized reporting and unified dashboards give regional managers what they actually need: a clear view of their whole territory in one place. Real-time data on membership, attendance, retention, and revenue across all locations. They can spot trends, find problems, and make smart decisions fast—instead of wasting time pulling reports.
ABC Glofox’s Brand Control Panel solves the consistency problem. Regional managers can standardize branding, messaging, and processes once, then roll them out to every location. As Special Strong founder Daniel Stein says:
“ABC Glofox offered the automation and customer support we needed to scale effectively.” – Daniel Stein, Founder of Special Strong
Automation tools handle the repetitive work that eats up regional managers’ time (member messages, class reminders, and billing). It’s easy to set up automated message sequences that keep members engaged across all locations without manual work. That frees them to do what they should be doing: coaching teams and solving problems.
Member insights and CRM give regional managers the data to actually improve retention. They can track behavior, spot at-risk members, and run targeted campaigns. Features like birthday messages and preference tracking let locations feel personal while operating at scale.
Spartans Boxing Club experienced this firsthand as they scaled to multiple franchise locations:
“We have an operating system with ABC Glofox that is built alongside our business which allows our franchisees to start, grow, and scale their business.” – Nazar Musa, Founder of Spartans Boxing Club
Staff communication through the ABC Glofox Pro App means regional managers can actually stay connected to teams across locations without constant travel. They can share updates, send training materials, and coordinate schedules from anywhere.
Role-based permissions let you give regional managers the authority they need while keeping oversight. For growing multi-location brands, ABC Glofox handles international payments and multiple currencies, making expansion into new markets smooth.
📝 Discover: How to Set Up Your Own Fitness Franchise
Measuring Success: Signs Your Member Experience Scales Well
Consistent retention across all locations means your systems and leadership are working. Hitting the industry benchmark of 71% average retention across all locations means your regional managers are doing their job.
Low staff turnover shows that your regional managers are building leaders and culture. Low turnover in a regional manager’s territory means strong leadership and good staff retention.
Similar brand reviews online confirm your members see consistency across locations. When members from different locations all mention your welcoming vibe or knowledgeable staff, you’re scaling your brand well.
“It feels like home no matter which location I go to.” That’s what you want to hear. Your regional managers have nailed consistency without losing authenticity when your members say this in surveys, conversations, or reviews.
📝 Read More: Why Your Next CRM Should Be Your Member Management System
New locations should hit their stride quickly. In well-scaled operations with strong regional management, new locations hit targets faster because they benefit from proven systems and experienced leadership.
Did you know that 2 staff interactions per month can cut member cancellations by up to 33%? When your regional managers coach teams to prioritize these touchpoints everywhere, the retention numbers prove it.
FAQs – Scaling Fitness with Regional Managers
What is the role of regional managers in fitness franchises?
Regional managers oversee multiple locations in a territory. Their job includes watching performance, developing teams, building culture, and solving problems across their locations. They’re the glue between Headquarters and local locations/managers.
How do regional managers improve member experience?
Regional managers improve member experience by keeping things consistent across locations, coaching staff to deliver great service, using data to spot and fix problems early, and creating systems that make quality repeatable.
They standardize what works while adapting to local needs, build leaders who put members first, and create cultures where staff truly care about member success.
How can multi-location gyms scale member experience?
Multi-location gyms scale the member experience by investing in strong regional managers, using centralized systems like ABC Glofox, creating clear brand standards, building solid training programs, and using data to stay consistent.
Success means balancing standardization with local flexibility, letting location managers make decisions, and creating cultures that put members first.
Why are regional managers important for fitness business growth?
Regional managers let you grow scaling fitness operations without losing quality. They build the leadership pipeline that supports expansion, make sure new locations deliver on brand promises from day one, find and replicate what works across territories, and keep customer loyalty strong as your footprint grows.
Without strong regional managers, growing fitness businesses often see weaker consistency, fading culture, and higher member churn.
How to train regional managers to deliver better member experiences?
Train regional managers by teaching coaching skills over operational control, showing them how to analyze data and spot patterns, giving them tools like ABC Glofox, helping them balance brand standards with local adaptation, and creating frameworks for leadership development.
Help Regional Managers Lead Better with ABC Glofox
Scaling fitness operations means delivering the same great member experience that built your reputation consistently, across every location. Your regional managers make that happen.
They coach local teams, catch problems early, and build the leadership that supports growth.
This leadership cascades down: strong regional managers develop strong location managers, who in turn build strong teams, who in turn deliver exceptional experiences to your members.
ABC Glofox gives regional managers the tools they need. Centralized reporting, automated workflows, unified brand standards, and insights that drive better decisions across all locations make an exceptional member experience measurable, repeatable, and scalable.
Ready to help your regional managers succeed? Book a Demo with ABC Glofox and see how our platform helps multi-location operators deliver great experiences everywhere.
