How SETS Hybrid Training replaced a patchwork of disconnected tools with one platform built to manage, engage, and grow across 17 studios, with more opening every quarter.
- 17 studios – Growing to ~23 within six months
- 10 to 12 tools – Replaced by one platform
- 2 to 5% – Average attrition per location
For a franchise scaling past 15 locations, the risk was never opening the next studio – it was whether the systems behind it could keep up. SETS Hybrid Training has grown from a handful of outdoor bootcamps into 17 coach-led training studios across the Northeast, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, with six more opening over the next two quarters, and it has done that without standing up a new back office for every new site. That is because SETS runs its entire operation on Glofox, one platform doing the work that used to take a dozen.
Before Glofox: a franchise running on borrowed time
As SETS began franchising, it quickly outgrew its existing fitness management software. The business relied on that platform alongside 10 to 12 separate systems just to manage scheduling, payments, and reporting across its locations. Admin work that should have belonged to a back office instead fell on coaches and owners, one login and one browser tab at a time.
“Switching from our previous platform to ABC Glofox was a game-changer for us. We went from managing disconnected systems to one platform that truly fits how a modern training business operates. Everything is faster, cleaner, and easier to scale, and it’s been a key factor in making franchising possible and far more efficient. We haven’t looked back since.”
Anthony Kapasakis, Founder & CEO, SETS Hybrid Training
Learn more: See the full Glofox vs. MindBody comparison
Manage: One system, every location
A franchise cannot run every studio the same way if its owner cannot see every studio the same way. Moving to Glofox brought sales, member communication, class management, reporting, and payments into a single platform, giving SETS one dashboard instead of a dozen logins. Real-time reporting through Glofox Insights now lets SETS track performance and retention across all 17 locations from one screen, replacing the manual, location-by-location checking that used to eat up an owner’s week.
That visibility is where Founder & CEO, Anthony Kapasakis starts every morning. Before anything else, he opens ABC Insights and its State of the Business report, a single screen that rolls up every gym’s numbers so he can flag a KPI the moment it slips and dig in before a small problem becomes a big one. It fits how SETS is built: franchise owners are on the floor coaching, not buried in spreadsheets, so the first read on the business happens at corporate.
Glofox went further than a standard rollout. Over the past year, the Glofox team built eight features specifically for SETS’s franchise model, covering franchise onboarding, royalty management, and cross-studio communication. Those tools now sit at the center of how SETS runs its back office, not as an add-on, but as the system every franchisee works inside from day one.
“The biggest one that’s helped is ABC Insights, because they have this report called State of the Business. I can see every gym’s numbers right there. It gives me the ability to red flag certain KPIs and then deep dive and assist very quickly, because we’re an owner-operated gym, and a lot of the time our owners are on the floor coaching. My leadership team and I are able to pinpoint issues and give owners the same solves we’ve seen work over the past twelve years.”
Anthony Kapasakis
Learn more: Multi-location management · Reporting & Insights
Engage: One member experience, every site
Growth only holds together if members feel like they belong to one brand, not to whichever location happens to be closest. Because scheduling, communication, and class management run through the same platform at every studio, a SETS member gets the same booking flow and the same follow-up whether they train in East Brunswick or Tampa. That consistency shows up in the number that matters most to a franchise: retention. Attrition across SETS locations now averages 2 to 5 percent, tracked in real time through the same Insights dashboard that gives franchisees a clear, current read on how their studio is performing with members, not a monthly guess.
That number is not an accident. Glofox’s at-risk report flags members automatically, before a manager has to guess who might be drifting: someone who has not shown up in 30 days, or someone stuck in a cycle of booking and canceling without ever attending. Managers use that list to reach out, not to chase members back in, but to check on them.
“It’s that at-risk report in Glofox. There’s no guessing. This person hasn’t been in 30 days, what’s going on? Or this person keeps booking and canceling and hasn’t had an actual visit. That’s all in the at-risk report, and it tasks my managers to reach out and check on them. Not like, get back in the gym, but hey, what’s going on, do you need to freeze, or is there something going on personally we can help with. Those conversations are genuine, and our members recognize that. That’s why they don’t leave.”
Anthony Kapasakis
Learn more: Custom branded member app · Engage My Members overview
Grow: Scaling the franchise without scaling the back office
SETS franchises from within: every new owner starts as a coach, learns the brand from the floor up, and earns their way into ownership. That model only works at speed if a new franchisee can step into a system that already knows how SETS operates, rather than building a back office from scratch. With franchise onboarding and royalty management already built into the platform, SETS has been able to add locations, six more are opening in the next two quarters alone, without adding a proportional amount of administrative overhead for every new site.
Growth is not only about adding studios. It also means turning more of the leads walking through the door into paying members, and SETS built that directly into its reporting. Custom lead-tracking, one of the features Glofox built specifically for SETS, gives franchisees visibility into where a prospect sits in the funnel and what to do next.
One report in particular now shapes how SETS coaches its entire sales process. If a new lead returns for a third visit within ten days, they sign up at roughly a 90 percent rate, so getting that third visit booked quickly has become one of the most closely tracked numbers at every location.
“Our last set of four owners we brought on, I’m talking three months. When we launched this a few years ago, it was basically a two-year handhold with new owners. Now I’m able to teach them and they’re able to get up to speed at a much quicker rate.”
Anthony Kapasakis
Learn more: CRM & lead conversion · Grow My Business overview
ABC Glofox: A partnership that keeps showing up
SETS’s relationship with Glofox did not end at the consolidation project. In a recent conversation, Kapasakis pointed to the pace of the partnership itself as much as any single feature.
“The list of things you have on your roadmap is awesome. You’re relentless. You’re not sitting on your laurels, you’re acquiring new capability and shipping it. I love it. I love everything.”
Anthony Kapasakis
What’s next
SETS is now piloting Glofox’s newest AI tools, an AI front desk and AI sales agent, across a subset of its locations, with an eye toward taking more manual reporting and admin work off its coaches. That trial is still in progress and the results are not final, so it is a story for another day. What it shows for now is a franchise that keeps looking for the next piece of manual work to remove, the same instinct that brought SETS to Glofox in the first place.
For other multi-location operators
SETS’s path is a template, not a one-off. Consolidate onto one platform before complexity outruns you. Measure retention and performance the same way at every site, in real time, not once a month. And build franchise or unit growth on tools that already carry your onboarding and royalty logic, so the fourth location costs you the same administrative effort as the fifth. If your growth is starting to outpace your back office, that is the playbook worth borrowing.
Ready to see results like these?
If your franchise is running on a patchwork of disconnected tools, watching new owners take years to get up to speed, or struggling to keep performance consistent across locations, it’s time to see what Glofox can do for your studios.
