The Problem
A fitness studio stuck on phone bookings while classes sat half-empty.
CoreFit Studio runs 6 classes per day, 6 days a week. Every booking happened over the phone or at the front desk. Their manager, Megan, spent 12 hours a week answering calls, checking the schedule, calling people back, and confirming spots. During peak hours, the phone rang constantly and half the calls went to voicemail.
Classes averaged 60% capacity even though demand was there. The problem was friction. People wanted to book at 10pm on a Sunday, not during business hours. By the time Megan called them back Monday morning, they'd signed up at a competitor with online booking.
They had tried a free booking plugin on their website but it didn't sync with their actual schedule, leading to double-bookings and frustrated clients. Megan would then have to call everyone to sort it out, creating more work than the tool was supposed to eliminate.
What We Did
Built self-service booking with automated waitlist and reminders.
We set up an online booking system connected to Google Calendar through Make.com. Clients see real-time class availability on the CoreFit website and book with two taps. Confirmation texts go out instantly. Reminder texts fire 2 hours before class.
For full classes, we built an automated waitlist. When someone cancels, the next person on the list gets a text offering the spot. They have 30 minutes to claim it before it goes to the next person. No phone calls, no manual checking.
We also connected Mailchimp for a weekly email showing the upcoming schedule with one-click booking links. Members who haven't booked in 14 days get a personalized re-engagement message.
The Results
35 more classes filled per month and zero phone booking.
In the first full month, CoreFit filled 35 additional class spots that would have gone empty under the old system. Class capacity jumped from 60% to 85%. Phone booking calls dropped to near zero because clients preferred the online system.
Megan went from 12 hours of booking admin per week to about 30 minutes of oversight. The waitlist system alone recovered 22 spots in the first month from last-minute cancellations. Megan told us the moment she knew it was working was when she realized she hadn't answered a single booking call in an entire week, and every class was fuller than before.