Gym Chatbot: How to Answer Member Questions From Your Website
People who are thinking about joining a gym or studio ask a lot of practical questions before they ever walk in: when are you open, which classes run in the evening, is there a trial, how do I freeze or end a membership, where do I park. Front desk staff are busy exactly when these questions arrive, and the website form is easy to ignore. A chatbot on your own website can answer these questions at any hour, from your own pages, and collect the details of people who want to talk. It does not coach, advise on training or health, or sign anyone up, and it should not pretend to. Here is a five-step setup.
Step 1: List the questions prospects and members ask
Look through your inbox, social messages and the notes your front desk keeps, and write down the questions you answer most. Typical ones are opening hours, class timetable, how to book a class (the chat does not book classes or take payments itself; it answers from your pages and passes people to your team or a contact form), what to bring, guest policy, membership types and how to pause or cancel, parking and changing rooms. Write each in the visitor's words. Sort them into questions with a stable answer, which suit a chatbot, and questions about a person's own situation, which need your team.
Step 2: Put the answers on pages the chat can read
The chat can only answer from what it can read, so make each answer clear in plain text on a public page: timetable, membership information, policies, location, FAQ. You can also add a PDF or Word document, such as a member handbook, as a file. Create your chat, enter your website's address and choose the pages it should learn from. Pages behind a login, such as a members' area, cannot be read. Each answer carries a numbered source, and the chat never states a price, date or policy that your pages do not state. Prices are best left on your own pricing page, which the chat can link to.
Step 3: Write exact answers for hours, timetable rules and policies
Some answers must never vary: opening hours on holidays, the cancellation rule, the guest policy. For these, write a saved answer. On the Knowledge page, add the question the way a visitor would ask it, add up to five other ways of asking it, write the answer and choose "Reply with this answer exactly". A saved answer is live as soon as you save it, so a change to this week's timetable can be live in a moment. Test the chat with the questions from step 1 and one it should not answer, such as a question about a personal injury or a diet: it should say it does not know and offer a next step instead of guessing.
Step 4: Decide what happens with people who want to join
A prospect who gets an answer and wants more should be able to leave their details. The chat can show a short contact form, which needs an email and can take a name and phone number. Each lead lands in Contacts with its conversation and the last question asked, so your first message can answer it. The chat never records marketing consent on its own; an optional marketing opt-in is stored with the time it was given. An alert shows the name (if given) and which fields were left, never the email or phone number. With handoff turned on, which needs a paid plan, a visitor can ask for a person during the business hours you set; outside those hours, or when nobody is online, they get the contact form.
Step 5: Add it to your site and review what people ask
After you go live, OneType shows your script line, which goes just before the closing body tag; the same line works anywhere you can add custom code. Open your published site in a new tab and look for the chat button in the corner. Within about a minute OneType shows "Live on" followed by your site's address, for example "Live on gym.example.com". After a week, open the questions the chat could not answer, which are grouped by meaning with the most asked first, and add the missing information to a page or a saved answer.
Answer prospects while you coach
See the gym setup: a chatbot for gyms and fitness studios, learn about saved answers, or start free.