Innovations - IHRSA

| IHRSA Report | Member News
Full Disclosure ASF International
Like a parent raising a child, ASF is acutely aware of the
constantly changing needs its technology has to address
Nearly 40 years ago, Richard
Reed, an eighth-degree
taekwondo senior master,
founded ASF International,
in Denver, Colorado. Reed,
who also founded the American
Taekwondo Association, originally
established ASF to assist martial arts
franchises in their collections efforts. It
didn’t take long for him to discover how
effective his services could be to the
entire health club industry.
That vision, coupled with the ability
to adapt to changes in technology,
has been ASF’s hallmark during its
three-decades-plus tenure. By 1983, the
firm had developed leading-edge computerized
club-management software,
including the early integration of
payment processing.
Keeping PT Profitable
To help clubs generate additional revenue through their personal
training (PT) profit centers, the company’s point-of-sale system
has been integrated with its scheduling program to track PT
packages purchased and inventory of sessions available to each
member. “What that means,” explains Bob Riches, ASF’s president,
“is that payment plans can now be offered and inventories
of sessions adjusted based on payments received and/or rejected.
This will not only help our clients grow these profit centers but,
more importantly, it will help them manage their profitability.” —|
ASF’s suite of services includes payment
processing, software management
packages, and permanent interactive
marketing programs. What differentiates
the company is that, for the past 35 years,
ASF has helped clients achieve a competitive
edge with an understanding of
how billing and software services interact
with a club’s marketing and operational
90 Club Business International | APRIL 2010 | www.ihrsa.org
systems. Today, ASF serves nearly 3,000
clients throughout the U.S., Canada, and
Puerto Rico. Robert Riches, ASF’s president,
and Sean Kirby, its national sales
director, elaborate on the key factors to
the company’s successful growth.
The right tools for the job
“Technology is a never-ending, everdeveloping,
and endlessly growing asset
for ASF and our clients,” asserts Riches.
“Like being a parent, you’re never done.
Constant reevaluation—stemming from
feedback through our clients and
advances outside our industry—require
us to internally house our own IT, R&D,
and programming. While other companies
may have outsourced or acquired
their software developments, ASF has
always maintained control of software
development, so that
it never impedes our
clients’ potential in
relation to their financial
growth.”
To Riches’ point, ASF
recently introduced:
• ASF Dashboard—A
business support tool,
the Dashboard gives
operators up-to-theminute
assessment of
their club and its
profit centers, offering
reports on deposits,
new sales, prospects, attendance,
scheduling, point-of-sale, and more.
• TRIALBox—This customized lead-
generation tool is designed to generate
greater branding for a club as well as
leads. The leads are then tracked in ASF’s
prospect database, allowing sales reps to
schedule follow-up activities, and measure
sales performance against closing ratios.
» “Cu
Sean Kirby
s t o m e r
s e r v i C e is
m o r e t h a n
j u s t b u i l d i n g
t h e r i g h t t o o l s
a n d b e i n g polite
a n d C o u r t e o u s
o v e r t h e p h o n e.
it’s a b o u t
d e v e l o p i n g
r e l a t i o n s h i p s
a n d t r u s t. We
v i e W o u r s e l v e s
a s a n e x t e n s i o n
o f o u r C l i e n t s
a n d a p a r t n e r,
a s W e l l .”