Our aim is to make direct debit payments affordable for all companies, as well as ensuring they're predictable in terms of timing and success rates, which leads to a better customer experience,” says Ross Pert, payments specialist at GoCardless. “We strongly believe the customer experience is king and we live by that, by building a great product for our customers and their customers too.”

Founded in 2011, the company counts giants such as TripAdvisor and The Financial Times amongst its clients, and processes £5bn a year in value and five million transactions every month.

In the last year, GoCardless has turned its attention to the health and fitness industry and is already working with more than 1,500 gyms and fitness businesses in the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

“Our system works very well with the current trend in the health and fitness industry to take payments on a monthly basis, rather than locking people into rolling contacts," says Pert. "Our technology makes it easy to take payments at any time of the month, and for differing amounts, enabling operators to turn their membership options into a competitive advantage.”

The fitness space
Boutique operator, The Fitness Space, chose GoCardless for all of its franchises because it allowed the flexibility required to offer its highly personalised service. Operations director John Pye says the speed of the transactions and the ability to take payments at any time of the month is a huge advantage.

“It's been particularly useful in the pre-sales stage, when the sales teams are often working out of a building site,” he says. “Previously they would have to buy a Point of Sale machine with a SIM to take a card payment, but now they can easily set up a direct debit payment system. Our studios are focused on member experience and our payment solution needs to reflect that.”

3-1-5 health club
The flexibility of the GoCardless direct debit solution has helped Lancaster-based operator 3-1-5 Health Club to manage its payments more easily. “With our previous provider, we were restricted in terms of cashflow, only getting two payouts a month," says finance lead Helen Parkinson.

"We also found adding new memberships and payment types – like locker hire – was difficult, as was the taking of ad hoc payments.

"Our ability to see payments was also very poor," she continues. “We're 100 per cent pleased with the decision to move to GoCardless. It's given us back the control we need to manage finances and offer a better service to members.”

GoCardless also solves the headache and admin of taking payments in different currencies. Global fitness business Les Mills previously had a system that required extensive manual administration and bulk uploads to the bank, which was time consuming and resource-intensive.

Les Mills International
Les Mills built its own GoCardless integration for the Magento e-commerce platform that allowed the whole process to be automated, thus saving a significant amount of work. “We can now use a single integration to support three different direct debit schemes in the UK, Sweden and Germany,” says Frank Mair, technical lead at Les Mills.

Eighty two per cent of gym membership payments in the UK are made by direct debit and while it’s cheaper than card payments, operators can be hit by hidden fees.

Pert says GoCardless is an affordable option for all businesses, regardless of their size. “We offer a very flexible and transparent system. Our usual rate for small to medium-sized businesses is 1 per cent and we only charge for successful transactions. We also offer volume-based options for the largest operators. We allow companies to sign up with one click and take care of compliance, regulations and payment processing on their behalf.”

GoCardless differs from other direct debit providers in that it doesn’t offer debt collection services or charge for failed transactions – instead it works with providers to improve payment success rate. “Debt collection tends to be very unpopular with members, and can spell the end of their membership, as well as leading to bad reviews online,” says Pert. “Our record of payment collection is very high, with a 99.5 per cent success rate, because we've built advanced technology to provide better functionality regarding re-tries.”

Make the move
Operators wanting to move onto the GoCardless system can be set up and ready in one day, with existing direct debit mandates transferred in a matter of weeks, with no disruptions for members.

3-1-5 Health Club moved its direct debit mandates to GoCardless in early 2017, through the bulk-change process. “We were nervous about the switch, but it went smoothly," says Parkinson. “The process was managed professionally, with a timeline of the way things would work. It was very reassuring to have the GoCardless team behind us.”