Client check-ins are an important way to measure progress. Even if your client check-in questions are super simple, getting any kind of regular feedback from your clients is a great way to gauge their motivation levels and measure their progress over time.
Choosing which personal training check-in questions to ask every week will help create a regular routine for your clients. Changing questions each week, even just the wording, will slow the process down, cause confusion and make it harder to compare week-to-week progress.
Make sure these questions can be answered quickly with simple metrics or answer fields, and ensure your clients are comfortable giving you their information.
Here are some questions to help create a template you can go through during each check-in. You can also download the printable worksheet below.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OUR CLIENT CHECK-IN TEMPLATE
Eight essential fitness client check-in questions
#1 – What were your goals for this week? Did you achieve them? Why or why not?
#2 – Did you complete all of your assigned workouts? Why or why not?
#3 – How much sleep did you get/how much water did you drink/steps did you take, on average?
Top tip: Tailor this question based on habit goals you and your client have set
#4 – What has your motivation level been on a scale of 1-10? What about your stress levels?
#5 – What factors have contributed to your motivation and/or stress levels this week?
#6 – List 3-5 wins or milestones you achieved this week.
#7 – List 3-5 challenges you dealt with this week.
#8 – What are your goals for next week?
Many of you will have a set day of the week for your clients to check in with you.
Checking in with your clients once a week is a great way to show them how much you care about their progress and, ultimately, drive retention – to add an extra layer of engagement, consider incorporating motivational quotes into your check-in communications. Remember: including some personal and open-ended questions will trigger more in-depth responses, fostering a stronger connection between you and your clients.
Whether that’s updating their measurements, weight and progress photos or simply talking about how their past week or month has been.
What to do with your client check-in answers
Now that you’ve got your core check-in questions nailed down, it’s time to think about how you’re using those answers. A great check-in doesn’t end with a form — it opens up a conversation. By setting clear expectations, collecting the right data, and streamlining your workflow, you can turn weekly answers into long-term results. Here are four tips to help you make the most of your client check-ins.
Here are four key things you should keep in mind:
1. Establish a clear client check-ins routine
Allocating a specific day for your client check-ins should be something you initiate from the beginning. This helps to free up time on your other days to concentrate on work, programming and everything else associated with being a coach.
Plus, you’ll spend less time chasing up your clients. Furthermore, keeping your client check-ins to specific hours will help to build up a regular pattern of behaviour in your clients and avoid you having to find a time that works for each individual client.
Let’s say that you set your check-in day to be every Saturday, with check-ins having to be sent by 12 noon. You’ll then know by that day and time if all clients have sent over the required information.
This allows you to respond, make any changes required and answer any questions they may have – all before the new week starts.
Top tip: There’s now a way to automate your weekly check-ins completely — no reminders, no manual assigning. Keep reading to find out how to use it inside My PT Hub.
2. Set client check-in rules and guidelines
This isn’t to say you need to run your client check-ins like a military bootcamp, but it is key to set some ground rules to keep your check-in process consistent.
When you first sign up a new client, make sure that you communicate your check-in guidelines, expectations, process and how often you expect them to check in with you.
By setting some ground rules, you’ll help to cement habitual behaviour from your clients right from the get-go. It shows your clients that you’re invested in their progress but also that your time is valuable.
The sooner your client knows that each week they have to check in by a specific time, complete their check-in questions (the same questions that they can expect every week) and add any progress photos or metrics that you require from them, the sooner they’ll fall into your routine.
This also means that you can reduce your admin time and organize your schedule more efficiently, enabling you to free up the rest of your time to focus on programming or improving your business.
Top tip: Did you know you can create and assign custom check-ins using My PT Hub’s Check-Ins feature directly from your app? Plus, you can even automate emails and push notifications ahead of time for the morning of their check-in day without you having to lift a finger on your weekend!
3. Collect qualitative and quantitative data
As a coach, it’s essential to get a well-rounded picture of how your clients are feeling and performing from their check-ins. This is where qualitative and quantitative data come in.
Qualitative data
The qualitative data that you collect should be centered around how your clients feel. For example, their energy levels, motivation or stress levels.
Quantitative data
The quantitative data that you collect is client data that can be measured. For example, your clients’ current bodyweight or average daily steps that week.
Collecting both qualitative and quantitative data from your clients will help you to get a more holistic view of your clients’ progress from their check-ins. Bear this in mind when creating your specific check-in questions.
4. Streamline your entire check-ins process into one platform
Finding it impossible to keep track of your client check-ins using spreadsheets or multiple apps? That’s where My PT Hub comes in.
Our all-in-one online personal training software is designed specifically to help coaches streamline their client check-in process in one place, including everything you need to create your check-in forms, track progress and schedule reminders.
Want to learn more? Here’s a quick breakdown of how you can use My PT Hub to simplify your check-ins.
Automate your weekly check-ins
Want to remove even more manual work from your routine? My PT Hub’s Automated Client Check-Ins feature makes it easier than ever to stay consistent without lifting a finger.
This tool allows you to set up check-ins that automatically send to your clients on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis — no manual assigning or reminders needed. You choose the day, time, and questions, and My PT Hub takes care of the rest.
It’s perfect for coaches who want to streamline their workflow, reduce repetitive admin, and ensure every client stays on track week after week, even down to when your check-in opens, becomes “overdue” and closes.
Create your check-in questions
Design and assign custom check-in questionnaires using the dedicated Check-Ins ‘Form Builder’ feature.
This feature allows coaches to create multi-question check-ins with many different types of answer options, including everything from text inputs to sliding scales, multiple choice and star ratings.
Check-In forms can also be assigned to individual clients or multiple clients, meaning that you can easily create and assign a weekly check-in form for your clients in a matter of minutes.
View client check-in responses
Coaches can view and respond to completed check-ins from the dedicated Check-Ins ‘Inbox’, to give instant and actionable feedback, motivation and tips. Coaches have the option to send feedback via text input, voicenote and video, depending on your – or your clients’ – preferences.
Schedule reminders
Keep clients on track with automated email and push notification reminders, saving you valuable time otherwise devoted to chasing up your clients. Need to give your clients an extra push? Trainers can easily track any ‘Overdue’ check-ins and send manual “nudge” reminders or chat messages, directly from your app.
Compare check-ins vs. client performance
My PT Hub enables you to track your clients’ training activity in incredible detail, including their logged workouts, nutrition plans, updated measurements, progress photos and even health data from their connected fitness wearables (including Apple Watch, Fitbit & more).
Come check-in day, all you have to do is open up your client’s profile, and you have everything you need right in front of you, from their completed check-in to all of their training data, activity and health data.
Visualize progress
Prefer a more data-driven approach to demonstrating your clients’ progress? We’ve got you covered.
Use the side-by-side Check-Ins comparison tool to directly compare your clients’ current check-in with a previous one. For example, to see where they started vs. where they are now. This enables coaches to easily view and demonstrate progress – including client’s body transformations from uploaded progress photos – as well as unlock deeper insights into client sentiment and performance.
However you measure your clients’ progress, combining your clients’ check-in responses with real-time data analysis can be a powerful way to keep your clients motivated, engaged and focused on achieving results.
Ready to level up your client check-in process?
Sign up for your 30-day free trial of My PT Hub today to discover how much time you could be saving by streamlining your client check-in process using our all-in-one personal training software and app.