Chasing down past-due payments is one of the most tedious, time-consuming tasks in running a gym or fitness studio. Staff get stuck making awkward phone calls, members dodge voicemails, and revenue slips through the cracks.
What if you could automate the entire collections process with AI -- personalized outreach, phone calls, and follow-up -- and launch it in just a few clicks?
In this tutorial, we'll walk through exactly how to set up and launch an AI-powered collections campaign using Replify's Campaign Manager. The video below covers the full process step by step.
Why Use AI for Gym Collections?
Traditional collections processes rely on front desk staff to manually call or text members with overdue balances. That approach doesn't scale, and it often leads to inconsistent follow-up, missed revenue, and burned-out employees.
AI collections outreach solves these problems by generating personalized calls and messages automatically. Each member gets contacted with the right details (their name, their specific balance) without anyone on your team picking up the phone. Replify's AI handles the conversation, offers to connect members with your front desk to complete payment, and tracks every interaction.
For a real-world example of how this plays out at scale, check out how Club 24 Concept Gyms is using AI to automate over 6,000 calls per month.
Step 1: Create a New Campaign
Start by navigating to the Campaign Manager in the left panel of your Replify portal. You'll see a list of any existing campaigns on your account. Click Create Campaign to get started.
From the available templates, select Simple Outreach -- this is a one-time campaign where each contact is reached once, making it ideal for collections. Then choose the Past Due Collections template. You'll notice this template comes with phone outreach enabled by default.
Click Use Template, give your campaign a name, and you'll land on the Configuration view with smart defaults already applied.
Step 2: Configure Campaign Basics
In the Campaign Basics section, you can update the title and description to keep things organized. The most important field here is the Campaign Goal.
The campaign goal isn't just a label. It's what Replify's AI uses to generate your outreach messaging and guide the live conversation after the initial contact. For a collections campaign, your goal should clearly state that you're recovering past-due balances from members.
The more specific and detailed your campaign goal, the better your AI-generated outreach will perform.
Step 3: Set Delivery and Timing
Under Delivery and Timing, confirm your communication channel. For collections, phone is the template default, and it's usually the most effective channel for this type of outreach.
Next, review the Message Strategy. The template has already written your intro message -- the script the AI will use when it calls each member. You'll see it uses dynamic variables like first name and past due amount. Default fields (first name, last name, phone, email) are always available, but custom variables like past-due amount will pull from the data you upload with your contacts.
For Campaign Execution, you have three options:
- Run at a specific date and time -- great for coordinating with your front desk so they're ready for callbacks and transferred calls.
- Run manually -- you trigger when outreach begins.
- Run automatically when contacts are added -- outreach fires as soon as new contacts are uploaded, within business hours.
For collections, scheduling a specific date and time is usually ideal so your team is prepared.
Step 4: Set Behavior and Rules
The Behavior and Rules section has two key areas.
Campaign Knowledge is supplemental information for the AI, layered on top of your existing agent knowledge base. If there are specific collections policies, payment plan options, or talking points relevant to this campaign, add them here.
Additional Instructions are rules the AI follows on every conversation -- things like staying on topic, keeping a professional tone, and transferring to the front desk when a member is ready to pay. The template provides solid defaults, but you can customize the transfer number or add specific policies as needed.
Step 5: Upload Your Contacts
After saving your campaign, it will appear in draft mode in the Campaign Manager. Now it's time to add contacts.
Click Add Contacts and choose your upload method. CSV upload is the most straightforward option. Your CSV should include the columns you need -- for a collections campaign, that typically means first name, phone number, and amount due.
When uploading, you'll map your CSV columns to campaign variables. For the past due amount variable used in the intro message, create a custom property and map it to your "amount due" column. This is what allows the AI to tell each member their specific balance during the call.
Step 6: Test Before Going Live
Before any outreach goes out, enable Manual Review. This lets you inspect and approve each piece of outreach before it's sent, which is especially important for a first campaign or when you want to verify personalization is working correctly.
You can also Simulate the campaign by selecting a contact and previewing exactly what the AI will say. The simulation shows the personalized intro message with the member's actual data and lets you test how the AI handles different member responses.
In the simulation, you'll see the AI reference the specific past-due amount and offer to connect the member with the front desk to complete payment.
Step 7: Go Live and Monitor
When everything looks good, click Go Live. A quick note: once a campaign is live, you can't go back to the edit page, so finalize any changes first.
With manual review enabled, the campaign enters Planning Mode -- the AI plans each outreach, and contacts show as "Awaiting Approval." You can review each one, then approve individually or in bulk.
Once approved, outreach will go out on your scheduled date and time. After outreach begins, you can track everything from the Campaign Manager:
- Outreach History shows every conversation with every contact.
- Performance Dashboard displays contact reach rates, call engagement, and call duration breakdowns.
- Configuration Overview lets you review your campaign setup at any time.
Recovering Revenue with Less Work
That's the entire process -- from template to live campaign in just a few minutes. AI-powered collections outreach takes the manual burden off your team while delivering consistent, personalized follow-up that actually recovers revenue.
No more sticky notes, no more forgotten follow-ups, and no more awkward front-desk calls. The AI handles the outreach, and your staff only steps in when a member is ready to pay.
Ready to see how AI billing and collections can work for your gym, studio, or health club? Book a demo with the Replify team.
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