Gold's Gym Idaho AI Sales Case Study

Jodi Donoghue has spent 16 years at Gold's Gym Idaho, working her way up from a first job where, in her words, they didn't know where to put her, to Regional Director of Sales and Marketing overseeing three clubs, roughly 12,000 members, and a staff of about 300. She knows exactly what her sales teams do well: the greeting, the tour, the human connection that closes 75% of the prospects who walk through the door. She also knows where the gaps are. Her team's weak spot was the telephone, and the telephone was where memberships were quietly slipping away. So she brought in Replify to fill the gaps her people were never going to fill, and kept her humans doing what humans do best. The results so far: 4,127 AI conversations handled in the second quarter of 2026, 410 qualified leads captured, 2,293 live transfers to staff, tours booked straight onto the calendar with lead alerts in the CRM, an increase in online membership sales, and a measurable rise in member friendliness scores. This is her story, told largely in her own words.

The operator: 16 years of Gold's Gym, three clubs, one clear philosophy

I interviewed and they didn't know where to put me, but they hired me. That began my journey. Sales is where I landed, and I worked my way up the ladder. I run three clubs now. The opportunity and the education I've received from our ownership group and from Gold's Gym have been amazing. Gold's Gym is my passion.
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- Jodi Donoghue, Regional Director of Sales and Marketing, Gold's Gym Idaho

The operation runs on a clear structure. Jodi and her fellow regional manager, Corey, travel to each club at least once a week. Club-level operations managers run the front desk and facilities teams. Corey oversees personal training across the region, and Jodi oversees all three club sales teams.

Her philosophy on AI was set before she ever saw a demo. She went looking for software to support the team she already believed in.

Hiring employees is tough. Sometimes you're lucky, and you get a rock star. I call them my heavy hitters. But those are few and far between. I wanted to start looking into AI to assist my employees with the things people lack nowadays. Phone skills. A lot of the newer generation coming up, the people I'm looking to hire, they don't want to have a phone conversation. I've had employees literally look at me panicked when the phone rings. Never once did I look at replacing my sales team. What I wanted to do is see where their areas of weakness were and find something that could assist them.
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- Jodi Donoghue

Gold's Gym Idaho AI Results

Ready to explore AI for your gyms, studios, or health clubs? Read more AI case studies & book a Replify demo.

The problem: a great in-person team, stretched thin by the phone

Ask Jodi what her people do well and the answer comes fast.

From the minute the prospect walks through the door, that's what they do really well. The greeting, the smile, the human interaction, touring that person through the gym, finding out what their fitness goals are. They're excited to help people achieve those goals. They go over membership options and recommendations. They make sure the person understands what they're signing up for. Helping them feel comfortable, helping them decide that Gold's Gym is the right fit, and getting them started on their membership. They do that very well.
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- Jodi Donoghue

The phone was a different story. Every front desk associate was trained to open with one question, are you a member, because a member asking how warm the pool is needs a quick answer, while a prospect asking the same thing is a sales opportunity. In practice, that question rarely got asked. A typical call went like this:

Let's say they got a brand new front desk associate. Oh, shoot, I'm not sure. Let me put you on hold. Then they'd run back and ask their operations manager, how warm is the pool? Then they'd go back up to the front desk. You still there? Maybe they were, maybe they weren't, because some people are thinking, you can't even answer how warm your pool is.
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- Jodi Donoghue

Even when the answer got delivered, the opportunity was already gone. No name, no contact information, no way to follow up, no tour.

My sales team could never follow up. I didn't know who was calling in. I didn't know their name. I didn't have any way to reach back out to them. That whole incoming call, I did not realize how much we were losing in membership sales and conversions of a true lead.
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- Jodi Donoghue

Why Replify: a failed first attempt and an operator referral

Jodi's road to Replify ran through seven frustrating months with a different AI vendor. The agent never launched. The platform could not connect to the club's CRM or billing system, and the offered workaround was manual CSV uploads, which she flatly refused. The silver lining was an education: by the time that project stalled out, she understood how AI agents work better than most operators in the industry.

I did choose a different company. It didn't work out. It wasn't smooth. That's when I reached out to Replify, as a referral from the DC Metro club. And it immediately was life-changing for me and my department, right out of the gate.
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- Jodi Donoghue

The referral came from Gold's Gym DC Metro, whose own Replify results include a 10X increase in leads. In fitness, operators trust operators, and inside the Gold's Gym family, that word of mouth carried more weight than any pitch.

Onboarding: three clubs, three agents, live in days

Gold's Gym Idaho set up a separate AI agent for each club. Operations are kept deliberately similar across locations, but each club has its own quirks, and Jodi wanted each agent to know its own building cold.

Setting it up with our phone provider was simple. It was a few emails, introductions, and gathering some really simple information, like what number we wanted to use. It was a couple of days and voila, it was done. Our inbound calls were being answered by Goldie, and immediately I was seeing incoming traffic and leads into our CRM, which was also very easy to link and set up.
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- Jodi Donoghue

After seven months of spinning wheels elsewhere, the contrast in speed made an impression. So has the ongoing support and the learning curve for new users.

I introduced one of my PT managers to the Replify dashboard and he got it right out of the gate. It's easy peasy. Most of your questions can be answered right off the dashboard. Anything that's been a little over my head, I email my personal contact and my question gets answered, whether it's scheduling a call or a quick reply. I've never been stuck anywhere for any lengthy amount of time. AI is fast. Replify is just as fast in their customer service.
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- Jodi Donoghue

Meet Goldie: the qualifying question, asked every single time

Every inbound call at all three clubs now goes straight to Goldie. Her first job is the one the front desk always struggled with: quickly identifying whether the caller is a member or a non-member, because those are two different conversations.

A member asking about the pool gets an instant, accurate answer: 82 to 84 degrees. A prospect asking the same question gets the answer plus the conversation the sales process was always supposed to start. Have you been in before? Would you like to come see it? More often than not, Goldie books the tour on the spot. The appointment is added to a Google Calendar, and a new-lead alert with the date and time flows into the CRM.

From there, the humans take over, and this is where Jodi's team shines. Once a prospect walks through the door, Gold's Gym Idaho closes 75% of them. The AI's whole job is feeding that strength.

Billing calls follow the same logic. Instead of the front desk digging through the computer to research a double-billing question while members wait to check in, those calls are routed directly to trained billing representatives in a back-office call center.

The result Jodi can measure: a friendlier front desk

Gold's Gym Idaho surveys its members via Qualtrics, and since Goldie took over the phones, the club's friendliness scores have risen. Across more than ten Replify case studies, this is the first time a customer has shown us survey data quantifying what every operator senses: taking the phone off the front desk makes the front desk better at its real job.

The platform data shows the scale behind those scores. Across April, May, and June 2026, Goldie handled 4,127 conversations, nearly all of them phone calls, captured 410 qualified leads, and live-transferred 2,293 callers to staff. Just over half of all conversations end in a warm handoff to a human, and the rest are resolved by the AI, so every caller gets an instant answer or a person, whichever they need, while the front desk hears none of it ring. With the third club's agent ramping up in June, that month became the account's biggest yet: 1,467 conversations, 189 qualified leads (up 57.5% from May), and 849 live transfers.

Our friendliness scores have improved on our Qualtrics surveys. We've got our front desk staff more available because they are not taking that inbound call volume. Your members want that greeting when they're coming in to check in. They want to at least be acknowledged with a smile. A phone call is going to be, what, maybe two minutes? How many people can check in during those two minutes and never get acknowledged, because my front desk associate is on the phone?
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- Jodi Donoghue

She connects that score directly to the sales goals she is accountable for. Growth is net positive members, and friendliness feeds retention.

We're also looking at our attrition. I don't have to chase as many memberships if I don't have as many members canceling.
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- Jodi Donoghue

What's next for Gold's Gym Idaho

Outbound calling for speed to lead. Website trial-pass leads arrive opted out of texting under current messaging laws, which puts the first touch back on the telephone, the exact task her teams like least. Today only about 20% of those website leads ever walk through the door. Jodi is launching outbound campaigns so Goldie calls each new lead the moment it arrives, welcomes them, and books the visit that activates the pass.

Leads come in at all times, and when that lead comes in, that's when the person is motivated, right then and there. They're not in the same headspace a few hours, a day, or two later. Getting that contact right when they're motivated and getting them to commit to coming in is super important. It's going to increase our conversions. I guarantee it.
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- Jodi Donoghue

AI billing outreach. Past-due follow-up is delicate enough that Jodi only trusts two trained people to do it. The plan mirrors the workflow pioneered by Club 24 Concept Gyms: the AI handles the dialing and the voicemails, and the moment a live person picks up, the call transfers to one of those trained humans for the real conversation.

An internal knowledge base for staff. Like Gold's Gym DC Metro, which keeps its AI agent open on the front desk computer around the clock, Jodi plans to give entry-level staff the same always-current resource that callers get, so a brand-new associate can answer the pool question as confidently as a ten-year veteran.

Personal training. Jodi is already bringing PT managers into the Replify dashboard and is next expanding the platform into the personal training department.

Jodi's advice to other operators

When it comes to gym sales, we have our eyes constantly on growth, net positive members. When we're relying on employees to help us reach our goals, we all know where our holes are. I looked at where my holes were and saw where AI could help fill the gaps my employees weren't filling. I guarantee that where you're not doing great, you can bring your AI agent in, and she's going to do things exactly how you want them done. She's going to do them exactly the way you train each and every employee to do them, and then they drift off and start doing them differently, or they don't do them at all. She will never do that to you. She's going to do it each and every time. It's a ginormous win.
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- Jodi Donoghue

Ready to explore AI for your gyms, studios, or health clubs? Book a Replify demo.

Gold's Gym Idaho AI Case Study FAQ

Does an AI receptionist work across multiple gym locations?‍

Yes. Gold's Gym Idaho runs a separate AI agent for each of its three clubs so every agent knows its own building's hours, amenities, and programs. In Q2 2026 alone, the agents handled 4,127 conversations and captured 410 qualified leads across the three locations.

Will an AI agent replace our sales team?‍

No, and Gold's Gym Idaho chose Replify specifically to avoid that. The sales team closes 75% of prospects who walk through the door. The AI handles the phone work the team struggled with, qualifies callers, and books tours so the humans can do what they do best in person.

How long does setup take?‍

Days, not months. After seven months stalled with a prior AI vendor that could never connect to the club's CRM, Gold's Gym Idaho had Replify answering calls within a couple of days, with CRM integration and Google Calendar tour booking working immediately.

Can the AI schedule tours automatically?‍

Yes. Goldie, the club's AI agent, identifies whether a caller is a member or a prospect, answers their questions, and books tours directly onto a Google calendar with a new-lead alert pushed into the CRM, complete with date and time.

What if website leads are opted out of texting?‍

That is exactly why Gold's Gym Idaho is launching AI outbound calling. Website trial-pass leads arrive opted out of SMS under current messaging laws, so Goldie calls each new lead the moment it arrives, while the person is still motivated, and books their visit.

Can members still reach a real person?‍

Always. In Q2 2026, 2,293 callers were live-transferred to staff, just over half of all conversations. Everyone else got an instant answer from the AI with no hold queue.

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