Indoor Cycling Studio Provides a Unique Customer Experience with Surface RT

Today we’re sharing with you how one business, Flywheel Sports is using Surface RT to motivate their customers and provide them with the best possible experience. Throughout the design process of Surface we knew that it would be a great tool for businesses to use, so we’re excited to share with you how one business is doing just that.

Flywheel customers check-in and get started with Surface RT.

First some background for you, co-founded in 2009 by Ruth Zukerman, Flywheel Sports is a boutique fitness studio that specializes in indoor cycling. In an effort to differentiate themselves from competitors they decided to use technology to improve their customer experience. Customers of Flywheel create online accounts, which they use to register for their classes and select their instructors. The can also let friends know which classes they’ve registered for and even which bike they’ll be using.

Upon arriving at any Flywheel studio, riders check in on Surface RT devices with Touch Covers in the lobby. Once checked in, their profile is connected to their bike to get performance data, and they’re ready for their work out.

Before we brought Surface to the studio experience, riders had to check in at the front desk and we would only be able to provide customer service functions from that point, says Bob Rademacher, Head of the Technology Team at Flywheel Sports. Surface gives us the ability to use it as a laptop on the counters or move through the studio and help customers at each phase of their visit. The Windows platform across all of our devices allows us to operate more efficiently and the Surface touch experience brings our check-in and concierge process to the next level.

Currently, there are more than 100 Surface RT units installed across 24 Flywheel studios, with plans to roll-out four to five Surface tablets into every new studio opened.

Adopting the new Windows operating system, and the Surface tablets in particular, has been a terrific investment, says Jay Galluzzo, CEO and Co-founder of Flywheel Sports. We really love our customers reaction when they see the Surface for the first time. But even more so, we love it when they come in for the second time and they’re comfortable with it and they want to know what more it can do.

We’re pumped to see an up-and-coming business like Flywheel using Surface RT to interact with their customers in a fun and engaging way.

Cyril Belikoff
Director- Microsoft Surface