PaySmart was established in 1996 by a couple of gym owners, a business woman and an IT expert – all with roots in health and fitness industries.
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PaySmart is a full-suite direct debit billing service provider with one of the strongest and most comprehensive network of infrastructure operating throughout Australia and New Zealand with clients in the health and fitness and education industries.
But there is so much more to the PaySmart story...
Gym owner-operator husband and wife team Veronica and John Cross had became increasingly concerned as gyms around the country were losing members. While struggling to retain memberships, inefficient payment processes also made it difficult for members to re-join. Lack of support to focus on developing new business ultimately meant the majority of these gyms were turning off the industrial air-cons for the last time and closing their doors permanently.
The future of the gym industry was looking bleak
As a small business owner, John was limited to payment methods offered by banks. He needed to find a way to provide his members with more flexible payment options than, memberships paid in-full at every three, six or twelve-month intervals. The lack of automation continuously hindered his ability to scale his business and affected his success.
Like a true entrepreneur, alongside running their businesses and operating their gyms, John with family, his business partner Heather Osborne and long time PaySmart IT Manager Harry Strybos (the creator of PaySmart’s billing platform), began developing a full-suite product for periodic payments that could integrate with the bank to initiate direct debiting for gym members. This would allow gym owners to spend less time chasing payments, and more time focusing on what was important to them – growing their businesses.
Financially Fit Australia (FFA) was born in 1996 and became known as PaySmart in 2003. FFA began rapidly growing, improving transparency and flexibility around charging memberships, enhancing the customer experience, and speeding up payment procedures while also providing gym owners with the support and advice they needed to increase customer retention and accelerate their business growth.
Fast-track to today
Fast track to today and PaySmart has powered on to become an iconic name in the market, now widely considered to be the benchmark in the Australian and New Zealand direct debit billing industry.
PaySmart is the thriving brainchild within the Transaction Services Group (TSG) – a leader in the gym management software industry globally for over 25 years.
Combined with PaySmart’s billing and payments technology, TSG now serves over four million customers across four continents and a range of verticals in the subscription ecosystems. TSG’s emphasis and approach to upholding the value of empowering their employees and reinforcing client-first processes, is in keeping with the philosophy of PaySmart’s early beginnings as a family-run business.
