“I love manual processes”, said no one ever.
Especially owners of dance studios, swim schools, or gymnastics gyms. There’s a lot of work that goes into the daily operations of your youth activity center. The more you and your staff can automate, the more efficient you can be.
Before we dive into what processes you should be automating at your youth activity center, I want to take a look at what automation really is.
What is automation?
Simply put, automation is the use of technology to complete a task with the goal of efficiency and reliability. Work that is automated is performed without involving people, which eliminates possible human error. Sounds like a dream, right?
The reality is we are human. And very busy ones at that! Any help from a tool that allows you to focus on being more visible and interactive with students, while not missing a beat behind the scenes sounds pretty beneficial, right? No matter how big or small automation feels, deep down we know that you know it can be the key to your business saving both time and money.
How does automation save time and money?
Time is money. And the time you and your staff spend manually working on daily, weekly, and monthly tasks is money spent.
Let’s think about it this way because we know that numbers don’t lie.
If you have 2 office staff members that can save 1 hour a day, 5 days a week, making $15 an hour each – that’s an annual savings of $7,800.
Seems like a no-brainer, am I right? With a class management system that can offers a self check-in option for your students and familes, you will find yourself saving money and getting more done in the time you and your staff are on the clock. That’s a double win!
What are the benefits of automated processes for your youth activity center?
Spend more time with parents and students building relationships
One of the most important relationships you can build as a business owner is with your customers.
Why? There could be a whole article about customer experience, and lucky for you, there is. (–> What is customer experience and why is it important for your youth activity center)
The bottom line is, cultivating trust with customers leads to student enrollment and retention. Retention leads to full class schedules. Full class schedules lead to positive revenue. Do you see where we’re going with this?
Get more time back to focus on marketing and enrollment
As an office manager of a youth activity center, you are often fielding phone calls about trials, tours, and class schedules. You’re on the front lines and have a ton of insight into what prospective families care most about. Take the time back to focus on your website, social media channels, or even call scripts for incoming registrations.
Use time saved to train your staff
Investing in your staff is never a bad idea. Whether instructors need renewed certifications or your admin team needs continuing education on your software’s latest enhancements, employing a fully trained staff adds value to your business.
Business owners who invest in their employees will see happier and more motivated staff members, which results in very happy customers.
5 ways to automate processes with Jackrabbit Class
Automate online registration with Jackrabbit Class
Streamline operations at your youth activity center by handing over manual paper registration to Jackrabbit’s online class management. Utilize class listings on your website to inform prospective parents exactly which classes are available when and which programs are on a waiting list.
Free up your front desk staff or office manager to focus more on students and instructor training and let go of those expensive paper registration packets. Online registration is available 24/7 and comes with a Jackrabbit integration specialist to help you build the registration experience you’ve always wanted.
Automate billing, payments, and tuition processing with Jackrabbit Class
Enable ePayments with Jackrabbit and allow your customers to pay their fees online or in the Parent Portal at any time. With flexible discounting and prorating options, you can set up class fees to optimize your revenue and spend less time on check processing and collections. Email statements to families that include details on their multiple class schedules, discounts, and late fees so that your office manager can spend less time on the phone explaining weekly or monthly charges.
Automate point of sale and inventory management with Jackrabbit Class
Managing a pro-shop? Chances are you need a staff member or two to ensure inventory is accurate and your customers are having a good purchasing experience. Consider utilizing a point of sale system with a credit card reader, barcode scanner, and built-in inventory reporting to streamline the process and automate a lot of the work your front desk staff is doing during peak class hours.
Allowing a point of sale software like Jackrabbit Class to handle the sales for you lets your staff get back to customer service and student engagement.
Automate skill, milestone, and curriculum development with Jackrabbit Class
These days in your gymnastics gym, swim school, or dance studio, it’s not enough to have the best curriculum in your neighborhood. You have to go a little further to prove that your students are learning and building on the skills your instructors and coaches are teaching. Enter: Jackrabbit Skill Tracking.
Monitor and record each student’s skills right in the Staff Portal, add achievements, notes, and even media. Share these directly to each family’s Parent Portal and change the way you connect with your customers for the better.
Automate staff time clock and payroll with Jackrabbit Class
Some of the best front desk managers I know are still responsible for managing a staff schedule on a clipboard, staff timesheets in a binder, and payroll via an excel spreadsheet.
The amount of manhours this is costing you is one thing. But the sanity your office managers are losing is another altogether.
Ditch those binders and take advantage of the tools Jackrabbit Class offers. With staff scheduling, time clock access in the Staff Portal, and integration to Express Payroll, we’ve got you covered. Your staff will get paid while your front desk administrator finds a little more room for productivity in their day.
Automate student check-in with Jackrabbit Class
Take some stress off of your front desk staff and save on payroll expenses by using a self check-in kiosk. Not only will your staff thank you, but your parents and students will benefit from your undivided attention when they arrive at your youth activity center. (See other the other ways Jackrabbit’s Self Check-In feature will benefit you –>)
Ways to automate processes in the future
Jackrabbit Class already has the ability to automate processes now, but that doesn’t mean it all stops here. Our product innovation plan for 2021 includes more enhancements with automation built in. We couldn’t be more pumped for what’s to come very soon!
To help you find the work/life balance you’ve been striving for, Jackrabbit will be releasing the first phase of Set It and Forget It where you can schedule your weekly or monthly tuition posting on a recurring basis. Taking this repetitive task off your plate frees you up to get more done during that time spent or taking that family vacation that you’ve been waiting for.
Are you ready to start automating processes at your youth activity center? Take Jackrabbit Class for a free 30-day test drive to discover the benefits of automation through class management software.
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