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The Consistency Secret: Year-Round Schedule

Quite a few of our owners have learned a secret that has increased their growth. It has to do with consistency. Perhaps calling this a secret is a stretch. There are lots of organization who understand – and leverage – this very simple strategy for increasing enrollment and revenues: year-round schedule.

Year-round schedule can boost your metrics from as much as 35%, as proved by Diane Trifiro at Ohio Sports Academy. And what’s even more interesting is that this increase is proven to continue year after year.

Organizations that change to year-round schedule are ecstatic about their decisions.

What they’ve been missing is suddenly obvious. The benefits far outweigh any fear or risk, and making the change wasn’t as challenging as they thought. Results are amazing:

  • Staff is grateful.
  • Parents are happy.
  • Kids keep loving their classes and learning on a well-established schedule.
  • Enrollment and revenues increase.

What more could you ask for?

If you’d like more benefits details, here they are.

Benefits for org staff and owner:

  • Billing is easier. (It stays the same)
  • Changes in enrollment are almost eliminated. (a new summer schedule ceases to exist)
  • Enrollment and revenues increase. (More classes, more students, more tuition)
  • Life is good.

Benefits for parents and kids:

  • Signing up is easier. (it’s done once a year and forgotten)
  • Parents don’t even have to remember to pay. (if the organization uses Jackrabbit’s monthly automated billing)
  • Schedules stay the same. (no new times/days to remember)
  • It’s easier on kids. (and better for their learning progression)
  • Life is good.

Why anyone still does session is really is a head scratcher.

The numbers from year-round schedule are so improved that even suspending a few low-performing classes doesn’t drag down the totals.

The opposing considerations are these:

#1 Organizations don’t believe people want to maintain consistency. They think people want to give their kids a “break” from the same old grind.

#2 Organizations believe people want to maintain consistency. They want the ease of keeping their schedules and payments the same and they want their kids to stay on the schedule that works. After all, it’s pretty accepted knowledge that change is disruptive to children in many ways.

There may be some other things that factor into the decision making process for organization, like:

  • Fear of that classes won’t fill but coaches and instructors still need to be paid
  • Staffing issues
  • Fewer kids will come in the summer
  • Risk of angering parents
  • Lack of inspiration to change what is working (or seems to be working)
  • Lack motivation to change “the way it’s always been done” (One of the most famous reasons for not doing almost anything)
  • Misguided belief that parents won’t bring their kids in on Friday and Saturday nights in the summer.

A basic factor in the decision making process is the in the metrics.

Those at the brink of their decision still look back and see that they’ve made the decision to offer fewer classes in the summer because enrollment numbers are historically lower for summer than for their other sessions.

But is this really a chicken and egg question? Do you offer fewer classes because summer enrollment is down or is summer enrollment down because you offer fewer classes? Diane believes that her experience over the past few years proves the latter.

We asked a thought-leader for her insights on year-round schedule.

To gain more insight, we thought we asked Patti Komara who has perfected year-round schedule at her gym.

Patti changed to year-round schedule a few years ago. Her motivation for doing so was simple.

Patti has always operated with the mantra “Make it easy for your customers to do business with you.” Implementing year-round schedule accomplishes that. It makes enrollment and payment about as easy and it can be for everyone involved. Patti also had heard of other gyms doing it with great success.

Changing to year-round schedule just made good sense to her.

Her year-round schedule success made Patti a firm believer that you don’t rock the boat. Once you have them coming, keep them coming!

(Read Patti’s posts about Year-round Schedule. Keep Your Schedule the Same Year Round and I’m Never Changing My Schedule.)

Find out from Patti, how to change to year-round schedule without fear!

 

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