We all like things to be easy. Me, you and your gym’s or school’s parents. But how do you make this happen? Answer: Make everything simple.

The best way to understand how you can simplify the way business is done with your facility is to look at the relationship your parents have with you through their eyes.  It’s all about simplification of process, communications and information.

Technology has a huge role in this and it’s up to you to take advantage of the technologies that will make your business more engaging to your existing customers and more appealing to potential ones.

There are three areas of technology that you need to put to work for you: the Internet, mobility, and information delivery.

Leverage the Internet

The proliferation of the Internet is huge for businesses – especially ones that need to consistently communicate with their customers and need for their customers to participate with them on a regular basis – like you.

The Internet makes this easy and cheap for your facility’s parents and for you.

The Internet is flexible and allows for free access as well as all sorts of levels of secure access.

Websites can make information visible to anyone while emails and texts can make this visibility targeted. Portals can secure this visibility by requiring passwords for entry.

These capabilities help you make the business end of your facility quick and simple to do business with by eliminating 3 needs:

• For staff to be involved in transactions and enrollments
• To enroll or pay in person
• To ask staff or instructors questions about students

Technology makes processes self-serve. The Internet is always “on.” So processes are available to parents 24/7 and when they’re part of a software application, can automatically populate into accounts and records like class enrollments and payments.

Payments can even be totally removed from parents’ to-dos through secure auto-payment and pay-on-demand features.

Information is easily recorded by you, your staff and instructors in secure portals so that parents can see it whenever they choose to log in.

Information from payment and enrollment requires no human intervention and skills information and comments are entered without the need for translation or rekeying so there is little question that it is accurate.

Convenience, simplicity, accuracy – what more could parents ask for?

Leverage Mobility

Well, they’ve probably asked for mobility. That is, they want to be able to do all of these online activities on their iPhones and tablets.

Mobile-friendly features of software make the same portal parents use on their computer easy to view and use on their mobile device. They can review skills, pay bills, etc. while they’re in the school pick-up line.

Mobile apps for your facility give parents iPhone accessibility to everything they want from your facility whether it’s entry to your software portal’s payment system and skill tracking, enrollment and class listings, your activities calendar or videos and pictures. This is possible because your mobile app can give parents access to as much of the information in your class management software as you’d like.

Improve Delivery of Information

Technology helps you to keep your parents informed. And because of technology’s flexibility, you can tailor your communication to fit the message. You may want to email with updates to schedules and future plans. You may want to text with reminders. And you may want to use your mobile app’s notification features to send alerts with information parents need immediately.

The thing is that emails sent through your class management software features can leverage your student and parent lists and make information easy to deliver with very minimal effort unlike the email application – such as Microsoft Outlook or Gmail – that you use outside of your software.

Creating a mobile app gives your parents the ability to sign up for alerts to your latest news. If you have a facility closing, your parents can know at a moment’s notice.

Enabling Technology

Technology does amazing things for you that help you to personally enhance the experience your parents have with your facility. It’s quite the enabler.

Automation frees up you and your staff. There is more time to become acquainted with parents’ and students’ needs on a more intimate level and to spend more time teaching than managing “business.”

Software reduces your cost of doing business. You have more budget dollars available for facility improvements or for adding more services that your parents want and appreciate.

Software offers your parents simplicity and convenience. It allows your parents to take care of all of their business with you whenever they would prefer, on their own and without the need to be at your facility to do it. Because of this, when they are in your facility, parents can focus their attention on their students’ progress and the amazing things that you’re doing for them.

Important to You

One of the most important pieces of information in all of this for you is this: Jackrabbit can help you make all of this possible for your parents.

Online enrollment and portals, automated payment features, skill tracking, emailing features. Jackrabbit provides one place where your parents can access it all.

Customized pipeline to your facility. A tight-knit relationship with mobile app developers who are experts at customizing a mobile app to customized to your needs and integrated with Jackrabbit makes it easy and affordable for you to push all of the information you want parents to have to their iPhones and tablets.

You can easily see how leveraging technology helps you make doing business with you convenient and easy for your parents – your existing customers. But how does this make you appealing to potential customers? Word spreads. Parents talk. Others with kids who want to take lessons will want to do business with you because you’re the cool gym/studio/school. You pay attention to details and – yes – you’re easy to do business with.

Technology can definitely be your enabler when you leverage it in ways that have very specific and incredibly effective benefits for you. Depend on Jackrabbit to make it as easy as possible to do business with you.