Hey there,
Melody Shuman here…
Here’s a step-by-step report from my files… figured you guys would find a lot of great ideas that you can jump on this week!
Three Ways to Save Your Students from Quitting Over the Summer Time
Statistically, the summer is when most students freeze their membership. The problem is, many students do not return after the summer, mostly because they are out of their normal routine and it can be hard to get back into that routine. With that said, the solution is to prevent them from freezing in the first place. To make your job easier, we’ve put together three strategies to help prevent, or at least limit the number of, students that freeze their membership over the summer.
Here are the three strategies that we are going to cover in this report:
• Booster Camps
• Make-up Classes
• At-home Training Planners
Let’s get started!
Summer time Retention Strategy 1: Booster Camps
The summer booster camps are for those students that are going to be inconsistent over the summer, and also for students that simply want extra training. Instead of the student cancelling or freezing their membership, they will simply train in the regular classes when possible and attend the FREE booster camps.
Here’s how to set up your Booster Camps:
1. Select the dates now and share those dates with your families. Most families start planning their summer vacations in March, so share the booster camp dates and details no later than March 1st. You will be one step ahead so that parents can plan their vacations around your booster camps!
2. We are hosting one booster camp per month for each program in June, July, and August:
June Booster Camps
• June 13th – Early, Basic, and Core SKILLZ
• June 14th – Extreme, Elite, and Signature SKILLZ
July Booster Camps
• July 11th – Early, Basic, and Core SKILLZ
• July 12th – Extreme, Elite, and Signature SKILLZ
August Booster Camps
• August 8TH – Early, Basic, and Core SKILLZ
• August 9TH – Extreme, Elite, and Signature SKILLZ
3. Select the times. Our booster camp hours will be from 10:30 am – 3:30 pm each day.
4. As mentioned, these camps are free and open to all active students. Keep in mind these camps should not completely replace your students’ regular training classes unless absolutely necessary. With that said, discourage parents from taking the easy way out and only attending these camps. Express the benefits to attending the regular classes for optimal growth and development.
Booster Camp layout:
1. Put together a skeleton schedule for your camp hours:
• 10:30 – 10:45 – Student drop-off and free time
• 10:45 – 11:00 – Warm-up
• 11:00 – 11:45 – Booster camp training
• 11:45 – 12:00 – Games
• 12:00 – 12:45 – Lunch and movie
• 12:45 – 1:00 – FREE play
• 1:00 – 1:45 – Booster camp training
• 1:45 – 2:00 – Games
• 2:00 – 2:45 – Booster camp training
• 2:45 – 3:00 – Cool down stretching
• 3:00 – 3:30 – Free time and Student pick-up
2. We’ll have one instructor for each program on deck. We’ll also have two STORM Team members per program for extra help. This way we can run the programs at the same time during each camp. If you are limited on instructors, then you will need to sub-divide your camps even further.
3. Make a format for each of your make-up camp curriculums. You’ll need a warm-up and cool down routine. You’ll also need three 45-minute camp planners per day, per program. If you are a SKILLZ Connect school, you will simply review the testing requirements for SKILLZ 1 – 4 for the first section, SKILLZ 5 – 8 for the second section, and then run a “mock” testing for the last section.
4. Repeat this format for each of your camps.
(Check out the sample marketing tool below that we are using to promote our camps. This marketing tool is a 3 x 4 ad card, but we are also using the front as a social media image, and the back as a poster.)
Summertime Retention Strategy 2: Make-up Classes
If you are not already offering FREE make-up classes on Saturdays, then the summer is the time to add them to your schedule. Some parents do not want weekday commitments over the summer, but are more inclined to attend a quick make-up class on Saturdays. These classes review the curriculum covered that week, so if a student only attends the Saturday make-ups classes over the summer, then he/ she can still keep up, but we highly encourage these students to also attend the booster camps and practice the at-home training planners (see below).
Here’s how to set up your make-up classes:
1. Depending on the size of your school and the amount of instructors that you have, you can host one class for all ages and ranks, or split them up. In our school, we have plenty of staff members available so our make-up classes are for all ages and ranks.
2. Select the duration of your make-up classes. We run a 30-minute make-up class, along with a separate 30-minute forms and 30-minute sparring class. Keep in mind that you must encourage at-home exercising and training for at least 45-minutes per week to make up for the duration missed during the regular training hours.
3. Create a make-up class skeleton timeline that your instructors will follow:
• 5-minute: Warm-up then split the students into groups
• 20-minutes: Curriculum review
• 5-minutes: Game and end of class procedures
Summertime Retention Strategy 3: At-Home Training Planner
The new additions that we added to our curriculum platform last year were at-home training planners. One of the biggest challenges students have with at-home training is the lack of knowing exactly what to do. The solution is to put together planners that make at-home training not only easy to follow, but also fun to practice.
Here’s how to set up your at-home training planners:
1. Create one at-home training planner per class (or skill), per program.
2. Upload these planners to the member’s section of your Website. If you do not have a member’s section on your Website, another suggestion is to upload these planners to Dropbox files and then share those links with your students via email and your Facebook parent group. You can also print out the planners and have them available at the front desk.
3. Make sure the planners include activities that students can follow at home. Also make sure the planners are balanced. For example, include the following in each of your planners:
• Warm-up activities
• One drill
• Curriculum Requirement training
• Cool down activities
Check out the link below to download a copy of our Early SKILLZ at-home training planner for skill 1 – KICKING.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ncnbya0fuovwc4y/1.%20KICKING.pdf…
This will help you get some ideas on how to set up your planners. (SKILLZ Connect members do not have to create these planners. We have the entire library of at-home planners available in the DOWNLOADS section in the AT-HOME TRAINING KITS folder.
Conclusion
Planning and advanced preparation is the key to success. The sooner to you put together these three strategies and start to share them with your members, the better. The goal is to convey the message that summer time training does not have to interfere with their plans. Another thing to remember is the importance of on-going communication about these strategies. You should be promoting these strategies via email, Facebook, end of class announcements, promotional materials, and face-to-face networking, etc.
