“I’ve recently had great success with recruiting new students using a variety of different marketing channels. However, I’ve found that many of my younger students have been dropping out of classes within the first three months of training.
Is there any evidence to suggest that my class timetable may be the issue with retaining students?”Greg Allison, BMMA Portsmouth
Chantelle Bell, Marketing Consultant for NEST says:
“Classes for children should first and foremost be convenient for parents and any classes scheduled for after 6pm in the evening typically see much lower attendance rates than those straight after school.
In general, the younger the child, the earlier your class times should be. Martial Arts Schools teaching pre-school aged children for example should schedule classes for during school hours although these classes should typically finish no later than 3pm in order to allow time for parents to ‘do the school run’ to collect older siblings.
Martial Arts Classes on school premises are extremely popular as these enable working parents to in effect extend their working day, whether or not they form part of an official After School Club.
The best times to run classes for primary school aged children are between 4pm and 6pm. Bear in mind that most parents have more than one child’s extra-curricular activities to co-ordinate so convenience and accessibility are fundamentally the biggest considerations for anyone initially choosing a martial arts school.
If a parent has to co-ordinate ‘Child A’ to go swimming , ‘Child B’ to go to football and then ‘Child C’ to attend a martial arts class then all of these activities need to be roughly in the same area at a similar time of day in order for parents to be able to ferry their children to and from training venues.
Most parents want to have finished all extra-curricular activities by no later than 6pm in order to have tea, complete homework and start the nightly bedtime routine and this is particularly important for younger children where they are often tired after a day at school.
If you have concerns that your current class timetable may be at odds with parents’ needs, consider:
§ Asking parents how convenient they find your classes. Do they find the class times easy to fit around their work and other childrens’ activities and do they find it easy to park when they drop their children off?
§ Conducting a survey to research new class times. Whilst you won’t be able to please everybody all of the time, you’ll get a rough idea about whether particular class times are more popular than others.
Remember – black belts are your loyalists and as such, they will come to your club at any time of day. Children however will not, as they are dependent on their parents.
If you’d like to find out more about how to manage your class timetable, you can speak to a NEST Marketing Consultant direct. Simply contact NEST on 0115 9455030 to arrange a telephone consultation.
The
Martial Arts Show Live, returning for the third consecutive year at
the NEC Birmingham. Hope to see you there on 12th-13th of May 2012.
Nest Management will be at Stand 21
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