The Holiday Season

[strykersallstarz]

How do you sustain through the holiday season. I lose one week @ Thanksgiving and two weeks at Christmas. Last year I lost 40% of my rec students. they just didn't come back. any advice?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

when they sign up, have them pay their 1st month and LAST month tuition & any registration fee you have.

 

[gymcoach34]

do you have an end of the year recital you can start talking up before the holidays? What about making your sessions end after the holidays rather than before? Holding camps or special events during vacations to keep kids interested?

We do all of the above & pull out the "bouncy house" for the classes the week before its time to sign up again. The instructors are also told to talk up the next session and tell the kids what they will be doing and that the instructors "wants them to sign up again".

I have also had instructors do follow up phone calls for kids who dont sign back up.

I feel one of the things we must give our rec families is the flexibility to resign up if they must take a session off. Perhaps if you follow up with the families that do not reenroll and tell them what classes still have spots they will sign up.

 

[Swiftli]

Our gym does the holiday camps as well. Plus we do have a year end show and a novice/rec "meet" and to be eligible to participate in that you have to have completed so many sessions through the year

 

[10.0]

I don't know about the ones who never sign up again but I know a ton of families at our gym "quit" for the Holiday's mainly because our gym closes for half the month of December and charges a full months tuition and people feel like they are getting ripped off, and in fairness I can see their point, although I have never done so myself. One way to combat that issue that I have seen is paying by semester and if the family pays the entire semester up front they get a small discount (5%) and if not it is due in installments but the child is enrolled for the entire semester and tuition is not refunded or pro rated. I have seen a lot of gyms actually explain that the Holiday break has been factored into the tuition or that it is made up in the months that have 5 weeks. I don't know if it is true or not honestly but sometimes people just need a reason.

 

[elilla]

A couple of ideas: First, we have automatic re-enrollment. The kids are automatically enrolled from month to month unless the parent completes a cancellation form. This way families can not just "disappear." Also, we vary our tuition based on the number of classes each month. Some months cost families more because there are 5 weeks and some months cost less like December because we pro-rate. We have had great feedback on this!