Apr May 2010 - Double Toe Times

you have placed on fixing their problem.
Lastly, phone calls are often much less time
consuming than email where you have to read and reread
what you wrote to avoid miscommunications.
Use Open Days to Show Off Your Classes
Dancers hate these but parents love them and
overall they’re great for business. Parents get to
see your teachers in action, can talk to them and
put a face to the names they hear each week. This
contact makes them feel a closer connection with the
studio or team, especially if you are a competition
or exhibition group and your students are attending
weekly rehearsals and parents do not get to see their
kids perform or dance often.
Younger students often complain about not liking
classes but really it’s because they’d sooner be
watching TV or something else. If parents know that
the teachers are great and the classes fun they will
act in your favor and encourage their children to
continue and better than that, won’t just call the studio
to complain. They’ll also be more inclined to send
siblings to classes too.
Offer Trial Classes
Trial classes are great for getting first timers into
your classes or for getting current students to bring
along their friends.
Stay in Touch
So many parents lead busy lives and probably don’t
get the information from their children, so you have
to tell them what’s going on. Send newsletters and
announcements home with students.
Email is very effective but use it wisely. It’s easy to
misinterpret an email because it has little emotion to
it. Keep emails short and to the point and don’t abuse
email by sending something every day otherwise
people start to ignore them.
You don’t have to be fancy to send a professional
looking and informative email newsletter. Make the
headings bolder than the wording beneath them,
DON”T TYPE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS unless you
are yelling at your dancers for a reason and (if you are
able) drop in a few pictures from a recent event.
There are also many great email subscription
services available online that give you the ability to
send nicely formatted emails with options for the
recipient to opt out. You’ll pay a small monthly fee for
one of these services but they are worth it because
they are globally recognized and so even if you’re
sending out thousands of emails they don’t get
blocked as spam. However, if you use their services
to send spam you will be banned from using their
service.
Be Consistent About Your Approach to Dance
If you’re a fun dance club where students will have
a great time, learn some cool dances, and perform
in the community, but not aspire to be competitive or
driven to more challenging programs, then you need
to be honest about that. If you’re a program that offers
opportunities for your dancers to learn more advanced
steps and routines and audition for spots on a topnotch
squad and offer personal and professional
development, then be honest about that too.
When students or parents approach you about your
classes and clogging programs, assess what the
student is looking for. Will they do better in a nurturing
environment or a strict lesson structure. If what they
want doesn’t align with what you provide then be
honest with them. In many areas there are multiple
teams or groups that they could choose from and if
you steer dancers to situations that are best suited to
their needs and yours, they will still recommend you
to other people because of how honest you were with
them. It’s better to send a student to another group
on good terms and get referrals than it is to have a
student enroll for a time and leave on bad terms. The
negative publicity just isn’t worth it.
For the same reasons above, have your
teachers or assistants assess students and make
recommendations if you see that they are not getting
the most out of the class.
Encourage and Improve
Self esteem is an important goal for all your
students. Even if the student isn’t the best in the
class, you can go a long way to making them the
best by commenting on how much they improved or
how well they executed a step. It really helps them to
improve and feel positive about what they’re doing.
Happy students who feel they are improving tend to
stick it out and sign up the following year.
Run Classes at Appropriate Times
Find out the times when your local schools start and
finish and offer classes at times that are appropriate.
Look at large corporations in the area and consider
traffic patterns. Even think about meal times.
If you make it convenient for students to attend
classes and avoid difficult times of the day, you’ll find
that not only will your attendance improve but your
class sizes will grow and your students will do better.
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