So yesterday we discussed training your front office employee on customer service issues, starting with membership and billing. Today, we're going to talk about how to train them on customer service issues related to scheduling and testing.

SCHEDULING ISSUES

Scheduling issues usually come up when you have a student who has experienced a recent change in their life. For example, adults who change jobs or get moved to a new shift at work, or kids who change schools or start participating in team sports.

In many cases, schools don't offer enough choices in classes to provide flexibility in scheduling and class attendance for their students. This is understandable if you're running a new or growing dojo, but as you add people to your teaching staff (which we'll talk about next week) you should consider adding more classes to your schedule.

Now, my rule of thumb is to only add classes when my existing classes are full, or when my clients indicate there is a demand for a class at a new time. The reason is that I don't like having classes that are attended by only one or two students (it makes your school look dead), and I don't like paying someone to open the dojo for one or two members.

That being said, sometimes you have to invest time and money into getting a class hopping. And, sometimes you need to offer classes in the morning or at lunch in order to keep some of your core members around.

So What Should You Teach Your Employees To Do?

So how does this relate to training your front office person? Well, for starters if you want them to be able to handle customer scheduling issues, they need to have options available to them to offer your clients.

If a client approached them and said they needed to attend a different class or they'd have to drop out, the first option would obviously be to move them to another day of the week or class time slot. This means you need to have classes for both adults and kids four to five days a week.

Of course, when you only have 50 students, this is an impracticality. But once you hit 75-100 members, you should start looking at expanding your adult schedule to offer classes in the evenings at least four days a week, and maybe a couple of days a week in the morning or at noon.

As for your kid's classes, flexibility is paramount. So, you should look at running an early/late schedule for every single kid's class (by the way, my early/late schedule is included in the ebook and hard copy version of Small Dojo Big Profits).

Set Policies, Communicate Them, And Stick To Them

Also, your employees need to know your policies on moving students from class to class. These policies need to be fair, and they need to be enforced equally across the board, for everyone.

For example, I used to allow kids who were playing team sports to attend the class above or the class below their rank for short periods. This at least allowed them to enjoy the benefits of their membership, and kept the kids training instead of "taking a break", which we all know leads to dropping out eventually.

This policy actually started when I allowed it once for a family who had multiple kids in my classes. However, after I did it for one family I had to allow it for all. So, it became a school policy, and it actually turned out to be a good one that benefited both the dojo and our clients.

Summing up, you should train your employees on what your policies are, and provide them with options so they can help you retain students who might otherwise drop out.*

TESTING ISSUES

Again, your dojo's policies will vary from mine and those of other schools. So, in the case of testing issues, I can only present you with questions that should be answered in the course of training your employees:

What happens when a student misses too many classes before a test? Can they still take the test, or do they need to make those classes up to be eligible?

And if they need to make those classes up, are they allowed to attend extra classes, or do they need to take private lessons to catch up?

Or, what if a child fails their belt test and the parent is upset? What should the employee say? Do they try to calm the parent on their own, or should they immediately refer them to you, the instructor?

What are the fees associated with testing, if any? Do those fees need to be paid before the exam, at the exam, or only if the student passes? 

Do students need to sign-up for an upcoming belt exam beforehand? What sort of paperwork do they need, and what requirements must be met before they can test?

When do students receive their rank promotion (and belt)? Does it happen at the exam, or later at a special ceremony? Do students need to RSVP for that event?

Who orders the belts for the students? Who prints their rank certificates, if any are awarded? How does your dojo keep track of this?

These are all questions that should be answered in the course of training your employee to handle customer service issues surrounding testing procedures. Simply by answering these questions, you should be able to train them to deal with the greater part of the issues that could come up.

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So, that just about covers scheduling and testing issues. Notice that the two areas overlap when it comes to issues of attendance and eligibility for rank advancement. For this reason, I suggest that you conduct training on these two areas in sequence - it'll help your employees retain this info.**

We're almost through with training front office employees, and tomorrow I'll be back with one final email on this topic regarding equipment and Pro Shop sales. Keep an eye out for it!