Robert Wolfe
25th April 2002, 19:32
A frequent topic on this forum is retention of students. Regardless of whether a dojo is an informal club, a full-blown commercial operation, or something in between, every dojo has a threshold that is the minimum number of active students required to support the operation of the school, insure a vibrant training environment, and provide for future growth. Achieving and maintaining a level of enrollment on the plus side of the threshold is a function of effective advertising and thorough screening procedures, but recruiting efforts amount to naught if the students admitted to the dojo don't last.
There will always be some level of attrition, even if it's for purely "good" reasons such as relocations resulting from promotions, admissions to college or graduate school, increased family responsibilities, or military enlistments. The trick is to minimize the impact of "attrition for no particular reason": students dropping out because training is hard (we told them it would be, didn't we?), because there are other fun things to do (that's never going to change), or because martial arts turn out to be something other than what the student imagined (as if any of us are still training for the same reasons we had when we started). A lot of this kind of attrition happens in the first few months of training -- of the 32 students who joined our dojo in 2001, only nine are still active. In consequence of this attrition, our dojo has hovered too close to the threshold for comfort, for far too long.
One of my friends, whose dojo faced the same situation, signed on with a billing company and within a matter of months had tripled active enrollment. He'd taken the step in desperation but the results made him recommend the option very highly. The financial obligation carried by new students tended to carry them through the early months of training and, once past the period of acclimatization, most became dedicated members for whom any motivation other than a desire to train was superfluous.
I've never been comfortable with the idea of billing companies, primarily because of the student contracts that are often involved. I do think it appropriate that students make a commitment to the dojo, but a formal contract with all the concomitant legalese just doesn't seem to me in the spirit of things. Still, I couldn't argue with the fact my friend no longer had to worry about how to keep the doors open.
While I was considering all this, I read an article in Martial Arts Professional by dojo owners who had implemented collection of tuition by electronic funds transfer (EFT), without the involvement of a billing company. I did some research, found out that setting up EFT for membership fees is entirely practical, and was in the process of looking for a local bank with the requisite infrastructure when, serendipitously, one of the managers from Community Banks applied to join our dojo. Within a matter of months, all was in place.
First I polled the members of the dojo to gauge their reactions to EFT, and was surprised to find ready acceptance. It seems the health club industry has used EFT for years, it's becoming steadily more prevalent in the insurance industry, and many of our members already had EFT in place for one thing or another.
In consideration of the very few people expressing some reservation about EFT, I decided to implement three options for submission of membership fees: EFT (first choice, because it is easiest and least expensive for the dojo); automatic billing of a credit or debit card; or quarterly, over-the-counter payments. Additionally, new students are required to submit two month's fees up front, with the first month's fee prorated to whatever point in the month the student enrolls.
Interestingly, of the ten students admitted so far in 2002, all of whom are enrolled in EFT, nine are actively training (and the one we lost was for a "good" reason -- he was offered a huge promotion, one that required relocation).
From a dojo management standpoint, EFT is an exceptional tool. The application I use is web-based, so there were no software costs associated with implementation. My total expense includes a $10 per month fee for my checking account, a $15 fee charged when the monthly batch transaction is processed, and a $0.10 per item fee within the batch. Given the number of people on EFT at this point, my total monthly expense is less than $30. The time required to maintain the EFT accounts, in terms of paperwork and online time, is less than a half-hour per month. The bank will assess a penalty if insufficient funds are in a student's account to cover the transaction -- as would be the case for a bounced check -- and I would pass that penalty along if it is incurred.
The best news is, when the credit/debit card users are included, I am already very close to covering the dojo monthly operating expenses right up front, which is a huge relief and makes training a heck of a lot more fun.
We've only had EFT in place for a few months, but the apparent results are very encouraging, and while it may be too early to tell if EFT is really *the* answer to the problem of student retention I wanted to pass on the information as soon as possible in case it might be of use to you.
There will always be some level of attrition, even if it's for purely "good" reasons such as relocations resulting from promotions, admissions to college or graduate school, increased family responsibilities, or military enlistments. The trick is to minimize the impact of "attrition for no particular reason": students dropping out because training is hard (we told them it would be, didn't we?), because there are other fun things to do (that's never going to change), or because martial arts turn out to be something other than what the student imagined (as if any of us are still training for the same reasons we had when we started). A lot of this kind of attrition happens in the first few months of training -- of the 32 students who joined our dojo in 2001, only nine are still active. In consequence of this attrition, our dojo has hovered too close to the threshold for comfort, for far too long.
One of my friends, whose dojo faced the same situation, signed on with a billing company and within a matter of months had tripled active enrollment. He'd taken the step in desperation but the results made him recommend the option very highly. The financial obligation carried by new students tended to carry them through the early months of training and, once past the period of acclimatization, most became dedicated members for whom any motivation other than a desire to train was superfluous.
I've never been comfortable with the idea of billing companies, primarily because of the student contracts that are often involved. I do think it appropriate that students make a commitment to the dojo, but a formal contract with all the concomitant legalese just doesn't seem to me in the spirit of things. Still, I couldn't argue with the fact my friend no longer had to worry about how to keep the doors open.
While I was considering all this, I read an article in Martial Arts Professional by dojo owners who had implemented collection of tuition by electronic funds transfer (EFT), without the involvement of a billing company. I did some research, found out that setting up EFT for membership fees is entirely practical, and was in the process of looking for a local bank with the requisite infrastructure when, serendipitously, one of the managers from Community Banks applied to join our dojo. Within a matter of months, all was in place.
First I polled the members of the dojo to gauge their reactions to EFT, and was surprised to find ready acceptance. It seems the health club industry has used EFT for years, it's becoming steadily more prevalent in the insurance industry, and many of our members already had EFT in place for one thing or another.
In consideration of the very few people expressing some reservation about EFT, I decided to implement three options for submission of membership fees: EFT (first choice, because it is easiest and least expensive for the dojo); automatic billing of a credit or debit card; or quarterly, over-the-counter payments. Additionally, new students are required to submit two month's fees up front, with the first month's fee prorated to whatever point in the month the student enrolls.
Interestingly, of the ten students admitted so far in 2002, all of whom are enrolled in EFT, nine are actively training (and the one we lost was for a "good" reason -- he was offered a huge promotion, one that required relocation).
From a dojo management standpoint, EFT is an exceptional tool. The application I use is web-based, so there were no software costs associated with implementation. My total expense includes a $10 per month fee for my checking account, a $15 fee charged when the monthly batch transaction is processed, and a $0.10 per item fee within the batch. Given the number of people on EFT at this point, my total monthly expense is less than $30. The time required to maintain the EFT accounts, in terms of paperwork and online time, is less than a half-hour per month. The bank will assess a penalty if insufficient funds are in a student's account to cover the transaction -- as would be the case for a bounced check -- and I would pass that penalty along if it is incurred.
The best news is, when the credit/debit card users are included, I am already very close to covering the dojo monthly operating expenses right up front, which is a huge relief and makes training a heck of a lot more fun.
We've only had EFT in place for a few months, but the apparent results are very encouraging, and while it may be too early to tell if EFT is really *the* answer to the problem of student retention I wanted to pass on the information as soon as possible in case it might be of use to you.