subject: Sessions or Monthly Billing? Gymnastics Classes [print this page] Sessions or Monthly Billing? Gymnastics Classes
In the gymnastics business it is often asked what the best model for billing is. Is it monthly or is it sessions. In my opinion the monthly billing model is hands down the best for the business and the customer. It is important to remember that we should always be looking for ways to stream line our operations and create the best experience for the customer. In the past session were the best choice because the tedious process of re registering all of your customers every month would be to big of a process and costly to the business. With the implementation of online software programs that allow automated billing the best option now is clearly monthly billing. It allows the business to manage cash flow a lot easier and it is a seamless process for the customer. It would be wise to not invite your customer to quit by requiring them to re register each session. Wouldn't it be easier to assume all are continuing and bill accordingly and the ones that do wish to discontinue would notify you accordingly. It is a safe bet that most of your customers will be continuing each month and from a staffing stand point it would be a lot more cost effective to only manage the accounts of the customers that are dropping. The time and staff energy that was being dedicated to the registration process can be dedicated to processes that grow your business such as follow-up with past customers or simply the ability to speak to your customers inside your facility instead of being stacked up with customers at the front desk.
Another issue with sessions is that customers like to start at the beginning and never want to put their child in a potential uncomfortable situation. It is the perception with sessions that you have a clear start and end date of and that will potentially prompt parents to wait until the next session to register. If they wait how many weeks of lost revenue have you incurred?
Kids often times are transient in the selection of activities that they participate in and if your long session of gymnastics overlaps with another activity that they want to participate in you lost the customer. I think you would agree that you would rather have a customer for a month than not at all.
It is important to visualize the customer process from start to finish and see if your process is in the best interest of the customer.
