Taking a break can be a wonderful thing. But sometimes for a small business owner it feels like more trouble than it’s worth!
We’ve compiled 10 great tips to help you keep your students (and any new prospects) informed and up-to-date. This advance planning will mean they’ll have fewer questions for you and you can fully enjoy a well-earned rest.
5 Ways Punchpass Can Help
1. Adding Punchpass Calendar Notices
A calendar notice is a great way to attract attention to an event or provide information specific to a certain day (or period) of classes. It’s a highlighted note at the top of a day on your public calendar.
You can use calendar notices to let students know about new classes on the schedule, promote specific workshops or passes or let students know about anything out of the ordinary happening at the studio.
We’ve added a date range function so you can easily let people know about your closure dates too (we recommend also using the “Cancel All of Today’s Classes” option in the dropdown on each date to clear the schedule when you’re closed).
2. Extend All of Your Active Passes
Closing for a few days (or weeks?) over the holidays? Punchpass has just added a great new feature where you can extend all of your active passes (effectively pushing the expiration dates out) so students don’t miss out on the full value.
You’ll need to wait until the first day of your break and then visit the “Manage Passes” section of your account. Use the “Actions” menu on the right side and select “Extend Active Pass End Dates”.
Then just choose the number of days to add to all currently active passes (it’s equal to the number of days your studio is closing) and you’ll be all set. Your customers won’t be directly notified, but the system will add a note to the pass to remind you about why the pass has been extended.
Make sure you let your students know now that you’ll be doing this for them! You’ll earn their good will — they won’t hesitate to purchase their next class pass from you, and your cash flow will remain steady.
3. Pausing All of Your Active Memberships (Set It up Now!)
If you offer recurring memberships then you can also pause those memberships while you’re away. Since you can choose a future date for the pause to take effect you can take care of this task anytime over the coming weeks.
You’ll need to visit your membership report and adjust each membership individually. Handy hint: right click on the customer name and open each in a new tab so you can easily move through the list.
When you get back after your break, you can reactivate the memberships and your customers will be ready to go!
4. Customize the Text at the Top of Your Punchpass Schedule (And Pass Purchase Page)
Lots of our studios swear by this virtual bulletin board that you can keep updated throughout the year and it’s especially useful over the holidays.
It’s the perfect place to let folks know about the dates that you’re closed, any class changes and substitutions and also to direct newer students to the information they need to book online (and purchase a pass) without needing to contact you.
You can include links and images here so we recommend you have a play around and find the layout that works for you (just head to your public Punchpass page when you’ve made some changes and see how things look from the customer’s point of view).
Just visit your Public Schedule settings and Online Payments settings to customize the wording at the top of each page.
5. Easy Teacher Substitutions
We’ve made it even easier to let students know when there’s a substitute teacher in one of your classes.
Just add the substitute right from the class details screen and your students will know what’s going on and who to expect when they rock up. All of your reports etc will be adjusted too so when it comes time to pay your teachers you can be sure that you’re paying the right person.
5 Things We Also Recommend
1. Creating a Pinned Facebook Post
If you have a Facebook page then a pinned post is a brilliant way to make sure that people visiting your page for the first time have access to all of the information they need right at the top of your page.
Use the pinned post to link to your Punchpass pages, note your closure dates, link to your FAQs, give beginners and new students information and make any announcements about things coming in 2020.
You can keep the post pinned on Facebook and edit it whenever you need to – it’s really similar to the schedule text mentioned above and if used correctly can save you a lot of time and energy managing customer enquiries.
2. Making Your Instagram Bio Work Harder
Not being able to directly link to anything from an Instagram post can be frustrating and you don’t always want to have to update the link in your bio to match your latest post.
That’s where a service like Linktree comes in – it’s a way to turn your one Instagram bio link into as many links as you like. They’ve also just released some animated Christmas backgrounds which are adorable!
There are a few similar services out there so we recommend checking them out to find the right one for you!
3. Turning on Your Email Responder
We all know how good it feels to turn on your “out of office” reply as you flounce out of the office for the last time before a holiday!
But instead of just letting people know when you’ll be back, make sure you let them know where to find the information they might be looking for. Include links to your Punchpass pages, your website FAQs and your information for beginners and/or new students.
You can do the same for your voicemail – it will really cut down on questions about things you’ve already covered on your website and pinned Facebook post.
4. Good FAQs
A good FAQ page on your website is worth its weight in gold!
By putting all of your most requested information in one place you’ll get fewer repetitive enquiries.
Use your FAQs to let folks know about the logistics about coming to your studio, add some details to make new students feels really welcomed and throw in some links to your Punchpass pages too.
A couple of hours spent getting this page right (and adding information when you realise it’s something lots of people are looking for) will pay off in the long run.
5. Providing Specific Information for Beginners and New Students
January means New Year’s resolutions — and that means lots of folks starting (or returning to) a wellness or fitness program.
It’s really important that those people can easily find the information they need on your website (and Facebook, etc.) so they can smoothly follow your booking process and start to show up at your classes (without needing to ask you a thing!).
We recommend having a separate page on your website welcoming beginners and new students and making sure you link to it from as many places as possible.
You can include information about:
- the best classes for beginners
- what the process is for signing up
- what to wear and bring
- where to find additional information if they need it.
Students who view your studio as a welcoming place (and not just for your existing clientele) are much more likely to come and try what you have on offer.
So there you have it! 10 tips for making sure you can enjoy a restful break while knowing that your students can find the information they need.
