How are you managing your program? Are you using a google spreadsheet? Do you use a software program to help you with managing your program?
When I first started my program, I used an Excel spreadsheet to manage student and family information and track payments. As my program grew, we needed tools to:
- Charge and bill students for tuition, competition fees and supplies.
- Using best practices for emailing families.
- Creating schedules for upcoming sessions.
- Portal for online registration.
- Create reports for analyzing enrollment, retention and financial trends.
Our first software that we used was Studio Director which was referred to me by a close friend that owns a dance studio. Studio Director served us well for many years but as our customer became more savvy to online registration, we started to hear from potential customers and customers that the registration system was "clunky" and difficult to use. With enough feedback, we decided it was time to pursue a new option that would improve the user experience. After months of research, we decided on Captyn and we are excited to share this program with you.
The first thing that we loved about Captyn was how it integrated into our website. The process to integrate Captyn was simple but even better than that was that the look from our website to the Captyn site is seamless.
The second thing that we loved about Captyn was the personal touch. When visiting their website, you will schedule a 20 minute demo and meet with a member of their team that walks you through how Captyn works.
The third thing that we loved is that Captyn allows you to set-up filters which makes it so easy for families to find the perfect class for them. We set up filters based on the day of the class, type of class (Summer Session, day camp, weekly camp) and age. This really improved the user experience for our families because they can quickly filter out what doesn't work for them and the search function is helpful too.
If you want to take a look at my studio's set-up using Captyn, you can click here. We're still learning but overall, we are loving Captyn and the service that their team provides us.
If you are interested in learning more about Captyn, please reach out to them by clicking here and use "Jacinda2022" for the referral code.