Managing a swim school can be a complex task, especially when it comes to scheduling classes, tracking attendance, managing instructors, and communicating with parents and students.
This is where swim school software comes in. A good swim school software can streamline administrative tasks, enhance communication, and improve the overall learning experience for students.
In this article, we will discuss the six most important features to look for in swim school software.
1. Class Scheduling and Management
One of the most important features of swim school software is class scheduling and management. Good software should allow administrators to schedule classes easily, assign instructors, and manage student enrollment. It should also allow for creating recurring classes and the ability to set maximum class sizes. A good scheduling functionality should have the ability to view schedules across different views such as looking at availability from across a week or on a specific day.
Good filterings such as filters for levels, teachers and availability is also important to allow staff to find the right classes for enrolment quickly.
With a good scheduling and management system in place, swim school administrators can save time and avoid scheduling conflicts.
2. Attendance Tracking and Reporting
Another important feature of swim school software is attendance tracking and reporting. Good software should allow instructors to easily record attendance, track student progress, and generate reports. Being able to track attendance via devices such as tablets or iPhones can be desirable as it allows teachers or supervisors to take attendance at the point of a lesson. A self-checking feature that allows parents to check in their child can also be a great tool to help prevent a bottleneck at reception. Finally, another important feature is for parents to be able to record an “explained absence” via their portal or app.
3. Online Registration and Payment Processing
A swim school software should also offer online registration and payment processing. This feature allows parents to easily register their children for classes, pay tuition, and manage their accounts online. It also saves administrators time and reduces the risk of errors associated with manual registration and payment processing. Swim schools may consider options like direct debit where they can automate payments to help maximize fee collection.
4. Skill tracking
A good swim school software should also offer instructor management features such as skill tracking. A good skill-tracking functionality should be easy to navigate and present all children enrolled in a class on one screen. The ability to record different stages of progress such as whether a skill is introduced, improving, or competent is also important as this help provide parents with a clearer understanding of how their child is progressing.
5. Communication Tools
Effective communication is key to the success of any swim school. A good swim school software should offer communication tools that allow administrators, instructors, and parents to stay connected. This can include email and messaging capabilities, as well as features such as newsletters, announcements, and event reminders. SMS is a great tool for communicating in an emergency. If you quickly need to cancel lessons one afternoon due to an issue with the pool a good system will allow you to send a bulk SMS in less than 1 minute. Automation is also important when it comes to communication and customer touchpoints. For example, you may wish to automate an email to parents when a child has missed three consecutive lessons to check-in.
6. Reporting and Analytics
Finally, swim school software should offer reporting and analytics features. This allows administrators to track key metrics such as attendance, revenue, and student progress. It can also help identify areas for improvement and inform decision-making processes. Some key reports that can be found in a good swim school software include class occupancy reports and attrition reports.
4 more features only the best swim lesson software have
1. Digital certificates
Writing out certificates can take hours and hours! Half the time they are not collected by students which is even more frustrating. Digital certificates can save time, effort, and cost. With one click of a button, parents can receive a certificate when their child progresses via email.
2. App with push notifications
An app for your swim school enhances the customer experience. Parents can book make-up lessons, review progress and make payments from their phones in a convenient manner. Push notifications are another way of effectively communicating with parents about key events such as student progression.
3. Tagging
Tagging allows you to group students by a certain trait. For example, if a swim school is part of a school or college they may give a discount to students of the college. By using tags they can automatically apply the correct discounts. Tagging is a powerful functionality that has many uses from communication to billing.
4. Automation
Nothing beats your work being done for you. Automations allow you to automate key tasks such as touch points with customers. From customer onboarding to birthday emails, automation can help improve your customer experience with a small amount of upfront effort.
In conclusion, good swim school software can be an invaluable tool for swim school administrators. It can streamline administrative tasks, enhance communication, and improve the overall learning experience for students.
If you’re interested in finding the right software for your swim school check out First Class Software. You can download a short video demo from www.firstclassretention.com to find out more.