Are you devoting as much time and effort to your current members as you are to your new ones? Building relationships is a critical component of business success. Having engaged, satisfied customers not only helps your business succeed but also makes your job more enjoyable to go to every day. When you first open your doors, it’s easy to recall the crucial points of your first clients’ lives: birthdays, family events, and professional accomplishments.
This will aid in the development of member relationships, and as with any relationship, it is the small details that generate strong bonds and customers who will stay with you for a long time. As your member base gets bigger, it becomes increasingly challenging to find enough time in the day for those meaningful conversations—not that you don’t want to, but spending even five minutes a day with hundreds of members wouldn’t leave you with much time to do anything else.
Of course, engaging your customers is still essential. As with so many other aspects of your business, having systems in place helps to guarantee that your clients understand how important they are to you. In this article, we’ll look at how to build relationships in your martial arts studio.
5 Strategies for Improving Relationships At Your Martial Arts School
Here are the steps on how to build relationships in your martial arts studio:
- Connect with your customers
Relationships are the foundation of client retention. In general, people prefer to do business with people they like and businesses they trust. Make relationship-building your first step in developing a successful client retention strategy.
- Create client profiles
Get to know your martial arts students if you want to form strong bonds with them. This is where your martial arts management software can help. Use the tools at your disposal to compile a dossier on each of your clients, including as much information as possible. Include information such as pet names, birthdays, preferred classes, and more to create a profile that can be relied on to make a connection.
Allowing your entire team to access these profiles through your karate studio software will help you maintain a consistent message to your clients: we care about you. Prioritizing this message across the board will inspire your clients while making each member of your team feel special each time they visit.
- Establish a connection
Now that you’ve gathered all of the necessary information, use it to communicate with your clients. Schedule a birthday email, for example, to be sent on their special day. Or, on social media, celebrate a client’s recent success story. You could even ask your students or staff to submit student names to be highlighted at your studio. Make your clients your friends and connect with them on a personal level to keep them for years to come. The more you connect with your community, the more loyalty and long-term support your studio will receive.
- Allow technology to help in the development of member relationship
The majority of modern technology is designed for one purpose: convenience. Allow technology to do the heavy lifting in this case. If you only have a few minutes with one of your members, would you rather gather an overdue payment or ask them how their weekend was? Suppose you answered the latter; informing your members that they can make payments online will allow you to avoid the often awkward conversation about their late payment.
If you have an event or class for which they must register, inform them that they can do so from the comfort of their own home. Don’t make them sign forms and write checks at your front desk when you could be asking them about their goals or soliciting feedback.
- Hold appreciation events to strengthen member bonds
Everyone wants to expand their membership base. Holding “Bring a Friend” events is an efficient and often profitable way to achieve that goal. But keep in mind that you can’t expand your member relationships and base unless you do your best to keep the existing roster engaged and happy.
Member appreciation events can accomplish this. Host a free event (a special group class) where your only cost is your time, and only invite your current customers. Many may argue that the value gained from these events far outweighs the cost of a paid-for event, such as hiring a special speaker or trainer.
Allow them to mingle with one another before and after the event. Take advantage of the opportunity to speak with them on a more personal level. Create a community within your company. If you hold these events on a regular basis, not only will your relationship with your customers improve, but so will your customers’ relationships with one another.
- Be the very best
Make your customer service experience outstanding. Why would your clients go anywhere else if you keep them happy? Provide the best experience possible to leave no doubt about which martial arts studio is the best!
- Bring your team on board
Your team represents your company, from the front desk to the dojos. Each member of your staff, as your ambassador, must understand that client retention is critical. They must act as if each encounter is their only opportunity to make an impression on each client.
How do you get your team to prioritize client retention? It all begins with the best training. Put policies in place that make it clear who is in charge, and then train your team to achieve success. You could even have your new employees shadow your best employees to learn from the best.
Then you must motivate them. To recognize your team’s dedication to excellence, you could reward performance, celebrate positive feedback, or engage in team-building exercises. When your team embraces your clients, your retention and profits will rise.
- Obtain the necessary tools
In today’s world, a positive customer experience frequently means that it is quick, simple, and convenient. Make this a reality by utilizing your martial arts management software!
Did you know that martial arts software includes features such as online booking, detailed client reports, and online payments, among others? Your martial arts software will increase client retention by providing conveniences such as client access on the go, mobile apps, and anytime purchasing.
Are you looking for a great way to manage your martial arts school’s members?
Spark Membership is the answer.
Get the resources you need to improve your clients’ experiences and set yourself apart from the competition, making customer retention a breeze.
- Stay updated
Are you updated with the latest trends? Keeping up with what’s going on in your industry will help you stay ahead of the competition. It also demonstrates that you are progressive and invested in your clients enough to want to stay fresh and interesting.
Keeping up with current trends will establish you as an authority in your sector, providing your customers with another reason not to shop around for another martial arts studio, in addition to setting you apart from other martial arts studios.
