Free trial and makeup classes how does your gym handle them

[10.0]

Okay so this came from the increased enrollment thread, I had more questions but didn't want to completly hijack her thread.

So what does your gym do with free trials and new enrollments? There seems to be a disconnect between our office staff and the coaches and owner and no set policy. We allow a free trial class to preschool and rec. boys and girls classes before they decide to sign up. I think it is good as we charge a yearly regristration fee that is not refundable so if the kid signed up and tried one class and hated it the parents are out $50.

But it leaves us in a pickle as the class might be maxed or close to maxed out and you will have a couple kids come in for a trial and a few makeups and all the sudden you have 15 kids to a coach and no ones knows about it so no other coach can be pulled to help. So I am curious to know exactly how other gyms handle this so that it isn't an issue? Do the make ups have to schedule ahead, do the trials? How far ahead? We literly have office staff tell one family they can bring their child for a free trial and she will show up with 3 of her friends to try too, and while I can see it is exciting from a money making stand point, I would almost have to think if you come to try and get 1 turn because there are 15 kids to a coach it might put you off. Just looking for ideas to suggest to the owner. Also the new office manager is really nice but I don't think she knows the max numbers as she actually registers new students into already full classes as well. I want to help come up with a solution as I coach and it annoys me but I am also trying to think of a good way to do it as to not tick anyone off.

 

[CoachGoofy]

We have a binder with all the classes in. Make ups and trials get a sticky note. If that make up or trial puts the class over the limit, before it can be scheduled the coach has to OK it (like, 9 preteamers is no big deal. 9 beginner trampolinists, not gunna work. Or if a child known to be a bit higher-maintinence is going to try classes, we want that child in a smaller class to start).

We do have enough staff trained in all our programs to schedule an assistant if we need to, & if a time gets very popular for the same program-we have 3-4 trampoline classes starting at the same time, for example-then we split groups down further.

 

[marie83]

We don't do free tasters or make-up classes! Simple as that! When joining our club gymnasts sign up for 6 weeks. I don't think you can decide fully whether you like it or not in 1 session, so it is important to have a good trial period. If the gymnast decides to return after 6 weeks they pay for a further 6 weeks, then a further 12 weeks thereafter (we run in 12 week terms). If a gymnast misses a class, they don't get a refund or a make-up class. This is stated in our rules and regs. If we cancel the class for any reason that is different, we will either refund or replace. It is much easier this way IMHO.

 

[agymmom]

At my dd's gym, they do have free trials and you can either do make-ups on Saturdays or schedule another class with the owner. That said, I know that kids sometimes show up without warning and they are always accomodated. As a parent, I would be highly annoyed if my dd's class had significantly more students than it should have on a regular basis because of free trials and/or make ups. I would think that would not make a lot of parents happy.

 

[virginiacoach]

we don't do free trials at all and have never had a problem with it. We do allow five make ups per year and they have to be scheuduled. only one make upcan be in every class and we always have a floater teacher assigned each day so they help with the overflow

 

[gymgurl]

For trials i don't think we offer free trials but you can have a trial lesson by paying for 1 lesson and then seeing how you like it and then sign up for the rest of term.

As for make ups in our squad (we are divided into two groups) one trains 4 times a week the other 3 and it is essentially the same squad the one that trains 4 times a week. So if we must miss our day and come on a different day we can if we have previously notified our coach.

 

[gymnastjess]

At my gym we have makeup classes but we don't have trial classes, everyday that the gym is open we have a program known as fit 'n' fun its pretty much open gym its $12 for 2 hrs most kids go to one of these and play around before signing up, you can pay for your REC class termly or after every practice(it is $20 per practice), normally the mum will just pay the $20 and the kid will go to her first class and if she doesnt like it well thats it but if she does like it then her mum will pay the term fee, our rec classes only have about 6-8 children in them so even with lots of makeup kids it will still not be a too higher number (especially with half being older kids that are independant), most kids don't choose the makeup option because they forget about it or are unaware that it even exists, im not sure what they do with our flipsters and tumblers 5-6 and 7-8 yo but i think they would do something similar, we have never had any problems.