The School Must Be A Second Home
Top Program Directors Spill Their Secrets. We talk to some extremely successful program directors, exploring various facets of their valuable work. 
What are some of your most exciting internal marketing strategies right now?
Parents as Coaches Class. We have started doing a Parents as Coaches class, which we have tailored to our needs. We schedule it every other month. We automatically schedule it with parents of new students. We tell them when their class is and we sign them up. We don’t really give them too much of an option to decline. Ninety percent will say, “OK” and they’ll show up. During the class, we go through each step of what instructors are looking for in their students, why we award tips, and we also let the parents try out an actual intro class. It is a bit intimidating for some of the parents at first, but they start to appreciate what their kids are going through. And if I were to take the last three classes, I have signed up 50% of the parents on average. So it’s been quite successful. And what I do is a very soft sales pitch. I say, “The best way to really understand what your child is going through is to get more involved in their program. This is probably the only activity that you can do as a family.” Pizza Party. The second successful event is the Pizza Party, which we have reformatted as well. We’ve combined it with the Parents Night Out concept and we’ve broken it down into three sections. The first 30 minutes is a basic intro class—basic stances, where we teach how to do a basic punch, block and kick correctly. The second 30 minutes is a Stranger Danger class or a Bully Buster class. Then for the last 30 minutes we do fun and games—maybe a game where the instructor throws a ball at students, and if the student catches the ball, the instructor has to do a couple of pushups, and if the student drops the ball, he or she has to do a couple of pushups. After this, they eat the pizza. If it’s a Parents Night Out, when parents come to pick them up, they see their kids had fun and yet they learned a lot, and they get really intrigued. —Lane Wommack Program Director, Bushido School of Karate
What does the school owner, Buzz Durkin, expect from you?
A great attitude is vital, such as smiling and making other people feel like we care about them. And this is a big thing in a martial arts school. I always greet students nicely and politely. Frequently, I ask them if there is anything I can do for them. If needed, I might offer them a private lesson, help a mother get the little ones ready, or anything else like that which is of service to the students or their parents. I want to make sure they feel this is their second home. Not only do I know students’ and their parents’ names, I know their pets’ names too. When parents are watching their kids, I interact with them and ask them if they are enjoying the class and how the kids are doing in regular school. That ties in with the dojo, as we address a lot of the same topics in class. As they are leaving, I ask them how their class was and give high fives to them. —Bridget O’ Brien Program Director, Buzz Durkin’s Uechi Karate School
Is there any new program in your school that you’re in charge of?
I manage the school and am directly involved in student service. I’m also a full-time instructor. I handle anyone who comes in through the door as well as any new programs and any marketing programs. My work is diverse and I touch upon almost every single area of the school, including cleaning! Recently, we started a fitness challenge, which ties in with the New Year and new resolutions. I’m in charge of managing this. The first thing I do is, I make sure people sign up for it. It’s a free service at our school, where students who want to challenge themselves and take themselves to the next level can do so. It’s a three-month program that occurs thrice a year. For different people it means different things—one might want to lose 5 pounds, another may want to lose many more, and some may even want to gain weight. I’m in charge of making sure each person who is enrolled in this fitness challenge achieves his or her goals. I meet with them, track their progress through body fat, weight and actual measurements. This has to be done more frequently in cases where the desired change is bigger. The participants also send me a weekly email report, which is of great use in staying on track. —Erika Beintrexler Program Director, Jujitsu Concepts/Krav Maga
What is your main responsibility?
My personal responsibility is to do enrollments and marketing. Usually when we do intros, the instructors ask some of the questions and then they hand them off to me and I go over the programs and the paperwork. I present the class schedule. I have the calendar out and they circle the two days they can attend. We have classes on each day of the week. I tell them they have a couple of choices. They can do a one-year program or a six-month program, and I tell them what the fee is. The one-year program is considerably cheaper and I make sure they understand that it is for one year. I circle the clauses in the enrollment agreement according to which they can cancel. We also offer a one-month program for those people who want to figure out if martial arts is a good fit for them or not. —Trudy Lafranco Program Director, Meyerland Martial Arts Center
How do you prepare a student and a parent for renewal?
I connect with the parents first—making sure that the students are excited about their classes. I ask them if they are comfortable asking questions to the instructors. I also make sure the students have all the material they need for their classes. I let them know how much time they have left for their renewals. We sit down and talk about the goals they’d like to reach for the next year. Usually I do this around three months before they renew. More importantly, I stay connected with the students and the parents throughout the year. Praise is really important. Kids need to know they are doing a good job, so they can continue to do a good job. Also, one needs to point out the areas in which students need help. Sometimes if I see a child having a difficulty during a class, I ask the parents if it’s okay if I work with them for a few minutes, and I will take them to the side of the room five or ten minutes after a class and then work with them before letting them go on their way. Sometimes I’ll just talk to them about respect or about focusing in class so that they can get the best out of their class. I make a point of sitting with the parents and watching a class every once in a while, listening to what they say and watching their responses to their children. We also have parents who drop children off and then pick them up, and every once in a while I’ll give them a call and say, “Hey, next time you drop your child off, would you mind stopping by?” When they do this, we’ll talk about what the student is getting out of the program. In our school we also have parent-teacher conferences every three to six months, setting up a specific day and time to sit and talk to the parents and the child together, helping them with their goals and nipping any issues in the bud. —Kristen Bettencourt, Program Director, Tokyo Joe’s
