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Sports Facility Helpful Tips

Read our blog posts to learn some helpful tips about owning and operating a sports facility. These tips come from industry veterans who created a powerful sports facility management and scheduling software customized for you.

Social Media for Sports Facilities

Does Your Sports Facility Need Social Media?

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How Can Your Sports Facility Utilize Social Media?

Social media should play a big role in your sports facility’s marketing plan. Is it worth a smaller facility owner’s time and resources to stay up to date on social media?

The answer is yes! Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are excellent resources to instantly notify customers of happenings at your facility — in real time. And Instagram and TikTok are opportunities to explore and engage with customers through photos and videos.

What are some ways you can benefit from utilizing social media to promote your sports facility?

The More You Give, the More You Get Back

Most computer savvy consumers expect business-to-consumer businesses to have social media pages. Well-maintained social media spreads your message and adds legitimacy to your brand — even if you don’t have thousands of fans.

In fact, many sports facilities rely on their Facebook pages even more than websites to reach customers online. Facebook’s user-friendly pages are guaranteed to be updated and accessible, they’re easy to find in an online search, and they’re free to create.

The more effort you put into your social media marketing, the more you’ll get out of it. Spend 20 minutes every few days updating your Facebook and Twitter pages. Take photos of your employees enjoying their workday and videos of customers having fun — it humanizes your company. You can use TikTok to add unique effects and music to spice up a video. Even a little effort can significantly increase your chances of making a sale.

Don’t hesitate! Get started so you’ll adjust to the routine of posting content. You can try more sophisticated strategies once you’re more comfortable.

6 Ideas to Increase Engagement

Need ideas for what to post? Here are a few basic ideas:

  • Allow your customers to “check in” to your facility, which displays on their own pages and is visible to all their friends.
  • Announce new programs and remind your customers of their sign-up deadlines. They’re more likely to see them in real time on social media.
  • Announce special deals and discounts! Remind users when they’re about to expire.
  • Start conversations by posting success stories and mentioning your customers. Tag them using the social platform.
  • Respond quickly to customer comments — especially bad reviews. You can learn from their feedback and make the most of an unfortunate situation.
  • Post photos and videos that your clients will want to share with their friends.

Scheduling Facebook posts is an efficient way to save time if you’re worried this will eat into other responsibilities. Facebook allows you to add several posts at a time and set the dates for when those posts will go on your page. If you use a professional email marketing program, you can also update Facebook and other social media accounts automatically whenever you send an email. If you’re already on Twitter, link the two accounts so you only have to make one update.

Find a staff member who is already comfortable with social media. They can handle these updates, or you can sit down with them so they can familiarize you with how it works. Involve your whole team by encouraging them to submit content for your pages.

For More Information

Are you still unsure of how to create and use social media for your sports facility? eSoft Planner’s team of experts have a breadth and depth of knowledge and experience to help optimize your social media platforms.

The sports facility staff and client scheduling software can also streamline your processes. You’ll have more time to connect with customers and reveal your company’s true personality through your social media presence. Click here and fill out the form to request a free demo.

Customer Purchasing with Online Payments

Accepting Online Payments for Your Sports Facility

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Sports Facility Start-up Tip: Accept Online Payments

You’ve heard it many times on this blog, but we’ll say it again: Cash is king for new businesses. We’ve discussed how requiring upfront payments helps keep more cash on-hand. We’ve also talked about the importance of keeping electronic records. Any efforts you make toward improving cash flow can be essential to your sports facility start-up’s survival.

This week, we want to suggest one more cash-flow-focused idea: accepting online payments. Allowing your customers to pay online goes a long way towards streamlining your processes, saving money, and keeping as much cash on-hand as possible.

eSoft Planner was developed because software that allows clients to self-register, schedule and pay for their memberships online used to be non-existent. We saw the time-savings and convenience as a welcome benefit for staff, coaches, and parents.

However, some of eSoft Planner clients were still hesitant to give all the responsibility for payment to their customers. They didn’t trust their customers to make the payments correctly, or they thought that requiring more in-person interactions would promote a community feeling at their facility.

We always strongly advise them to reconsider, for these reasons:

Online payments reduce administrative costs

If you could cut in-store scheduling and payment in half, how much time would you save? Your front desk staff probably spends hours requesting money from clients and processing their payments. This time could be better used for building rapport with your customers.

The reduction in administrative tasks might also save you money on payroll. Through self-service scheduling, your clients are essentially working for you.

Online payments bring cash in faster

When clients pay online, you get the payments sooner, which gives you more cash to work with. You can deposit electronic payments directly into your account. Luckily, that means there’s no need to visit the bank. Additionally, the money is often deposited days or weeks before the actual service that the client paid for.

Online payments are convenient for customers

Giving clients the opportunity to pay for services outside of regular business hours provides flexibility, and that convenience makes clients more likely to pay without constant reminders from you.

Online payments make accounting easier

Online payments are tracked in real time. Depending on what payment processor you choose, this grants you the flexibility you need in your reporting and helps prevent human error.

If you decide to accept online payments, make sure that your system allows customized prepayment options or the ability to send online invoices. Additionally, eSoft Planner automates these processes with a simple and user-friendly interface. You can’t cut down on administrative costs if clients continually call in asking how to use the software!

If you want to see how eSoft Planner can help your business by accepting online payments, click here and fill out the form to request a free demo.

Employees Discuss Sports Facility Sales

How To Do Sports Facility Sales without Selling

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How to do Sports Facility Sales without Selling

Most people working in a sports facility don’t see themselves as salespeople. After all, many of them got into sports facility ownership because they were passionate about sports and seeing others achieve their athletic goals. Not to promote classes, memberships and lessons.

There are a few reasons that the word “sales” elicits this type of response. First, your staff probably have had some negative experiences with salespeople. We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the manipulative, pushy, slimy sales rep. So the word doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation for people with no business background.

However, even if your staff has no problem with the idea of sales, they still might see it as a mysterious or innate skill that they just don’t have.

The True Meaning of Sports Facility Sales

Everyone at eSoft Planner enjoys helping athletes reach their peak potential. They are passionate about the games we play – baseball, football, softball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and other activities. But if they were asked to describe their strengths, the word “selling” would not be included in their response.

Now, here’s the funny thing about this situation. If you’re like us, you know very well that your staff can sell. Mainly, they have the most important characteristics of any sales rep:

  • they understand our clients’ needs
  • they’re passionate and knowledgeable about what they’re selling (athletic training)
  • they’re articulate about the benefits that our services provide

To remove the sense of intimidation that inevitably pops up whenever we speak of the concept of selling classes, memberships and lessons, we encourage our sports facility clients to use more easily digestible terms like branding and promotion.

If your staff is really invested in your programs and believes that they can help people live healthier lives, these efforts will be a lot more appealing to them.

Listen: Changing a few words around isn’t going to trick your staff into suddenly rushing out the door to hand out fliers on the street. Everyone wishes they could just skip the selling part of their work. Sales is difficult. It involves getting out of your comfort zone, making yourself vulnerable and risking rejection.

Yes, it would be nice if all your clients found you via word-of-mouth. However, that will never be the most consistent part of your business. If you want your business to be more than just a side income, you have to be proactive about getting new paying clients.

Conclusion

If you’re new to the idea of thinking of yourself as a salesperson, or if you just need help getting your facility staff and volunteers to understand how they can become better at branding and promotion, we would love to talk to you. Our staff at eSoft Planner come from a wide variety of backgrounds in multiple sports industries.

Click here and fill out the form to schedule a time to talk with us.

Team Management for Volleyball Team

Improve Team Management With Player Perks

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Make the Most of Your Team Relationships: Give Players Perks

A great way for sports facilities to generate business is by building relationships with local teams through team management. Whether the teams rent your facility space or are hosted by your facility directly, giving players special perks is part of developing those quality relationships.

Giving team members special benefits at your facility can increase team retention and provide a revenue stability for your facility. Particularly if the membership benefits extend throughout slower seasons.

Case Study: DNA Sports Center

DNA Sports Center is home to the Midwest Prospects, a nonprofit, elite baseball program whose goal is to expose players to college coaches. Midwest Prospects players get exclusive access to a specially tailored speed, agility, strength and hitting membership at DNA Sports Center.

Players are encouraged to take advantage of this membership to improve their skills. It’s simple for coaches to collect the cost of the membership along with monthly team payments. Also, players have year-round access to member benefits.

If your facility doesn’t directly sponsor sports teams, it’s still worth creating a membership named after each team that you offer these perks to. These package deals can be great marketing tools that advertise your special relationship with a team. It encourages other teams to develop a similar relationship with you. eSoft Planner makes it easy to set up these added perks. With flexible membership management tools to build the packages around your business.

You may also choose to keep a partnership and its details private. Limit the purchase of the membership to in-store only. This way, you can ensure that only the appropriate team members purchase the membership.

Regardless, you should meet with team coaches to discuss what offerings would benefit them the most before you create the membership. If the coaches feel that the perks will truly meet their team’s needs, they will encourage their players to get involved.

With eSoft Planner, you can automatically apply discounts on lessons, camps, classes and rentals. In particular, add to special client groups, such as teams. If you would like to discuss how eSoft Planner works, we would love to talk with you. Click here and fill out the form to request a free demo.

Working out in sports facility after coronavirus

Your Sports Facility After Coronavirus

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Sports Facilities After Coronavirus: Tips for the New Norm

Over the past few months, many Americans have heard news about the potential spread of the coronavirus at gyms and sports facilities. On top of that, your clients may have grown complacent or found new training options during the pandemic. So, managing your sports facility after coronavirus is important.

According to a recent Washington Post article, polling indicates that your customers will take the decision about returning to your facility very personally. How will you encourage them to leave their home gyms, log out of their online classes, and return to your facility?

While your clients may need some encouragement to rejoin in your facility’s activities. Thankfully, most of them realize that there are physical and mental benefits of group and individual training.

Here are some tips to help communicate the value provided by your sports facility.

Engage with Clients

Hopefully, you have been doing this since the beginning of the pandemic. But it is even more important now to take stock of your client’s requests.

“The success of your business hinges on your ability to gather client feedback and synthesize it into actionable items,” says Mike Meszaros, President of eSoft Planner and the Sports Facility Expert. “When you offer your members the ability to give feedback, you help your clients feel they have part-ownership in your sports facility.”

By listening to your customers and turning their suggestions into policy, every member will become an extension of housekeeping, and every staffer will become an ambassador of compliance.

Utilize scheduling to your advantage

Aerobic exercise requires more intense breathing, enabling respiratory droplets that can allow the coronavirus to travel farther. With this in mind, many facilities have implemented new policies such as operating at reduced capacities and using floor markers to encourage social distancing.

While placing a limit on your capacity might seem like a financial nightmare. This will be one of the factors clients use when deciding when and if they return to your facility. Doing this well can increase the loyalty of your customers. The lower your member density, within reason, the greater peace of mind for your clients.

These restrictions make it necessary to optimize the usage of your facility space. You need to have real-time control over your scheduling processes. Scheduling software will allow you direct control over the headcount for lessons and clinics. While avoiding empty spots as result of cancellations.

Evaluate Membership Options

When you reopen your facility, your members likely will not return all at once. The slower pace gives you the unique opportunity to evaluate and adjust your policies and practices.

You might consider changes or additions to your business strategy based on the new reality – online components of membership and/or new cost and profit calculations based on your current scheduling plans. This might also include getting rid of supplemental services that are not performing well or adding ones that customers have been requesting.

Still, with so many unknown variables in your budget, you might also reimagine some of your existing classes, or push harder on your core competencies.

Conclusion

COVID-19 put much of the country into quarantined isolation. As sports facilities look for ways to reopen successfully, it will be more important than ever to provide valuable options to your clients.

eSoft Planner was built by sports facility owners just like you. Many of our features will help you navigate this new normal. Our team of experts is working everyday with sports facilities like yours on the strategies and changes to their business model – and their software implementation – to meet these challenges.

Many of our built-in features are empowering business owners to do what they need to be successful. For example, our scheduling software makes it easy to gain visibility to available slots for any given day. You can also add, remove or edit membership packages with just a few clicks.

The client dashboard allows facility owners to post messages that customers will see immediately upon login. Like a virtual bulletin board. This could be used to post announcements about a policy updates. Or to ask customers to click if they agree with a particular statement in question. Waiver and release functionality can be used to collect addendums to your existing waiver that include coronavirus language.

The expert team at eSoft Planner has worked with thousands of sports facility owners just like you. We know what it takes to succeed. Our implementation team excels at helping you use the tools to make your dream a success. We love to hear about your plans – your new normal – and we want to be a partner in your vision.

Start the conversation today! Contact us for a custom demo.

Statistics on facility scheduling

Facility Scheduling Software Makes it Easier – We Promise!

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What You Should Know Before Investing in Facility Scheduling Software

We get it. Adopting new facility scheduling means spending hours of time learning how to use it. It also means changing routines that your clients and staff may already be comfortable with. With this time commitment and change in workflows, it’s easy to see why sports facility owners let the search for new facility scheduling software fall to the bottom of their to-do list.

It’s time to stop procrastinating! Your business is losing money every day if you’re still scheduling with forms and calendars. Even if you use a “free” system or one that isn’t designed for sports facilities, you’re up against unnecessary admin costs, poor customer service, and mistakes. A better scheduling system could prevent this.

So, what should you look for as you start your search for a scheduling system?

The best fit for your business will depend on your needs and your budget. Each system you consider should have the following three important qualities that make and save money for your business.

Optimal Pricing

When you look at facility scheduling software costs, focus on value first.

You shouldn’t reject any scheduler based on price alone. The most expensive system may also be the one that saves you the most money overall due to better features or customer support (which we’ll discuss next).

That said, web-based scheduling systems usually charge their clients each month based on different factors. Some structures will work better for your facility than others. Here are a few examples of online scheduler pricing structures:

  • Pay-per-feature structure: Monthly pricing is based on which parts of the software you use.
  • Pay-per-location or client: This can lower costs for some smaller businesses, but costs may also increase seasonally or as you expand or restructure.

If you’re going to accept online payment, you’ll also need to pay fees for processing credit card transactions. The fees may be rolled into your software’s monthly service or charged separately. Make sure you’re using the total costs when you’re ready to do a final price comparison.

Great Support

Most major scheduling systems offer customer support. Always find out how long that support will be available after you sign up for the program. Are there any limits to support requests? Will you be assigned a dedicated rep who understands you and your business?

Reliable customer support is even more important if you don’t consider yourself a “computer person” and want to regularly work with someone who will pay extra attention to your account.

Features That Increase Profit

It’s important to know what the facility scheduling software does for your business. As we move through a list of possible features, keep your eye on the bottom line. Your scheduling software should:

  • Save paid admin staff hours by allowing clients online self-service options.
  • Save paid admin staff hours because the software auto-bills your memberships.
  • Create extra revenue from online stores or services that the software makes it easy to promote and sell.
  • Reduce late cancellations and no-shows through automated reminders

Once you calculate how much money each feature could save your businesses, it will be easier to evaluate final software costs.

Scheduling Software Should be on the Web

Until recently, many facilities were still using scheduling software that was installed on computer hard drives. That meant that if the computer crashed or was stolen, the program and the data went with it. It also meant that clients would have to call to make sure they had the most updated version of any scheduler.

By default, most scheduling software is now offered online as a software as a service (SaaS). This saves sports facilities from worrying about servers, backups, or updates.

Here is a list of recommended features you’ll find with SaaS schedulers.

Setup Features

  • Operating hours – customize the times of day and year that your clients can schedule, and put them on repeat so you don’t have to update them very often
  • Locations – use levels of categorization to help you customize facilities
  • Client groups – give certain groups of clients special benefits, such as advanced scheduling, special discounts, and exclusive access to certain programming
  • Client and staff management – track and quickly find information on all your clients and staff, including client family member relationships and scheduling and payment histories
  • Staff permissions – create custom permissions levels for each of your employees

Scheduling Features

  • Rentals – rent out locations and sub-locations, change prices automatically based on time of day or season, determine how far in advance clients can schedule or cancel, add optional equipment or services to rentals
  • Lessons – schedule both one-on-one and semi-private lessons, restrict the types of lessons that can happen in each location at your facility, add optional equipment or services to lessons
  • Camps and classes – set age limits, size limits and enrollment dates, charge per session or for a group of sessions
  • Memberships – check clients into the facility using cards or by name, or just bill clients monthly for regular services (lessons, rentals, etc.)
  • Packages – group all types of your services together for sale
  • Retail – track inventory and sales for concession stands and pro-shops
  • Leagues – create teams, schedules,  and post results

Payment and Pricing Features

  • Online payment – let your clients pay for their services online
  • Refund policy – establish a refund policy for all of your services and have it applied automatically to your clients’ cancellations
  • Upfront payment – require upfront payment for scheduling and then waive it as necessary to let trusted clients pay later
  • Account credit – give clients the ability to add credit to their accounts for easy spending in the facility, such as parents adding money to a child’s account for the concession stand

Notifications Features

  • Email and text notifications – let clients and staff decide when and how they want to be reminded about their upcoming schedules
  • Customizable messages – choose what the reminder messages say

Marketing Features

  • Messages to clients – let your clients know about your new programs and services through the software
  • Email marketing – compose and send emails to clients and manage your client email lists, either with a third-party email program or directly through the scheduling software
  • Brandable interface – the system can look like it belongs to your company, with your own logo and colors

Reports & Displays

  • Make a list of your essential reports and make that sure each program you consider has them. Same goes with displays; for example, are you used to checking a weekly calendar with hour-by-hour lessons? That specific view might not be available in every system you consider.

Conclusion

eSoft Planner is an easy-to-use and functional software that allows facility owners to schedule training, clinics, and sub-locations within your facility. Communicate with instructors and other facility members through email, text messages, and highly visible alerts on the login page and user dashboard.

The SaaS uses a simple pay-per-feature structure, letting you know the amount you’ll pay each month based on which parts of the software you use. We also offer ongoing client support for the entire time that your facility uses our software.

Schedule a demo today to see how you can spend less time and hassle on scheduling and more time supporting your facility members.

Sports facility management software features

Sports Facility Management Software – What It Can Do for You

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Four Things Your Sports Facility Management Software Should Do

It’s true. There are sports facility management software options designed to help you schedule your space or your service.

But if this is the foundation of your business, chances are that you’re not looking for just any tool. You need support — a team behind the computer screen to help you manage a lot of moving parts, make sure you get paid and demanding clientele.

So how do you choose? Here are four things you should insist on in your scheduling software – for a swim club, an indoor sports facility, or any other business that has a space and an instructor. Go beyond member billing and schedule management.

Unlimited Locations, Instructors and Members

Most sports facility software programs charge a base monthly subscription cost or an upfront fee. On the other hand, some charge extra per instructor, location, or both. While others might include a fee if you enroll more than a hundred customers/members. Depending on how your facility is growing, you will see your costs increase as you grow. You could see an additional $100 or $200 added to your monthly bill for these surcharges.

Scheduling and management software that includes unlimited locations, instructors or members might be more expensive at the outset. Although, if you expect to grow your membership, you’ll thank yourself later for choosing a solution that grows with you.

Customer Support that Knows Your Industry

Your days as a business owner are complicated enough. You’re scheduling practices, lessons and events. In the meantime, you’re keeping inventory of supplies, preparing budgets, and ordering new equipment. Meanwhile, you’re maintaining communication with your clientele.

Before purchasing a management solution, you should know what kind of support team stands behind it. Do they only offer knowledge and support for their own product? Or do they go beyond that — are they familiar with the particular needs of your sport or activity? Moreover, you want a team that knows the technical aspects of your business and its unique operational needs. That can mean the difference between making a lot of mistakes or achieving great success.

Prevent Double Bookings

Double bookings are an all-too-common enemy of sports clubs and other scheduled activity businesses. Does your software offer safeguards against two customers scheduling the same time or place? Above all, consider an option that utilizes a two-step process. You need confirmation on what instructors are available, as well as information about the spaces or services that are available on a particular date and time.

By validating the availability of your services, you will show your clients that you value their time. Furthermore, you eliminate the hassles and frustration of double booking.

Allow Bulk Scheduling for Rentals

A lot of software offers the ability to bulk schedule. But not all of them let members make changes inside those repeat appointments. What if your softball instructor is only available every other Thursday at 2:45 p.m.? Or maybe she can’t make it on Valentine’s Day?

Being able to make modifications to recurring schedules is a must-have in the eyes of many customers. By all means, your facility needs to be able to make changes to individual events that do not affect the entire series.

Why eSoft Planner

eSoft Planner offers all these features and more. Our flexible payment and scheduling software delivers the functionality you need to be efficient. And with our modular-based design, we’ll never charge you for services you don’t use.

Your monthly membership also includes a support team that knows all fields of athletics — from swim clubs to softball to volleyball. Our team supports schools and lesson-based businesses across the board.

Retake control of your facility scheduling and management. Contact us today for a demo and see how you can spend less time and hassle on administration. eSoft Planner powers your passion.