subscription method for lessons

[bowt]

Hey Guys,

What do you think of this as an approach to running a tennis business:

I coach at an 11 court facility and my current approach is standard in that clients book their kids in for lessons at a given time slots for a term cost.
E.g. orange ball 4:30pm-5:30pm cost $180/ 8 week term ($22.5/lesson)

Instead I was thinking of doing it like a subscription method where you can get a subscription and attend at a certain time slot at x number of times per week

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
4:30-5:30

subscription once session / week ($18) Bronze
subscription two session / week ($34) Silver
subscription three session / week ($50) Gold
subscription ANYTIME ($66) PLATINUM

Can you think of any other value you can add that doesn't cost anything?
Do you think it can work?

[klacr]

bowt,

Not sure where you live or how the club culture is so its a bit tricky. At my club the first thing I did when I took control was to abolish the series/package lessons. A regular lesson at my club is $75 for members and $80 for non members. But if they buy a "series of 5, 10, 15 lessons etc" there would be a discount and savings. I hated this approach as it diminishes my most important commodity...time. If a student wants a discount on a lesson, does that mean I can discount my effort level to them? I don't think so. People respect quality, not desperation. I charge every student the same amount for each lesson no matter how many times a week they have a lesson. They never question it and the few newbies that do are told exactly my feelings and they all understand clearly after that. There has only been in increase in our club's lesson revenue. They pay for every lesson or clinic they take, that day. It's easy, it's transparent and they respect it.

I also find that when they pay for a package, it now becomes a logistical nightmare keeping track of how many lessons each student came in for, what if one student was sick and has to cancel or a rain out now they are still owed a class or lesson and then when can they make that up? What if they get injured? Now you have these rain checks hanging over your head. It's another variable I like to nip in the bud.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

Klacr is absolutely on the button here. I do precisely the same and for exactly the same reasons. Avoid administration as after long days you generally won't fancy doing it. I try to automate things as much as possible. Pay as you go is the easiest way to operate as a coach.

One policy I have for my group coaching is that if we are rained off before the first half of the lesson is up, I scrub the lesson and roll it over to the next week. If it rains in the second half of the lesson, it counts as a full lesson. Over the course of a year it works out 50-50 and people find it very fair.

With individual lessons that are rained off I simply charge a fee proportionate to the time had. If we are rained off in the first 15 minutes, I let them have it. People respect this and it shows you are not out purely for the money....very important as it will put you in a different light to most other coaches.

I think your subscription idea might be a tad complicated and hard to police. Plus, how do you cater for different standards this way? Don't you have a hierarchy where players move up the levels?