A successful business starts from a top-down approach, where the brand and leadership define other company roles and the overall approach. Management staff of a successful business needs to be communicative, supportive, and should be able to see the bigger picture. These points should ideally lead to happy and empowered staff, with the end goal of a better customer experience.

Martial arts schools are no different, in that they require similar components for the same end goal. The management team needs to ensure that the school is growing and that they’re maximizing all opportunities available. To do this successfully, martial arts software is necessary, to automate a lot of the grunt work that goes hand-in-hand with the day-to-day operations, so that management can focus on big-picture tasks, lesson plans, and other forms of business development. Effective martial arts software should also analyze and report on things like attendance, billing, student belt levels, and memberships.

Once your school finds the best fit for martial arts software, a transitional phase will help successfully move all data and settings from the previous method used to your new software. The setup and training are also important, as you want to take advantage of all of the features of the software and better help your staff understand its capabilities. Learning the advanced functionality of your management software can help separate you from the rest of the schools in your area. Here are some key things to know, before changing martial arts software.

How to Choose Best

If you’re changing your martial arts software, you can use this opportunity to sit down with management and instructors to analyze the business from an objective point of view. Revisiting your business and marketing plans can reveal a lot of opportunities for growth, and show what you need from your martial arts software. Once you have completed the assessment, you should have a better idea of your overall performance, allowing you to determine which features will make the biggest impact for your school. Compile a list of technical features desired, prioritized by importance or level of expected impact, and use this to help you choose the best martial arts software for your school. 

Transition Phase

Once you make the decision on which martial arts software to use, you will have to transfer data from your old software to your new one. This includes your client database, school information, general preferences, any point-of-sale data, class structures, tournament data, and staff information. If you’re transitioning from another brand of martial arts software, it may have an export function that can make the transition less painful. If you were using a makeshift or manual solution such as Excel or journals, the process will be a little more tedious but worth it, in the long run. Your martial arts software provider should be able to guide you through whatever scenario you’re in and help you grow, as you scale.

Training Day

Once you’re all set up and ready to go, training your staff right away will save future headaches and alleviate the workload on your employees, while saving you labor hours via increased productivity. Due to the depth of features found in the latest martial arts software, ongoing training is necessary, for you and your school to stay up to date on all of the features that can help boost staff effectiveness. The best software will offer many support resources and live help; the software provider should also offer training, to help ensure accuracy and provide insight. Ultimately, getting your staff comfortable with these new tools will help you get the most out of them.

Explore Xplor Recreation's martial arts software, for more information on how to get set up with new martial arts software for your school and how it will improve and grow your business.