| The Business Center: Operations |
|
|
|
Keeping statistics is any excellent way to keep track of how the various areas of your school's operations are going. If you have many calls but few closings, then you may need to brush up on you sales' tactics. (See the article in Marketing on Closing the Sale). I keep track of statistics for the KenpoNet everyday. I use it to determine how many hits were given to the various sections of my site. My primary interests are the KenpoNet itself, the Flame, the Discussion Forum, and the StudioNet. I use this to determine what people are coming for. Of course, the number of page views in the forum is the highest because it creates it own interaction which feeds more visitors. I then track to see if people go into the archive (the Flame) or into the StudioNet. This does tell quite a bit about what reasons they have chosen my site for. I can then track the various areas of the Flame to determine where interests lie as well as track people who read the introductory article about the KenpoNet. On a daily basis, I look at stats for the four main areas: KenpoNet, Forum, Flame, and StudioNet. I do however look into the other sub-divisions as often as possible to see what drives this site and how I may improve it. After all that rambling, I hope you at least gathered that I use statistics to better this website. You too can use statistics to see what areas of your school run strong and which ones need a bit of a boost. The first step is to make keeping statistics a habit. Make it a routine. In fact, never shut your school down for the evening until you¹ve tallied the day¹s numbers. I get my website statistics inserted into the diagrams before I head off to sleep. Doing this daily may require a lot of self-discipline, but you are already running a school, you should have plenty of that. The next step is to purchase a three-ring binder to be your statistics book. You will want to create a simple form that allows you to track the following basic statistics: Information Calls You probably keep a list of those who called to inquire about your classes for follow-up. Just add a pad and pen near every phone in your school so when someone calls to inquire you can place a check mark on the pad for that day. Also track how the caller heard about your school, so you know where to best invest your marketing dollars. At the end of the day, transfer the total number of callers and how they heard about you into your book. Appointments Whenever you receive a qualified information call, the goal is to schedule that person for an appointment to visit your school. Record the total number of daily appointments that you set so you can determine an information-call to appointment-set ratio. This will help you guage the effectiveness of your telephone skills. Introductory Lessons Record the amount of first- and second-lesson introductory lessons you or others have taught. This is important information. If your statistics show a pattern of students not finishing the introductory course, then you know you may have to adjust your introductory material or approach. Enrollments Of course, you'll need to keep track of your glorious enrollments! If this number does not equal at least eighty percent of your completed introductory lessons, you have some work to do. Whatever the objections are, you must figure out a way to overcome them. Collected Revenue Most schools get their revenue from tuition, down payments, product sales and special events. Create a separate category on your stats sheet for each source of revenue you have. Using subcategories is recommended. For example, under tuition you may create a subcategory for electronic funds transfers (check drafts), credit cards, down payments, cash and so forth. Each day, add up the amounts to determine your total collected revenue. Active Student Count There are numerous ways to determine your active count. You can use little attendance cards they maintain. However you gather the information, you may just want to count all the students who attended class at least once this month and consider them active. Just like my website having dozens of ways to check traffic, I use a select primary group of four. These represent the basics for my site, just like the above can represent the basics for your own school. Now that you have them on paper, the next step is to learn how to analyze them to your advantage. If you received fifteen information calls, but only scheduled five appointments, you know that you have to brush up your telephone skills. If you taught ten introductory lessons and only enrolled three students, then you know more than likely that the content of your introductory lesson and the benefits being taught needs to be looked at. I think you get the idea. By collecting and analyzing stats, you can create an action plan for improving the results in every area of your school. If you do not have this information at your fingertips, you're flying blind. Keeping accurate statistics will give you direction and enable you to set goals. Works Consulted
|