EFC is selective about the schools it takes on, and it recommends that you follow certain ethical guidelines it has established. In today's transparent world of consumer websites such as Yelp.com and Google Reviews, it is very hard to expunge negative comments about your school on the Internet, and so it is imperative that you keep your reputation pristine.  

Chairman Cokinos has always advocated for retention and locking the backdoor. In the past, martial arts schools pursued hard collections but this strong position can easily be counter productive.

Now a different position is taking the field by storm, which is so beneficial that it protects schools' reputations. In fact a number of EFC's Board Members have installed the "30 or 60-day option to cancel" As we do in Australia. (This has become a great re-activation tool!) 

Our Director Dave Durman has spoken at several international conferences on this exact subject.  Here are some points.

1. Students can cancel with 30 or 60 days' written notice, which must be seen not as 60-day option to cancel, but a 60-day chance to reactivate. The school should encourage students to attend classes during the 60-day notice period to see if the situation can be reversed.     

2. The 60 day-option (paying two more payments) also carries an additional $99.00 cancellation fee.     Which gives you the option to cancel this to incentivise the student to train during the notice period.

This is an effective way to turn an issue into an opportunity. Clients who use this method successfully have noted that they are even able to upgrade some students, thanks to the 30 - 60 day option, which allows them to pay extra attention to the student!   

The EFC Management team highly recommends that you adopt this policy in order to avoid litigation and protect your good name and business and more importantly, retain happy students.

Communicate with your account executive and authorize them to use this procedure when needed.  If you need more information about how to use this to your best advantage, come to the Summit in February.

- EFC Management

Develop a Plan and Put it into Action:   Last week, we discussed the process of identifying areas for improvement and big ideas for your school for 2014.  The next step is to take these objectives and develop a plan to accomplish them.  The key is to develop a list of specific actions that you and your team can take that will generate the needed improvement.

For each action item, you'll want to identify:

A goal for the outcome, ideally quantifiable

Who is responsible to take action

A deadline

Here's an example of how to do this:

Let's say that in 2013, your school enrolled an average of eight students per month.  In your initial planning, you determined a need to enroll more students next year and you've set a goal to enroll 12 students per month in 2014. So you need to develop a plan that will produce the four additional new students you'll need each month.

In your planning process, you identified that your conversion rates were very good:  You found that you enroll exactly 50% of all inquiries.  You just weren't generating enough inquiries. 

To enroll four new students each month, you'll need eight more inquiries each month.  Eight inquiries per month times 12 months means you'll need a total of 96 incremental inquiries for the year to achieve your enrollment goal for 2014.

So you need a plan to show exactly how you intend to generate those 96 incremental inquiries for the year. 

From here, you can identify marketing campaigns, external events, referral initiatives and other tactics that will help you generate more inquiries.  For each one, you need to identify the specific goal, who's responsible, and a deadline. 

Here is an example of an action plan designed to generate 96 new inquiries in 2014:

Ask each student/parent for a referral twice in 2014.  (If you have 120 students, you'll ask 20 of them each month.)

Goal is to generate two inquiries each month

Sarah will identify the 20 students for each month, and each student's instructor will ask for the referral

(Deadline is implied - Each group of 20 referral requests will be completed by the end of the month)

Should generate a total of 24 additional inquiries for the year

Do one additional birthday party each month.

Goal is to generate at least two inquiries from each party

Birthday parties will be conduced by Tom and Sarah.  Parties will be scheduled by Emily

Parties should be scheduled at least six weeks in advance

Should generate a total of 24 additional inquiries for the year

Participate in six external booth events from April through October.

Goal is to generate 8 inquiries from each event

Booth team will consist of Tom, Emily and two student volunteers

(Deadline is implied - Must be done by end of October)

Should generate a total of 48 additional inquiries for the year

These three items should generate the 96 additional inquiries you need.

If you develop detailed action plans like this for all your 2014 goals, chances are very good that 2014 will be a great year for your school.