Rising costs of operations, new customer acquisition and customer relationships management costs more and more every year. You constantly must make adjustments, cuts, and eliminations of budgetary line items just to keep your bottom line healthy. Why in the world, then, would you even consider creating a mobile app? Doesn’t that type of expenditure simply add to your one-time capital expenditures and increase your monthly operational costs?If that is how you think it works, you need to reconsider because you’re missing out on technology that could be a game-changer for your organization.

No Spin, Just Fact

There are 5 simple statements that aren’t simply marketing spin about our mobile app. They are proven benefits.

Our customers have helped us prove that owning a mobile app:

• Streamlines front office processes.
• Increases enrollment and income.
• Enhances the services you provide to parents and students.
• Heightens your professionalism.
• Makes you a technology innovator.

Let’s look at these statements individually.

#1 Streamlines front office processes

Providing a mobile app for your parents makes it oh so easy for them to do a portion of your front office work for you. Basically, the app mainlines your parents into your organization and you onto their smart phone home screen. They simply click the function and they’re able to enroll kids, check and pay account balances, make updates to their family information and checkout schedules, calendars, photos and videos. You can send them critical information in the fastest and most direct way imaginable through push notifications. You don’t have to worry about undeliverable emails, answering machines or complaining parents ever again.

“It’s another convenience feature. And it helps the front office to be more efficient and to automate the way they record attendance in their class management software.” Jerit Pogue, Athletic & Performance Arts

“Parents can even schedule events happening within the  hour quite easily through the app. Human interaction – such as calling in – is usually slower than using the app. In the end, providing the mobile app is better for everyone involved.” Brian Foster, Stars & Stripes Kids Activity Center

#2 Increases enrollment and income

Because you’ve made enrollment and paying so easy, parents do it regularly and sign up for more classes and events. We know for sure that providing better opportunities to spend money with you works. And when doing so takes just a couple of screen touches – boom – enrollments soar. But there’s another side to this. Your office hums with efficiency (as we noted in point #1 so productivity rises and you get more done with a smaller investment in time and money. It’s also true that happier customers draw more new customers in and you’re doing this because you excel in your level of services provided to your families.

“We know that our investment in our mobile app pays off. We track our statistics closely so that we know how to tweak our spending decisions to get the best results. Our average of 100 registrations per month from approximately 1000 monthly visitors lets us know that we’ve done something right for our customers. We saw a 4.5% increase in revenues for special events after implementing the app.  We love to see incremental increases in specific areas especially when we see that we can sustain those increases across the year. Our mobile app has made a difference in our gym’s reputation and in the bottom line.” Scott Barron, Barron Gymnastics

“Parents using our mobile app can quickly enroll their child before their preferred class sells out and they know the second we know that a class won’t be held. It definitely keeps them on the forefront of our communications and helps us to create our own demand factor.” Mardi Obray, Peak Kids

#3 Enhances the services you provide to parents and students

This is pretty simple. You communicate more with parents in the way that they prefer. You provide the services they need from you in ways that are irresistibly convenient to them. We say irresistibly because parents will almost always sign their kids up for events when you pop them up on their smart phone home screen where they can make a few simple moves and have as many kids as they’d like signed up and paid for. When things happen to prevent your classes from happening on schedule – you have a quick and direct way to inform parents before they’re on the way to your facility. That is a sure-fire way to make your facility’s parents happy.

And there is quid pro quo. Your facility’s parents can touch their smart phone screens a couple of times and be connected with all of the information about your facility and their kid’s experience in your facility.

“The more ways that we can give our parents to communicate with us, the happier they are going to be. We can communicate critical business news, like closures due to weather or special events or times that they need to be aware of. This is definitely a way that we can stay ahead of the curve.” John Kirk, Little Otter Swim School

Your mobile app enables you to give parents what they want when they want it and in the way they want to get it. There aren’t many things that you can say that about.

It’s beyond convenience. It’s an extension of what they already do on their smart phones.

“Our organizations need to reach out to parents with conveniences in every possible way. Why every parent may not now use a mobile app – many are thrilled at the possibilities of having one to use.” Jerit Pogue, Athletic & Performance Arts

“It puts registration, class and payment capabilities in the pockets of our parents and opens up a pipeline for direct communication with them. It’s very powerful.”  J Orkowski, Gymfinity

#4 Heightens your professionalism

Technology enables communication that is fast, accurate and personal. You’re just as convenient and intuitive as some of the most professional organizations and companies that parents already do business with.

“I believe that the mobile app is a powerful customer service tool for us to use in making everything at our studio easy for parents to do. And by doing so, we earn their loyalty and win their appreciation for accommodating their needs and preferences.” Erica Leanna, Platinum Dance Center

Parents feel included, connected, and cared for by people who understand their needs and the way they want and need to use your services. It’s the ultimate example of professionalism and good business.

“We believe that our mobile app has enhanced our business. We’re thrilled with the way that it is seamlessly incorporated with Jackrabbit and excited about the time savings that it offers to our parents and our staff.” Mardi Obray, Peak Kids

“We’ve basically put customer portal functionality on their phones – right next to their Facebook and banking apps. We’ve elevated our services for parents and given them conveniences in doing business with us that other children’s facilities aren’t providing.” Scott Barron, Barron Gymnastics

#5 Makes you a technology innovator

You must admit it: technology – especially mobile technology – is slick. It sets you apart from the guys down the street or across town who don’t go to the effort to innovate their services. Offering this simple option goes a long way in making you the savvy leader.

“It’s a powerful option that facilities with large numbers of students will want to use. And it’s one of the more leading edge technologies that people are using for lots of things.” Jerit Pogue, Athletic & Performance Arts

“We’ve definitely been able to set ourselves above our competitors with our mobile app. It has helped us to enhance our customer service and make our company more diverse. This is definitely technology that others with parent-centric operations should invest in to make their parents happier.” Scott Barron, Barron Gymnastics

Summing It Up

Amazingly enough, a mobile app can be purchased for an initial investment and monthly cost and management efforts that are modest in comparison to the benefits delivered.

The process of creating your app is quick. We almost have it down to a science – including helping you decide what should be offered in your app. And the amount of time managing the app, sending notifications through it, revising its content and even analyzing its effectiveness is quite minimal, especially when you consider the time it would take to get similar results using other methods.

“Mobile Inventor was easy to work with and very responsive to our questions. We were thrilled that the development cycle was shorter than we had anticipated and that – through their creative suggestions – we were able to make our app more than we thought it could be.” Mardi Obray, Peak Kids

Customer experiences support the value of the mobile app, so what it boils down to is this: What you will get out of a mobile app is well-worth the time and money you’ll put into it.