Digitise your swim school without bringing it to a standstill
Most swim schools teach excellently and manage with spreadsheets. Here's how the switch works, and where it usually goes wrong.
“Going digital” sounds like a big project. In a swim school, it's usually something very concrete: sign-ups come in by email and phone, the courses are in an Excel file, the waiting list is a scrap of paper, and only one person knows who has paid.
That works until it doesn't. The tipping point rarely creeps up; it comes on a specific day: when two families have been given the same last place, when a course is cancelled and thirty phone calls are waiting, or when the person who knows everything is on holiday.
This page describes how the switch really works. Without promising that everything will be easy, and including the points where it typically gets stuck.
How you can tell it's time
There are a few signs that are almost the same everywhere:
- Sign-ups come in via a form, an email or “please give us a call”, and someone transfers them by hand
- Most enquiries arrive in the evening and at weekends, and they're answered the next working day
- When a course is cancelled, people make phone calls rather than send notifications
- Nobody can say off the top of their head how full each course is
- The waiting list exists, but nobody keeps it up reliably
- There's one person without whom nothing works
If three of these apply, admin takes more time than teaching. And you only notice once things work differently.
What changes first, and what doesn't
The biggest leap happens in a single place: parents book themselves. That doesn't just get rid of the typing, but also of the question “is there still a place?”, because the place is taken the moment it's booked.
What does not change: the work at the pool, grouping children by ability, talking to parents. A system takes over admin, not teaching. Anyone who promises otherwise has never set foot in a swim school.
The process in four steps
- Review what you have. Which courses are there, which prices, which locations, which times? Most of this is already recorded somewhere, just scattered.
- Import instead of typing. Existing lists are read in. A course catalogue from Excel is in the system in hours, not weeks.
- Run both in parallel. The old sign-up stays open until the new one is carrying the load. Nobody switches a running business over on a fixed date.
- Switch over between two course blocks. The timing decides the effort more than any technical question.
More about the software behind it is on the page about Natarivo.
Where it usually gets stuck
Three things come up almost every time:
The prices are more complicated than expected. Sibling discounts, club members, ten-session passes, holiday weeks: the pricing structure a swim school has built up over the years can rarely be explained in one sentence. It can be reflected in the system, but it has to be spelled out once.
Not all parents book online. There are always some who call. That doesn't change; it's just that one of you then enters the sign-up into the system instead of into a list nobody else sees.
The fear of losing control. Anyone who has known every participant personally for years distrusts a list that fills itself. That's why: run both in parallel until the trust is there.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the switch take?
It's fastest between two course blocks: a well-kept course catalogue is imported in days, and you should allow a few weeks until everything has been switched over. In the middle of the season it takes longer, because running courses have to continue in parallel.
How much does the switch cost?
That depends on locations, course types and whether a new website is part of it. You get a fixed price for the set-up in advance and an ongoing flat fee for operation and maintenance, no billing by time spent. You'll get the exact figure once we've looked at what you have.
Do we have to enter all participants again?
No. Existing lists are imported. Nobody has to type up what's in Excel. In our experience, that's the biggest worry and the smallest effort.
What about parents who don't want to book online?
They keep calling. The only difference is that you enter the sign-up into the system instead of a list; that way the place and the payment are recorded correctly right away.
Do we need someone with IT skills for this?
No. If you can keep an Excel spreadsheet up to date, you'll manage. We take care of the set-up; after that, normal everyday use is all it takes.
Related pages
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