Turning Pointe Academy of Dance students practicing their final routine pose

Super User Shares Value of Online Registration for Turning Pointe Academy of Dance

Jenn Buckton at Turning Pointe Academy of Dance is a good person to talk to about the benefits of using Jackrabbit. As Administration Manager, Jenn uses Jackrabbit the most out of anyone in her organization – all day every day – and has done so for about 4 years. Her organization uses about 80% of the features and functionality that Jackrabbit has to offer. You could say Jenn is really a super user!

Even though Jenn is very experienced with all things Jackrabbit, she still attends User Conferences. She’s been to 2 or 3 in Las Vegas and learns something different every time she goes.

“When we first put Jackrabbit in place, I knew it was the right choice because our IT guys understood it right away.”

Jenn loves Jackrabbit because she is big on compartmentalizing and organization. She can use Jackrabbit to pull reports that give her information in different ways. Jenn has put Skills for Classes and the Time Clock to work for Turning Pointe in addition to the costume and recital modules and all features for managing classes and staff.  Turning Pointe parents love using the portal because it lets them see everything that is going on.

Jenn pre-posts fees using eBatch. The school policy is to accept payment only by credit card. It’s a tremendous advantage because declines are automatically noted and a report of them is provided – so follow-up is easy.

“We know the customer is committed when we enter their credit card information. We haven’t had resistance because people already do business this way in other places. It tremendously simplifies the process. We have few declines and we’ve totally eliminating collections.”

Jenn and her staff were thrilled when Jackrabbit put the quick chat feature in place. It provides a great way to ask questions that they don’t think warrant opening a ticket through the support button.

“Jackrabbit’s support staff always listens and is open to ideas and change. Our entire staff loves the quick chat – especially when we have quick questions that probably have quick answers. I also think it’s great that we’ve been able to meet support team members who have helped us at the User Conferences.”

Turning Pointe’s Biggest Story is Online Registration

Putting Online Registration in place was huge for Jenn, the Turning Pointe staff and their students’ parents.

“The time savings are tremendous on both ends – staff and parent. Before using Online Registration, it took my staff lots of backend time to sort through and double-check details. We had lots of angry parents in long lines with lots of questions. It took hours and hours to complete the process. Parents find our new online methods super easy – and quick.”

Jenn and her staff like having every parent sign the waiver online as they register. It makes the process a one and done event. Parents enter all information so completeness and accuracy of their information is in their hands – not in the hands of Jenn’s staff. The post-registration emails are great because they provide Turning Pointe with proof of registrations.

Online Registration Comparison

Before:

Turning Pointe often worked 5-7 hours per day for two full weeks when in-person registrations were taken. The paper registration information then had to be manually entered into the databases by staff.

After the initial two weeks, registrations continued to trickle in for a couple of more weeks. During the entire four week period, staff had to confirm registrations for those on the wait lists.

Tuition payments also trickled in and because they were manually entered during a process that took staff at least two weeks.

After:

Registration takes no more than two hours – period. The Turning Pointe staff watches Jackrabbit’s dashboard to see classes filling as registration information automatically comes into their Jackrabbit database from their website.

Tuition payments come in as fast as registrations. There is no gap for fees to be manually posted. There are only a few declined credit cards to follow up on.

“We can use the four weeks that online registration gives us back for planning and strategy. We actually have time to relax before the craziness of the season sets in.”

True Belief in Jackrabbit’s Value

Jenn believes in Jackrabbit’s value to organizations like Turning Pointe so much that she often  recommends that others implement the software. Her advice for Jackrabbit newcomers is “learn in layers.”

“I use my experience as a case study of sorts to let Jackrabbit newcomers know what worked for me and why. I advise that they implement and learn Jackrabbit in layers.”

If you put the features in place first that you really need run your organization, you can get started and then add other features after you’re comfortable with the basics.

  • You need to be able to organization your classes, students, families and staff.
  • You need to be able to get paid.

Everything else works on top of these two areas of activity so it makes sense to get comfortable with them first. If you don’t, you may get frustrated while expanding your use of Jackrabbit.

“When we implemented Jackrabbit, I felt that I would learn by doing. So I did a manual input of our data the first year. This let me see how things were related and help me to better understand how everything works together. You really need to understand the software so you will be able to answer some of the detailed questions that parents ask. After my initial experience, I was good to go. I had a base from which I could easily learn everything else. I highly recommend this approach!”

Jenn Buckton |Turning Pointe Academy of Dance | Toronto, ON | www.turningpointe.ca

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