Dancewise Studios – Admin Down 50%, Income Up £2,000

Dancewise Studios

Dancewise Studios is a unique dance studio based in Hythe, Southampton. It was founded in 2005 by Alison Jones and is now in its 15th season. As a former freelance dance teacher, Alison found the dance schools she taught at were holding dancers back for not looking a certain way or not being talented as others. For this reason, she wanted to create a safe space that was inclusive. Interestingly, teaching dance is secondary to Dancewise Studio’s main mission which is to transform lives through passion and positivity. 

The dance studio pride themselves on being a family and a second home for their students. A place where people come to feel happy, supported and loved. It doesn’t matter if students are nervous, lacking in confidence or they find it difficult to make friends, Dancewise Studios is for them. From authentic street to contemporary and from ballet to jazz, there’s a dance style for everyone. 

The challenge

The dance studio was previously using an online class management software to manage their members. Although this generally worked well for them, there was one big problem. As the software provider was based oversees, the front desk team at Dancewise Studios had problems with integrating automated payments. Opting to make international transactions meant using international payment providers and too many hoops to jump through which they didn’t want to do. As a result of this, members were still making payments by either cash, credit card or BACs transfer. This meant the team was spending around 25 hours every month solely on processing and reconciling payments. 

Another difficulty that Dancewise Studios faced with this software provider was support requests not being dealt with quickly. It’s worth noting that this wasn’t deliberate, but rather because of the time zone difference. Either way, it wasn’t convenient and sometimes this meant they had to wait up to a day to receive help, slowing down day-to-day processes. 

The solution

Dancewise Studios wanted a complete solution that allowed them to manage both members and their payments from a single piece of software. That’s where LoveAdmin stepped in. First off, LoveAdmin has made it simple and easy for members of the dance studio to pay their monthly tuition fees. Both card and direct debit payments are processed securely by LoveAdmin’s industry-leading payment provider partners, PayPal and GoCardless.

As the software automatically reconciles these payments, this saves the front desk team hours of time which they can use to focus on other important tasks instead. (The only time they give to payments now is when a one-off issue might arise). For example, in the situation where a member has pre-authorised payments set up in LoveAdmin and they fail, Dancewise Studios can see this promptly and then get in touch with the member to investigate why this has happened. Similarly, through the dashboard feature, the team can see how many people have registered for a season vs. what’s been paid, and again, get in touch with the ones who haven’t paid to make sure they don’t miss out on potential members. 

Another notable feature the team has benefited from is LoveAdmin’s attendance registers. They can structure attendance so if someone calls in to say they can’t make it to a dance lesson, this can be marked in the register there and then. Also, due to the handy mobile app, teaching assistants can mark attendance during lessons so that teachers can give their undivided attention to teaching and nothing else.

The result

Overall, Dancewise Studios has seen great results since switching to LoveAdmin. They have experienced a dramatic decrease in outstanding tuition fees. A year ago, they had around £2,000 overdue and today, thanks to LoveAdmin, that figure has dropped to around £100. The dance studio collects payments 3x faster and has reduced the time they spent on admin by 50%. 

Alison Jones, Founder of Dancewise Studios says, “I would highly recommend LoveAdmin to any membership-based organisation. If you’re still dealing in cash – STOP and use LoveAdmin instead! You’ll save time, earn more, have less hassle, and be seen as a more professional organisation.”

If like Dancewise Studios you would like to collect payments 3x faster and reduce your admin time, get your FREE demo of LoveAdmin today.