The Hockaday School is an all-girls school in Dallas, Texas with about 1,100 students in grades Pre-k through 12. Over the summer, the school offers Summer at Hockaday which has nearly 400 camps and classes open to boys and girls ages 3 through 12th grade.Melissa Curtis took over as the Director of Auxiliary Programs in 2013 and immediately wanted to improve the registration system that was being used. It was a student information system, and the usability for parents and staff was lacking. Not only was it difficult to send out announcements, but processing camp and class registrations was a very tedious, time-consuming task.Curtis knew the School had to find another solution and turned to ACTIVE Network for help.
“We’re more efficient in the business office; we have time to focus on other things because the system is running our registrations for us.” Melissa Curtis, Director of Auxiliary Programs
Improvements with ACTIVE
The Hockaday School started using ACTIVE Camp & Class Manager for its summer camps and classes in 2014 and has seen registrations and overall participation almost double.“Our profit has grown almost 400-percent since 2014, and I can’t help but think that a lot of that is due to [ACTIVE’s] Camp & Class Manager,” Curtis says.She says that sales revenue has increased by more than $500,000 since starting with ACTIVE’s Camp & Class Manager, and this year alone the program has seen a 25-percent sales increase compared to the same time last year.An increase in revenue and participation is not the only benefit the program has seen. Curtis says ACTIVE Camp & Class Manager saves her and her staff a lot of time on administrative tasks, particularly registrations.“I would say that probably half of my time has been freed up to focus on other things,” she says. “We used to have to hire extra personnel just to handle registrations, and we no longer have a need for that.”
Excellent Participant Experience
With the large number of classes and camps that are offered, the school noticed that parents were having a hard time finding the classes they were looking for when registering on the old system.With ACTIVE’s Camp & Class Manager, this is no longer an issue.“One of our favorite features is that customers are able to filter through our programs by age, grade, and more to find the programs that are offered for their child,” Curtis says. “The ease-of-use for parents has been great.”Curtis also mentioned that parents were thrilled to find out the system keeps their accounts open so they don’t have to make new accounts every year.
Streamlined Communication
Curtis finds the email tool in Camp & Class Manager to be a great asset.She says she loves the flexibility of being able to schedule emails to go out when she wants them to and having the ability to send them to everyone at once, or a targeted group.“We use it for marketing and to get information to our parents,” Curtis says.“Whether it’s welcome to camp letters with information about carpooling and what to bring to camp, or a reminder email to parents from past seasons, it’s simple to use.”
Superb Customer Service
Curtis says working with ACTIVE Network really feels like a partnership.“Customer service is really important to me because we’re in the business of customer service,” Curtis says. “I really appreciate the customer service that ACTIVE Network provides. They listen to us, to our suggestions, to our feedback and they take that to heart.”She says the ACTIVE Implementation team has been top-notch.“We have a very complicated system and the implementation team made it so simple for me.”But she was also sure to give a shout-out to the ACTIVE Account Managers.“The Account Managers at ACTIVE are partners that work alongside you,” she says. “They answer questions, give suggestions, and are supporters and encouragers.”
Moving Forward
“The future is bright,” Curtis says. “We’re in a pattern of growth, and ACTIVE Network plays a great part in that with our summer programs. I’m looking forward to that continuing.”Bring on your partner in success with ACTIVE’s Camp & Class Manager–contact us today!800.708.8749 | ACTIVEnetwork.com/Education | Educate@ACTIVEnetwork.com
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