Are your students dragging their heels in class? Do they leave the pool drained of energy? After a couple of dives in the open water, are they ready for a nap? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions then you may be asking yourself, can I do anything about it. Well, you might be surprised to learn that there are some easy ways to help your students stay more alert during your class time that can also increase your business.
First, consider how you schedule classes. This can be a challenge for many reasons. Let’s face it, time is money but we don’t want to make the mistake of thinking that faster is always better. Balancing speed and efficiency with superior customer service is always a tough act. Doing so well, will ensure repeat and referral business which will definitely equate to bigger profits. Start by setting realistic expectations upfront as this is critical to your success. Planning enough time for your students to assimilate the information and time to practice skills to truly gain mastery is the goal. If you teach for a dive center this becomes very difficult to do unless you have a store owner or manager who will listen to reason and or has already built-in a reasonable amount of time for learning and instruction. Remember you want to communicate that future profits are at stake! One thing to consider is multi-level training. This is not a new concept but it is one that very few instructors and dive centers take advantage of. Teaching multiple levels at once is a great way to ensure optimum efficiency while providing great word of mouth marketing.
For example, Monday nights might be your orientation night. You and your staff, or if you teach independently and have another instructor(s) and assistants you teach with, meet and greet the students. Right off the bat your students get to know everyone, staff and other students, and they learn about the other programs available, both from you and the students enrolled in them. Tuesday night may be Open Water classroom while your Advanced class is in the pool with another instructor reviewing skills or practicing new skills like reel use, lift bag use, etc. Wednesday through Friday night you continue to rotate between Open Water and Advanced or perhaps Rescue, etc. in the classroom and pool till all work is completed. The weekend is typically when the open water training takes place, so make sure everyone breaks at the same time by choreographing breaks and lunch so your students are all together to share their experiences from the morning dives. This again allows the students from the different classes to promote the various courses you offer to each other. It was not uncommon for my OW students to immediately enroll in Advanced, Advanced students to enroll in Rescue and so on, because they wanted to do what the other students were doing.
Another thing to consider that is very important and is often overlooked is nutrition! Do you provide healthy snacks and drinks for your students? You’d be amazed at how simple this is to do and how inexpensive and beneficial it is. For one thing, you can always add/include the cost into your classes. The cost is low enough that it won’t increase your overall class cost significantly. When your students see that you’ve provided snacks and drinks for them they will not only feel better and do better in your class, they will remember the level of care it communicates to them. It builds trust in them for you as an instructor and increases customer satisfaction significantly and what better way to role model the benefits of good nutrition and staying hydrated than by providing the very things they need to be fit and have fun! The few dollars you spend on snacks and drinks will add up greatly in terms of repeat and referral business for you.
