Martial Arts Professional Magazine

As a quick re-cap:

The essential keys to “lock the back door” for long-term student retention are:

1. Over-delivering on customers’ expectations of customer.
2. Clearly communicating the benefits of ongoing training at your school, to students and their families.
3. Creating a positive community in your school.
4. Exciting and productive classes that clients perceive to be valuable.

#3 – Creating a Positive Community in Your School, Part 2, (Social Engineering to Reinforce Student Longevity)

What do you remember about your martial arts training: the 75th repetition of your Green Belt form, the 396th front kick, or when you went to the movies with your Brown Belt classmates?

Most of us tend to remember the atypical events that made us feel like we were part of something great.

As professional martial arts school owners, we must understand what motivates our students, and what anchors them into the “culture” of our schools. The day-to-day training of our students is only one of the essential components to accomplish this goal.

Students must utilize repetition to perfect technical skills, but it’s just as important that they have an “experience” in your school that inspires them to come back the next day, week, month, year and beyond.

As school owners, we must create this culture, intentionally. We must think about what our students will remember from their training, just as you remember your training.

I remember several events in my early martial arts training that had profound impacts.

• My first tournament as a competitor.
• The time I snapped my hamstring during a belt exam.
• When the master instructor told me that my spinning hook kick looked “amazing.”
• The first time I was asked to help teach another student.
• Celebrating the 15th anniversary of the school.
• Celebrating the instructors’ 6th-Degree promotion.

One of the rules at Mile High Karate is that EVERY month we schedule one Karate-related and one non-Karate-related event. These are expanded opportunities for students to participate in a technical experience: a special weapons class, an advanced kicking class, a board-breaking clinic, etc.

It’s also important that students have a social experience at your school, such as pizza parties, graduation celebrations, anti-abduction classes and “mom and me” class.

If your school focuses on the adult market, then it’s just as easy to create activities that they find engaging. I once took a bunch of my adult students to a Zig Ziglar, Colin Powell and Suze Ormond event; and my students still talk about it. Other examples for adult students might be renting a big-screen TV and watching the latest UFC event or promoting a women’s self defense class at the local hospital or bank, and have your high-ranking adult student assist. Some of the most powerful opportunities are NOT every-day training at your school.

Some of the real magic in these types of social experiences is that you include families. They come to your event and support each other through the training process and the challenges that come with it. Obviously, that is a tremendous anchor for long-term student commitment.

I think it’s also important that these special events are free to students, although some schools like to use them as revenue generators. It’s better to over-deliver your services than risk being perceived as a school that “nickels and dimes” students. You should always be looking for opportunities to provide un-promised extras and bonuses to students.

What we did 5 or 10 years ago to be super successful in today’s market isn’t good enough anymore. Just being a great teacher or a good guy isn’t good enough. You MUST learn why students stay or quit, and then create systems to encourage the former, and reduce the latter!