How to stop students from leaving the Dojo!

How to stop students from leaving the Dojo!

 

We have all been there as instructors, you see a kid come in and you pour your time into making them much better at Karate than they were the first day they came in. You spend hours correcting them, fixing up form, talking to them and working with them to make them the best they can be…then they play Ninja and they are gone…what did you do wrong. Well sometimes you did a lot, others a little, and most often…nothing at all!

 

If you own a martial arts club, in a gym, standalone business or a functioning program in a community center you will notice that it takes a lot of effort to get people in the door. There is actually a mathematical equation that business people use to describe the effort and finances used to bring in new students, it’s basically that 25-40% of your income will/should go back into brining in new members or contracts. So if you bring in $10,000  a year that’s $2,500 -$4,000 should be spent on marketing, getting your name in the local paper ext…..that’s a lot of money for a recreational program! How does that apply to an instructor and why should we care…well it shows how much money and effort goes into developing a student base and why throw that away by not paying attention to students who are leaving your club…they are a visual reminder of the money and effort you are dropping to stay viable.

 

Let’s look at the things you are “Selling” to the students then.  Well, we are selling the art, the curriculum, the teaching ability, character of the instructor, the “Fun factor” (which will be different for each student) the clubs environment, the elements of personality and interaction with other students (so their character as well), and many other little factors that can make or break a student’s experience in the club. Let’s face it most students are there to have fun and enjoy Karate or whatever you are teaching,  Some dream of having a black belt and others dream of just being part of a group. There are as many reasons that students join Karate as you have students!  So, how do you make them all happy?  First thing is to get to know the students and to tailor their experience in the club.

 

Let me get one thing straight however, there are many reasons that students join…and then there are many reasons that students leave Karate. Even if you are selling a high quality art like Shotokan, the instructor can teach like a mad man and the Dojo is so new it still has that “New Dojo smell” (which means no sweet filled classes yet) you may still lose students…..and probably will lose students for a variety of reasons…all of which can be countered to some degree.

 

First before we dig into the reasons why students join and leave let me outfit you with some of my ideas on how to initially counter the whole issue. The first thing you need is a solid administration policy to contact AWOL students. You MUST call them within 2 weeks of not being at a class.  This is the short time bandage. Most students who leave for short periods have valid reasons for not attending classes, but if you did not know that Uncle Ted died or that they are financially getting hit hard you cannot help them or show you care. Sometimes it is the start of a student moving away from a club because they feel unwelcome or like they don’t belong; your phone call can counter that. If they don’t respond send an Email or even write out a letter and drop it at their home. You MUST prove to them that you miss them. Students are not just like clients or customers, I like to think of them as extended family, their dues help keep the doors open, but lets face it I would teach for free in my basement if I had to, they just help keep the lights on…..CALL THEM!

 

The second tool I like to use is the “Note on the file” the note on the file should be “why they joined” or “how they heard of us”. This is a great tool for working out marketing ideas and seeing what really worked to get them in the door. Equally important the “Why they left” note.  This can be very VERY important when you are looking at writing a letter to invite back old members. If it was “Student did not have the funds to continue and would not work with us on funding” well you probably can get them back after they get the financial stability they needed…or might be able to. However if its “student had bad attitude and left after a fight with junior instructor”…well skip the letter of invite and hope they have a better time at someone else’s Dojo. This “Exit note” can also help you fix issues in the club that you were not sure of previously. If the student felt uncomfortable as an instructor under your program makes them feel uncomfortable due to sexual advances or over aggressive behavior you know you have an issue that needs fixing NOW and you can probably fix it and get a few students back…and avoid issues with a poor instructor down the road.

 

Now lots of money has gone into researching why people leave the martial arts and how many have trained in it. It’s a staggering number to be frank. In Canada nearly 35% of adults and children have trained in a Martial art (this includes Karate, Kung Fu, Judo, Tae Kwon Do and others) and only 1.8% of the people are currently training in the Martial arts…so what does this mean numbers wise. Well we have 35.16 Million people in Canada ( as of 2013), that means nearly 12.26 Million people have taken martial arts (give or take a few) and only 630,288 still participate across Canada in ALL martial arts. WOW that’s a HUGE drop in participants. But it is important to point out that the biggest number of drop outs is at white belt! So they dip their toes in and for one reason or another…they leave.

 

Roughly 86% of students who attend your classes will drop out! That’s a CRAZY turnover rate. However it’s also very important to note most will drop out as a white belt and NEVER be contacted by an instructor or admin….so the reason they leave is often they feel like they don’t exist in a club. Most admins and instructor I talk to say that they felt that the financials of training or the time needed to train was just to much were they the people left. Unfortunately this is NOT TRUE at all. Research shows that the top reason a student leaves the club is not finances really, its that they had more personal or job commitments that came up and they had to leave training for work or for family.

 

This is no surprise as we see it in the instructors who have sudden bumps in their work schedule. The easy fix to this has always been to be flexible…have enough classes that they can attend once a week for a few months till things quiet down…or make things easy for them by having different programs all around the city so they can go and train for an hour and de-stress…oh, and it’s so important to point this aspect out to the students to. The major killer of men and women in their 40s and 50s today is STRESS!

 

The next reason that students leave is moving away from the Dojo. So they used to live 5 minutes from the club, now its more like an hour. Well if you have a working relationship with other clubs around the province then you can always direct the student to a new instructor….why don’t instructors do that….well its pride and ego mostly. I have no issue with sending students to other instructors if they can’t train at one of our clubs. I have referred students to great instructors I know if they are moving out of town…why not. I’m not able to keep them and if I ever cared about them I would prove it by setting them up to continue training, hell they may come back to your town at some point and instead of that long layoff they are that much farther ahead…its really a win win for you.

 

The next reason they leave…they lost interest. To counter this, which is only 18% of the people who leave by the way, is to find out why they signed up in the first place!  In general the majority of the time (54-60%) of the time people leave for things that are beyond our control, but we can still help them and possibly get them back in the end if we are smart instructors. However that leaves about 35-40% of the time that an instructor can adjust and help the students out.

 

Roughly 18-20% of the time students just lose interest. They stop wanting to train because classes are to hard, or not hard enough…far too serious or not serious enough. The instructor should have a variety of programs set up to help those that want different things. In the old days we had “all levels and seniors” and that was it. Now clubs have “sport track, All levels basics, seniors training, Tiny Tigers, kick fit…” and a tone of other programs. In my mind that’s to much. However the instructor should be open to suggestion and watch the students, they need to pay more attention to the students and try to work to make them happier.

 

One encouraging aspect of learning why students quit training is that most of them stop when the “Program ends”.  Basically this means they sign up for a 10 week class and when it is done they are as well. They don’t have options to move to a real club and continue training. They wanted to dip their toes into the Martial arts pool and that was enough for them. We can’t do much about this and statistically it’s a blip, nothing we should worry about, but it does drive the numbers up. Keep in mind that if you DO have a 10 week program it should be used to promote the regular program and you need to be aggressive about this from the get go or you will find that your 10 week program is just a money grab, not something you should strive for if you need long term gain and really care about the students.

 

One other encouraging thing is that only 5-7% of students drop out because of financial reasons. This means that A) your classes show they have value and B) the thought that you are charging to much is unfounded. I have had conversations with students about the cost of classes and our Dojo, after a bit of research…is drastically under charging for classes, and we don’t mind this. Other clubs charge kids $109 a month to train three to four times a week, we charge about $40 on average and they can train often 5-6 times a week. Now this has no effect on our classes to be frank. I don’t know if we raised the prices if we would get more or less students…but it’s a great counter to the Admin that says “Oh, they won’t buy that or come because it’s too expensive”.

 

That mentality has been proven wrong again and again. The one thing however is that statistically it’s not true, but some students will fall back on it as an excuse…when you dig a bit more you see other things are the real reasons. One time we were having a hard time selling Dojo bags and I asked around to students as to why we are not selling them well. Of the 10 I asked five initially said “to expensive” the others said they did not need one. I went back and re-asked and probed and to the person they said that it was not really the expense but that we sold similar product year round and the design was not exciting to them. A different approach was then taken and we sold different articles and tried to change up Tee shirts…they sold like hot cakes when presented properly.

 

So now for a bit of math…or an algorithm for success….a successful school will attract a positive number of new students each quarter, they will lose a minimum of students each quarter and they will gain back old students each year. Lots and lots of money goes into drawing in new students. Your very life as an instructor depends on this. Next, you have to keep your students happy and training and of course if they leave…you need to get them back! That’s basic Dojo 101 recruitment and retention!

 

Here is another equation you can do to see if you are working in the positive or need to do more work…..Take all the students that you had at this time last year, add all the new students who enrolled in the 12 months. Compare that sum to what you currently have for students. You are doing very well if you see a less than 35-40% difference in the numbers.

 

The retention program will serve as your success factor in your Dojo. A good retention program starts off the minute that your student signs up by asking them specific questions on the form and ensuring it is filled out…even if its after by you. Find out why they started. IF they say they want to be an MMA star…well don’t expect them to stick around. If they say they wanted to get in shape and learn some self-defense…well they will probably stick around for a while. Now, once they leave…find out why and mark it down. The most common reasons for leaving are that they lose interest, but keep in mind that most students don’t want to hurt your feelings, so dig a bit deeper and let them know you are trying to be better yourself, you can only do this with their help.

 

Some other factors you can work on without the input of students right off is to add extra training days or to put in extra classes on the days you are teaching, if you have a standalone Dojo. This allows for at least one argument to be squashed. By adding the extra classes and possibly a variety of different classes you will increase the available time to train. This is the principle of 24 hour gyms as well. To increase membership and counter arguments that there is not enough training flexibility you simply add classes and to do so you may have to bring in or up instructors to do so, but it will pay off in the end.

               

Variety in teaching is another way to help build class retention. I learned a long time ago from Dingman Sensei that you need to attack the same subject over and over again…but from different angles. If you are working a lot on Hip rotation you can do it with drills, reps, point it out in Kata and Kumite or you can just go at it from use in self-defense situations. Our style is big on practice of Kihon, but that does not mean that we ONLY do Kihon. Make the classes different and exciting and you will develop a following. Also, remember not to become a university professor and lecture the whole time. Yes, tell stories but NO Don’t go on and on and on….I hate those classes myself!

 

Another aspect that most instructors seem to forget is to build a positive relationship with EACH student. This means talking to them and getting to know them a little. Take the time to get to know something about each student in your class and be supportive, encourage them and talk to them as humans. Far to often I see instructors blow into a club, hide in the corner or office, come out and dictate a class then disappear again…and Yes, I am an introvert so this has been an issue with me as well. I make the effort to talk to students and get to know them and even socialize when I can with them…which is not often enough.

 

Also, try and have a POSSITIVE relationship means complimenting them, giving them positive feedback along with constructive critiques. Instructors are often feared because we are the “Bad guy” in the club. This should not be the case, we should be the inspiration and positive role model, not the guy that yells a lot and puts them down. Also, you need to let them know you are invested in their success. Its what makes you different from the other sport activities. Lets face it if a Little League coach did not see the same kid next year…probably not going to break his heart. But for you it should! And you should let the student know this. Heck…Gym management 101 is to push memberships once a year then pray that you don’t see them again till you send out the year end reminder to them…in a Dojo it does not work this way at all.

 

Some last things to look at would be to really build special events into your yearly curriculum. Hold annual events like special training, seminars, a year end wind up and other events. This build comradery and allows you to show your appreciation of the students and volunteers in your program at least once a year. Seminars and special training events are great ways to focus on progress in students. This is a great way to push a goal oriented process and not seem like you are just taking money for a work out class. Also, monitor students and be careful when approaching problems in your club. Talk to them and find out what is going on.

 

The last thing you need to focus on to have a good program and retain students is Ranking or Promotion. Too often clubs become belt factories and you see students race up to black belt and then disappear. Also, I have seen were ranks are given out to only males or grading is so strict and ridiculous that you lose members simply because you are pushing far too hard. You need that balance; strict standards and strict time limits, but not so strict. One idea is also to make upper level ranking probationary. Not my favorite but some clubs will give brown belts a probation period or Dan ranks a probation period so they don’t get a rank then jump ship. Again… not my favorite.

 

So, as you can see, Retention and Recruitment work hand and hand and the only way to be successful is to be open minded, talk to students and most importantly listen and take notes. Your Dojo depends on you being proactive and not reactive to membership numbers. Set up a solid marketing program and a solid retention policy with your admin and yourself and push to gain more than you lose! That’s the true focus of a successful Maratial arts program.