Our customer service team have been compiling a list of common pain points that crop up as you run your out-of-school club. Do any of these pain points resonate with you?
Do you know who is in your care?
It is vital that registers are accurate and up to date when you are caring for children? Our registers are automatically generated for all activities. You can use the online version, which is updated in real-time and tells you the number of children currently in your care, or you can print a document that can be used as a paper register. The online registers even allow you to record incidents and injuries for children in your care and notify the parents via email. They also highlight any children who have additional needs.
Does it take too long to generate documents such as invoices and statements?
Generating invoices can be an endless task using disconnected financial systems. Magicbooking will automatically generate and send your invoices and credit notes to your parents via email. The system also keeps a running statement to show all credits and debits applied to an account.
Does collecting payments take up too much time?
Managing payments is crucial, but with a manual invoice production process, this can be time-consuming. Magicbooking enforces payment at the time of booking to prevent the need for chasing parents for payments in arrears.
Are calculating discounts a headache?
Most out-of-school clubs assign discounts to various customer groups, such as children that are entitled to pupil premium or additional discounts for siblings or customers who block book. Remembering who is entitled to what and then calculating and administering the discounts can be time-consuming and error-prone. Once you have a system that handles the hard work, you'll never go back!
Is it easy to manage your booking availability?
It can be difficult to keep track of bookings when using paper-based booking forms. Managing the number of spaces is a constant balancing act. A system that manages the booking complexity can take the strain off a club’s administrator, in particular, it makes it much easier for them to manage sessions when they reach full capacity and handle booking cancellations. Clubs that let parents’ self-service their own booking cancellations and book onto sessions, whether that is ad-hoc or set sessions (or a mixture) reduces admin and saves time. The availability of an electronic system that can take bookings night or day also means that potential customers are not constrained to just booking during business hours. Having all your booking information at your finger tips and in one place, means you can easily generate up-to-date daily registers.
Is your sensitive information secure?
Sensitive documents can be left lying around with a manual system. Non-authorised staff can often view them inadvertently. Many clubs say this is one of the reasons why moving to an electronic system is attractive, not only does it ensure all documents are secure, but you can stipulate that access is only made available to certain members of staff as well as information being centralised in one place.
Do communications go missing?
Communication not getting to its recipients is a key reason for investing in a system that can manage all your communications. When printed newsletters and notices are put into bookbags they often get missed or lost. Send your communication with an electronic system and your message is more likely to reach its recipient, you even can choose from message is more likely to reach its recipient, you even can choose from different formats (SMS or email), you can decide who gets the communication by creating groups and it can be marked as urgent.
Do errors creep into your work?
Manual systems rely on human input, but when people are in a rush, under pressure and busy then errors and mistakes creep in. Misplaced information on paper booking forms/emails is common. With an electronic system, customers input their own booking and child registration details, this takes a huge amount of strain off the customer service team and information is accurate and up-to-date.
Are you running out of storage to archive your documents?
Archiving certain documents is a requirement for running some children's clubs, but not having an electronic system means piles of paper in storage and it is difficult to find the information when you need it. Compromised security may be an issue as well as physical space for storage.
If any of these pain points have resonated with you, it may be time for you to look into a system that eradicates some of these common issues.