When Nicholas McLain became the new director of Young Artists’ Community Ballet Academy of Dance in 2016, he had to find a way to manage the work. The Arizona studio’s original founder had used a paper system that, as McLain puts it, “worked really well for her, but for me, it was time-consuming and tedious.”
He began considering several dance-studio-focused software programs to manage tuition and other aspects of running the business. He knew he wanted an option that was cloud-based, so he could access the information he needed from his home, as well as at work, and he also needed an option that was within his budget. McLain ended up choosing DanceStudio-Pro—and he says he hasn’t looked back since. With easy-to-use options for studio essentials like registration, scheduling and tuition payment, as well as more advanced features, like a Parent Portal, a streamlined system to offer virtual classes, and even a recital planner, it’s no wonder why. Here are four reasons why DanceStudio-Pro might be the right fit for your studio too.
1. The DanceStudio-Pro team is made up of studio owners, dance parents and dance teachers.
No one understands the ins and outs of running a studio like those who are intimately familiar with the process. That’s why DanceStudio-Pro’s team consists of dance industry professionals who, according to its CEO Laura Cole, use the software themselves. “We really use real-world experience to decide how we’re going to manage DanceStudio-Pro and what we’re going to add to it,” Cole says.
2. Pricing is reasonable—and designed to favor studio owners and their needs.
DanceStudio-Pro offers a $39-per-month flat-rate price, regardless of how many students are enrolled at your studio. “It’s the same price no matter if you have 10 students or 1,000 students,” Cole says. That means when your studio grows, your budget for studio software can stay the same. And if you’re not sure you want to commit right away, DanceStudio-Pro offers a 30-day free trial to help you decide if it’s the right fit for your business.
3. DanceStudio-Pro welcomes customer input and often makes improvements based on it.
According to Maggie Walls, a DanceStudio-Pro customer-support representative and studio owner of Momentum Arts in Snellville, Georgia, DanceStudio-Pro is always working to improve its product—and a lot of ideas for changes and innovations come from the customers themselves. “If dance studio owners have an idea, or there’s something they want to do, they can reach out to the support team,” Walls says. If the support team can’t make the changes right away, the requests go to the “Idea Portal.” “The development team actually tracks these ideas, and they prioritize based on how important these are to the general community of dancers. Users can even track whether their ideas are being implemented or not,” Walls adds.
Two of the biggest user ideas DanceStudio-Pro has implemented in the last year are updates to Statements and the addition of Phone Support. For the statements, DanceStudio-Pro now provides more detailed line items so studio owners can have additional transparency with their customers. Phone Support has been valuable for individuals with an important question they need answered right away or for those who prefer to speak to someone on the phone.
4. DanceStudio-Pro just rolled out additional features as part of its brand-new Premier version.
Even though DanceStudio-Pro has been in the game for a decade—the team celebrated its 10-year anniversary this year!—its software is still growing and innovating. An all-new Premier version just launched.
Priced at $69 per month, it includes several premium features, such as Studio Chat, which enables two-way communication between parents and studio staff, in addition to group-chat functionality. Premier also includes individualized user-permissioning for staff, so, as a studio owner, you can manage which information each of your employees has access to.
Additionally, with Zapier integration, you’ll be able to seamlessly integrate other business and project-management tools with the software. That means DanceStudio-Pro can trigger email campaigns in other popular communication tools, like Constant Contact and Keap. Studio owners will also be able to automate custom reports within Excel or Google Sheets, among many other use cases. “In a lot of ways, the products that are being offered in the Premier version are really just an extension or evolution of what already exists in the base product,” Walls says. “The Premier version gives studio owners that added piece of the puzzle.”
If you’re interested in learning more about DanceStudio-Pro and whether it might be right for your business, click here to start your free 30-day trial, which includes access to the all-new Premier features.