,

Should Your Martial Arts School Post Its Class Schedule Online?

Updated

Almost every martial arts school website has a class schedule page. It feels like good customer service. Parents want to know when classes are, so you tell them.

On this week’s coaching call, Greg Moody explained why we recommend you take it down.

The Schedule Is a Disqualifier

Here is what happens when a parent reads your schedule before she has ever visited. She finds the class for her six-year-old. It’s Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30. Tuesday is piano. She closes the tab.

She never calls. She never sees your school, never meets your instructors, never watches her child on the mat. You never find out she existed. A single inconvenient time slot disqualified a family that might have enrolled happily at a different time — or rearranged piano — once she’d seen the program.

Greg’s point is simple: if you put the schedule on your website, it’s always a disqualifier. In his experience it’s the most-abandoned page on a school’s site. Parents land on it, don’t find the perfect time, and leave.

The Same Rule Applies on the Phone

This isn’t only a website issue. One of the most common questions on the phone is, “What time are your classes for five- and six-year-olds?” We never answer it with the schedule.

Instead, give a range: “We have classes as early as eight on Saturday mornings and as late as nine at night.” Then go straight back to your phone script and book the visit.

The reason is the same. Once a family comes in and meets you, their schedule tends to adjust to fit whatever works. Before they’ve come in, any specific time is just another reason to say no.

What to Put There Instead

You still want parents to know you have plenty of options. You just don’t want them to decide on a time slot before they’ve decided on your school.

  • Show the range, not the grid. “Classes six days a week, from Saturday mornings to weekday evenings.”
  • Organize by program and age, not by time. A page for little kids, a page for children, one for teens, one for adults — each describing what the child gets, not when.
  • Make the next step booking a visit. “Tell us your child’s age and we’ll find a time that fits” does more than any timetable.
  • Give the full schedule after enrollment. Your members need it. Put it in your member app or portal, send it in the welcome email and hand it over at the enrollment conference, when you set their standing appointment.

“But Parents Expect It”

Some do. Adults looking at a jiu-jitsu or MMA gym, especially, may go looking for a timetable. That’s a fair trade-off to think about for your market. But the goal of your website is to get a family to take the first step, and a schedule page gives them a reason not to. A range of times answers the real question — do you have something that could work for us? — without handing over a list of reasons to leave.

If you’re rethinking the rest of the phone call, read my PREPARE framework for turning a phone call into an enrolled student.

Quick Answers

Should a martial arts school post its class schedule online?

We recommend against it. A posted schedule lets parents rule out your school over a single time conflict before they’ve seen the program. Show a range of class times and ask them to book a visit instead, then give the full schedule after they enroll.

What should a martial arts school say when a caller asks for class times?

Give a range — for example, from Saturday mornings to weekday evenings — and move on to booking the intro visit. The exact time is easier to agree on once the family has seen the school.

Where should current students find the class schedule?

In a member app or portal, in the welcome email, and at the enrollment conference, when their standing class times are set.

If you want the whole system rather than one fix at a time, grab the free book at FillYourSchool.com, or call or text 1-720-256-0208 and ask Bob Dunne about a free evaluation of your school.

by