In a highly competitive youth soccer market, Triangle United and its partner recreation club, Rainbow Soccer, needed to transform business operations to deliver the highest quality programs and customer service for their members. But disconnected systems and “archaic” processes kept getting in the way. Watch the video and read on to learn how PlayMetrics streamlined operations and empowered a very dedicated staff to deliver on the mission.
Where did PlayMetrics make the biggest impact?
Here are some highlights:
Stress-Less Registration and Payment Processes
Then:
Disconnected and hands-on registration and payment processes took a considerable amount of time and paperwork with form after form, and people coming into the office to pay by cash or check. “We had to take a check and fill out a deposit slip and take it to the bank, and if there was an issue, get back in touch with the parent, and that happened multiple times through the season,” said Dina Urquhart, Administrator.
Now:
With automated alerts for parents when an account is overdue, and the ability for club staff to quickly audit programs to see what’s outstanding, it’s easier than ever to manage and make payments - all in
one
place.
“PlayMetrics has made it easier for us to audit, communicate and find out why a fee wasn't paid and do what we can do to either help the customer out or correct a banking error and get the fees paid,” said Mike Strand, Executive Director.
Communication Made Modern
Then: The most immediate impact where PlayMetrics was felt was in communication with club families. Prior to PlayMetrics, the clubs would have to first get the information to a coach who would then have to share it with families. “We would get calls in the office asking the question that we sent to the coach,” said Drew Kepley, Youth Development Academy Director. "So, it was just a lot of repeating information, not being able to get that information instantaneously to the players and the families that took a lot of the time away from doing other things that we needed to do.”
Dina adds, “It just was archaic, and very time-consuming and frustrating from our perspective, as well as the parent's perspective.”
Now: Club directors and administrators have the ability to message an individual family, the entire club, a specific team, or a whole program at one time in one place with just the push of a button. “It's definitely made it much easier for us to just send one message to the entire club from the club, instead of having to go through 50 or 60 managers or coaches,” said John Cirillo, Director of Soccer.
Practice Schedules & Field Planning Made Simple. (Yes, simple.)
Then: Multiple steps and methods for organizing the where, when and who of practices and fields was a cumbersome endeavor to say the least. “We have more than three or four locations that we use, and we have them at different times on different days,” said Drew. “I would sit there with pencil and paper and round robin out a schedule, go back and assign team names for each one, put it all in an Excel sheet, and then upload to the website.” Parents would then have to go to the site, click the PDF, and find their child’s team to know where to be and when.
Now: “Everything is in the club member’s account for quick reference. Just being able to manage all that and see it all visually in one place was a huge game changer for me,” said Drew.
Notifications that are "Boom. Done."
Then: Changes—especially last-minute ones—are inevitable, but they shouldn’t have to be painful. “If there was a change to the schedule or a field location, I would have to change it on the original file, save as a new PDF, and upload again,” said Drew. “And then I would send an email to the coach and then hope it went to the parents.”
Now: “If I need to make a change to a game, I go into PlayMetrics, make the change, and hit Notify Team,” said Drew. “Everybody on the team gets an alert to their phone or email, whatever they set as their preference. I can even do it on the way to a game. ‘We're scheduled for field one. Now we're on field two.’ Boom, done.”
Mobile (Really) Matters
It’s easy to forget just how much we do the business of life on our mobile devices. It’s no different for those doing the business of youth soccer. PlayMetrics provides clubs with all the power of the full platform in a mobile app. “The mobile experience has been great, especially working with the younger kids,” said Drew. “A lot of kids will come up to a field, and have no idea what team they're on or even what their coach's name is. Being able to just open PlayMetrics on my phone and be able to get them all the information has really helped, especially the first week of training.”
The ability to update parents immediately through the app has also been critical to an excellent club experience. “Lightning comes in, lights don’t come on, or a field might be closed. Being able to just keep everybody in the loop has been great.”
Want a behind-the-scenes look at how the PlayMetrics Club Operating System can transform your club's operations? Click here.
Also, check out our other case studies with HTX Soccer and Sporting Nebraska FC.
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