Franchise Partner: Fun Bus® of Martinsville, NJ

funbuses.com

The Fun Bus is an interactive, mobile fitness program that introduces fitness in a fun format for children. Fun Bus, with its franchisor home offices in New Jersey, and numerous franchises throughout the country, travels to schools, day cares, parties, and special events, literally taking the fun of fitness to the customer.

From the beginning of ClassJuggler's engagement with us, I was impressed by the feedback and responsiveness that's we experienced.

The Need:

Fun Bus has a growing number of franchise operations throughout the United States. As with any franchise of this nature, the franchisee not only serves the customers in the community but also needs to track its business efforts and report back to the franchise home office. As well, each Fun Bus franchise must keep track of engagements, client information, and much more of the standard "administrivia" that is part of any business.

Clearly ClassJuggler viewed working with us more like building a partnership than just landing a customer.

For Fun Bus, “The franchisees were spending far too much time on registration procedures and documentation, whether for one-time events or ongoing sessions and re-enrollments,” explained Fun Bus president Stacey Kimmins.

“It became increasingly important to free up time for the individual franchise owners so that more of their time would be focused on the quality and growth of their Fun Bus business, not with the administration of the paperwork. That need is primarily what prompted our search for some kind of online business management system that would simplify the business of running the business,” said Kimmins, who has been president for Fun Bus since early 2014.

The Solution: ClassJuggler

“From the beginning of ClassJuggler’s engagement with us, I was impressed by the feedback and responsiveness that’s we experienced, which continued throughout the follow-up and launch phase,” Kimmins said. “ClassJuggler president Jon Koerber has always been responsive and even proactive, communicating follow-up steps or needs to us faster than we could provide it to him! We saw that as a good sign of what doing business with ClassJuggler would be like.”

Responsiveness was an important customer service aspect that FUN BUS sought from a potential vendor, and no wonder: “We had already tried using other business software solutions or providers in the past, but we found the products cumbersome and the provider to be lacking in support when it was needed,” Kimmins said.

With previous solutions we'd tried, lack of support and insufficient training was a complaint we heard from our franchisees. But we experienced an immediate synergy with ClassJuggler that singled them out as the right solution.

“By comparison, ClassJuggler’s president Jon Koerber flew out from the West Coast to meet us in New Jersey for our Annual Franchisee Convention, and he has continued to keep us in the loop with good communications as we worked with him on building our partner portal and configuring it. The willingness of ClassJuggler to do this was a big factor in our decision. This level of commitment to serve really personalized the process and laid a solid foundation for long-term success.”

She added, “That level of commitment was unparalleled among the service providers we investigated. And Jon’s level of involvement was remarkable. It was as though, through Jon, ClassJuggler had become a support team member. Clearly ClassJuggler viewed working with us more like building a partnership than just landing a customer.”

While ClassJuggler’s design meets the needs of individual class-based businesses “as is,” any franchisor will have unique structures or reporting requirements that will require a unique solution. Fortunately, ClassJuggler was ready to do this for FUN BUS, as it has for other franchisors.  As Kimmins explained, “While we found other providers to have solutions that could satisfy our needs on a big scale, the ability to customize for us – to be able to meet our unique business needs –  was a key business requirement for us.”

The business relationship we have with ClassJuggler has evolved into what I would call a partnership – a very different experience from simply securing a product.

Strong customer service, not only through responsiveness to our clients’ requests for support but through training, makes ClassJuggler a favorite of schools. Kimmins’ provider search for a new software product confirmed that for FUN BUS: “Beyond customization, we knew that support and training would be big for us, initially and continually. With previous solutions we’d tried, lack of support and insufficient training was a complaint we heard from our franchisees,” she said. "But we experienced an immediate synergy with ClassJuggler owner Jon Koerber – a synergy that singled them out as the right solution. Through Jon, ClassJuggler demonstrated a willingness and ability to adapt with us. While ClassJuggler was already great, Jon understood where we were as a franchise operation: that we are not just another client for the database. Over time, the business relationship we have with ClassJuggler has evolved into what I would call a partnership – a very different experience from simply securing a product."

If you are a class-based business owner not yet certain which business management software is best for you, here is what, Stacey Kimmins would tell you: “I think you’ll find that ClassJuggler is a large enough business software provider to fill the needs of any class-based business, but you’ll also find them to be responsive and agile,” she said.

“And their ability to customize the product as needed and to support and understand the unique needs of a franchisor made them particularly valuable to FUN BUS.”

I think you’ll find that ClassJuggler is a large enough business software provider to fill the needs of any class-based business, but you’ll also find them to be responsive and agile.

Learn more about Fun Bus at funbuses.com. To find a FUN BUS in your area, check out the FUN BUS Locations page on their site. Or to learn about FUN BUS’ affordable franchise operations for individuals interested in operating a FUN BUS in their own neighborhood, click on the Franchise Opportunities tab at www.funbuses.com.

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