Client: Philadelphia Dance Theatre

www.philadancetheatre.org

Philadelphia Dance Theatre of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is both a school for dance and a theatre dance company. Director Dominic Capponi describes the training program as being designed to help students treasure the process of learning. "The school's philosophy is that learning is pleasurable, whether there is a desire to dance professionally or for recreation—that through a consistent approach to mastering technique the young dancer will obtain the tools necessary to reveal their individual artistry."

The Need:

As the business grew, Philadelphia Dance Theatre faced ever-growing needs to streamline administrative processes and to offer students and parents a competitive and truly functional website. "We needed a business solution that catered to our clientele—one of busy families, of working parents, who were used to transacting online and outside of standard business hours," Capponi explained. "We needed a way to reduce our administrative burden and also to give our customers the ability to sign up, to manage their own account and accounting at their convenience, whether or not our office was open."

It's not just about which features a company offers. It's also about ease of use and the quality of the customer service. ClassJuggler excels at both.

The Solution: ClassJuggler

Dominic Capponi looked at several other online solutions before determining that ClassJuggler was the best fit for the school. "The solution had to be online, since offering an online registration process for our customers was a key consideration. We needed a respectable, functional web presence, so that our customers could see the site, go through our class selections, and then sign up right now, no matter the time of day or night. ClassJuggler made this easy, for them and us," he says.

"We discovered that there are many businesses offering online services for business for program registration, customer management, and such. But we quickly realized that ClassJuggler offered a much better value for us than the competition. Some competing companies position themselves as the 'Rolls Royce' solution, with endless bells and whistles. But it was overwhelming: far too much for what we, a local dance school, ever needed. As a result, we felt that ClassJuggler's competitors were charging more to deliver features our business did not need."

We have found the ClassJuggler system to be very easy to use, for us as administrators and for our clients.

What also persuaded Capponi was the usability of the ClassJuggler system, both for the staff as administrators and for their customers who use such ClassJuggler features as class registration, account management, and making payments. "When you're comparing business and class management products, it's not just about which features a company offers. It's also about ease of use and the quality of the customer service. ClassJuggler excels at both," Capponi says. "The ClassJuggler system is very easy to use, for us as administrators and for our clients. Self-help is easy, thanks to the site's useful help modules. And when you need live help, you get it; ClassJuggler's customer service response time and quality is the best that we've experienced. Whether I end up talking with the owner or one of his support staff, the quality and product knowledge is the same. I also like the frequency of site updates – the product is always improving."

For the school, "The quality of ClassJuggler's customer service was a deciding factor for us," says Capponi. "This was most significant to us because our customers use the system too for class registration and managing the accounts."

While the school hoped to experience efficiencies from using ClassJuggler, Capponi was truly surprised—and pleased—by the sizable amount of time ClassJuggler has saved them. "We previously spent a good 40 hours every month handling administrative tasks, such as class registration, class fee collection, and customer account management. Now, thanks to ClassJuggler, we spend less than 10 hours a month on these tasks!"

When you need live help, you get it; ClassJuggler's customer service response time and quality is the best that we've experienced.

Some of the efficiencies come from the automation of formerly manual processes. "An essential time-saver for us," Capponi says, "has been the ability ClassJuggler gives us to bill all our customers at one time and to collect customer payments in minutes using a simple credit card process. ClassJuggler has been a great time saver for us; we simply could not run the school the way we do today without it."

To sum up what Capponi likes about ClassJuggler, he says, "ClassJuggler has done all that I hoped it would do. Any arts school not yet convinced to begin using ClassJuggler should consider how important it is to be competitive, for themselves administration-wise, and for their customers who expect these days to sign up or pay for classes easily and at any time."

If you need dance training and live in the Philadelphia area, contact Philadelphia Dance Theatre at (215) 247-4272, or on the Web at http://www.philadancetheatre.org.

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