One of my part-time jobs is teaching Krav Maga at a local martial arts school. I started teaching 7am classes a couple months ago because members said they would come to more classes if ones before work/school were offered. Using what I know abut game design and testing, I put together a survey to supplement this feedback and prove to the school owner that adding this class time would be worth it. It got 13 responses (the way the owner communicates with members efficiently is a separate issue).
So far the data was showing that this would be most beneficial to own members with the unlimited membership or the max-class card. This is what I was hoping for. Naturally, earlier class times also got more votes.
This data was a little more disappointing, but I didn’t ask the question correctly. At the time of this survey, there were morning classes at 11am classes Mon/Wed and 10am classes Tue/Thu. The first question was pertaining to ALL classes within the schedule. The second question was only “morning classes at your preferred class time”. (TBH I don’t know what the “none” guy was doing here, but come on bro, you’re messing with my hopes and dreams!). Still, half the people said they would attend more classes if the morning one was offered.
So, 7am Mon/Wed/Fri it is. The 10am on Tue/Thu still exists, and is actually more popular now that the 11am doesn’t exist. At the same time, we also added an 8:30pm class Mon/Wed/Fri too. The 7am had decent attendance, but now only one woman is attending (she’s improving so much with the one on one training I’m giving her though) consistently. I don’t teach the 8:30pm, but it sounds like attendance is dropping, so I put together an “Early Bird & Night Owl 4-week Challenge” to get attendance back up. People said they wanted these classes, so why are they making excuses to come? (I know why, I just like to ask the question.)
I created this flyer and reward tiers for each level of winner. I understand things do come up in life, but if getting to the gym is a priority for you, that doesn’t mean you have to be perfect in order to win, which is why the Gold Level exists. I created the Silver Level for students who meet 50% of the challenge, which honestly is a little too nice I think, but that’s why that level is only $20 worth of rewards. I stuggled with whether that reward should require 6 classes or 8 classes. Going to the gym twice a week is still a decent commitment to yourself, so while 6 classes is 50% of the original class total overall, it’s 2/3 of the classes per week (on average), and I think that consistency is most important. If a student wants to do 2 classes the first week, then 4 classes the last week, they’re still getting the 6 classes, but are not accomplishing the goals of the challenge, and that’s their choice.
It starts in a couple weeks, so we’ll see how it works out! I hope to make adjustments and create an even better challenge in August!!!
Aviva Schecterson 