In this Issue

	Welcome!
	State of the Nation
	How Are You Promoting Your School this Month?
	Zumu Best Practices: Answering the Phone

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In Other News

If your School competes in tournaments don't miss the 2007 ISKA CCP this Sunday October 21st!  Under Paul Zadro, ISKA run Australia's most professional tournament circuit and boasts the highest standards of competition.  Find out more here.

And congratulations from our team to WA School Owner Eric Jensen, who last week wed his beautiful partner Leah on the island of Mauritius!  We wish them all the very best.

Welcome!

Welcome to the very first issue of "Zumu Nation" - your regular insight into the latest news, events and announcments from the world of Zumu Tuition Management!

October is traditionally a great month with a final Back to School opportunity to grow some really solid collection figures before the Christmas and New Year season sets in.  Below you'll find resources on promotions for October, tips on Info Call best practices and the latest Zumu News.

All the best for a great month!

From the Team at Zumu Nation

State of the Nation

First things first - to the School Owners who have joined Zumu for our first month of operation, thank you for your support.  We trust we have delivered on our promise to seemlessly manage your tuition and from here on our mission is simply to exceed your expectations every month.

We're very excited to be sending this newsletter to you. Since our day one we've been billing daily, and it was great to see the record figures for many clients when their collections were sent on the 25th of the month. We have so far received some great feedback about our reporting style, and we as we move online these reports will get better and better.

'Zumu Nation' is our fun way of recognising we're different from the rest of the pack. We're here to work closely with you, and more than anything else, be a primary source of support when and where you need it.

For us 'support' begins with expertly managing your tuition, but doesn't end there. With the evolution of Zumu, a new generation of systems, technology, resources,  networks, events and ideas are being moved into place to bring a higher level of integrated support than the industry has ever seen before.

Coaching, systems, networking opportunities, seminars & staff workshops, exciting local and international speakers, plus a soon to be announced resource centre that will blow your socks off are all a part of the services we have to offer.

We'll be sending you a lot of information via email, so make sure you let us know if your email address changes.

How Are You Promoting Your School this Month?

On Friday October 26th, Australian Schools will be celebrating World Teachers' Day.  If you have a relationship with any local school teachers this could be a great chance for you to thank them for their support of your programmes.  If you don't know them then this could be your opportunity! 

Creating relationships with your local school teachers can be one of the most powerful activities you can do to attract new students. You might be able to visit the School and present them with a VIP voucher in appreciation of their support of the students, or better yet, have Teacher Appreciation cards made up for your students to write kind messages on and present to their teachers on Teachers' Day.  Be sure a VIP certificate is part of the card!

Another great promo opportunity coming is Halloween.  While it may be a traditional US holiday we've found it's a great excuse to get your kids all dressed up and have an outstanding time.  A Halloween Disco for your kids classes is easy to organise and is an excellent word of mouth referral if you allow your students to invite their friends along as well.  Alternatively, an excellent retention activity is to hold a Halloween Dress Up Day for all kids classes on October 31st.  The kids will have a great time doing their regular classes in scary fancy dress, and you better believe they'll be telling their friends about it all week!

Each of these promotions are sure fire ways to get new students. They have been tried, tested and perfected over and over again.  So if you haven't got anything planned right now for October, get moving on these today!  Call us on 1300 306 856 if you'd like support, we'd love to help.

Zumu Best Practices: Answering the Phone

When it comes to making your living from your School, nothing can be more important than the basic skill of successfully handling phone enquiries.  Some Schools get it right, others struggle, but most make one fatal mistake.

They think having a script is all there is to it.  There is no focus about the purpose of the call or script, or consideration of etiquette. The script must be seen in the context of an info call system, of which it is just one part. Our purpose here isn't here to give you a new phone script it's to provide a framework of best practices for "how" to answer the phone.

As you answer the following questions for your School, start tweaking your existing system you'll find the behind the scenes secrets to bring your script to life!

a] Why do you answer the phone? There can be only one answer here. To make an appointment for a potential student to visit your School. Make sure your script gives people a strong reason to want to come in, if you've handled the call well that reason should be to meet you!  Building rapport with the caller and finding out some basic personal information will help the caller want to visit.

b] How much does each phone call cost you? This is easy to work out.  Add up how much you spent on advertising last month and divide by the number of phone calls you got.  This is important because some month's you'll find you're paying as much as $100 to get a phone call... Isn't it worth having the right person answer the phone? Certainly not a volunteer or young kid who is part of your Assistant Instructor team.

c] How long should your Info Call take?  Ideally the call should leave the person full of enthusiasm to visit your School, to see you in action.  If you give them too much information over the phone there will be no urgency on their part to come in, so an ideal Info Call will last approximately two minutes.

This article will conclude in the next issue of Zumu Nation, and answer questions such as

d] What if I'm pushed for the price over the phone?
e] How can I find out if my info call system is working?
f]  How do I handle 'tricky' callers?
g] What kinds of phone etiquette can get me more appointments?

Coming soon, Zumu Workshops for School Staff - one day intensive workshops and courses designed specifically around the fundamental skills and attitudes required to be a professional Martial Artist.  This is an area many School Owners big and small continue to work hard in, these Workshops should be a great source of assistance and support!