How to Deliver 5-Star Customer Service In Your Dance Studio

Hello, friends. I'm Amanda Barr. And I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan. And welcome to Dance Principles United, the podcast. Together, we are passionate about helping studio owners with the business of running their studio. Join us as we talk everything from marketing systems, studio culture, motherhood, life, and everything in between. This is the Dance Principles United podcast.

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Dance Principles podcast. We are. Well, not we. I'm here with Bec. And we are here. How are you doing today, Bec?

I am super duper awesome excited for this podcast. I think it's going to be really good.

I know. Well, because they're talking about one of your favorite things, Beck. And I was saying to Amanda the other day, I was like one of the podcasts, I listened to a guy called Scott Galloway. He's on lots of podcasts and I listened to quite a few of them. But he was talking about one of his hobbies. Right. And it's probably a hobby that you could really get into. Like some people take up golf, some people, you know, take take up walking or the gym. But his hobby is testing five and six star hotels.

I think I could do that.

Yeah. I feel like it's something you could really get behind. So I'm not sure if there's a group you can join or something like that, but maybe it's something you should look into a little bit.

Imagine that would be my dream job ever doing that. As long as I can be really harsh with the critiques.

Honest, I think is the word you're looking for. But this is what we're talking about today in like, how do we get our staff to go above and beyond and bring that, I guess, five star experience into our dance studios. And obviously, you know, we don't have the budgets of these high end luxury hotels and things like that, but it's something that we are passionate and something that we're always sitting at, like, especially when the three of us together, cause we're massive nerds about these sorts of things. Is that I think all customers these days have a certain level expectations around, around service. And I think it's something that's super important in our businesses. Right?

So important. And your staff are everything. And your staff should be a team with each other. And just jumping off the back of that, I have to tell you a funny story. Okay, so a non, very non five star hotel that I stayed in in Europe, it's actually meant to be a four star. You can judge with your own self whether you think it was a four star. So we get, obviously the key wasn't ready for us, you know, all the things. So we ended up going for a day trip somewhere. Got there about eight, maybe nine o' clock at night, I think it was quite late. Got our key, go up to our room, unlock the door, hear a scream, the room's pitch black. This woman runs out. This isn't your room, this is our room. Oh my gosh. So that's the first thing, right? Then go back down. And I said to the woman at the front desk, this key goes to a different room. And then she said, oh, sorry, we don't have any other rooms left. So you don't get a room. We are not close to any other hotels, let me tell you. This is in the middle of nowhere, right? And I said, look, I think that we probably already have been checked in, but our room just wasn't ready. And then she was like, oh, my team member forgot to tell me that they didn't leave me a note on that. Now that is a royal fuck up. Right? Like that is so bad. So if they had been a team in that sense, that wouldn't have happened then. This is a side note, we did go up to our room, open the door and the entire door frame fell down. Also, our shower head fell on your head as you were having the shower. Like you had to hold it up above your head. If you're watching YouTube, you can see me demonstrating this as you're trying to shower. Was not a vibe.

And so look, my first question is, does that mean did you just have to sort of pick the door fr and do we have to like push a bag against it or.

I haven't. I have an actual video of this, of video footage of my mum with a wooden frame, like holding it. Try to put, put it back. Yes, that is what happened. Look, they were very good about fixing it the next day, but.

Well, yeah, look, one would hope so. And I can only imagine you when you said that you turned up and they told you that there was no rooms for you. I can just imagine you, you calmly sort of told us what you said to them. I, I can picture though, Beck knowing and being at hotels with you in the past that maybe, maybe the tone of your voice might have been a.

Little different in potentially.

Okay, potentially, yeah.

Potentially, yeah. I think, like, yes. Now having said that, I don't mind a four star hotel and I'm sounding like such a princess now.

No, never.

If it has good service.

Exactly. Like you can make up for so much with good service. Literally, like you can like, I don't want to say cover up because that's not the right word, but it's making people feel like they matter. Making people feel special is something that costs nothing.

Yep.

And can go such a long way to making people. Especially like in the service industry, we offer a service as dance studios. We need them to be repeat customers.

Yep.

And it's the most important thing we can do.

Yes. And I think, like, we don't think enough about that in our studio and enough about making sure that people do want to come back because they have that five star service.

Well, that's what like talking about, like everyone else's Euro trips. Amanda's parents just got back from their Euro trip and they splurged and went to one of the, like Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Bordeaux and they were showing us the videos of. And look, they didn't quite share how much their, their entire experience was at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. But it, it would have been a lot, but they would like, they took videos of like, you know, getting, they got upsold on the, the lobster course and the video of like the, it came out and they had one of only four lobster presses in the world or something like the big long video. And it was, it wasn't just a here's your meal. It was a highly choreographed experience of using this lobster press and this and the story behind it. And the waiter was telling. Like we watched, we, we sat there like as a family watching like a six minute video of this guy presenting it. But it was engaging to us. Even watching the video of it weeks later. It's just like people are willing to, like we said, not only can it cover something, but people are willing to pay a premium just for service.

Oh, absolutely. And we went to, I remember this restaurant we went to in Sorrento and it wasn't by any means a five star restaurant. Okay. It wasn't one of the bougie ones, but on TripAdvisor, it was at the top.

Yep.

So I was like, right, I want to go to this restaurant. And the reason it was at the top 100% is the service. The guy was incredible. He and mum ended up hugging at the end of the meal.

But your mom, your mum's a bit of a hugger too.

She is. But he just was so beautiful to us. I gave him a huge tip. And also, also recommended to three people who were looking for a restaurant. As they were looking at the thing, I was like, you should come in here. It's incredible. The food was amazing, but it wasn't bougie and fancy. And it wasn't five star, but that service was everything. So I guess we've got to relate it. We're talking a lot about restaurants, but how can you relate it to your staff?

Yes. Because it's something that you're super passionate about and that I know you guys do really well at pause. So what are sort of the. The key things and I think you alluded to it earlier. Would you say one of the key things to making sure that we get that five star experience is making sure that we're all on the same page with it?

Oh, absolutely. And that we're a team. And I talk about this in staff training. Just gone. But the things that I think like with the SGC people, but even things like. And it sounds so simple but putting your props away so the studio is immaculate for the next class to come in. That's such a small thing but such a big thing. Making sure that every teacher is teaching positively. And I actually wanna do a whole podcast on this positive teaching thing. I'm very passionate about it at the moment. Cause we're really working hard on it at Pause. And it's a game changer but really trying to get everybody to teach in a positive way and to make the kids feel positive. Having a positive feel when someone first walks in. Like what is that? First experience?

Yes.

You know, nothing worse than a cranky person at the desk who's too busy to even look up to be able to talk to you. You know, you walk in and everyone just ignores you because they're too busy doing their own things and you're awkwardly just standing there. I can't imagine going into a new business like a swim school or anything like that. And that's the feel. Like I would just walk out. I'm such a scaredy cat going into new situations anyway. You know, I would freak out or imagine going into a gym for the first time and no one greets you because that's what a lot of us do to our clients.

Absolutely. And I think thinking about the whole entryway so like the whole journey. And I know like Matt and Trish from Static do this so well. So they even send a video out on what it's going to be like as they pull up into the car park for the first time.

Yep.

Right. So thinking about like what does that. Because like you said, parents are nervous. And we know like some studios, for example, like at ds, people would enter downstairs. There's quite like a big space downstairs that we turned into a Little waiting area. Then it's up a really long flight of stairs before you even get to where the main front desk reception person was. We had to think about that whole area making a great first impression on people because if we let downstairs, if we left rubbish down by the front door, if we left cords hanging out of the big. The big pole that was hanging down there, if we. Then that just leaves a terrible first impression. If we had crap all over the stairs as they're coming up. Yeah, we had to make sure as they were walking up the stairs that they're seeing something that we had. Like we made sure there was a nice dance sensation. So I think if you're not looking after all those things, then people are starting off straight away, not on the best foot. And you're constantly going to be chasing your tail. Right? Yeah.

It's interesting. Like, we have signage at the front of our studio and it says, welcome to the Pause family. That's the first thing people see as they're walking in. And like, you don't realize the power of that, but it is so powerful just to have that. I was thinking about a gym in Penrith. It's quite a fancy gym. And I was just thinking, you know, he said you had to go up the stairs. And I was like, that's like atmosphere where we have to go up the stairs. But they've put stickers on the stairs that say every step you take now is a way to a healthier, brighter, blah, blah, blah, you or whatever it is. I don't know exactly what it says, but something like that. And I'm like, in my head just then was thinking, see, that's smart because you're already in a positive frame of mind as you're having to go up. Like just.

It's creating details, creating an experience. Like not a super flashy one, but it's making that trudging up the stairs an experience. And it just takes their mind off set of stairs to walk up. Because that's like, that's the, that's what people think straight away. Right when they walk in, they're like, oh, I've got to go up the stairs. But then they see that and they forget about it as they're walking up and reading because they're, they're looking at those little signs instead. You were talking about how, like, what are some of the things you do to make sure that all of the team are on board? Because I think too often we see studio owners just focus on their amazing front desk people. Like, obviously you as the owner. And you've probably got somebody that's really natural to that job and really bubbly and will talk to anybody as your front desk person. But then sometimes we see a breakdown between that and the teacher who's a bit shy and nervous and just sort of like comes out and mumbles and doesn't really communicate. How do you make sure that level of service goes across everybody?

Heaps of role playing. I think that's the biggest thing. And even you saying like the bubbly front desk person, we still have to give our front desk people feedback all the time. I know my studio manager said that because one of our full timers, Trent, he's only 17 and he's amazing. But sometimes his manner on the phone can a little bit down and we have to work on the way that he talks on the phone and the way that his voice is. So Justin did a whole session with him last week. I'm just saying because I remember Justin telling me about this just on his manner on the phone. This is so important, that stuff. Lots of role playing, lots of giving consistent feedback to everybody and lots of inspiring, you know, like I said, I just did this positive teaching session with everybody and it's just inspiring them to be better. Or I'll say, hey guys, watch this video of this teacher teaching and see how it feels. And you know, stuff you've got to share with your team consistently and you've got to keep giving that feedback if you want that to go across. Also self reflecting.

Yep.

You know, because we still, every week, every day we'll do something where I'm like, we need to self reflect on that. Even me as a teacher, any. And I've taught since I was 14 and I still have to self reflect consistently and go, okay, was that good? What did I do wrong? How can I fix it? And if you get negative feedback from a parent, take it and go, yeah, fair.

Cool. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. So how do you. Because I know it's something you really work on. How do you make sure? Because I know it's something we've talked about with lots of people we work with as well. They try and implement these things and they still sometimes get a bit of resistance from the teachers. For example, what's your expectations around? Say there's like a new, new student in trialing in ballet. Ballet class this afternoon. What's your expectation for me, I'm bringing Sassy in. What's the expectation for what happens? Let's say like before, like before class, most people have got down pat but what happens after the class?

Yep. So after the class, the teacher has to go up to the parent and the student, see if they enjoyed it. We always practice if they didn't enjoy it on selling other classes because we know that can be a thing, telling them how amazing and wonderful the child was. Usually we try and get them to find something special about the child that we think might opt them into another class. Right. So it might be, oh, my gosh, I noticed that she's got beautiful feet. Did you know, straight after this also is lyrical. And they're just going to love her feet in there. So finding something like that, taking them out to the front desk and enrolling them and saying the words, great, let's get you enrolled. We practice that a lot. Great, let's get you enrolled. You know, it's such a simple thing to say, but it's quite hard for them to say that if the front desk is really busy. We have QR codes ready to go for our staff where the parent can just QR code it and it gets them straight into what they need to fill out so that they can get on their way.

Yeah, absolutely. So is it a matter of. They need to know that, hey, you're at pause. Talking to parents is going to be a part of your job. It's not going to be a huge part of your job. Obviously you are great at teaching dance. That's why you're here. That's going to be 99% of what you do. But there's going to be sometimes 30 seconds to 2 minutes at the end of a class. If there's a trial, you're going to have to come out and talk to them and I'm going to help you with that.

Yeah, but Nath, I think. Yes, that definitely for that first trial, but I think we forget how important it is to talk to parents in general. Again, Like, I've done so much training in this lately with my staff and with the SGC staff, because if you don't build relationships with the parents, they don't feel the need to stay. And I've been using Phoenix's swimming as an example of this because I don't get feedback from the teacher and I really want feedback from the teacher. And I want Phoenix to be good at swimming. So. And he's been stuck on the same level for ages now on one thing that he's not doing right. And it's pissing me off. Right. But you can't go up and talk to the teacher because the next class is coming in and you feel awkward. And then. So I don't have a affiliation with that teacher. So straight away in my head I'm like, maybe I'll just go to a different swim school. Literally what I'm thinking, they're not really doing anything wrong probably, but they're not building the relationship with me that I feel like I want to stay. And it is a part of your job as a teacher, in my opinion, to retain your students. And that is a part of retention. You have to build relationships with people if you want them to stay anywhere.

Yeah. And I think it's that, yeah. That notion of the chains only as strong as its weakest link. And so like you said, like with that swimming example and I feel the same at like swimming lessons as well. That was always, you know, because we go to our local leisure center and look, it's a council run facility and their classes are pretty full. I don't know that they really try that hard on any of the retention side of things, if I'm honest. But that was always like when we were in Kiama, when we had our studio in Kiama, Manda's big thing was always, hey, we need to make those connections. We don't want to be another leisure center because it's literally like you get somebody grunting you at the front desk like, hi. It's like he's like, it's the same person name, like same as it has been the last 28 weeks, but Nathan Barr. And it's just like you need that one connection and like hopefully it's with the teacher. But like you said, if everybody's on the same page, it doesn't necessarily have to be the teacher they make the connection with. Hopefully it is. Hopefully it's multiple staff members. But if they're making connections with at least one person, then the likelihood of them leaving and thinking, oh yeah, maybe I'll just try somewhere else is just so, so much lower. Right.

So much lower. And we forget how important that stuff is.

I think, I think, yeah, like I said, if everybody's on the same page, they're going to make multiple connections with so many of our staff and they don't even going to enter their mind. And it helps, I think when they've got those connections. Right. It helps them raise issues before they either just leave or become big issues. When they get a little issue, they're like to the front person on the front desk they've made a connection with. Oh, hey, I was just a bit concerned about you fixed the issue right there. Or they see the teacher, oh, hey, I was just wondering, the other week she came out and this happened. Issues fixed right there, rather than if there's no connections. And we've all experienced this in kids activities. We've done. You sit there and you to your partner about it and you're like, oh, this is. I can't believe that fucking happened. And then you just get the shits and leave. Yep.

And then I always like, teachers are always like, I can't believe they left. You know, they were so happy in class. And you're like, yeah, but they're not the ones paying for it. And kids are very transactional these days as well because they can see everything on their iPads or their phones or wherever it might be of, oh, I can just go do this now, or my friends are doing this. It's. It's a much more transactional society, I think.

Without a doubt, without a doubt. So, like, you've talked about some strategies to like get your staff on board with like taking things to that, that next level to go above and beyond. How do you measure whether, whether they're achieving that or not?

Ah, lots of ways. Retention, I guess, is the biggest one. I mean, if they've. Is that what you mean? Like if they're losing kids out of their classes, then there's an issue and we need to work out what that issue is. Parent feedback, obviously. You know, going and watching what they're doing and giving them feedback as well is a big one. Yeah, that's the main ones.

How often are you meeting with your staff members to sort of give them that feedback, to chat about it?

Oh, every term.

Okay.

Yeah, not always me. Sometimes it's just an older staff member that's going or my studio manager or, you know, I can't put myself on everything. But there's plenty of, I feel like we all have, have plenty of great team leaders in there that you think, right. She's. They've taught for 20 years and they're a rock star teacher. Tanya's one of my perfect examples. Okay. Now she is a huge rock star preschool teacher. And I didn't have time before Europe to train my preschool team before I left, but I knew we needed the training and we were heading into open week, Right. So I wanted to do a big training session before open week to make sure that we are gone at all the things. And so I just paid her to do that three hour training session at. She was incredible, you know, and all my preschool team were there and she talked about the way to use your voice for preschool and the way to talk to parents and the way to interact and the way to close the sale. And she's been in enough of my staff trainings to know that. And you want. Do you want to know something really interesting, Nate?

Yes.

My last staff training, I didn't even attend, so I did it online with sgc, but I put my team on the online one and Shay and Justin, who have been. Well, she's been with me for 15 years and done 15 years of staff training, so she pretty much knows the drill. And Justin, our studio manager, actually ran it and another teacher gave me the feedback that they were incredible and they knew exactly what to do and it allowed them to step up. And so it's interesting, you don't always like, you should do it yourself. I'm not saying don't do it yourself, but, you know, if you should be doing it no matter what, don't use the excuse of, oh, well, I teach ballet on the Wednesday, and therefore I can't go and watch classes on a Wednesday. Wednesday because I'm teaching ballet. You either need to cover yourself teaching ballet or you need to find someone else to go and watch those classes.

Yeah. And I think another, like, key thing that you just said, even though Shay's been with you 15 years, she's still there at the staff training.

Yeah.

Because I think it's, it's important to build it like, it's built into your culture now that this is what we do and we don't miss it.

Yes.

And I know that we get some people, like, we get a lot of members saying to it and we get it, like the first couple of times you try this, you're going to get. You might get a little bit of pushback and that's okay. But it's, it's so, so important to make sure you do it, that you make it an epic experience for the team that turns up, that they get so much value out of it. Because then when they're all working together as a team, somebody that maybe doesn't turn up realizes what they missed out on.

Yes.

People aren't silly. They see the benefit. They see that everybody else is now moving as a cohesive unit and that they're sort of left playing catch up and feeling a little bit out of it. Right?

Yes, absolutely. And I think as well, you've just got to be so strict with that. And if someone isn't turning up, you need to say to them, this isn't going to work for us in the job. If you're not coming along to it, because it's exactly right. Like everyone's on the same, you know, page, except that one person. And, and the kids see it as, well, the parent. Like, it's not just your team that sees it, the whole business sees it.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think basically the key takeaways are, is make sure you've got your door frames bolted onto your doors. I think. Is that. No, that, that wasn't. But I think it's, I think it's important.

Like that is so, it's so true. But I think even the aesthetic of the studio is important.

Yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt. But making sure that we, we are doing everything we can to make sure that our customers are getting that top level service. And it's not something that you cannot do on your own. It's something that you need to lead from the front with. Yes. But you need to make sure that you're bringing the rest of your team on the journey with you.

Yes. And I just want to finish with this and say to everyone, every business you opt into, every time you go to a hotel, a cafe, retail shop, see what the service is like and feel what it feels like, and then self reflect and say, is this what I'm bringing into my studio? Because when you start acting like a business owner in other businesses, you learn so much.

Absolutely. Well, so good to be on the podcast with you here. This is the first time I've done one in the room here with you, Bec. But thanks so much for watching guys. As always, we would so appreciate it. If you jump on, give us a like and a subscribe on Spotify, Apple or even YouTube now. And thanks so much. We'll chat again soon.

Thanks, guys. Bye. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dance Principles United podcast. If you'd love to learn more from us, we have a special offer just for our podcast listeners. Go to the link in the show notes right now to get two weeks free in Dance Principles United Tribe. We would love to see you there.