Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/927264
Whether you are a rink manager, a program director, or a volunteer, you can take a proactive step to benefit your organization by analyzing the effectiveness of your own website. Step into the shoes of a website visitor and review your website with fresh eyes, taking into account the fact that a visitor might know very little about ice rinks and ice skating in general. STAGE 1: What can I do at the rink? Think about your core service offerings. Can you find them easily from your home page? Would someone who doesn't know skating understand what they are? Be wary of abbreviations at this stage. STAGE 2: When can I skate? Dive deeper into each of your service offerings and make sure an updated schedule for each one is present on the website. You don't want to miss out on a potential customer because your website has outdated information. STAGE 3: Can I take action? You want people to participate in your service offerings, so it's imperative that you give them a clear path to participation. If something is drop-in, make it very clear. If another program requires advanced registration, make sure the steps to register are perfectly clear. If regulations prevent you from having registration open until a certain date, allow people to sign up for a registration alert once registration is available. WITH STAGES 1-3 IN PLACE, your website is set up for success and will give visitors the information they need to make informed decisions about participating in activities at your facility! Be sure to revisit this checklist every month and proactively stay one step ahead of your potential customer. CONDUCT YOUR OWN WEBSITE AUDIT USICERINKS.COM JANUARY.FEBRUARY.2018 / 39 I n an effort to increase program participation across the country and inspire prospective skaters to hit the ice for the first time, Learn to Skate USA, powered by Toyota, took a data-driven dive into the ice skating experience. They zeroed in on the moment parents and prospective skaters first encountered the idea of ice skating lessons, and the initial steps these prospective customers took when evaluating the opportunity. In doing this, they discovered that the majority of ice skating experiences start at home or on the go in front of a back-lit screen. Instead of stopping by the ice rink to pick up a printed copy of the seasonal schedule and chatting with the people at the front desk, parents are checking rink websites while waiting in line at the grocery store and calling out to their digital friends Alexa and Siri to "find skating lessons near me." It's 2018, and rinks need to meet people where they are, not where they want them to be. People are not only turning to the internet for answers, but expecting said answers in record time. In order to keep up with this behavior, ice rinks and skating programs need to stay one step ahead of their potential customers and give them an on-demand digital experience that will eventually lead to memorable and long- term skating. Schedule it Out Learn to Skate USA was armed with this knowledge and eager to help their 1,000-plus programs across the country prep for the anticipated interest in skating that comes in the weeks surrounding the Olympic Games. They took this data-driven approach a step further and analyzed how effective their programs were in delivering this initial digital experience. "We did exactly what we are urging parents all over the country to do, and turned to our program finder to locate a Learn to Skate USA program and explore the possibility of taking lessons at that facility," Susi Wehrli McLaughlin, Senior Director of Membership at Learn to Skate USA, said. One hundred website evaluations later, Wehrli McLaughlin and the staff at Learn to Skate USA discovered that the majority of successful programs with high growth and retention rates had three things in common: 1.) They presented clear and concise information about ice skating lessons. 2.) Provided an up-to-date lesson schedule. 3.) Offered an actionable and ongoing registration option. The most important factor, however, appeared to be the lesson schedule. Programs that had April 2018 lessons schedules up on their sites in November ?