A parent starts planning February half term in early January. She needs three days covered, she would rather it was something her daughter enjoys, and she books the first thing she finds with published times and a price.
The dance studio down the road runs an excellent workshop. It is announced on a noticeboard in the second week of February.
The decision to make first
Childcare hours or dance intensive. They are different products for different families and trying to be both usually satisfies neither.
When a childcare shaped workshop makes sense
Full days or long mornings, a broad age range, lunch arrangements, a mix of activity and a final showing for parents. It reaches families who have never set foot in the studio.
When an intensive makes sense
Existing students, a focused technical or exam target, a narrower age band, higher hours and a higher price. It serves the students you already have and deepens commitment.
When a one off session makes sense
Themed classes, a taster or a single afternoon. Low commitment, low risk and the best route to converting a new family into a termly student.
Publish the dates in the previous term
Half terms, Easter and summer, announced weeks ahead. This is the single decision that determines whether the workshop fills.
Publish the hours plainly
Drop off, pick up, whether early drop off exists and what happens at lunch. Parents book on this before they read a word about the dancing.
Publish the age range and grouping
How ages are split, whether experience is required and whether beginners are welcome. Families with two children of different ages need to know it works for both.
Publish the price and what it covers
Per day and for the full week, whether there is a sibling rate and what is included. Holiday activities are compared on price against every other option in town.
Say whether experience is needed
Explicitly. The words no experience necessary reach families who would never otherwise consider a dance studio, and they are where next year's termly students come from.
Explain what they need to bring
Clothing, shoes, food, water and anything else. Parents planning a week want to know before the morning it starts.
Plan the conversion
Everybody who attends a holiday course is a prospect for a termly class. An offer, a follow up and a term timetable in the parent's hand on the final day is what turns a week into a year, which relates to recital, costume and term fee questions from dance parents.
Adult short courses work the same way
Weekend workshops and specific goals bring in adults who will not commit to a term, which is the market in wedding first dance lesson enquiries.
The intensive pattern appears elsewhere
Concentrated courses with a fixed target run on the same logic as intensive course enquiries with a test date in mind.
Answer during the holidays themselves
Enquiries arrive when the studio is closed and parents are at home planning, which is exactly the problem in bank holiday enquiries.
Getting started
Publish holiday dates, hours, ages and prices a term ahead, then take bookings at any hour including when the studio is shut. SpideyChat for education and activity providers answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about booking on the features page.