Best Class Management Software? 6 Must-Have Features Before You Buy

21 min · Olivier Rousseau & William Rochford · Mar 31, 2026

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About this episode

Choosing the right registration software is one of the most important decisions a sports and leisure organization makes. Pick the wrong one and you lose time, frustrate parents, and miss revenue. Pick the right one and operations run smoothly, staff stay happy, and your programs grow. In Part 1 of this series, Olivier Rousseau and William Rochford share the must-have features every registration platform should include, plus practical tips to test software and avoid costly mistakes before you buy.

What we discuss

Registration that's built for parents' phones first Flexible payment options that work for every family Email, text messages, and newsletters in one place Automations that save your team time Real-time reports that show what's working Built-in marketing tools Onboarding and support when you switch platforms Resources mentioned 5 More Must-Have Features Your Registration Software Should Have (Part 2) Level Up Your Registration System with These 5 Advanced Features (Part 3) Why Google Forms Doesn’t Work for Sports Registrations Activity Messenger online registration Activity Messenger online payments Activity Messenger SMS Activity Messenger automations Book a free demo of Activity Messenger Follow Olivier on LinkedIn About the hosts Olivier Rousseau co-founded Activity Messenger after spending 13 years running a kids' sports program that served 4,000 families. William Rochford is Activity Messenger's product expert. Want to share your story or ask a question? Email olivier@activitymessenger.com.

Full episode transcript

Read the full transcript

Intro[0:00] Class management and registration software is at the heart of every sports and leisure business. And let's face it, sometimes it can be a frustrating thing to interact with. In this episode, we're going to cover must-have features if you're considering switching from one platform to another or if you're just looking for a brand new platform to run your business with. So stay tuned. It's going to be a good one. Welcome back everybody. I'm here with Oli today. How you doing? Good. Good. You? Yeah, I'm doing good. Thanks. Uh, today[0:40] we're talking about must-have features in your class management software. Why is this so important? Yeah, I think um you know we're we're at a time where software is changing where the needs on the market are changing and sometimes some people can be stuck in some software that's a bit outdated or it's not adapting to the new kind of needs on the market and you might be looking to switch, right? But it is a massive switch. I've done it, you know, four times in my 13 years as an operator in the sports and leisure industry and yeah, every time it's been a bit of a[1:13] mess, right? It's been very hard. Uh sometimes we did get some good gains, sometimes we lost things from the other platforms. So there's a lot of like in-betweens. You have your your staff to train, pros and cons, pros and cons, staff to train, parents to get used to. Um and then getting used to the software as well. So there's a lot going on. Yeah. And I think it's important when you are at that point where you're considering your switch or you need to switch to ask the right questions when you get on the[1:39] sales calls. Yeah. Right. And then see what you want to think about um when you get into those calls. So, that's kind of what we'll be looking at today. Correct. That's our goal today is really to help you um prepare really for those those sales calls and um make sure that you've got all of your questions ready to go so that you can make the best decision possible. So, uh grab a pen and paper, take some notes. It's going to be one of those today. Um all right. So, uh a lot of things we've touched on already, but we really want to bring[2:07] them in the forefront here. uh because it's so important to understand sort of you know on on the sales call oftentimes you're just seeing like an overview like a you know bird's eye view of the platform but you want to be able to dig in a little bit. You want to be able to understand and project what it's going to look like once you're really operating it. Um so that's kind of how we chose these points today. So the first one is you'llMobile-First Registration[2:30] hear us talk about this a lot but mobile first registration not mobile friendly. So really something that is built for mobile. Why is that so critical? Yeah. Well, nowadays people are on their phone, right? So, when we manage our studio, our our sports center, whatever it is, we're on our computer. We're using the software on a computer because it's easier. But when you people go into register, they will do it on their phone. Um, and a lot of software out there, especially when they get into the older side of it, they were designed for the desktop.[2:57] Yeah. But then they were adapted for mobile, but that doesn't mean it was well adapted, right? It just says it works on mobile. So, you want to look at a software that is actually mobile first. So everything they create was designed for the phone and for the limited real estate you have on a phone. You like you don't want to be scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to find a class. You want to have like a structure conditional logic where people can quickly find the class that they want and have an easy experience registering.[3:22] Yeah. So the pro tip here is really try and go go to find and even ask you know like the if if if the software is proud of their software they'll tell you oh these guys are using us these guys are using us. Go and go and check what what does it look like? How does it feel to actually fill out one of those and check on the phone? Yeah, on the phone, of course. But but yeah, and I think, you know, this goes a long way because you're going to want to look for a software that's going to help you increase your revenue. Yeah.[3:45] And you know, one example, I mean, I've done this before. I go to a to sign up on a phone and it's super complex. I'm like, "Oh, I'll do it when I get home." Um, and then I got three young boys, I get home. I mean, it's just, you know, like you don't you don't maybe don't think about it. Maybe your competitor swoops in with like a an easier form and an ad right between that time where you said you would do it from the phone, right? Right? So, you never want somebody to be like, I want to register on the phone. Wow, this is a little too complex. I'm[4:09] having problems. Let me wait till I get on my computer. Like, in today's world, for me, that's a no no. Like, that you will lose customers that way. Yeah. You you've got to get them when they're purchase on the product.Flexible Payments That Work for Everyone[4:21] Um, all right. So, we also want integrated flexible payments. So, we want to talk about this just really briefly. Most platforms do credit. All platforms do credit card, let's be real. Um, but in Canada sometimes we want uh Interac transfer. That's huge here. So being able to automate that is really important. Pre-authorized debit. Um, so what what are the important things to consider here? Yeah, I think a lot of the things is you want to have the maximum like flexibility around that, right? So I want to be able to say for um kind of[4:53] like kids programs where I get a lot of registration in a small amount of time, I only want to give credit card on that option, right? But then maybe for my competitive athletes, I want them to go in and pay once a month. So I want to have an automation that's going to take a payment every first of the month. And maybe I go by pre-authorized debit because these are clients that I know. The invoices are very high and that's going to limit the the the fees on that on transaction, right? So you're going to save a lot of money and you don't need to save time because you don't have[5:17] that many athletes. On the other side, you want to save time, so you put on credit card. Uh and then you might have rentals that have really big invoices. Well, how can I have an offline payment because I don't want to do it or Interac payment, right? So you want to have the flexibility as to whichever way the person comes in, whatever program they have, you have the optimal ways of paying for you and for the client. Um, so if you have a big invoice, you have a a camp that's 700 bucks, maybe you give them a chance to pay over three payments if you want them to book in January,[5:43] right? But if they're signing up for a class that starts in two week, well then you only have one payment obviously. So it's just the ability to kind of be flexible around that makes it easier for the parent financially. you give more options and then you can reduce cost based on the type of payments you're taking. Right? So flexibility and uh per per type of registration uh payment flexibility as well.Unified Communications[6:08] Um one thing that is so crucial when using a software like this is having everything in one hub. Yeah. Including communications. Yes. So email, SMS. Yeah. Why having it all in one place? Yeah, many reasons. Um, first of all, you don't want to have to pay other tools. So, a lot of software will have you connect with Mailchimp, connect with an SMS tool, and then your data gets diluted. It's not a real perfect[6:35] connection as if it was an all in the same software. Um, and then you want to be able to customize it to your brand as well, which can be hard on other on on many software. One example, you know, that relates to the point we were talking about payments is a confirmation email. So, when you're taking payments, what does that confirmation email look like? That's one thing I would ask as you're looking for software. Be like, "Hey, what does that look like? Is it flexible? Is it coming from my domain email address or your notification at[6:59] software ABC?" Right? That will end up in junk. You'll have all these little problems that you didn't see when you were on the sales call. So, those are things I would ask. What does that confirmation email look like? Yeah. And we talked about this in the previous email. That confirmation email is an incredible opportunity to communicate really important information because over 90% of people open it. Yes. Because it contains the receipt. So, and a lot of times it's just a receipt. It says, "Hey, here's your receipt. What about next steps? When are you going to[7:22] get the first email? Maybe it's a parent guide. Here's a blog article about how to get ready for your your your first swim class, right?" So, can I customize it to that point? So, C that that kind of the communication comes from like the payment and that that'll be sometimes the first interaction they have with you. That's interesting. It's the first communication they get from you. How good is your brand? Is there a video? Is there an image? Is there something that makes you makes them feel like I made the right choice and I'm going into it?[7:46] But a lot of times as I was searching software in the past, it was all all about how do we simplify the registration? And people forget about the communications around it. So once you're on a call, you're looking at how the programs work, all that kind of stuff. It's like, okay, now that you got a payment, you got somebody on your attendance list, how can you communicate with them? And a lot of times that comes when you have the software, right? It's not something you necessarily look enough before. So ask them questions. Can I text clients? Can I am I able to[8:12] send emails, texts? Can I personalize it with placeholders? right? The mail merge saying, "Hey, first name, child's, you know, class is starting at this time. Can I personalize all those those things?" Um, and can I contact both parents? A lot of software I've worked with, it was only the account owner, right? So, I couldn't even text the second parent. But what if I'm canceling last minute? I'm I want the ability to text everybody, both parents, so that we make sure that everybody gets the information. So, it's all these little[8:37] things that you want to make sure you have before you make the switch that are actually game changers. And those are all things, all those last things that you just mentioned are all things you're going to lose if it's not all in one system because you're not going to get those activity, those class dates, those really specific placeholders. If you asked a specific question on your form, you're not going to get that if you integrate sync with Mailchimp or something. Exactly.[9:00] You need it to be in the same platform. Um, same thing for uh Yeah, I lost my idea. any of those really specific placeholders, uh, you really need those to be within the form. Yeah. And the ability to automate as well. I think a lot of, uh, software out there, they'll say they automate and then there's going to be a lot of manual steps to automating. So, you got to look at that. How can I automate a start a session email, right? How can I automate 7 days before camp starts a very personalized email with a welcome uh,[9:29] um, PDF, like parent guide, whatever it is that a lot of us send, but a lot of times you have to do it manually. So, are you able to make it beautiful? Are you able to automate it to the right people at the right time? Uh, another good one, if you have a snowstorm or heat wave and you want to text everybody that classes are canceled on a Tuesday, do you have to go to every single attendance list? Are you able to text and or do you have a today tab where you can just say, "Show me everybody coming to my center today, click send a text." Right? And those are like use cases that[9:56] you don't think about when you're purchasing it, but it when they happen, it could take so much time and it's such an important customer relationship builder. So you have to ask those those questions. And the other thing too is a lot of times when you switch softwares, it's not something you switch every two years or every year. Usually you stay with the same software three, four, five years. So those little problems will be with you for many years. So you might as well ask the questions up front. Get it right up front. Yeah.[10:21] Speaking of automations, um we're ableAutomations That Save Time[10:24] to do also an abandoned form automation. Yes. Which is really important to go and get those people who maybe started a form but didn't complete it. Absolutely. So just automating, hey, I started a form, you got to the credit card. Ah, I didn't have my credit card on me. Need to talk to my wife, then they leave. So you're able to automate, send it right back and say, hey, are you still interested in this? You know, spots are filling up. We held your information for you. Exactly. They go right back to where[10:47] they were and they finalize the So that those are little things that, hey, they could fill out those classes and and really improve your revenue. Yeah. And those are just like really nice optimization things that we can do. And again, you'll lose that if you're working with another kind of communication software that's outside. Exactly. Um, this episode is sponsored by Activity Messenger, an online registration software I helped build after spending more than a decade managing[11:11] kids sports programs and dealing with outdated, disconnected tools that slow everything down. I know the frustration of using a bunch of old tools that don't sync, don't scale, and definitely don't make life easier. Activity Messenger is built to fix that. Our goal is to be your all-in-one operating system, modern, mobile first, and to simplify your entire workflow. Want to check it out? Visit activitymessenger.com to book your free demo. Now, let's get back to the show. All right, so switchingReal-Time Reporting & Insights[11:43] gears here. Reporting and insights also very, very important. So, everything that's like post-registration and reports is not just financial reports. Yes, that's obviously part of it, but we also have reports on data, uh, maybe survey answers, customer data. Uh, what are all the things that we need to think about here? Yeah, I think I think like you said, financial data super important. You want to be able to like have something that's nice and that your accountant doesn't have to spend hours just trying to figure out where was what,[12:11] parsing through everything. Yeah. Parsing because we're taking everything in. So, you have to have the ledger codes, you know, have a good setup for all those those reports. So, ask about those reports. But then you also want, you know, we can call like kind of business intelligence reports, right? Are you able to have a very nice graph of like where people are coming in? So let's say your all your four to six classes, how many are filled? Are they filled out at 80%, 75%. And you want to be able to, oh, maybe I should open up a class on Monday, right? Or[12:35] cancel my third, seven to eight class cuz there's zero people in it, but my four to six year olds are all full. So I can change that into a four to six year old and maximize that. And I used to do that manually with my other software and it was just like exporting there. you couldn't see like a good overview and registrations come in fast. So sometimes those changes need to be made like very quickly got to pivot right away and you're really busy so you don't have time and you're like oh I'll do it later and then when you do it uh it's too late cuz there's already you know[12:58] it's too late to go fill out the class. So you want those that data there. And the other report is the the postal code report. So if you're doing any Facebook ads and we spoke about that in a marketing episode earlier they're critical to do Facebook ads. are great great ways to get people in, but a lot of times those are done by uh postal codes which is very powerful. Yeah. But if you have no clue where your clients are, like what are you going to do? Right? So in Activity Messenger, you get with postal codes, it opens up a map. So I can target say I want[13:28] everybody from the fall. Show me a map of where the postal codes were, right? So I can then say where what are the regions that I'm getting more, what are the regions where I have to work on my marketing and then I can maybe spend more money in specific places. Do a free trial event in a specific location to attract people. But just knowing that you'll be kind of going in setting up for success. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and related to reports and all of that business intelligence reporting is your marketing tools.[13:59] Yep. Right. So, Facebook ads obviously is not within the platform. It's a whole different platform, but you can have a whole bunch of integrated marketing tools, newsletters. Yeah. Um, surveys, the feedback that you go get. Um, what else what else is good to think about here? Yeah, I think in terms of marketing you want there's a few thingsBuilt-in Marketing Tools[14:18] like email marketing for me like at this point you I would recommend it to have it integrated into your software. Um so instead of paying you know 200 bucks 300 bucks a month to Mailchimp have it in your software. Find a software that allows it even if it doesn't allow all the features of Mailchimp. The ability to have registration status and email marketing is so powerful. So, for example, I could go in and send an email early January to everybody for the summer session, and then I can go back in February, send another one, but then remove everybody[14:47] who's already registered. So, as a client, I'm only getting newsletters when I'm not registered in a specific program. Uh, and I can be a bit more um send a few more of them because every time I'm sending it, I know the person is not registered. And parents are busy, especially if you're working with kids. The miss four, five, and then, oh yeah, I got to get my kid to soccer. And then they add it there. So you'll be able to improve your revenue but also have lower uh unsubscribes because you're always sending it to someone who's hasn't registered yet,[15:13] right? You're not fatiguing your clients. Exactly. Exactly. So you can remove that that whole fatigue. Another one that I've heard a lot and it was a big frustration for me is like I used to need Eventbrite for my free trials. And the reason was my software forced people to create an account with so much information. And I was like, I just want the kid's name and the parents email, right? and then sign a waiver. Like they're coming for free trial. Like I don't want to put an ad for a free trial and it takes them[15:38] forever and then you're not creating an account for a free trial. Exactly. It kind of makes no sense, right? So I would need to use Eventbrite free whatever it is, but then that would not talk to the rest of my data. I wouldn't have the automated email after or text within my data. So having the free trial flow in your software massive for marketing as well, right? So those and then you can combine the e newsletter with the free trial and there's a lot of stuff you can do with that.[16:01] Yeah. and having uh early bird workflows. Yes, absolutely. Getting people signed up earlier, having automated discounts that kind of go down. I've had a someone on a on a call the other day saying, "I do early bird, but I have to get up at at midnight at night to change it, right? He has to be the early bird." And if you and if you forget, then people get frustrated. So, it's like, no, you know, you want a software that's just going to do it automatically. Yeah, of course. Exactly. Okay. You[16:28] know, the discount expires at this time. Perfect. I don't have to think about it anymore. All right, so our last point is kind ofOnboarding & Support[16:35] outside of your operations, but is definitely um not the least important of points and that's going to be what is the onboarding and support service like? Yeah, that's a big one in the sense that again I've been through a few transitions and first of all they can be you've experienced it. Yeah. So, but also okay so how is that how is how is it going to happen? So ask that question. What's what are the next steps? Let's say I go forward with you. What am I to expect? Right? So there might be costs for that onboarding. So if there are costs, what does it what[17:07] does it do? If there are no costs, what's the level of of of help do I get? Who's going to be helping me? Right? So for example, Activity Messenger, we have a customer success. As soon as we make the sale, they come into they come work with that person. They're going to help you import from the other software. They're going to be able to build your list, build your classes, help you all that with all that stuff. But obviously, you don't want you the other thing is you don't want somebody too hands-on. You don't want somebody doing everything and you're not learning it, right? So,[17:32] you want a place where you have somebody that you can trust that knows what they're talking about that's going to help you build it so that you can become fully independent. Cuz I know, you know, sometimes in other softwares, you want to change something and you have to contact them to change like a part of your software. Like, you want to be fully independent so you can move around, but you want a team behind it that's going to allow you to adapt exactly to the way you want it, right? So, that's super important. And just what's the future like too? What what if[17:57] in a year you're like I didn't you know I didn't put my newsletter for whatever reason. I want to do it in a year. Is somebody going to help me there or are there help docs or am I going to have to pay for continued support? I've seen that nowadays where people either stop continued support. It's like just figure out the help desk right and or others that are saying you need to pay. Right. So ask those questions early because those are frustrations that are come that are going to happen down the line as well. Absolutely. Yeah. And if I come back to[18:22] sort of the point in the intro, those frustrations are real and they're deep because we're talking about the heart of your operation. And so if you're stuck and you don't know what to do and we've heard horror stories of uh certain people saying like it was a bug and I wrote to support and I heard nothing back like a month later. Yeah. The especially the bigger the bigger the company a lot of times the the the a lot of times that has an impact. So so that's definitely something to keep[18:48] in mind. Um, well, there you go. So, those those are our tips for today. And spoiler alert, uh, next episode we're going to cover a few more. And maybe Yeah, maybe just a quick final thought on on the whole process. Like, I've like I said, I've done a few over my my 13 years operating. But one thing that was always hard was that I had to switch from one to the other, right? It was either software A or software B. And there was a deadline where I would just switch over. Um, and we have[19:16] another approach at Activity Messenger where you we have all these tools. So we can replace your Mailchimp, replace your Eventbrite, replace your SurveyMonkey, help you send texts, help you track your attendance, all these kind of things that are around registration. So you can start with that, start to get familiar with the software and then we can transition your registration let's say 6 months later, right? So what happens is that you get to know us. You get to know our level of support. You get to know all these other features that you're going to use that[19:42] are going to really help your life. But then when you're ready, we switch the biggest piece and then you're you're ready. Your staff is ready. We have months to learn each other cuz sometimes the software like it's so quick that they don't even have time to adapt, right? We have it gives us time to adapt. So even if you're and a lot of times you want to switch when you're looking to switch a lot of times it's down the line, right? You want to find the right period when to s switch. But if you can get started with a software, get some value right away, uh, and get[20:07] connected with the team, I think that's an awesome awesome way of doing it. The other thing too is if it's a monthly payment, if after 2 months like, "Oh, this doesn't work." You're still on your old software. Exactly. So, you reduce the the the the chances, the risk of things not h not going well. And I just wish I had that flow back in the days when I was operating. It's almost no risk, all reward. Really? Yeah. Exactly. And and the other thing I was going to say, and you mentioned it, is the month-to-month payment does not lock you[20:32] in. So be very careful especially if you're going into a software that locks you into a contract for 2 years sometimes. Yeah. So make sure that you're certain that it's a good fit. Yeah. Exactly. Well, that's a good place to leave it off. So let us know if you've appreciated this episode of the AMplifyOutro[20:51] Podcast. Um leave us a comment down in the comment section if there's something you'd like to hear us talk about. We are eyes and ears wide open for your suggestions. So let us know and uh it'll be a pleasure to find you in the next episode. So bye everyone.

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