Client Relationships: Build them strong

More than ever in current circumstances, your students are extremely valuable to the ongoing success of your business. When your Driving school opens again, make sure your business is set up so that your customers will be impressed with how easy it is to communicate, book and interact with your business.

It’s going to be busy for you when your doors are open again for lessons and will be important to focus on your core business (instructing) while having a system in place that allows you to onboard your students easily and provide them with features enabling them to manage their driving journey. A system that takes care of the repetitive mundane admin tasks associated with the running of your driving school.

When it’s time to open your calendar make sure you are set up so functions are automated and happen seamlessly in the background, this will greatly benefit your students and your business. There are many benefits to online booking systems that outweigh any hurdles.

Ensure Your Driving School is open 24/7
Engage your clients with personalised SMS and email messages
Reward your Loyal Clients
Give your clients more options to pay
Allow your students to manage their own lessons

Your Driving School is Always Open

An online system means your business is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your students can book a lesson whenever it fits into their schedule (without you having to be there to organise it for them). Immediate availability dramatically increases the number of lessons being booked in.

Without a doubt, it’s the best way for you to manage your online diary and save hours of admin time trying to handle the flood of lesson requests that may come in on opening your business again. When these enquiries come in you don’t want to lose them to competition because there was no one available to take their call – give them the option to book in straight away online.

Some students and parents are ONLY looking for schools that offer online so it’s a good time during this downtime to understand how having an online booking system could be a game-changer for when you get back on the road!

Let your customers book at their convenience. Booking appointments are top of the list for customers these days, alongside online shopping. People love booking online as it gives them flexibility and choice from their own home after hours and it’s quick and easy. Online booking systems are the way of the future and the transition to cloud-based tools is an inevitable necessity if you want your business to succeed in the future to stand out from the competition. Booking lessons online is what millennials want.

Engage your clients with personalised SMS and email messages

We all know how we like being valued and your students and parents are no different. Even something like a simple reminder builds customer loyalty and care factor. With YLOODrive you can set up messages to keep your students engaged whether it’s just confirmation of an online booking or sending them a discount coupon code to show your appreciation. Spend time during this downtime to set up what brand communication you want your students and/or parents to receive from your Driving school. It’s perfect timing to send personalised SMS messages or email letting them know when they can book in with you again.

Automated reminders

How convenient is it when students turn up on time for their lesson? YLOODrive makes it easy with automated SMS reminders and emails. A great customer experience as well as reducing any no-shows which waste your valuable time.

Easy to set up depending on your chosen timeframes – whether it be 24, 36 or 48 hours out to give your student time if they do need to re-schedule and also time for another student to pick up that time slot in your calendar if need be. Students lead busy lives too so a prompt is useful if they do happen to have forgotten their lesson date and time. YLOODrive sends out an SMS reminder on your behalf with all the important information including date, time, instructor and Driving School name as well as a reminder to “Bring Your Licence”!

Learn more about SMS messages for your business

Reward your Loyal Clients

Improve your student retention throughout their driving journey (and also their siblings and friends) by showing your students (and parents) your appreciation. If you invest in client loyalty, you will be growing your business through your loyal customers referring you to their friends by promoting your business as well as future-proofing your business for long-term success.

Track your students’ lesson transactions and convert them into points and then reward them by following a simple approach. When a student spends and pays for a lesson, they accumulate reward points. on reaching a certain lesson transaction milestone, a discount coupon code can be sent to the student as a loyalty reward.

Set the % or currency discount for the coupon code and send it out to them for when they next book a lesson – they can also pass/refer on this coupon code to a friend to use if they no longer require any lessons or they can use it towards a test booking with your Driving School.

More options to Pay

Your students and prospective students have gone without lessons and tests for weeks and will be eager to get back in the car and continue their driving progress. A great way for help get them started with lessons again is to offer them payment choice. You can offer them online payment options and perhaps add in a discount coupon code or you can allow them to pay in part-payments which is a good incentive to purchase larger discounted packs of lessons and pay them off as they go. Help your students afford your services even during these tough times.

When you are ready to re-open you will be able to boost your revenue by offering these benefits to students who are looking for Driving Schools in particular who can offer them flexibility in terms of buy now, pay later or pay-as-you-go driving lessons.

Allow your students to manage their own lessons

How much easier is it if your students can log in and manage their lessons, reschedule and pay all through their own login portal (either desktop or student app). This gives your students flexibility to manage their driving progress, record logbook hours and GPS-tracked trips for graduated licensing as well as view lesson feedback so they know exactly what they can be working on between lessons. Your students will love it and they can also book lesson packs and schedule them all in straight away giving you an idea of your sales forecast.

Your student will simply have login details to access at any time to see past lessons, feedback and future lesson bookings as well as any outstanding payments due. A great value-add feature which allows early rescheduling to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Would an online booking system work well for your driving school?

Grow your customer base by making it easy for your students to book in 24/7 from your website, through your social media channels or through a marketing SMS or email.
Maintain and keep control of your diary system, increase your productivity and minimise gaps.
Eliminate no-shows and also allow your customers to pay in full online or make part-payments. The option is still available to take “cash on the day”.
Using the YLOODrive online booking system also gives your students access to login to manage and book their lessons as well as make payments online. Easy!
Remember it’s your business, your brand and your data, booking systems are simply a powered-by-solution.

Now is the time to make the leap into the world of online bookings. Let your students book in with you even while your doors are closed. Adding online bookings is simple and we can help set you up. If you don’t have a website, we can help you create your online presence.