Case Studies
CourseStorm Case Study: American Stage
Integrating CourseStorm with their ticketing software helped a nonprofit theatre education program improve the customer experience and save staff time
The Background
Like many theatres, American Stage is still feeling the effects of the pandemic. COVID shut down the professional theatre company’s live performances as well as their summer camps and all classes that weren’t moved online. They are now in the process of “rebuilding everything,” said José Aviléz, Director of Education.
American Stage is rebuilding and expanding their education program post-pandemic.
Founded in 1977 as an educational theatre, American Stage produces about 6 shows a year and runs a drama school for adults as well as one for youth ages 5 to 17. Their classes cover all different aspects of musical theatre, acting, and improv. They currently offer about 40 classes per year, depending on how many they can fill. The education program’s “bread and butter” is summer camps for kids and teens. These run from 1 to 3 weeks, and culminate in a musical production.
American Stage wants to expand their educational offerings, particularly their youth programs, to meet a growing need in their community. Previously populated mostly by retirees, St. Petersburg, Fla., saw an influx of young families during the pandemic.
The Challenge
American Stage uses Spektrix, a ticketing and CRM platform. Like many arts organizations, they tried to use the same software for class registration, too. But while they were happy with the solution for ticket sales and customer data management, it wasn’t meeting their needs for camp and class registration.
“Everywhere I have worked has used the ticketing service for education and it just never quite fits. Everybody’s always confused. CourseStorm is so much clearer and much more user friendly.” – José Aviléz, Director of Education
Classes were purchased as a ticket, which was confusing to registrants. It was complicated to collect important student information, such as food allergies or emergency contacts. There were no class rosters, so the staff had to create them manually by copying and pasting names into spreadsheets. Even worse, the person registering a child was often a parent or grandparent, so on the first day of class instructors wouldn’t even know the children’s names.
American Stage needed a solution that would simplify class registration for their customers and staff.
The Solution
CourseStorm makes signing up for classes quicker and easier for people registering. Customers can register multiple people in one transaction and save their info for next time, eliminating the need to enter the same things over and over. And for administrative staff, CourseStorm automates processes they may have been doing manually, like creating rosters and managing waitlists. Programs can even give instructors limited access if they wish, empowering them to manage their own classes.
Arts programs that send students personalized class recommendations using CourseStorm’s automated emails attribute 14% of enrollments to this feature.
CourseStorm also offers marketing features to help arts organizations fill their classes every time. For instance, automated emails can be sent to current and former students, suggesting other classes they may be interested in. Arts programs that use CourseStorm’s automated emails to send students personalized class recommendations attribute 14% of enrollments to this feature alone.
CourseStorm integrates with ticketing, donor management and CRM systems—such as with Spektrix, PatronManager and Little Green Light—an added benefit for American Stage. Whether through Zapier, plugins, or direct integrations, combining CourseStorm with these other tools leverages the power of organizations’ existing customer data and CourseStorm’s class registration software.
The Results
American Stage loves how much clearer and simpler CourseStorm has made the registration process—both for customers and staff. Classes are now listed by name, not sold as a ticket. Staff used to spend hours walking customers through the registration process on the phone. Now, they get almost no calls. And people enter all their information upfront at the time of registration, eliminating the need for staff to follow up with additional requests.
Staff can now do things automatically or in one step that used to require multiple steps or workarounds. With CourseStorm, they can email the entire roster of students at once, send text reminders, and give student discounts via promo codes.
American Stage now gets fewer complaints and calls from confused registrants, and has saved countless admin hours.
Since they’ve started using CourseStorm, American Stage gets fewer complaints and phone calls from confused people trying to register, and has saved countless hours on administrative tasks. “I think the fact that it’s simplified our lives is great [but] secondary to the user experience,” said Aviléz.
American Stage is well positioned to achieve their ambitious growth goals. “We’re about to have a major growth spurt.”
To learn more about how CourseStorm might help your program or more information, email contact@coursestorm.com or call us at (207) 866-0328.
Abigail Green
Abby has overseen content development for higher education degree programs related to education, technology, business, and healthcare. One of her first jobs after college was working with children’s programs for the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She is an experienced and versatile writer and editor whose work has been published by Johns Hopkins, the University of Baltimore Alumni Magazine, and The Chicago Tribune.