— Flyers All-Starz

First opened in 2005 with three teams, Flyers Cheer Gym is one of the most prestigious cheer club in Canada. They use Amilia as their online registration and management software for both gyms, in Montreal and Ottawa which means they have more time to pursue their dream: to compete among the best cheer clubs at the Worlds.

The Story

Flyers Cheer Gym offers athletes a modern and safe environment to practice cheerleading, tumbling and gymnastics. With 750 teams finishing in the top three over the years, including three World championships, the Flyers are known to be one of the best cheer gyms in Canada.

Charles Lanoue has owned Flyers Cheer for the last eight years. What started as a hobby in high school rapidly became his life’s passion. He loves to share his knowledge of the sport with young athlete: “Kids become passionate about cheerleading. Through this sport, they learn what teamwork, discipline, and great work ethic means.”

In 2017, a new Flyers gym opened in Ottawa. Charles' goal with this new challenge: get as many people as possible interested in cheerleading and create a new winning team for the Worlds.

The Challenge

Flyers Cheer Gym first opened in Montreal in 2005 with only 3 teams. Since then, the number of athletes interested in cheerleading has grown along with their clientele and programs. In addition to the competitive program, the organization added recreational classes, summer camps and tumbling classes.

This rapid growth drastically increased the administrative work that employees had to manage. The managers, who were also the head coaches, were overwhelmed by paperwork. “The way we were working was archaic.” Hence, they had less time to concentrate on what really mattered; coaching.

The Solution

In 2011, Flyers Cheer Gym chose Amilia as their online registration and management software to simplify their day-to-day. They realized it was the resource they were missing to free up their coaches time from admin work so they could actually coach their athletes. Amilia quickly became, and continues to be an indispensable tool for the Flyers management team. Here are some of their favorite Amilia features.

Favourite Features

Communications

Before Amilia, managers mainly communicated with parents through letters. Sometimes, athletes would lose or forget the letters and the message was never passed onto parents. Ultimately, this process created frustration for families and for the employees who had to chase missing payments. Amilia’s system ensures messages, along with other pertinent information such as closures and class cancellations, are delivered to parents in a timely manner.

Online registration and payment

With Amilia, parents don’t have to worry about registering in person. Instead, Amilia allows parents to register their children for classes directly from the comfort of their own home or wherever they are with their phones—no wait time required. Additionally, Amilia is both intuitive and user-friendly—even for first-timers. “We have new clients who find us online and can register without contacting us, which is a big benefit.”
One big benefit the flyers saw was through the use of Amilia’s online forms which are part of the registration & checkout process. Collecting and storing their customers’ information online eliminated hours of work that managers and coaches were previously doing manually.

Installments

Cheerleading can be an expensive sport. Costs can accumulate quickly as young athletes develop new skills. This is why the cheer club needs flexible payment methods. With Amilia, parents can manage their payment schedule and make partial payments on their account, when it suits them.

Marketing Tools

Charles and his office staff use Amilia on a daily basis to set up new programs, send emails and keep track of payments. They also use Amilia’s Facebook integration to promote activities on their Facebook page and invite followers to sign up or share posts. When Flyers opened their new Ottawa location in 2017, they were able to advertise their new facility on Facebook to generate awareness and build a new community of athletes in their newest market.

If you are interested to learn how SmartRec could help you and your organization succeed like it helped Flyers All-Starz, just reach out to our team. We would be happy to discuss it with you!