Advice on dive school management system

[Pep V]

Hi guys,

For about 2 years I have been working part time for a local dive school as an instructor. In a couple of weeks I will be taking over the day to day operations of the shop, making sure the courses are scheduled properly and the staff all know what to do, etc.
There are a couple of things that have been bothering me while working for the dive school, and now that I have the chance, I would like to put some effort into it to make sure we work more efficiently. One of the things is a proper management system to keep track of customers, courses and planning. Currently we are working with shared Excel files through Google Drive, which just.. well, it’s just not a system and it makes collaboration between staff really difficult. I am looking for a replacement, a system to help us keep track of our customers and schedule our courses. I have been able to find a few on the internet but I am not sure where to start. I have come across tools such as EVE, DiveShopManager, Bubbles and DiveCentreHQ. Without any experience with any of these platforms, I am looking for some advice from people who have used such kind of tools.

So to get to the point, what kind of management tool do you use at you local dive shop, and could you recommend me anything to try out? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Pep

PS, not sure where to post this..

 

[DiversSupplyPDC]

Many shops and instructors try to make this process way more difficult than it really needs to be.
Every six months Courses or Trips are scheduled monthly for either pool or Open Water. Instructors select or are assigned to a committed session.

Students sign up for a given session and they are assigned on that roster with their student folder. A-Z Holding files for TBD upcoming Confined or Open is there for folks who are not sure on a date.

When a confined session is completed the student folder moves to the holding file or a selected OW date session.

Instructors track their sessions and store personnel can move a folder from holding to a session based on a customers needs or schedule.

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

It depends where you are based I guess. The system that Bob outlines above is great if you know all of your scheduling and students so far in advance. If you cater for tourists it gets a bit more complex as you may not know schedules, numbers and instructors to teach each course so far ahead. We operate on a bespoke system (built by one of our ex DM's who was a computer wizz) that tracks all our finances, customers, customer details, courses, sales, instructors, comms etc all in one place.

It may be possible with some systems to get a trial copy, and then you can see what works best for you, or whether you're better of designing something bespoke or simply sticking with what you've got and making some amendments/improvements.

 

[DiversSupplyPDC]

Must agree with "Goodtimes"...... really depends on how heavy your shop/classes/instructors are computer involved.

Many times we like to glance at the schedule and clip board(s) and may not be at a computer screen.

For example:
An Open Water Springs trip has been on Schedule for this weekend. An outside 1099 Instructor who works with the FD bided the trip months ago.

The trip only had one OW student signed up as of today. Today is Thursday and the Instr checked in on his roster.

Quick glance down confirmed the small number and we cancelled and rescheduled the student to another weekend. Student folder moves over to new date board and we move on.

Power goes down or all computer screens are occupied and we need to check, No Problem.

Again different shops, different locations and different missions make the difference !