DivaDance

The Opportunity

DivaDance founder, Jami Stigliano, never thought of dance as a career, instead channeling her professional energy into the music industry. But dance was still important to her, and she sought out recreational adult dance classes in the city where she lived. The problem was, she couldn’t find any.

“I went to a beginner hip hop dance class in New York City at an amazing facility, but they catered to professional dancers,” Jami recalls. “I went in with healthy self-confidence and a decent amount of dance experience behind me, and it was stressful. It was not a supportive environment, and it was very competitive.”

If the class Jami attended was stressful for someone with experience, how would a true beginner feel? “I walked out of there and said, ‘There has to be a better experience for adults who just want a regular dance class–who are not training to be on Broadway, who are not training to make this their living.” Jami just wanted a place where she and others could dance for fun. “That’s when I decided I wanted to teach the kinds of classes that I wanted to take.”

The Solution

In the early days of DivaDance, Jami relied mostly on Excel, as well as pen and paper, to keep track of her clients. And especially as she considered franchising, she knew that her solution wasn’t sustainable. “As a one-person show, it was just very overwhelming,” Jami remembers.

At first, Jami tried Mindbody “because everybody else was using it.” But she quickly became aggravated with the complexity of the software and began seeking an alternative solution. Pike13 was the easy choice.

“I just really liked the simplicity. It seamlessly integrated into my CRM system–which other systems do too, but Pike13 just felt so easy. It was such a relief.”

The Results

Immediately, Jami noticed that she had a better system for everything. In particular, Jami values the KPIs and analytics that are automatically generated in Pike13, and that she might not have otherwise considered. Pike13 reporting helped Jami discover that it’s not just about the number of enrollments; it’s about new clients and those clients who've had their last visit within the past 30 days.

“Pike13 became the hub of my company–and still is. Immediately it felt like every client, every staff member, every class on my schedule and every data point had a home in Pike13 that made sense for it to live in.”

Pike13 has also been integral to Jami’s franchise growth. She's no longer stressed out about onboarding new owners because of the way Pike13 easily stamps out new sites.

“I feel really comfortable with the platform in terms of educating my staff, but Pike13’s customer service is so responsive that I don’t have to add a person to my headquarters staff to be a Pike13 guru. Because of the customer service experience, I’m able to just point my franchise owners there.”

Perhaps best of all, Jami knows that Pike13 will be a partner to her business no matter how big the franchise gets. She trusts the support and reliability of the Pike13 system.

“It’s the lifeblood of our company. Knowing that I can add twenty more units and Pike13 will scale with us really gives me peace of mind.”