VP of Marketing Shana Krisan Talks to 360 Magazine About the Golden Experience

Goldfish Swim School has always been dedicated to creating a customer experience tailored for busy parents searching for an ideal place to get their kids comfortable in the water. VP of Marketing Shana Krisan was interviewed by 360 Magazine about our company’s continued commitment to providing a safe, comfortable space for kids to learn about water safety even amid shutdowns due to the pandemic.

A Consistent History of the Golden Experience

Long before the pandemic, the marketing team (developed by Shana almost seven years ago) has always promoted the “Golden Experience,” which includes an approach that emphasizes water safety while making it as enjoyable as possible. We call this our Science of Swimplay, and it’s what has been driving our franchise owners to make adjustments because of COVID-19.

Creating a customer experience tailored to members, our franchise owners have helped Goldfish Swim School grow to 111 schools—with over 137schools in development—in 30 states, and Canada. Before the pandemic forced many locations to shut down temporarily, Goldfish Swim franchises were collectively teaching over 138,000 students per week. This is primarily due to how our franchise owners care for the families who visit our locations across the country.

During the 360 Magazine interview, Shana said the marketing team sent customer surveys to members to gauge what would make them feel safe about coming back.

“The feedback was clear,” she said. “Approximately 30% of customers said they would likely not return until a COVID-19 vaccine has been developed and made available.” This data informed much of what we were already doing and only confirmed that we were making the right moves to keep our franchise owners and our swim families safe.

Our “Stronger, Safer, Together” Initiative

Our marketing team has had to think long and hard about what they wanted to convey to our members while we were all in lockdown mode. Shana told 360, “It was not so much about selling at that point, since all our locations were shut down. It was more a question of how can we continue to instill the trust Goldfish has in our members.”

Even now, with many of our locations reopened, parents might be understandably wary about taking their children outside of their homes. Shana made a point to tell 360 about our “Stronger, Safer, Together” initiative that ensures staff and members practice social distancing and have personal protective equipment like face masks available. Franchise owners have all been amazing stewards in communicating our health and safety procedures to families. Even while all locations were shut down, it was always important to us that parents still understood safety was (and is always) paramount.

In addition, Shana and her marketing team are taking a more experimental approach with the customer experience to include testing programs that only run twice per week for more flexibility and offering a referral program to help get more members through the doors.

“There’s a lot you can measure on the marketing side,” Shana told 360, “but you can’t always measure the feelings and the intent that parents have.”

We always want to assess and rework our curriculum to suit our member’s needs and measure what we can to understand how to keep them engaged and confident in us.

Read the full 360 Magazine interview here: https://360magazine.com/2020/11/23/goldfish-swim-school-experience/

If you want to be a part of a family of franchise owners who care about members and work tirelessly to ensure their health and safety, contact us today to get started!