Van Der Meer Tennis

A decade of success using online camp management software

Background

Van Der Meer Tennis (VDMT) is a world-renowned tennis facility located on beautiful Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. VDMT has two facilities on the island which cater to students of all ages and abilities. Coached by PTR certified instructors, VDMT’s offerings include clinics, camps, daily programs, and private instruction. VDMT is also home to the Van Der Meer Tennis Academy, an internationally acclaimed program for tournament players.

VDMT has been using Active Network’s camp management software to help run its youth and adult camps and clinics for the past 10 years.

Keys to success from Brandon Arent, director of sales

On average, how many people participate in your programs each year?
We have approximately 2000 registrations each year for our 160+ programs, which has been fairly consistent. Now that the economy is improving, we are starting to see some growth.

How long have you been an Active Network customer?
We began using Active in December 2001.

Why were you looking for camp management software?
Prior to Active, we were just using a Microsoft Access database for registration. We would accept paper registrations and then have to input them manually into the system. It took too much time and wasn’t easy to access information. The system just didn’t suit our needs and wasn’t scalable.

Why did you choose Active?
Active had all the functionality we needed at an affordable price. online registration was obviously an important feature to have, but overall it was really easy to add and delete programs. The technology was user-friendly enough to allow us to go with the flow and make changes on the fly. It was everything we were looking for.

What do you use the technology for?
We mainly use Active for our youth and adult camps, which we run year round. Our clients enjoy the convenience of registering and paying online, so that is probably the most valuable feature. Plus, online registration really cuts down on the workload of our staff.

For most of us, our favorite function is the account update or account creation features. It’s quite efficient, really quick and simple. All the information we need is in one place.

Do you use any of the built-in communication tools?
We use the Communication Center quite a bit. When people register, they receive an automatic confirmation email, which is tailored to the program they signed up for. We also send pre- and post-camp emails to the students, which we can filter by type of program so the emails are targeted.

Do you use the reporting features?
We really like the financial reports, they are very detailed. Our accountant runs transaction reports every two weeks to help reconcile payments. I also use the sales reports for forecasting and to get a picture of where our revenue is at.

What has your experience been like with customer support?
The support team has been very helpful. Whenever I call, I can get someone on the line quickly and they are knowledgeable. I also appreciate that they usually follow up with me to make sure everything is resolved and on track.

Do you have any quantitative benefits you can share? What improvements have you seen from using the camp management software?
We saved hours and hours of time from automating our manual processes—I can’t even put a number on it. As far as money, we’ve saved about $1,000 in postage alone because we used to mail out all of our confirmations. Not to mention the cost and hassle of using all that paper. Overall, it’s just much easier with Active’s technology. Plus, they are always improving the system to make it even better.