The vast amount of essential day-to-day aspects of camp management is comprised of tedious tasks that are time-consuming and labor intensive. They are sometimes harder to perform depending on the changing weather condition. In order to deliver quality service for your guests and clients, camp managers and camp organizers will greatly benefit from best camp management software (CMS). It is a reliable tool in delivering excellent customer service.
CMS is a software package that is specifically built for camp administrators and organizers. This software has the capability to modernize the way you run your camp facility by automating and streamlining all the administrative back-office functions that are often overwhelming and complicated to accomplish. But by automating all these tasks, camp administrators will be able to allot more time in making camp programs more engaging and successful.
Features That Need to be Considered When Choosing CMS
When it comes to selecting the right CMS package for your camp, it is vital to know the things that you need and what you must have. With that in mind, you will be able to compare software packages and know how you can take advantage of its benefits. The implementation of the right CMS package, ideally, is the key to efficiently and effectively running your camp business. On the list below are the key features that you must have in your software package.
- Camping Program Management. Easily handle the complexity of any of your camping programs through the help of CMS. With this software, you can effectively streamline the facilitation of all your programs without a hitch. You can arrange any program and activities, schedule, location, capacity, transportation, equipment, staff deployment and other camping program related tasks. It processes according to your clients’ needs as well as provide custom reports, statistics, and additional services. In an event of an accident, you can also provide a medical report. Arranging these programs can start as soon as a client successfully registered through phone or walk-ins and now, with CMS, through online registration.
- Staff Management. Easily manage all aspects of staffing of your entire operation to keep it going with the help of staff management that is featured by CMS. This will save you from the embarrassment and what it could possibly cost when you understaff or overstaff your operation. Just set the parameters based on how you conduct your operation. Then upon registration of guests, this feature will automatically process all the details. It will tell you exactly how much staff you need according to the number of guest and the skills required and designation. This is to be able to perform specific tasks when facilitating your camp operation. Also, this feature will let you manage all the staff that operates and maintains your facility. You can also keep track of your applicants and the person you need to call whenever you are going to need extra staff.
- Online Camp Registration and Payment Options. One of the best features of this software is its convenience.It provides parents and campers the ability to register whenever and wherever they are at any given time. Also, with the help of automated email confirmation receipts, automatic-billing reminders will provide campers up-to-date communications. Further, an optimal CMS usually provides editing tools that are easy for non-technical staff to use. This makes for an easy creation of customizable web registration forms that will match the look and feel of your camp’s website.
- Marketing Management. Every business needs to have a proper way of marketing their products and services in order to bring profit to the table that keeps the business afloat. Having this feature in your software package will help you to easily make robust marketing strategies. That will greatly increase your revenue by keeping you aware of the ideal market to work with, opportunities, targets and leads that can be converted into a potential client. CMS can help you in the marketing of your merchandise and services through email marketing and social media marketing. Also, the best camp management software will provide you the opportunity to sell merchandise, camp store products and equipment while campers are doing their online registration.
- Sales Management. With the use of this software, camp managers will be able to efficiently develop sales force, coordinate sales operations and implementing sales techniques that let camps to hit its sales targets. Also, in order to invest on additional income streams, it is wise to look for a software that receives stand-alone sales. Your camp will also be able to sell merchandise all throughout the year. Some of the more popular CMS packages let parents of campers deposit money toward the camp store account. Afterward, it records camp store purchase history that can be monitored and tracked using the provided online camper accounts.
- Cloud Based. When searching for a CMS package, you should find a provider that ensures the security of their services on the cloud. It should also enable you to have access to your data at any given time and will have regular data backups. The right software provider has the ability to make accounts with exact access criteria that can be used by camp staff.
- Additional Bonus Features. It is wise to search for CMS products that do more than just registrations; you also need to consider looking for a technology partner. It must offer a wide array of solutions like online donations and conference center registrations as well as custom website design and web content management tools. Preferably, a software with a complete solution that will effectively modernize all aspects of administration. It provides camp managers the ability to assess and evaluate participant through customer relationship management (CRM). The revenue data delivers real-time reports for efficient accounting and increases camper sign-ups. Additionally, you will need a CMS that has the capability to record and monitor donors and alumni. It is wise to ensure that the vendor is capable of processing donations within the application in order to be able to request families to grant gifts to you campership and sponsorship program.
What Are the Benefits of CMS?
There are numerous benefits that camp management software can provide to campers and parents alike such as camp websites, online accounts as well as different communication options. Camp managers can also enjoy a paperless office environment as every administrative process is already automated. Aside from these, the following are some of the other benefits it provides:
- Cost and Time Saving. An efficient CMS helps to greatly lower the administrative time and cost. They are related to the registration of new and returning guest, security of site and personnel identification, assignment and transferring of guests to their respective rooms, work schedule assignment to guest in order to have exact room booking. It also includes entering and tracking of food services traffic, attendance monitoring and reporting as well as preparing invoice and business reporting.
- Accuracy. This software also allows project owners to work more productively and with an outstanding degree of certainty. This happens by being able to integrate with travel and room reservation tools that provide camp managers and organizers to set business rules. Reporting in episodes as regards to accommodation and food service charges by sub-contractor, shift, type of trade, time period. Effective reporting likewise reflects an accommodation report of guests.
- Data Safety. It is highly recommended that a CMS should have the excellent performance. It is particular when it comes to data encryption, user authentication, permissions, security, reliability and backup.
How to Pick the Right CMS?
With the foregoing features and benefits, finding and deciding what will be the right camp management software for you would definitely seem like a tough job. Below are some key indicators to help you breeze through this seemingly tedious task:
- Ensure That it Has Functional Features. It cannot be denied that running a camp is not an easy task.Given the many complicated details that camp managers have to attend to, it is imperative that the CMS that you will be acquiring should have provisions for all these tasks. It lets you do them in a timely and efficient manner. You also have to ensure that the CMS can be utilized to generate reports of every data that is entered into it.
- Make Sure That the Software Provides Task Schedulers. Monitoring every single detail regarding your camp’s operational tasks is definitely a challenge even if you are a seasoned camp manager. With this, you have to ensure that an option for scheduling important tasks is a part of the package you are going to put into operation. This is in order to monitor them easily and to be prompted regarding these tasks at the right time.
- Confirm if the Software Supports Multi-users at the Same Time. A good CMS should have the capability to support the number of users that are logged in without the lagging and crashing.
When searching for best camp management software, it is imperative that you take into consideration the above mentioned features, benefits, and key indicators. It is because the success and efficiency of your camp greatly depend on it. Check out Crowdreviews.com for client reviews for more pointers and insights.
Latest posts by Tom Lewis (see all)
- How Can the Best Nonprofit Software Benefit Your Organization? - January 13, 2017
- Why Is It Crucial to Choose the Best Database Management Software? - January 12, 2017
- What Is the Right Enterprise Resource Management for Your Business? - January 10, 2017