Old Clients and New Policies in your equine lesson program.

They won’t always mix, and that’s ok.

One of the toughest things about implementing a new policy, is getting your older clients on board with it.

Just to give you a little background on my experience with this: The “old me” was able to text each parent individually, and make the rules up as I go in regards to rescheduling etc. this is when I had no more than 15 clients. Now, I have approx. 100 students, 3 total instructors, and a full time scheduling and admin coordinator with very little room for rescheduling.

So, getting some of the old clients onto my new system was a bit difficult. Clients now have to book their own sessions through the membership portal on the academy website. There are quite a few new updated policies and procedures that came along with the new system, and access to me became a bit tougher as well as our coordinator runs the schedule for all instructors.

For the clients that do not want to comply with your new policies and procedures, wish them the best. They will only make it tougher on you in the future. You put policies and procedures in place for a reason. You have bills to pay, and your time is valuable. Your clients need to respect your processes.

You will always have those few who do not want to bend and want things to be the way they once were. Don’t give in. This will contribute to the reputation that you have, and the one that you are building. You want the “outside world” to know that you mean business and you stick to your policies and procedures. This is very very important because it will also set the tone for new clients coming in (still be reasonable and work with the clients who communicate, we all need to understand that life does happen sometimes).

Any new clients coming in on the new policies and procedures, will pick them up instantly as long as you set the tone up front. Enforce the new rules on your old clients, and have your policies and procedures preferably on your website so people can see them prior to coming to your program, or get them to the new clients some how at the start of enrollment at your program.

Now, always make sure to give clients enough time to receive the information before making the new policy. I recommend no shorter than 30 days notice for any price increases OR major procedure changes. However, some policies do need to go into effect immediately.

Now is the perfect time to roll out new policies and procedures for the new year. Check out my last blog post “Policies and Procedures to Roll Out in the New Year” to see what policies you should absolutely have in the new year.

For my full course on policies and procedure, click here!