If you are a business owner running classes, you know all about the ‘uber’ parent. They enroll their children in classes, and the most important job for them is to drop and pick their kids up. That one job is often a complex logistical affair filled with confusion — especially if you have multiple children attending different classes on different days.

As a thought experiment, ask yourself:

• Do the parents know what the students were taught in the last class? 

• Do they know if their kids are learning a skill or improving? 

• Do they see any of the efforts made in the actual teaching?

• Do they see the value that you provide? 

What’s the problem? ⚠️

Take Mark, who runs a Dance Studio. He spends a lot of time preparing for classes, creating lesson plans, giving practice homework, sharing YouTube videos, and following up in the next class to see progress. The problem? None of this is done in a structured way.

• Lesson plans are Word documents on his laptop 

• Students get instructions verbally or via email/WhatsApp 

• Parents pay upfront and don’t really engage 

Some teachers try using WhatsApp or SMS to update parents, but this ends up generic and not personalized for each student.

Churn and Drop-Off 📉

The most common impact is churn. Parents don’t see the value, or students lose interest, causing them to drop off. Even if students continue, it feels like everyone is going through the motions rather than actually improving.

Our research shows parents are interested — they just need quick, bite-sized updates. Anything longer than 45 seconds is often ignored. Parents want to know:

• What their kids are doing 

• How they are performing on homework, tests, and competitions

• If they are getting better 

Generic information feels like announcements, not personalized insight.

The Solution 💡

Many industries are tackling this through technology. Schools use platforms like Compass or Canvas to engage parents. But large enterprise software is often too costly or time-consuming for small businesses.

Key principles for a solution:

• Mobile-friendly, bite-sized updates 

• Centralised info for a 360-degree view of each child 

• Easy to implement — ideally works on the phone 

• Intuitive and simple — less is more 

• Cost-effective, ideally free for parents 

Increasing Parent Engagement Through Outcoach 🌟

At Outcoach, we wanted to support small business owners in creating the next generation of athletes, artists, musicians, dancers, and leaders. After talking to 50+ business owners, we created a platform to solve this problem simply.

Features include:

• Coaches can set and track goals for students 

• Coaches can assign homework, with students marking them as completed 

• Test and competition results logged to track progress 

• Coaches and students can provide feedback and reflections 

• Coaches can share photos and videos for personalized feedback 

Parents see all of this on their mobile for free! 

Benefits 🌈

When parents see the effort being made:

• Engagement increases, reducing churn 

• Potential revenue growth through recommendations and reviews 

• Justification for price increases becomes easier without friction 

Engaging parents benefits small businesses in multiple ways. Platforms like Outcoach make engagement easy, mobile-first, and bite-sized. Students also feel accountable as progress is tracked — because as the adage goes: you can only improve what gets measured. 

Summary ✅

Engaging parents through mobile-friendly platforms:

• Reduces churn 

• Increases perceived value of classes 

• Boosts student accountability 

• Potentially improves business revenue and parent satisfaction 

Sometimes, one more app on a parent’s phone might literally change the game.