All-Star Dear Cheer Coach....

[prettycheermom]

Ugh... It is so hard to defend parents sometimes. The bad apples are such a small group, but my God they are a ridiculous bunch! I swear most of us love our gyms and the coaches - we wouldn't be there if we didn't.

I shimmy this a billion times, I feel we all get punished sometimes because of the BAD APPLES. Just-a-Mom I'm in Illinois and we are a piece of work. I sit back and just do a whole lot of listening and SMH all at the same time, but I so LOVE CHEER
Sorry kind of got off the topic a bit...

 

[dawgshow]

Forgive me for being naive, but for questions like these, doesn't it seem like it would be easier to have these go into a generic email bucket and have front desk people (if available) reply to these? Or a team mom for the practice-type questions....

Some gyms do have team parents who answer general questions. Unfortunately, there are a few parents who won't believe it unless it comes from the head coach or owner.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

Forgive me for being naive, but for questions like these, doesn't it seem like it would be easier to have these go into a generic email bucket and have front desk people (if available) reply to these? Or a team mom for the practice-type questions....

dawgshow already covered it, but for some reason people think that if they take privates or talk to the coaches or drink with them or whatever that that means that they are now friends (which they very well may be) so now the rules of common sense and common courtesy no longer apply to them. So they're logic is "oh, I'll just email coach so-n-so because we're friends. I'm more important than the other moms so why should I deal with that front desk girl?" I would imagine 90% of the emails coaches (and even owners) get are things that could be sent to a generic email or could even just wait. The only times I've ever contacted a coach directly is with regards to privates or "we're at competition but we can't find you" (we don't have team moms). Everything else goes to the gym email and the one lady decides who it should go to.

 

[CheerBank]

dawgshow already covered it, but for some reason people think that if they take privates or talk to the coaches or drink with them or whatever that that means that they are now friends (which they very well may be) so now the rules of common sense and common courtesy no longer apply to them. So they're logic is "oh, I'll just email coach so-n-so because we're friends. I'm more important than the other moms so why should I deal with that front desk girl?" I would imagine 90% of the emails coaches (and even owners) get are things that could be sent to a generic email or could even just wait. The only times I've ever contacted a coach directly is with regards to privates or "we're at competition but we can't find you" (we don't have team moms). Everything else goes to the gym email and the one lady decides who it should go to.

That's definitely a whole other can of worms - parents who kiss coach/owner booty and who think the rules don't apply to them because after all they are "friends" with the coach and are in the coach's "inner circle." In my world, the coaches are not my "friends". I do not drink with them nor do favors for them that are beyond what any normal person would do. They coach my cp, we go to their gym, follow the rules, end of story. But if I send an email I would like a response within a reasonable time frame even if it's to say the questions I asked can be answered on the website or at the upcoming parent meeting.

 

[JulieP]

I can't believe I'm going to argue with you in your new mom state, but here goes.

Somehow I doubt you're the type of parent that I am talking about. From my conversations with you, I gather that you're a parent who "gets it". I totally understand that cheer is expensive and that many parents are juggling tons of different financial and other responsibilities (work, family, home, etc). My issue is not one of responding to most emails in a timely manner- it's the snarky, insulting emails that will probably result in me taking longer to reply. If a parent is really out of line, I am most likely not going to reply to their email and instead pull them aside at our gym (which might be a few days later).

That being said, I might be singing a different tune when the little JulieP is on teams and not just 15 days old.

 

[xtremeteal4life]

practice starts when everyone feels like getting there

We put the kids we don't like on youth 2

tuition is however much you feel like paying

mandatory practice wear is optional for you

lol

 

[xtremeteal4life]

I have an idea...how about the coaches use their filters on their email accounts (like gmail does) and have specific people routed to those folders? For example, the people NJ coach is referring to-the kids (or the parents of said kids) they put on youth 2 bc they don't like them for instance , or the psycho parents who call/text/email 5 times a day, or the consistently late tuition payers, have them automatically sent to said labeled folders. Then the "normal" ones, or the ones whom you feel would/should have a higher priority get sent to the "good" folder. That way you know which ones you should answer first, thus saving you time....

 

[xtremeteal4life]

That's definitely a whole other can of worms - parents who kiss coach/owner booty and who think the rules don't apply to them because after all they are "friends" with the coach and are in the coach's "inner circle." In my world, the coaches are not my "friends". I do not drink with them nor do favors for them that are beyond what any normal person would do. They coach my cp, we go to their gym, follow the rules, end of story. But if I send an email I would like a response within a reasonable time frame even if it's to say the questions I asked can be answered on the website or at the upcoming parent meeting.

I am (friends w/most of the coaches), spend time w/them, etc....BUT I don't think that automatically means my little suzy should be point flyer when she can't do a scorpion, etc. *I know you're not specifically referring to me or any one person and I wasn't offended by your post, I just wanted to point out to "those" parents that just bc you are friends doesn't mean you should assume your CP is going to get to do what you want. I find that actually demeaning to a true friendship to be honest (if the "friendship" was intended to be sincere that is)

 

[NJ Coach]

I'm waiting for my hate emails as we speak

 

[xtremeteal4life]

I'm waiting for my hate emails as we speak

 

[TwistersPride]

Forgive me for being naive, but for questions like these, doesn't it seem like it would be easier to have these go into a generic email bucket and have front desk people (if available) reply to these? Or a team mom for the practice-type questions....

my program is to small for this to be an option. i wish it was. it would make my life much easier.

BTW- this thread makes me feel guilty for being on here and not checking emails (yes- i'm currently caught up.... i think......)

 

[fiercechick101]

Customer Service needs to exist in the cheer world. Owners and coaches need to be as responsive as any other business representative that values their customers.

I personally would not care how many emails they get a day; it's the nature of the beast and a part of the career they have chosen. If certain gym reps are to busy to respond then they need to develop a communication plan and work to resolve the issues they have with being responsive. So glad this is not an issue at my CP's gym.

 

[notyourcheermom]

We have team moms that you are supposed to communicate through, if appropriate. The coach sends an email or a text, if whole team related, to team mom and she pushes forward and then you "reply" to team mom if you have questions, comments, or concerns and she gets back with HC and then responds, which is another forwarded e-mail. Team moms are not to come up with their own answers or speak for gym, but consolidate everyone's same question into one and then responds. We "moms" also figure out which team mom is the quickest on forwarding texts or e-mails and will forward onto your cheer mom gym friend if they have a team mom that is, I don't know, at lunch or something and there is only 20 spots for some specific class. The HC does seriously look into it and the "team mom" will get replaced if she can't communicate effectively and timely for her team. It works pretty good.

Something happened to the credit card machine last week, I'm out of checks, but after reading post about paying employees, mortgage, etc., I went to ATM tonight and took out the money to hand over tomorrow. Hate going to the bank and love using my debit card, but if everyone has been waiting on machine to show up, she's got to be in a bind.

 

[AScheer]

I can see both sides, but from a coaches perspective let me give you one example of what some parents are like:

A couple of years ago I left for a family vacation in May. I told all the parents what coaches to address their questions to and that if there were an emergency I would be checking my phone periodically throughout the trip. I check my phone the first night of my vacation to find 5 missed calls/voicemails, 2 texts, and an email all from the same mother, and all stating that she had an "emergency" I need to call her immediately. The last two voicemails were nasty ones claiming I was ignoring her, blah blah blah. The "emergency" she was referring to was wanting to know what size t-shirt I ordered for her daughter the week before!

Most my parents are great, but there are the few bad apples of the bunch that make it bad for everyone! While most the emails are things that have been addressed multiple times, many of them require for me to actually sit down and put thought into, and those sometimes get pushed aside until I have a moment to get to them. I've gotten to the point after 5 years that I don't answer my phone unless I know the number and if you're a problem parent, I'm not going to answer at all. This year we have a message board (fb gave me the idea!) and it's been great! My amount of emails has gone down by 50%. And since whatever anyone posts is viewable to the rest of the program, parents seem to have more of a filter, because they know others will see it.

I did just get caught up on emails by the way! Voicemails however... there are 70 unread.

 

[AllstarErin]

I will never understand why 'problem parents' stay at a gym if they hate it so much. I have had parents complain about how horrible and awful everything is and yet they continue to stay and pay fees? If you don't like it find somewhere else and stop torturing the poor souls at the program you claim to hate!