BMABA Trials: Free Taster Bookings and Lead Management

BMABA Trials gives your club a professional, branded page where prospective students can book a free taster session, and it gives you a private dashboard to manage every one of those enquiries from first contact through to joining. It replaces the scramble of Facebook messages, scraps of paper and missed follow-ups with one tidy place that lives inside your MyBMABA account.

It is built around three jobs: capturing new leads cleanly, helping you convert them into members, and doing all of that in a way that protects the prospect's personal information and your club at the same time.

A prospective student visits your taster booking page and picks a class. They enter their details (and a parent or guardian's details if the participant is a child), agree to anything you have asked them to, and submit. The booking lands instantly in your dashboard as a new lead, and you get an email alert. You then work that lead through a simple pipeline, message them securely if you need to, and when they decide to join you convert them, which creates their record in your Club Manager. If a class is full, they can join a waiting list instead.

Nothing is automatic that should not be. You are always the one who decides when a lead is contacted, converted, or emailed a follow-up.

Every club has its own public booking page. You control which of your classes appear on it, so you can promote just your beginner-friendly sessions if you prefer. The page carries your logo, your colours and your welcome text, so it looks like your club rather than a generic form.

When someone books, the page is sensible about dates. For a class with space, they can pick from your genuine upcoming session dates. For a class that is full and running a waiting list, the date step is hidden and they simply join the list, because there is no point promising a date you cannot yet offer.

You will find the exact web address for your page, plus an embed code to drop it into your own website, on the Manage Classes tab.

Your dashboard is organised into tabs.

Bookings is your main pipeline. Every lead has a status, and you move them along as things happen:

At the top of this tab you get live figures for total bookings, converted, pending and your conversion rate, and a "Where are your leads coming from?" breakdown so you can see at a glance whether Facebook, Google or the BMABA Club Finder is bringing you the most enquiries.

Upcoming Sessions shows who is booked into which session and when, so you can see your newcomers for the week ahead. It offers both a list and a calendar view.

Waiting List collects everyone waiting for a full class, kept separate from your live bookings so the two do not get muddled.

Manage Classes is where you choose which classes appear publicly, tailor each one, turn a waiting list on or off per class, and copy your booking page URL and embed code.

Email Workflows is where you write and send your follow-up emails (covered in its own section below).

Settings is where you brand the page and configure the tool (also covered below).

This is the part that keeps your data clean, so it is worth understanding.

The classes shown on your taster page are pulled directly from your existing Club Manager classes. You do not set anything up twice: if it is a class you already run, it is available to offer as a taster.

Crucially, trial leads are held in the Trials tool's own separate store, not in your member records. A curious prospect who books a taster and never comes back does not clutter up your roster or your CRM. They only become a proper record when you decide they should.

That moment is conversion. When you convert a lead, the tool creates a student record in your Club Manager, creates a linked parent or guardian record if the participant is a child, and can enrol them into the class they tried. The new student is created as inactive, so it sits ready for you to take forward through your normal joining process rather than silently going live. From that point the lead is linked to their new record and cannot be converted a second time.

Until you convert a lead, their contact details stay deliberately masked in the dashboard (more on that next). Conversion is the handover point where a prospect becomes a member you are managing properly.

BMABA Trials is designed so that a club handles prospect data responsibly by default.

Contact details are masked until conversion. Email addresses and phone numbers for a lead are hidden in the dashboard until you mark them Converted. This means a prospect's personal contact information is not sitting exposed while they are still just an enquiry, and it nudges everyone towards proper handling.

Secure messaging instead of raw email addresses. You can message a lead without ever seeing or handling their email address (see the next section).

Assumption-of-risk consent. You can switch on a short participation and assumption-of-risk note that appears on your booking form, which the person must tick to confirm they have read before they can book. We provide sensible generic wording that you are free to edit. It is a light protection for the club and does not replace a formal waiver.

Right to erasure (cleanse). If someone asks you to remove their data, or you simply want to tidy old leads, you can cleanse a booking. This permanently reduces the lead to an initial and a masked surname and wipes their date of birth, email, phone, medical notes, message and technical details, and deletes your message thread and notes with them. Two things to know: it is permanent and cannot be undone, and it only ever affects the Trials tool. It never touches a student record you have already created in your Club Manager or the main CRM. A cleansed lead can no longer be emailed or converted.

Inside any lead you will find a secure message thread. When you send a message, it goes out as a branded email from your club, and the person replies through a secure link in that email. Their reply appears back in the thread. You get an email alert when they reply, and clicking it takes you straight to the lead management page.

This is your open, unlimited channel with a prospect. It is separate from the follow-up workflow emails and is never rate-limited, so a genuine back-and-forth conversation is never interrupted.

Chasing leads is where conversions are won or lost, so the tool lets you write your follow-up emails once and send them in a click.

Two separate sets of templates. One set is for normal booking leads (welcome, reminder, after-class follow-up, a gentle nudge if they were a no-show, and a polite closing message). The other is for your waiting list (a check-in to reassure people they are still on the list, a "a space has opened up" message, a warm welcome when they come off the list into a place, and a kind goodbye if they have waited too long). We seed both sets with starter wording you can edit or switch off.

You write it, we handle the rest. Each template has a subject and a body, a live preview, and merge fields such as {first_name}, {class}, {date}, {time}, {location} and {club} that fill themselves in per lead. The class details are added to the foot of every email automatically, so the essentials are always included.

Sending is manual and one click. Open a lead, go to the "Send an email" section, pick the right template for that lead (the tool shows the correct set automatically depending on whether they are a normal booking or on the waiting list), preview it, and send. A small log records what you have already sent and when.

Gentle limits so no one gets spammed. To protect your leads and your club's reputation, follow-up emails are capped: for booking leads, one per lead per day and four in total; for waiting-list check-ins, one every seven days. The important messages (a space is available, welcome in, goodbye) are exempt so they always get through. Nothing can be sent to a lead you have cleansed. As above, your secure message thread does not count towards any of this.

On the Settings tab you can:

On Manage Classes you choose which classes are public, customise each one, turn the waiting list on or off per class, and grab your booking page URL and embed code.

Get your booking page live. Go to Manage Classes, switch on the classes you want to offer as tasters, then copy your booking page URL (or the embed code) and share it on your website and social media.

Brand your page. Go to Settings, add your logo, set your colours and write a friendly welcome title and intro.

Turn on a waiting list for a full class. Go to Manage Classes, find the class, and enable its waiting list. You can add a short custom message that waiting-list bookers will see.

Work a new lead. Open it from the Bookings tab, review their details and any message, and update the status as things progress. Use the secure thread to talk to them.

Send a follow-up. Open the lead, go to "Send an email", pick a template, preview and send. If you want to change the wording first, edit the template under Email Workflows.

Convert a lead who has joined. Open the lead and mark them Converted. This creates their (inactive) student record in your Club Manager and can enrol them in the class, ready for you to take forward. Their contact details unlock at this point.

Handle an erasure request. Open the lead and cleanse it. Remember this is permanent and only affects the Trials tool.

Are the follow-up emails automatic?
No. In this version everything is manual and one click. You write the templates, and nothing goes out until you send it, so you always know exactly what has been sent and when.

Why can't I see a lead's email or phone number?
They are masked on purpose until you convert the lead. This protects the prospect's personal information while they are still an enquiry. You can still message them securely without seeing the address, and the details unlock automatically on conversion.

How do I message a lead if I cannot see their email?
Use the secure message thread inside the lead. It sends a branded email from your club and lets them reply through a secure link, without exposing their address to you.

What actually happens when I convert a lead?
The tool creates a student record in your Club Manager (and a linked guardian record if it is a child), can enrol them in the class, and sets the record to inactive for you to take forward. The lead is then linked to that record.

Will converting create a duplicate if they are already a member?
Conversion always creates a new student record from the trial details, so if the person already exists in your Club Manager, check first to avoid a duplicate.

Can someone book a class that is full?
Only if you have switched on that class's waiting list. Otherwise a full class cannot be booked. With a waiting list on, they join the list instead of booking a date.

How often can I email a lead?
Booking follow-ups are limited to one per lead per day and four in total. Waiting-list check-ins are limited to one every seven days. The key messages (space available, welcome in, goodbye) are always allowed. Your secure conversation thread is never limited.

Where do my new-booking and reply alerts go?
To the alert email you set under Settings. If you are not receiving them, check that address is correct.

Do the emails come from BMABA or from my club?
They are branded as your club and sent through BMABA's secure sending system. Replies come back to you through the secure thread or your reply-to address.

What if a lead has no email address on file?
You will not be able to email them. For a child, the tool sends to the parent or guardian's email.

Does cleansing a lead affect their membership record?
No. Cleansing only affects the Trials tool. If you have already converted them, their Club Manager and CRM record is untouched.

Is cleansing reversible?
No. It is permanent, so only cleanse when you are sure.