LearningRx centers sell one-on-one brain training services. It is important to understand the programs to be able to discuss the company intelligently.
LearningRx Inc sells its franchisees books and materials to do brain training. The names of the books become names of programs
ThinkRx is always at least 12-weeks in duration. I saw this sold as a program in 24-week or even 36-week ThinkRx program chunks.
When a student does a ReadRx program, they are working in both the ThinkRx and ReadRx books and the program is at least 24-weeks long. ReadRx is focused on looking at written (nonsense) words and reading them. In itself it is not a reading comprehension program.
When a student does a MathRx program, they are working in both the ThinkRx and MathRx books and the program is at least 24-weeks long. MathRx is focused on elementary skills such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, fractions, and logic skills.
ReadRx and MathRx are never done as stand-alone programs, but always along with ThinkRx.
As you might guess, the company has a program that includes ThinkRx, ReadRx, and MathRx which it calls Einstein and the program is 36-weeks long.
In recent years, the company has added other programs. LiftOff is like ThinkRx, but directed at younger children. It is also at least a 12-week program.
ComprehendRx is a reading comprehension program that is included
with other programs. If a student knows how to read words on the page,
but doesn't comprehend what is being read, this is the focus of this
program.
BrainSkills is called the "digital product" which you can think of as software games played on the Internet. It is in direct competition with http://lumosity.com, but costs ten or fifteen times as much.
By the by, when you hear about studies being done on LearningRx programs, BrainSkills is being used. One-on-one brain training is incredibly difficult and expensive to do research because it is "customized to each individual student" and is incredibly dependent on the "skills of the trainer." When you hear that LearningRx doesn't have research backing it up, the only exception might be BrainSkills.
Even as I write this and previous posts, various customer, employee, and franchisee complaints come to my mind. Not all complaints are true and not all complaintns are equally true. Please be patient and I'll deal with the complaints in depth once I think we can do it with you having a deeper understanding of the company.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Friday, November 22, 2013
The Cost of LearningRx
As stated in a previous post, if you call asking for a range of prices, LearningRx will avoid answering the question. This is true when you call, but it is also true on the Internet. On its own website, LearningRx evades the question of costs when it answers the question of costs. Why?
Because they want you to be get all caught up in the emotions during the sales process before you are told the prices. By going through the assessment, you start to get curious and you watch the marketing video. You want to see what the assessment finds. During the consultation, by talking about your son or daughter, you'll have emotions rise to the surface. I'll say it again, "When mom begins to cry, she is ready to buy."
Telling you the cost when you are on the phone, objectively comparing different alternatives of where you might find help will not cause you to have a huge internal drive to shell out the money and commit to driving to the center every day or every other day for 24 weeks.
Here are the costs in a simple format:
12-week program: $3500 (partner) or $5000 (pro)
24-week program: $7000 (partner) or $10,000 (pro)
36-week program: $10,500 (partner) or $15,000 (pro)
Some centers use the digital product (BrainSkills) as the home training option. Others supplement the above with another $1000 cost to add the digital product to your program. Also, if you give signs that price is no cost, you'll get a bigger program.
In the center, the center director wasn't confident she could get results in a 12-week program so she would only sell that to motivated adult students. If it was a child, it would almost always be 16-weeks or more.
Know that the above prices vary depending on the center, because franchisees set their own pricing for their own market. In every market it is this simple.
[I'll explain the programs in another post: pro, partner, ThinkRx, ReadRx, MathRx, etc.... It won't all fit here.]
And in the ad that said that programs start at $1500 (to lure you in), that is talking about using BrainSkills only. I heard rumblings that some centers were setting up computer labs to do this training in the center or in schools, but it could also be done in the comfort of your own home.
Inside the center, the Center Director would always say that BrainSkills was inferior to one-on-one brain training that the results weren't nearly as good. Yet, she would sell BrainSkills when she didn't think parents would be able to afford the in-center training.
Drive up in a Lexus, drive away with LearningRx will be your nexus.... for the next 24 to 36 weeks.
Getting to a Price
We can make this very simple. If in a brief phone conversation, you tell me your child is behind in reading, we are talking $7000 to $10,000. If you tell me that you are also very concerned about her math skills, then you can increase that upper range to $15,000. If you only have concerns about math, then we are back to $7000 to $10,000. Why can't the person tell you this when you call instead of trying to press you into getting an assessment? Because she is told to avoid the cost question. Why?Because they want you to be get all caught up in the emotions during the sales process before you are told the prices. By going through the assessment, you start to get curious and you watch the marketing video. You want to see what the assessment finds. During the consultation, by talking about your son or daughter, you'll have emotions rise to the surface. I'll say it again, "When mom begins to cry, she is ready to buy."
Telling you the cost when you are on the phone, objectively comparing different alternatives of where you might find help will not cause you to have a huge internal drive to shell out the money and commit to driving to the center every day or every other day for 24 weeks.
Pricing Table
Here are the costs in a simple format:
12-week program: $3500 (partner) or $5000 (pro)
24-week program: $7000 (partner) or $10,000 (pro)
36-week program: $10,500 (partner) or $15,000 (pro)
Some centers use the digital product (BrainSkills) as the home training option. Others supplement the above with another $1000 cost to add the digital product to your program. Also, if you give signs that price is no cost, you'll get a bigger program.
In the center, the center director wasn't confident she could get results in a 12-week program so she would only sell that to motivated adult students. If it was a child, it would almost always be 16-weeks or more.
Know that the above prices vary depending on the center, because franchisees set their own pricing for their own market. In every market it is this simple.
[I'll explain the programs in another post: pro, partner, ThinkRx, ReadRx, MathRx, etc.... It won't all fit here.]
Reconciling to the Ad You Saw
And in the ad that said that programs start at $1500 (to lure you in), that is talking about using BrainSkills only. I heard rumblings that some centers were setting up computer labs to do this training in the center or in schools, but it could also be done in the comfort of your own home.
Inside the center, the Center Director would always say that BrainSkills was inferior to one-on-one brain training that the results weren't nearly as good. Yet, she would sell BrainSkills when she didn't think parents would be able to afford the in-center training.
Drive up in a Lexus, drive away with LearningRx will be your nexus.... for the next 24 to 36 weeks.
How LearningRx Turns Your Inquiry into an Assessment
This post will provide an example exchange between a concerned parent and the DFI at a LearningRx center. When you call, your goal is to obtain answers to your questions. I'll focus on the question that will be avoided the most: How much does the program cost?
The DFI has been trained to kindly (without you noticing) take control of the conversation by answering your question about cost with a question about your child. Notice this in the following conversation.
You: Hi, I got your flier in the mail for $50 off an assessment. I wonder how much your program costs.
DFI: That’s a good question, but it varies a lot for each individual student. What’s your child’s name?
You: Her name is Anne and she is 12 years old.
DFI: What are you seeing with Anne?
You: She really struggles to pay attention and her reading is below grade level.
DFI: The first step in finding the answers to your questions is to schedule an assessment. The assessment takes about an hour. Are you available on Monday at 10 AM or Wednesday at 9 AM?
You: Before we do that, I'd like to know how much the program costs.
DFI: That's a really good question. It varies from situation to situation because our program is customized to particular students. The director will help you discover that in the consultation, but the first step is the assessment. With your coupon the assessment will be only $199. Are you available on Monday at 10 AM or Wednesday at 9 AM?
You: Can you give me a range of how much the program costs?
DFI: The program is customized for each student, but the program
starts at $1700.
You finally got an answer, but it is not a 'true' answer. We'll fully discuss program costs in the next post.
The DFI has been trained to kindly (without you noticing) take control of the conversation by answering your question about cost with a question about your child. Notice this in the following conversation.
You: Hi, I got your flier in the mail for $50 off an assessment. I wonder how much your program costs.
DFI: That’s a good question, but it varies a lot for each individual student. What’s your child’s name?
You: Her name is Anne and she is 12 years old.
DFI: What are you seeing with Anne?
You: She really struggles to pay attention and her reading is below grade level.
DFI: The first step in finding the answers to your questions is to schedule an assessment. The assessment takes about an hour. Are you available on Monday at 10 AM or Wednesday at 9 AM?
You: Before we do that, I'd like to know how much the program costs.
DFI: That's a really good question. It varies from situation to situation because our program is customized to particular students. The director will help you discover that in the consultation, but the first step is the assessment. With your coupon the assessment will be only $199. Are you available on Monday at 10 AM or Wednesday at 9 AM?
You: Can you give me a range of how much the program costs?
DFI: The program is customized for each student, but the program
starts at $1700.
You finally got an answer, but it is not a 'true' answer. We'll fully discuss program costs in the next post.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
How You Can Help
You found this site. Now, please help others find it too.
- Add a link to your website or blog to this site or to a specific page on this site.
- Search "LearningRx Complaints" in your favorite browsers, look for this page, then click through.
I just started this morning and I can see the search engines are finding me, so the page ranks should start to come soon. Let's hope.
Many blessings,
Ex-LRX
Patience Please...
This blog is titled LearningRx Complaints, yet I still have a lot of groundwork to lay before dealing with the specific complaints. I'll tell you now that I am not going to agree with all of the complaints, but I am going to agree with some -- even some that are serious. Just be patient and let me get all of this into print so that you have background.
What I have written already will help you be an informed customer. This is true despite my knowing that every post has been cut in half and then half again before posting. I want each post to be focused and understandable and to lay a foundation for the full and fair analysis of this company and their practices.
Please be patient. I'm hurrying...
What I have written already will help you be an informed customer. This is true despite my knowing that every post has been cut in half and then half again before posting. I want each post to be focused and understandable and to lay a foundation for the full and fair analysis of this company and their practices.
Please be patient. I'm hurrying...
An Overview of the LearningRx Sales Process
The LearningRx system places a big priority on all employees being part of the sales process. It is something that everyone in every center is expected to understand. As a customer it is important to understand how this process works if you aren't going to be manipulated.
Conversion Percentage: 70% and above is excellent. This means that if ten people call, seven of them schedule an assessment.
At this time, you will be asked for the "intake form". This form asks you for a lot of information that will be used in the sales process.
Center personnel are told not to give too much information at the assessment because it lowers the percentage of parents who return for the consultation.
Conversion Percentage: 90% (or even 100%) is not uncommon.
You walk into the sales room wanting to know two things above all else.
The center director leads every aspect of this meeting. The colors of the room, the lighting, the configuration of the seating, the aroma are all determined by the center. If something was known to work, it would be done. But once you are in the meeting, the director directs you about how she does consultations. Almost all people follow her lead -- even if just because it is polite to do so.
The center director wants to delay discussion of results and the costs until you are ready to buy. High priced services aren't easy to sell, so there has to be a lot of motivation on your part to want the product. One of the most important aspects of this is emotion.
By having you express your concerns and your fears and your hopes and your dreams for your children, you are bringing your emotions to the surface. This often comes out in the form of tears (or both) -- usually by mom. The saying goes: "When you see mom cry, she's ready to buy."
When the director thinks you are ready, then you will be shown the assessment results and then the costs. And you'll be lead through the signup process which varied a bit from customer to customer even within one center.
At the end of the consultation, you'll be asked to answer a questionnaire. Everything you say in that questionnaire is read by the center director. If you didn't sign up already, this information is quite valuable in getting you to sign up later.
Conversion Percentage:
* 60% and above is excellent
* 50% and above is good
* 30% is frustratingly bad
Turning Phone Calls into Assessments
The goal of marketing is to get the phone to ring. That means you picking up your phone and calling your local LearningRx center. When you call, your goal is to obtain answers to your questions:- What does LearningRx do?
- How does it differ from tutoring?
- How much time does it take?
- How much does it cost?
Conversion Percentage: 70% and above is excellent. This means that if ten people call, seven of them schedule an assessment.
Turning Cognitive Skills Assessments into Consultations
LearningRx does the Woodcock-Johnson III assessments. In actuality, the center does a small percentage of the battery of tests which can be completed in about an hour. This allows a center to schedule assessments in hour increments.
At this time, you will be asked for the "intake form". This form asks you for a lot of information that will be used in the sales process.
Center personnel are told not to give too much information at the assessment because it lowers the percentage of parents who return for the consultation.
Conversion Percentage: 90% (or even 100%) is not uncommon.
The Sales Video
LearningRx corporate has a video they want all prospective parents to watch. Supposedly it is educational, but I have seen and heard the video enough to know that it is not educational. It is intended to get you ready to be willing to pay for brain training. The stories, the music, and the words are all arranged to create confidence and hope in you.
Turning Consultations into a Sign-up
Scoring an assessment, entering it into the software, and printing the results takes between 30 to 60 minutes. However, centers will schedule your consultation on a future date, because they want your curiosity to build.
You walk into the sales room wanting to know two things above all else.
- What were the results of the assessment.
- How much will it cost to fix the problem.
The center director leads every aspect of this meeting. The colors of the room, the lighting, the configuration of the seating, the aroma are all determined by the center. If something was known to work, it would be done. But once you are in the meeting, the director directs you about how she does consultations. Almost all people follow her lead -- even if just because it is polite to do so.
The center director wants to delay discussion of results and the costs until you are ready to buy. High priced services aren't easy to sell, so there has to be a lot of motivation on your part to want the product. One of the most important aspects of this is emotion.
By having you express your concerns and your fears and your hopes and your dreams for your children, you are bringing your emotions to the surface. This often comes out in the form of tears (or both) -- usually by mom. The saying goes: "When you see mom cry, she's ready to buy."
When the director thinks you are ready, then you will be shown the assessment results and then the costs. And you'll be lead through the signup process which varied a bit from customer to customer even within one center.
At the end of the consultation, you'll be asked to answer a questionnaire. Everything you say in that questionnaire is read by the center director. If you didn't sign up already, this information is quite valuable in getting you to sign up later.
Conversion Percentage:
* 60% and above is excellent
* 50% and above is good
* 30% is frustratingly bad
Conclusion
At the end of this process, your child is a student of LearningRx. There is still much you need to know at this point in the process, but these things have to wait for another post.What is LearningRx (Learning RX)
LearningRx is a franchise system based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is run by the Gibson family headed by Ken Gibson who is the founder, his son-in law Dean Tenpas, his daughters Tanya Mitchell and Kim Hanson, Ken's brothers, as well as others.
Dr. Gibson is an eye doctor, not a neuroscientist or a medical doctor. He was an eye doctor who expanded into vision therapy and then expanded into brain training and reading training and so forth.
Franchisees pay about $50K to lease the rights to a LearningRx in their local market for 10 years. These fees have been going up over the years, so the costs may have gone up. The total cost of opening a center is upwards of $100K and could be as high as $200K depending on the location of the center and the frugality (or lack thereof) of the franchisee. The initial marketing campaign of each franchisee can be as much as $40,000 or $50,000 to get initial clients.
The local businesses that franchisees establish are most commonly referred to as "brain training centers" or "reading centers" or just "centers".
After the franchisee opens his/her doors, he/she pays 10% of cash revenues to the home office as a franchise fee and about 2.5% of cash revenues to the home office for marketing and infrastructure fees. These fees can change and really are best found out through the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
Over the past five years, the number of centers has fluctuated as franchisees have opened and closed. It may seem like things are pretty stable, but quite a few centers have closed while others have opened. At the moment, there seem to be between about 70 to 80 centers open across the country per the map on the company website, but it is hard to know exactly because things are often in flux.
The product of the company is an intangible service called brain training. The local centers sell one-on-one brain training services to clients in 12-week, 24-week, and 36-week programs.
Like all franchises, the home office trains its franchisees in how to run their business to be as much like the other franchises as possible. This includes training in all of the following:
* Sales
* Marketing (advertising, networking, developing professional referrals)
* Operations
* Assessments (Woodcock-Johnson III)
* Training (ThinkRx, ReadRx, MathRx, LiftOff, ComprehendRx, etc...)
Interestingly, the home office training includes very little (almost nothing) about brain anatomy or about reading pedagogy or anything technical.
In the process of opening each center, the franchisee establishes prices with guidelines from the home office. Training costs vary from market to market but a good rule of thumb is that training costs $5,000 for each 12 weeks of training. As you'd expect, a 24-week program would be roughly $10,000 and a 36-week program would be roughly $15,000.
The home office also sells a product called PACE. I never fully understood this program, but it is said to be a limited product, it is sold in smaller markets not big enough for a LearningRx center.
Dr. Gibson is an eye doctor, not a neuroscientist or a medical doctor. He was an eye doctor who expanded into vision therapy and then expanded into brain training and reading training and so forth.
Franchisees pay about $50K to lease the rights to a LearningRx in their local market for 10 years. These fees have been going up over the years, so the costs may have gone up. The total cost of opening a center is upwards of $100K and could be as high as $200K depending on the location of the center and the frugality (or lack thereof) of the franchisee. The initial marketing campaign of each franchisee can be as much as $40,000 or $50,000 to get initial clients.
The local businesses that franchisees establish are most commonly referred to as "brain training centers" or "reading centers" or just "centers".
After the franchisee opens his/her doors, he/she pays 10% of cash revenues to the home office as a franchise fee and about 2.5% of cash revenues to the home office for marketing and infrastructure fees. These fees can change and really are best found out through the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
Over the past five years, the number of centers has fluctuated as franchisees have opened and closed. It may seem like things are pretty stable, but quite a few centers have closed while others have opened. At the moment, there seem to be between about 70 to 80 centers open across the country per the map on the company website, but it is hard to know exactly because things are often in flux.
The product of the company is an intangible service called brain training. The local centers sell one-on-one brain training services to clients in 12-week, 24-week, and 36-week programs.
Like all franchises, the home office trains its franchisees in how to run their business to be as much like the other franchises as possible. This includes training in all of the following:
* Sales
* Marketing (advertising, networking, developing professional referrals)
* Operations
* Assessments (Woodcock-Johnson III)
* Training (ThinkRx, ReadRx, MathRx, LiftOff, ComprehendRx, etc...)
Interestingly, the home office training includes very little (almost nothing) about brain anatomy or about reading pedagogy or anything technical.
In the process of opening each center, the franchisee establishes prices with guidelines from the home office. Training costs vary from market to market but a good rule of thumb is that training costs $5,000 for each 12 weeks of training. As you'd expect, a 24-week program would be roughly $10,000 and a 36-week program would be roughly $15,000.
The home office also sells a product called PACE. I never fully understood this program, but it is said to be a limited product, it is sold in smaller markets not big enough for a LearningRx center.
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