"The system was paralyzed", 650,000 people poured into the Shanghai citizen night school registration system, and 27 courses were sold out within 3 minutes, which was the scene of the Shanghai night school course selection in October this year.
The "night school fever" was the first to "go out of the circle" from Shanghai, and many migrant workers were amazed that night school classes were more difficult to grab than university elective courses. In some cities, after the shortage of supply, some people found this new entrepreneurial outlet, and in early November, many first- and second-tier cities quickly set up "private night schools".
The "night school managers" who are active on social media platforms play an important role in the night school, and they compare themselves to "late-night housekeeping companies", many of whom reply to at least 1,000 messages a day, connecting people who want to experience art interest classes with famous teachers in training institutions. Talking about cooperation with institutions at low prices, consumer doubts and plagiarism from peers have also become thorny problems encountered by night school managers in the early days of entrepreneurship.
In addition to young white-collar workers and college students, overlooked "moms" also find a life outside the family in night school. Inheritors of intangible cultural heritage try to make it more convenient and intuitive for the public to understand intangible cultural heritage through night classes.
After the explosion of night school in Shanghai
The "impulsive" entrepreneurship of a group of slash youth
Xiaowan is the manager of a private night school in Shenzhen, she has worked in Shenzhen for 7 years, and after returning to her hometown to work for a while, she returned to Shenzhen this year. "At first, it was because I wanted to learn to skateboard, but I'm in my 30s, so that's not what I should learn, right?" With hesitation and confusion, Xiaowan tried to post on the Internet to find a "partner", so she found the other 3 partners of the current night school team.
On November 4th, the four of them met offline and hit it off, they believed that the rise of night school was to find interest at a low cost, and then decided whether to develop into a skill, and then considered whether to transform and enroll in long-term classes. "Our philosophy is the same, to position ourselves as ferrymen, to find good places, and to send people there. After discussion, they felt that everyone wanted to continue to do night school, not to make a quick money from traffic, "although it is a very tiring, effective and slow road." ”
Shenzhen night school, students practice Xi oil painting coloring
Talking about cooperation and price negotiation with interest class organizations is the first difficulty they encounter. Xiaowan said that when discussing cooperation with interest class organizations, about 10 institutions, 5 would reject them. "When we talk about cooperation at a low price, the other party thinks we are crazy. Xiao Wan analyzed that perhaps because the concept of night school was introduced late in Shenzhen at that time, most institutions did not know the meaning of night school and its actual market demand.
In Chengdu, the market price of the same class hour tea art class in the institution is 2,000 yuan, in order to bargain for the night school, Xiaopi and the partner communicated with the institution for a long time, "The most explained to the institution is the concept of 'night school'." Xiaopi is the manager of a private night school in Chengdu, and after returning to Chengdu from Shenzhen to work, after the pace of life slowed down, she planned to expand some of her hobbies, make new friends, and began to prepare for the organization of night schools.
The progress of cooperation with institutions is very slow, and the registration process is smooth and hot, which surprises Xiaowan in Shenzhen and Xiaopi in Chengdu. "As of mid-December, we had 16 different shifts running and recruiting, and 18 communities in groups of 200 people. "In less than a month, our night school has recruited more than 3,600 night school students in need. Xiaopi also said, "From the beginning of November to the middle of December, the night school has integrated a total of more than 3,000 students. ”
"There are very few ways for migrant workers to make new friends. Xiaopi believes that this may be one of the reasons for the popularity of night school registration. Xiaowan also believes that night school can allow everyone to find interest at a low cost, and the main reason is that the cost performance is high enough, "Generation Z is not popular anymore 'expensive'." ”
At present, several core members of He Xiaowan who participated in the establishment of this night school are slash youths, and each of them has their own main business. Xiaowan also classified herself as a young person, "Maybe I'm different from the middle-aged people around me, and I've always hoped to have a chance to play with young people." ”
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With a large enough community, how to maintain it is also a big problem for night school administrators.
From the opening of the registration to the signing of the institution, the manager needs to carefully investigate. The time is not short, and it also makes many registered consumers wait for a long time. "Every day people ask us why we haven't landed yet, if we're scammers or something. Xiaowan said that the implementation of the course takes a cycle. When deciding whether or not to work with an organization, it is necessary to ensure that the customer experience is satisfied.
Before expressing her intention to cooperate, Xiaowan will first observe as a consumer, "For example, I once had a very cheap coupon, and the coach on the other side also received me patiently, and during the evaluation, I often interrupted the coach and asked some stupid questions to test their patience and tolerance. Xiaowan said that even if it is a low-cost group class, it is necessary to ensure that everyone can be taken care of by the teacher.
Shenzhen night school guzheng class
Xiaowan admitted that at first they were not optimistic about the night school project, "All the concepts and popularity will pass." The team was just getting started, and after accounting for their income and expenses, they joked that the night school was now more like a "late-night housekeeping company". With at least 1,000 messages to be answered every day, "Night school is far more difficult and complicated than I thought at first." ”
"The emotions of our customers should also be taken care of. Xiaowan said that for example, some customers are dissatisfied because they can't balance the class time, and how to negotiate make-up classes and refunds requires both customer satisfaction and institutional support. "It's hard to deal with a lot of relationships and make everyone happy, but if you do it well, maybe that's the key to staying in the big waves in the future. ”
In the early days of the development of night schools, in addition to the pressure of consumer doubts, the managers also encountered plagiarism from their peers. Xiaowan recalled that a while ago, a girl directly copied and pasted the class schedule and copywriting of their night school, and replaced it with her own QR code. "She is very bold, but what we are most worried about is not to grab customers and institutional resources, but to defraud her in this way. ”
Copying is also not uncommon in Xiaopi's area, including plagiarism of promotional images and agency names, "We are also considering registering trademarks in the past, but there are many restrictions." Xiaopi admits that the concept and practice of commercial night schools are in the early stages, and it is inevitable to encounter this kind of problem, but there is no perfect way to avoid it. When the managers encountered various problems in the early stage of the industry, they gradually realized that mature operating mechanisms and industry rules were indispensable.
Counselors run night classes part-time
95% of middle-aged and adolescent women
95%, which is the proportion of women enrolled in night schools according to Shenzhen Xiaowan and Xiaopi, and most of the women are between 20 and 35 years old. On social platforms, many young and middle-aged women also shared their night school records. Flower arrangement, tea ceremony, skateboarding, guzheng, photography...... The wide variety of courses is popular with women.
Xiao Liu, the manager of the night school in Chengdu, has targeted working women and mothers over 30 years old from the beginning. Xiao Liu's main business is a psychological counselor, in his professional contact, the current working women, especially the group of mothers, have more and more emotional problems that are difficult to detect, "some are under pressure from the current situation of life, some are unsatisfactory in family career, and many women's self-awareness is not sufficient, often inconsistent, which needs to be resolved." ”
Xiao Liu analyzed from the level of a psychological counselor that people's external social psychological needs have always existed, and night school can become an emotional outlet for the non-online world. Evening classes are set up for these women, and Xiao Liu hopes that they can find a solution here.
Although the main focus is on night classes for young people, there is a woman in her 50s who came to learn the drum kit, which impressed the manager Xiaopi very much. In the process of communication, Xiaopi found that most women began to go out of the house, and it became a trend to focus on cultivating themselves. Older women actually need night classes, but middle-aged women who can use social media to find commercial night classes are in the minority. "There are classes at the university or cultural center for the elderly every quarter, but the supply is too small. ”
In the calligraphy class of Chengdu night school, the teacher explained and demonstrated the penmanship
Xiaopi introduced that she first learned about the night school industry, and it was also to help her mother grab classes at the University for the Elderly, "but she couldn't grab it at all." Therefore, she plans to develop offline community night schools in the later stage, targeting middle-aged and elderly groups who are not very good at obtaining information through the Internet, "In the community activity center, mothers can go directly to the night school." ”
In evening schools in Beijing and Shanghai, the ratio of men and women is more even. Xiao Hu, the director of an intangible cultural heritage night school in Beijing, has calculated that the number of participants in the night school has reached between 4,000 and 5,000, of which about 60%-65% are women.
Liu Ming, a native of Northeast China who has lived in Shanghai for many years, recently signed up for a night school in the Shanghai dialect to learn more about Shanghai culture through the Shanghai dialect. His class is evenly split between men and women. When he went to night school, Liu Ming felt that his time was more meaningful and calmer, "I need a real life, not a digital life. Liu Ming said.
Three surveys in Shenzhen:
The number one course is still in the English language
At the beginning of its establishment, Xiaowan and her team conducted three market research on the evening school courses in Shenzhen, "The first place is still English, and the second place is Cantonese. Xiaowan sighed, "Shenzhen people are too curly, most people hope to transform into skills, and they don't seem to be so comfortable with the entertainment of eating, drinking and having fun." ”
According to public reports, on social platforms, night classes with different IP addresses have different preferred night school painting styles. Shanghai's night schools are broad and popular, such as musical instruments, dance, baking, makeup, handmade leather goods, incense, and improvisation, while Beijing's night schools are unique in terms of mural making, film development, and ore collection. In Shenzhen, many night schools offer Cantonese, Japanese, French, English and other language courses, aiming to improve themselves and be worthy of Shenzhen's "City of Struggle", while in Guangzhou, night schools are inseparable from health preservation, such as qi and blood conditioning, soup making, and traditional Chinese medicine.
In the evening calligraphy class, the teacher explains and demonstrates the penmanship
Behind the night schools in different cities, different urban cultural styles are presented. Xiaopi said that through market research, many Xi also expressed a strong interest in local intangible cultural heritage and crafts. Combining the unique regional culture is one of the reference standards for designing the course, and Xiaopi plans to launch the Shu brocade course next.
More than 1,000 kilometers away in Beijing, Xiao Hu is planning an intangible cultural heritage course, and he plans to combine the company's existing skills inheritor resources and museum resources to provide students with experience courses such as mural repair, stone carving, cloisonné enamel and Yanjing Eight Uniques. "People are becoming more and more confident in traditional culture, and the intangible cultural heritage night school program is also very popular, but high-quality intangible cultural heritage content providers are scarce. ”
"An important reason is the high cost of experiencing intangible cultural heritage. Xiaohu plans to maintain low-cost intangible cultural heritage courses in night schools in the future, "While benefiting the people, how to transform them into commercial value is the main issue we need to think about at night." ”
Xiaowan found that recently, many e-commerce platforms and social platforms have also begun to explore the operation model of night schools, and the next step may be to link entities across the country. She worries, "If this kind of big platform comes to an end, a non-governmental organization like ours may have to say goodbye to everyone." ”
Working in the service industry for a long time, Xiaowan has become Xi to being a customer service NPC without a face and name, "but since the opening of the night school, many students and I have become trusted online friends, and some people have begun to think about me and even invite me to bake classes, which means far more to me than money." Xiaowan said that even if the night school will disappear one day in the future, she will not feel regretful, "But do good deeds, don't ask about the future." A Midsummer Night's Dream is worth it. ”
Red Star News reporter Cai Xiaoyi Xi Tan Huizhe
Edited by Guo Yu and edited by Wei Kongming
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