Introduction - Meet Merrick Palmer, from Capital Courts
Located in Ottawa, Canada, the Capital Courts Training Centre is the home for over 5,000 basketball players. The facility, spanning 6,500 sq ft., has delivered over 30,000 hours of individual basketball training under the motto "Development Lives Here".
Merrick Palmer, the owner, embodies this commitment, stating, "We're not just a basketball training facility, we're a place where development truly lives."
With a true focus on player development, Merrick has nurtured and grown the business organically over the last 12 years. This growth hasn’t come without some growing pains. As their client list grew, handling schedules, payroll, payments, etc. manually become a big time sink.
Before Swift: Manual Mayhem
Before Swift's implementation, Capital Courts struggled with manual operations.
"Before Swift, we were doing everything manually," recounts Merrick. The challenges of managing scheduling, registrations, payments, and receipt generation took up valuable time and made it hard to compile active client lists.
The team was using Setmore’s software, but Merrick found it verylimiting, saying, "We used Setmore as more of an internal software to keep staff abreast of the schedule. We didn’t use it for anything else. Swift can do everything as it relates to managing a sports facility."
Enter Swift: Getting Setup
These manual pains eventually took their toll on Merrick and his team, and they decided to look for something better. And that’s when they found Swift.
After a 30-minute demo, Merrick knew that it was going to be the right tool for his business. He decided to transition to Swift shortly after the demo, due to its user-friendly interface and comprehensive feature set.
Implementation and migration was also effortless. Since Swift provides a dedicated engineer + a guided onboarding& migration process, Merrick was able to seamlessly set up his business on Swift without any frustrations with his end, or his customers.
"It was very easy! We did an hour-long onboarding call, and that was it! We were up and running the same day," recalls Merrick.
He found it particularly appealing because of how simple it was to use, saying
The Results: A Slam Dunk
Within just a month of joining, Merrick is seeing immense success with Swift. The “manual mayhem” that he was experiencing has disappeared, and most importantly - he’s gotten time to grow his business.
This time savings is incredible, and it’s a common theme across previous case studies that we’ve done as well. With the right scheduling system, you can save hours every week (for you or your staff), and add 10 to 30% to your bottom line - becoming a more profitable business in the process.
A nice perk of joining the Swift platform has been having access to the Swift team members - and as a result, getting insight into what other sports facilities are doing across verticals. Sharing these tips has helped Merrick make small decisions in his day-to-day business.
Clients have also reacted very positively to the change. Merrick notes: "Our clients expect nothing but the best from us, so they know if we're using a new app, it has to be the best of the best."
At the Buzzer: Swift is the real deal
When asked to share his thoughts about Swift to other sports facility owners or managers, Merrick Palmer doesn't hesitate:
FAQ
What did Capital Courts use before Swift?
Almost everything was done by hand, from scheduling and registrations to payments and receipts. They used Setmore, but only to keep staff up to date on the schedule, which made it hard to even pull a list of active clients. Owner Merrick Palmer now runs all of it in Swift.
How long did it take Capital Courts to get set up?
Just one day. Merrick made the call after a 30-minute demo, did a one-hour onboarding call with our team, and was up and running that same day without any disruption for his clients.
How much time can Swift save a basketball training facility?
Capital Courts saves at least 10 to 15 hours a week, mostly because camp and clinic registration now happens online without staff. Merrick spends that time growing the business. For more on running a basketball facility, see our basketball court scheduling software guide and Swift for basketball facilities.
