We enjoyed classes here for a period of time up until one of the managers asked to take a picture of my son (with his personal phone) to send to a friend. This is completely inappropriate and unprofessional, and quite honestly creepy. This is a children's program and no grown man (who is a complete stranger) should be requesting to take photos of my child under any circumstance. This to me is a fireable offense in a workplace that deals with children. Our mistake was speaking to the COO and requesting to transfer out of there as quickly as possible because we felt extremely uncomfortable and concerned for our child's safety. Looking back, we should have just terminated our contract there. We should've have just walked away at that point, but our children enjoyed the classes so we transferred to the Westview location. At first, we had a good experience. The teachers at both locations were great, my continued issues are with the management. The young man who admittedly shared he was new to management put us into a corner when our sons decided they were no longer interested in karate after several months (to clarify, we were there from June to October, a little over three months, which is over "several"). We said we would be happy to stick around and pay for another three months to get out of our contractual agreement. However, the manager told us: 1) we had to stay until our contract date was over, 2) I should take kick boxing lessons in their absence, 3) we should keep at least one son enrolled and they would excuse the other from the contractual agreement. Ultimately, we kept getting the circle talk and shut down. This obviously led us to a second call to the COO again because of the lack of professionalism from the second manager. All in the name of maintaining (most likely) a sales or retention quota. Needless to say we were pretty upset by the lack of maturity and professionalism shown at both locations. Keep in mind each manager was young and from my understanding former, long standing students. They raise children up to be their employees that can't maintain the components they are taught in class even at a young age. This is not an environment I want my kids involved in after this experience. Parents, avoid Kicks at all cost. There are plenty other time and money worthy options out there. Just because it is a "chain" doesn't mean it is quality. Sacrificing your child's safety and even subjecting yourselves to poorly trained staff and business practices is not worth it in my opinion. It was a creepy, frustrating experience and I don't wish that on any other parent. Kicks staff, if you happen to read this, your management training and contract has some major holes in it. Parents do not appreciate being belittled, manipulated or even told they cannot opt out of their contract. If you are going to teach students how to be respectful in your classes, then I expect the ones you eventually hire to be managers to treat me with such. When a customer says they want to pull their kids out, the answer should be," I'm sorry to hear that, you will be missed. Would you give us feedback on how we can improve and make your experience better for the future? Thank you." Not fight and manipulate them to the desired result. The age old phrase of the "customer is always right" still stands and is appreciated. Your contract is vague, and if you want to keep customers or even have returning customers, putting them into a corner isn't the way to do it. All you are going to get is a lot of angry parents, which clearly is a outstanding issue for this company per the many reviews of the same criteria. You need to be more specific and allow parents the opportunity to opt out as necessary. You will have more pleased customers. If your training and contract is crafted solely out of making money, then I think that's pretty shameful. I hope that you will take my comments into consideration, because you have upset quite a few families which I think could've been avoided if the customer was put first and people were more properly trained. read more

Jim, Thank you for remembering and making some strides to correct one of the issues. The fact that he has worked there for a lengthy amount of time makes me even more concerned. Even if it was one report, it doesn't matter and shouldn't happen. It was extremely inappropriate and common sense not to ask such things. As for my review being posted at a later date, don't minimize its truth because it pops up at a later time stamp. I don't think it matters when it's posted as long as parents hear about others experiences, positive AND negative. Today we rely on online reviews to guide us today, and it's clear by your response that you want to make negative reviews seem minimal and cause other parents to dismiss them. (Parents, take note of this.) When my husband spoke with you last, you mentioned that you were currently working to improve your contractual agreements and training process because you knew they needed change. Since you've been in business for 25 years, you would think the same issues would be resolved yet it seems you continue to use the same sales and business tactics that are clearly making others frustrated and dissatisfied in their dealings with your company. Since we are criticizing time lapses, why haven't you corrected these issues since the last time we spoke to you? I'm sorry you won't get any phone calls, just negative feedback online where it belongs. I never once acknowledged you personally being unhelpful, I acknowledged my dissatisfaction with your management and business practices. I stated that very clearly. But I can see that their issues lead to something greater. You let us transfer upon OUR request, not yours, and yes, you also let us terminate our contractual agreement which was the right thing to do. However, this most likely happened only because of the very first issue we experienced at the Urbana location. Maybe in an effort to keep this review from popping up online? Now the saga continues. You are belittling me, minimizing our experience and ultimately calling me a liar because I forgot the "exact" date of when we concluded classes, which was hardly an exaggeration. It's completely unprofessional and a poor tactic to make a parent/review look unreliable. Again, this proves my point that your customer service is lacking, even from the top. Just because you think you showed good will by "allowing" us to terminate our contract doesn't mean that a poor review isn't going to pop up. Your staff members were inappropriate and unprofessional. We were dissatisfied and felt we needed to share our experience with other parents. There is nothing wrong with that, and if you have an issue with handling negative reviews then there is a deeper issue at hand. I'm disappointed, but not surprised by your response. My suggestion would be to spend more time actually correcting the issues former customers bring to your attention rather than investing more time in smearing and covering up negative reviews. Is it customary for you to ask people (Amanda O.) to create new accounts and post a "positive" review shortly after a negative one pops up on Yelp AND Google addressing the EXACT issues parents mention? It's amusing you have more strategic tactics to snub negative reviews than actually fixing your problems. That's unfortunate and confirms everything I've said. If I could, I would give you all a half star rating at this point. Hopefully your team will take note of our comments (and other parents) and improve the other important issues still at hand. It seems to work well for other businesses that we are happy to support and give good reviews. Good luck to you! read more

My 7 yr old has been at Kicks-Westview for 2 years and we couldn't be happier. The instructors are great and have consistently gone out of their way to ensure that he is confident in his abilities and comfortable when learning new techniques. They take time to be sure that he is always successful and help him understand that things are not always easy-sometimes it takes more than one try and that's ok. They are encouraging and will spend some extra time with him to ensure that he fully understands the process of each new skill. They are encouraging while still ensuring the he shows the expected discipline and form. I have seen not only his skills and knowledge grow but also his confidence, focus and determination grow as well. The instructors tailor the curriculum to his needs ensuring that he is both challenged and successful. Seeing him excited about advancing his skills is amazing and we can't wait to see how he continues to grow! read more

My daughter has been going to the Westview location and we absolutely love it. The staff is very friendly, knowledgeable and patient. The whole environment is family friendly. I love that I can stay and watch my daughter during her class. read more