Best Ways To Reply To Student Enquiries (All Teachers)

[Kat Hunter]

Nice templates! I’ve never used templates (much to my own detriment) so now seems a good time to start! Great ideas all round.

I would definitely agree that time is of the essence when responding to initial enquiries.

I also find that it’s helpful if people leave their number so that if they’re not getting back to me after that, I can ring them up. I’ve found some people are just really busy and need that chat on the phone to get themselves organised :).

[Eliza Fyfe]

Agreed about the number. Makes all the difference as it’s massively more personal!

[Matthew Rusk]

I thought I would open this popular topic up to the community as many teachers ask me how to improve the conversion of enquiries to students. One of the first things I would recommend looking at is the first reply communication a teacher makes to the student’s enquiry. Kevin Armstrong, a guitar teacher based in Oxford, accidentally emailed his standard reply email to all enquiries, which I have enclosed below as I thought it was an excellent example of how to reply to a student enquiry:

Hi Student Firstname,

Thanks for your enquiry about guitar lessons.

I have some free space at the moment, though it’s a bit limited. Let me know which days/times might work for you.

I teach beginners to advanced levels acoustic and electric guitar – rock, pop, folk, classical (to grade 5), blues and jazz styles. I also teach on the Oxford Brookes University Music Performance courses.

Some students like to be challenged with harmony theory and technique exercises while others come mostly for fun and relaxation. I adapt the lesson style and course programme to fit the needs of each student.
I give lessons in my home in Oxford (Postcode) Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays; from 1pm to 8.30pm. Lessons are one-to-one and can be 1 hour, 45 minutes or 30 minutes. My fees are 30, 24 and 17 GBP respectively. Lessons can be weekly or fortnightly or just from time to time. There is no commitment to a course of lessons though I ask for 24 hours notice for cancelled classes.
Aside from teaching, I also perform as a jazz guitarist so I occasionally have to reschedule lessons to fit round my performing commitments.

Kind regards

Kevin Armstrong

mb 01234567890
t 01234 567789
[email protected]
PS Please use above contact info as contacting via my website is indirect and can get delayed.

Please note that I have removed Kevin’s personal information as seen by the italics above.

I am interested if other teacher have template reply emails to students, what tips they can give to improving the number of enquiries that reply to the teachers first reply email (rather than simply never getting in touch again) and any other general advice teachers have about improving the conversion of enquiries to students.

From my experience the speed a which a teacher replies to an enquiry is critical to getting that enquiry booked in. In addition striking a warm friendly tone, providing lots of info about the operational side of your lessons (location, prices, possible lesson times), giving a call to action, increasing urgency of a student to book in as letting them know that you have limited slots available, providing additional contact info – all really help. I would also love to pick out Kevin’s “PS Please use above contact info as contacting via my website is indirect and can get delayed.” as a great tip – I have seem other teachers do something similar by putting their cancelation policy in the footer which I would also recommend!

So how do you respond to enquiries as they come in for you?