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I’m struggling with last-minute cancellations – what should my policy be? (All Teachers)
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Hey Wes,
I think you have to feel what’s right for you, but I don’t like letting people off when they’re sick. Sometimes if it’s a short term illness and it looks like they could come in for a makeup lesson later in the week I’ll do that so they don’t have to pay for lost time. But generally I still expect people who fall ill to pay for their time (although they’ve prepaid, so I usually get to skip this conversation), reason being:
1. If they’ve booked it then no-one else can have it. This is especially the case for evening times, which are usually booked out. And also I want to have a life, so if I’d known in advance that I’d have the evening off, I could have planned a nice dinner or something. Think about it from their perspective; if they were expecting to do an overtime shift at work, and cancelled all plans accordingly and then showed up at work and were told they didn’t need to come in after all, they’d be pretty pissed off. I think this is fair. But also because evenings are so popular, if I know in advance that someone isn’t coming in, I can successfully offer it to someone else.
2. If they know they can “get away with not paying” if they tell you they’re sick, then what’s to stop them taking advantage of that in future? Where’s the consistency. If I’m holding other people to the policy come hell or high water and let them off, then it doesn’t bode well. Of course as Matt indicates, it’s helpful to be flexible when it’s really necessary. But consistency builds trust and respect.
However, I have it so that my cancellation policy is only 75% of the lesson fee (which is prepaid), which means that either they get that 25% as a refund or as a discount off their next lesson. Framed like that, I’ve not had anyone have a problem with it.
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Hi Wes,
Its always difficult when illness/out of control situations occur and cause cancellations. No one is really to blame, so why should they lose out?
The truth is, and as harsh as it might sound, thats their business. They have made a commitment to booking your time whether they can attend or not, thats your business. You rightly point out by them booking your time it stops others from doing so, plus maybe something else outside of teaching you might of chosen to do if that time wasn’t booked.
I used to have these very same problems before i implemented pay-when-you-book system, if they cant make the lesson you already have the money so you don’t lose out in that moment.
Will this cause you to lose a student even though you’ve been paid? Maybe, its a juggling act; lose a lessons pay or the potential further of successful lessons?
Ask yourself will you rue losing someone who clearly has no understanding/respect for your time? Cutting this kind of attitude out makes way for people with the right attitude, being frank from the get go eliminates the potential for people to object. If you’ve told them your policy(inc. illness)there isn’t much they can say if the situation arises.
I found the more it is indulged (letting people off) the more it will happen, it could be a goto excuse in the future and be abused in the wrong hands.
I hope it works out
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Bang on, Kat and Mark. I barely let people off if someone has died.
OK, maybe a little extreme. But the point is, that’s their business.
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Hi Guys
Sorry for the late feedback. I decided to charge her anyway but thankfully after explaining things from my point of view she saw my point and agreed that I wasn’t being unfair.
Thanks for the input
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Tough question! At the moment I am relying on trust and consistency. If parents are seeing me on a regular basis and offer a degree of flexibility then they will trust me more. I have been quite fortunate so far as I have only had one ‘cancellation’ and they paid straightaway as they acknowledged it is their fault.
At the moment I work on the basis of if I don’t turn up I don’t get paid. Though this is a slight risk, I like to think it gives both parties a chance to be consistent and trusting. I have given two clients a ‘contract’ which states stipulations such as 4 weeks notice, etc but in actual fact, it has so far not been needed.
Ironically enough, the only bad experience was when I just started and I received a text from a student who wanted lessons. NB this was not a referral from MGR!!! I arrived for an initial meet and the following week I taught a lesson. Then he cancelled the second lesson and didn’t respond to my texts for my 3rd and 4th so I just sacked him off. I found him a little irresponsible as he ‘manipulated’ this whole I am a ‘university student’ excuse too far!
All my current clients are working parents so I think they understand the fact that we as teachers need to work as well!
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