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I’m struggling with last-minute cancellations – what should my policy be? (All Teachers)
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@Dave – you are bang on and I live by this. It works and there are hardly any problems because everyone I teach respects this system and the fact that this is my job!
It’s like the endless debate of venues not paying musicians and treating them as if they’re doing them a favour giving them exposure etc. Why is a music teaching job any different to any other job? It drives me mad when you get people now and then who just don’t understand why they have to pay for a last minute cancelled lesson. I would rather not work with those people anyway, so it’s no loss to me, apart from the actual money lost, which I would rather pay to get rid of them anyway. People like that aren’t worth my time.
@Danny – of course there’s a human element yes (at risk of me sounding like a heartless robot above!) but that’s for those who you’ve got to know and already trust, or in the case of death or something…
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number 2 That five lessons for four is great!!!!! similar to the first lesson free thing I ma try that out thanks for that!
if it helps the musicians union have free teachers contract templates if anyones a member.
Completley agree the one week in front students are on an online payment system similar to a direct debit so i can request payment for the week in advance straight away.
this forum is great gonna try number 2 out this week! thanks
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@Dave, some really great points there. You seem to be pretty level-headed on this one and have some great ideas.
@Danny, you’re right. Sometimes it’s just difficult to draw the line… You definitely need to be already on good terms with someone for this to work, and if someone is sly enough, they’ll try to use the “i’m sick” reasoning in future. I know with some of the best students I’ve had over the years (incidentally also the ones who were more committed to practicing and getting the most out of lessons), if they were sick and had to cancel at the last minute, they’d apologise for putting me out and OFFER to pay the cancellation fee because they understand that otherwise it’s a loss to a small business that they support. That’s how you know you’ve got some good eggs:)OK, so for me personally in 2015 I ended up basically having NO policy because I was so lax, and it was definitely to my own detriment. And one person in particular who knew about my (thinly held) 24 hour policy would cancel repeatedly 25 hours in advance. Not really showing respect for my time!
In 2016 I’m taking advice from a lot of you and completely restructuring everything! I think this is what I’m going to do:
1. lessons have to be paid at least 48 hours in advance to confirm booking. I was worried this would be a logistical nightmare but then I realised many of my students pay by bank transfer anyway, so they can just set up the transfer to come through earlier each week/fortnight.
2. Serious 48 hour cancellation policy. I’ll have a sign up n my studio, I’ll send an email about it to all my current students, and I’m in the process now of putting together a welcome pack pdf for new students! This is exciting as I think I can put in a fair bit of useful info, and the policy stuff can be couched in between “What to bring to lessons” and “How to get the most out of your lessons” so it doesn’t look so harsh all by itself haha!
3. Bulk booking discounts. Based on your suggestions and some things I’ve seen, I’m going to offer a discount on bundles of 4 lessons (useful for monthly payments), and also a more significant saving with “buy 9 lessons, get one free”. When students purchase this, I’ll give them a little card to stamp off the lessons as they go so students know how many they’ve got left. (Thanks Beckie for the great inspiration!!)I’m really excited about implementing all these changes. But only time will tell how effective it all is!
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Good for you, Kat. I am particularly loving the Welcome Pack idea! I think I will be stealing this as my 2016 resolution too!:)
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yes!! welcome pack!!!
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