[Matthew Rusk]

Always up for Skype skills swap:) I think a lot of teachers would be benefit from this as well – I will speak with a few teachers to see if they are interested:)

[Matthew Rusk]

My advice would be to do 1/2 the lesson price +£10 for each student. So if you charge £30, then each student pays £15 + £10 = £25 per hour, meaning that you earn in total £50 per hour for two students, or £75 per hour for three students. Pretty much the same as what Eliza says above:)

Though I also take into account who is the bill payer, so if it is two siblings (meaning the parents are paying for both) I would charge it at the normal rate since to the bill payer it makes a big difference if it is £30 or £50 (so a £5 saving for each student doesn’t make much of a difference since they pay for both). With three students I wouldn’t imagine that is a problem, though other factors come into the equation for example what will you charge if two of the three turn up for a one lesson etc.

[Matthew Rusk]

It is a great topic to open up – worth reading through this previous thread as well (https://musicteacher.kinsta.cloud/community/groups/music-teachers/forum/topic/christmas-voucher-policies/) as it has some relevance:)

[Matthew Rusk]

Just on the CRB check – now known as a DBS check – I can confirm that the last time I spoke with a lawyer that for private music tuition lessons it is not a legal requirement to hold a valid certificate to be able to offer to teach young students or vulnerable adults. That said I would thoroughly recommend that all teachers obtain one, not only as it is a mark of professionalism but also as something that can be added to the websites to help encourage more parents to get in touch for lessons with their children. DBS checks can be obtained from here (https://www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check/overview).

[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?