[Matthew Rusk]

Great to see this developing into a really interesting and valuable thread. Lots of interesting ideas here – personally I would agree a lot with Mark Palmer’s points above, in the sense that from my experience of teaching how you explain what it means to book a lesson to a student can impact the way they perceive that commitment and the way Mark describes it above is a very professional approach to that.

To respond to a few other teacher’s:

@Lewis Leeming, as mentioned in my email, it might be worth looking into a pay one in advance model during the first two months with new students – this gives you some guarantees for attendance & money in the bank should they cancel, while keeping the upfront costs for the students quite low (I have often found with new students and beginners they are reluctant to commit financially until they have got used to a teacher & know that they really want to play guitar). After two months moving students to a 4-week block-booking model is much easier as they know they like the lessons and the teacher. This is from experience with working with teachers from across the UK, as well as my own teaching – enabling the students to slowly buy into financial commitment, which ultimately makes the teacher more money even though earlier on it leads the teacher a little more exposed in terms of potential no shows etc. early on.

I have some very interesting examples of how a payment model can effect the revenue generated by a teacher. Specifically I worked with a very good guitar teacher in Sheffield during 2013, his policy was that all students had to book a 5 lesson block booking for £120 – this was the only option & students had to make that booking upon their first lesson. The conversion of enquiries to students was non-existant, despite high levels of enquiries. As this was early on in the business I was interesting in exploring the impact of changing the student payment model with him and I convinced him to reduce this initial commitment to 3 lessons for £75 – again the conversion of enquiries to students was absolutely minimal. After a few months of evidence that this high financial commitment model on the students behalf wasn’t working I re-approached the teacher with evidence from across the UK that a more flexible financial model for students actually generates the teacher far more money (he was in need of students and time slots he wanted to fill but was determined not to be “messed around by them”). Ultimately as this teacher wasn’t interested in moving to a more flexible approach to the student’s payment model I stopped working with him and appointed a new guitar teacher in Sheffield who had a more flexible approach to payments. This teacher is now one of the leading guitar teachers from across the UK in terms of student numbers and lessons taught per month and reaffirmed my understanding that creating the right payment model for our clients, in this case students, is absolutely critical to ensuring that as a music teacher you generate the revenue needed to continuing being a music teacher.

However, there is a very fine line to ensure that by offering less up front financial commitment clients don’t take advantage of that by cancelling or wasting your time. My advice for this (A) cancellation policies are vital in reducing the losses caused by “no shows”, but cannot entirely alleviate their occurrence (B) that the visibility of cancellation policies can impact the effectiveness of their existence – I would recommend all teachers to have their cancellation policy in the footer of all email communications to students (a strategy that has worked well across the UK), as well as on the wall in direct line of sight in your lesson room (something Amanda Pike’s singing studio in Sheffield does very well); (C) the communication of what it means to book a lesson to a student very early on, as well as when they “cancel a lesson” is very important – I always think of one teacher’s comments that “in a very loving way I explain that they have booked my time, reserving that slot preventing me from generating income from any other source during that hour” – (D) dramatically varying the the model from the payment of either a single lesson on “pay as you go”, or a lesson in advance or a deposit based system – all three of which have been proven to work across the UK – does not bring in the results desired and ultimately reduces the teacher’s income as it tends not to suit the clients. This excludes block bookings, which I think fulfil a different role whereby students who know that they are committed seek to gain a reduction in the lesson price by booking lessons on mass – this is also to the advantage of the teacher in the sense that they therefore have the arrangement pre-paid for, this is dramatically different to the majority of individuals commencing lessons who are not yet necessarily committed to learning the instrument or indeed learning it with that teacher.

@Sally thanks so much for you thoughts and getting involved with the thread. My personal thoughts in regard to your post are two fold (A) often it is not the cancellation policy that is the challenge but gaining the money from the client for a lesson missed, rather than them going MIA never to be heard from again. The length of your cancellation policy therefore might be less important than the process alongside it that needs to be implemented to ensure that clients that does miss a lesson both pays for that lesson and continue to return for lessons thereafter – my question to you would be if I cancelled within the 7 days what are you next steps as a teacher to ensure I make payment & come back for lessons?

(B) business models evolve, I know you mentioned that hotels have a one week cancellation policy – however, many have 24 hour cancelation policies as it suits a different kind of client. In an area that is getting more competitive re-analysising what makes you different from your competitors is increasingly important – this is not to suggest you should be promoting your services on account of a flexible cancelation policy – but rather a continued and evolving look at how you are shaping the service that you are looking to sell to people in the form of 1-2-1 music lessons so that you both generate the highest level of income from it possible within a framework that you feel comfortable with as a teacher. For me increased competition should lead to increased innovation and flexibility on the businesses part to cater better for the clients that are more finite on account of more competition.

Ultimately my person view is that businesses succeed over the long term by continually ensuring that they cater for their clients in the most effective way, despite this at times leaving the business open to a degree of risk. I know in this thread we have talked about what is most beneficial for us, as teachers, to have in place in regard to student cancellations – but if we were students what could we reasonably expect from our music teachers?

[Matthew Rusk]

A question from a teacher came in today, with reference and similarities to this topic: Would you recommend Calling, Emailing or Texting Clients?

This was my response:

Thanks for the email – I would recommend a combination of all three, tailored to the way that they enquire. For an email or contact form enquiry I would email them back, sending a text alongside my first email saying “Hi *Student Name*, thanks so much for your enquiry for guitar lessons on the Guitar Lessons *Location* website. My name is a *Name* and I work alongside *Tutor Name* tutoring guitar students from across *Location*, *Name* is currently fully booked up so passed your enquiry onto me – I have just dropped you an email there now to arrange our first lesson. Should you have any questions or wish to book in your first lesson via the phone you can reach me on this number, thanks again, *Name*” – or something similar.

Then perhaps 3 days later following that up with a phone call if you haven’t heard back from them, 7 days after that perhaps sending them a email + text following up that enquiry one last time. There is a bit of skill following up enquiries in a way that is no too pushy, but enough to ensure people who are really busy and genuinely do want to take lessons and perhaps have been distracted / overloaded with work etc. get a chance to book in with you.

If it is a phone enquiry I would call them back, following that up 48 hours later at a different time of the day (say if you called them on Thursday evening then calling them Saturday afternoon might be a good shout), alongside a text – then again 7 days after the original enquiry. You can work out a suitable program that fits with what you feel is appropriate, but my advice is don’t be scared to follow up an enquiry multiple times across all the ways that they have given you to get in touch with them – after all they got in touch with you to book a lesson!

[Matthew Rusk]

Opening it up to a more general “Funniest Things Students Have Said To You” – my one has to be, I was teaching a young student about 5 years of age and she came in one lesson very quiet. I asked her what was on her mind and she said “I’ve been thinking, you know drain covers – they are like cattlegrids for beetles”. My mind was blown:) haha!

[Matthew Rusk]

I was surprised that Roger Love had coached Eminem…somehow wouldn’t think the two would have got on, Love being full of energy bouncing around and Eminem seeming the slightly quieter type prone to exploding now and again! But anyway apparently they hit it off!