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May 14, 2005
What Do You Do About Missed Classes?
"The joys of meeting pay the pags of absence / Else who could bear it?" ~ Nicholas Rowe
Private lesson no-shows
Has this ever happened to you? You spent an hour preparing for a private class, then rush to get to it on time. You set up your props or whatever you will be using, then sit back and wait for your students to arrive. Ten minutes later, you're still waiting, but you have faith. After all, they've been late before. Twenty minutes later, you begin to get that "feeling," but decide to stick it out. Forty minutes later, which is exactly twenty minutes before the class is scheduled to end, you begin to pack up to go home.
If you work in a school, you may be silently cheering your luck. (Extra time to goof off!) But if this happens in a private class, you have to carefully weigh your options. Do I charge my students for the missed class or not?After dealing with this situation for a while, I finally came to a conclusion; my time is my time and I'm going to be paid whether I'm teaching or sitting in a room alone with a bunch of empty chairs.
And guess what? I now rarely have no-shows!
I talk to a lot of other teachers who are afraid of losing their private students if they put this policy into place, but I gotta tell you--it works. Your students will respect you for it AND you won't find yourself twiddling your thumbs with the song "Should I stay or should I go now?" playing over and over in your mind. (If that's not a hint about my age, I don't know what is!)
Do you have anything to say about this? Have you tried "getting tough" with your private students? (From the poll we took, I know that A LOT of you rely on private classes to supplement your income)
If you've got some advice on this subject, I'm sure everyone would benefit from it. Let's hear from you!
Until next time,
Lee
Posted by msimmons at May 14, 2005 08:13 PM
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Private lessons no-shows. Has this ever happened to you? You spent an hour preparing for a private class, then rush to get to it on time. You set up your props or whatever you will be using, then sit back and wait for your students to arrive. Ten m... [Read More]
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Comments
Hi there! I know exactly what you mean and strongly agree with your resolution. I myself did something like that with my private students. At the beginning the were like " no one has ever told us something like that and we've had private teachers before " and of course I felt as if I had dug my own grave, but later on they were O.K. with it and like you said NO SHOWS were minimal. Of course I dropped in a set of rules that backed up the main goal, which was to get paid either way, but at the same time made it fairer for everyone. I told them that if they called me at least 24 hours ahead, their class would be considered an early cancellation thus giving them the chance to recover it at a later date, without any extra cost, of course, at a time and day that would be ideal for both (previous agreement included). The other rule was that if they called the same day, the class would be considered a late cancellation thus no recovering would take place for free. So far it has worked well, although I don't know what to do about a situation I have with a student that won't be able to take any classes for a month, because of a heavy workload ahead of him during that month, but is still interested in taking classes the month after that and wants to keep the same schedule and everything. Should I charge him 50% of the total monthly average amount he usually pays in order to keep his class-time block available or just let it slide because he's a nice student and some of my private students have contacted me because of his word-of-mouth advertising he has been doing for free? That's the dilemma I'm facing now! If anyone out there has some kind of advice I would really appreciate it! Ron
Posted by: Ronald Churión at June 7, 2005 06:12 PM
Hi Ron!
No, I don't think you should charge your student for that month as he must have let you know in advance that he won't be able to attend (with a good reason). Also, he obviously enjoys your class and has done some good advertising for you; so, you will probably be able to cover that month anyway.
Best, June
Posted by: June at June 16, 2005 04:28 AM
Hi Ron. The penultimate sentence suggests to me that this student is a vaulable business assset. So why not treat his situation as a termination restarting a month later. I know a month is a lot to lose, but when you are in business for yourself, it is swings and roundabouts. His good will can bring you more business than one month's fees.
Posted by: Jospeh McCluskey at June 16, 2005 12:57 PM
