A Conundrum
Now here’s the thing. I am a freelance voice and acting coach (among other things). That means I work for myself, making up my timetable to fit around my students’ busy timetables, fitting in rehearsals for whatever play I happen to be working on, or film shoot, or meetings with colleagues, and trying to find time to finish writing my thesis.
When I first started teaching privately, I discovered this interesting phenomenon: sometimes, people will contact me to book a lesson, and then fail to turn up, or to let me know that they have changed their minds. I understand. Especially when it is voice training, people are nervous, not sure that they really need it, afraid of sounding silly, and so they dip out at the last moment. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I am not prepared to ask people to pay in advance for something when they don’t know if they really want it, until they have at least tried it once.
Eventually, I took the advice of more experienced colleagues, and began to insist upon payment in advance, after the first session. This has served me very well ever since. If there is always at least one session paid for in advance, and the agreement that we give each other a minimum of 24 hours notice of cancellation or postponement, then I am never left sitting, waiting, having prepared the lesson, without any recompense for my time and energy. And believe me, it takes an awful lot of energy to wait. I don’t take easily to doing nothing. If the student foregoes that session, at least it was paid for. Likewise, if I have to cancel with less than 24 hours notice, I owe the student that session.
This has the effect of totally eradicating those occasions when a student might wake up in the morning feeling a bit sniffley, and think they can just not bother turning up for a lesson. It also seems to sort out those who are serious about their training, and therefore value it – not just in financial terms, but also in terms of time and energy expended.
Sadly, it still doesn’t solve the problem of the occasional no show for the first session. Any suggestions?
Comments
Flloyd, this is what I do. I always give the first session for free as a ‘taster’ and so the student and I get a sense of whether or not we will be able to work together effectively. It’s always been a good start in the relationship from my experience. After that, it’s pay in advance with notice given on both sides. Some other colleagues use the pay the whole thing up front, but the reality is that most students cannot afford this.
Thanks Kate, that does sound like a lovely way to do it.
I started offering discounts for block bookings a couple of years ago, and now I find most people prefer it, whether it’s 4, 6 or 8 sessions. And they show up!