Have you noticed that in the last 10 years, doctors offices, dentists office, physical therapy offices have started charging a cancellation fee if you don’t show up to your appointment or don’t cancel your appointment within 24 hours? It used to be $50 and now I’m seeing it as much as $75 and $100!

Should Piano Teachers Offer a 24-hour Cancellation Notice?

But if you think that’s just evidence that we should also offer a 24 hour cancellation notice, think about this for a moment…

• The reason doctors want you to give 24 hours notice of a cancellation is that if you cancel, they have a waiting list of patients that want your spot and so they can usually pretty easily plug someone into that vacant time slot.

• Can we do that? No. We may have a waiting list, but that list is full of people who want regular weekly lessons, not just a one time appointment as with a doctor.

So my point here is not to encourage you to allow 24 hours cancellation notice but rather for us as piano teachers to remember that we are not offering a 15 minute appointment like a doctor is and therefore probably shouldn’t be offering a 24 hours cancellation opportunity. We are offering a yearly package of valuable teaching, opportunities, and experiences that will continue even if a student is not able to come to a lesson.

How Can We Keep Makeup Lesson Requests Down?

Instead of posting a negative sign like doctors offices do saying,

“24 hour cancellation notice is required or you will be assessed a late fee,”

let’s instead do something positive by educating our families about this yearly package: What we are doing for them during the week…the lesson plans we just wrote, the two hours we spent chatting with teachers about how to solve a technique problem, the conference we attended and what we learned, the hours we spent picking out music. These things all remind our families that even if they have to cancel a lesson and don’t get a makeup, they are still getting all kinds of value even apart from the time with the teacher.

When this kind of positive and frequent communication is going on in a studio, parents are happier, much less likely to ask for makeups, and are much more likely to value and prioritize piano lessons.

Free Tools for Communicating to Piano Parents

For help on communicating this “yearly package” concept, consider give your families this free “Where Does My Tuition Go?” brochure. Sending out “studio updates” every few months, which include all the things that you the teacher have done, will also assist families in learning that what they are getting is of immense value that includes much more than just the time we spend with the student.

Thoughts?

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ALSO READ:

• “Top 5 Reasons You SHOULD Give Makeup Lessons.”
• Why Market When I Don’t Need New Students? (includes an easy way to market)
• Is There Such a Thing as a Low-cost of Money-making Recital?

Thanksgiving Music

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so you can surprise your students with actual Thanksgiving music this week! Check out the recent “Thanksgiving Prayer” and the new “Carol of the Bells” and “We Three Kings” arrangements in the store. “Thanksgiving Prayer”comes with 3 versions included: piano only, piano and easy guitar, and piano and advanced guitar! It’s the perfect piece to play with family and friends or even to pray with family and friends on Thanksgiving day.

You can download these piece instantly, so there’s no concern about whether they will be here in time!

image by LTD Team

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