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I'm finding that I often have to remind the parents of my students
that they signed an agreement when it comes to the following:

1. 24 hr notice for canceling lessons
2. 14-day notice for discontinuing lessons

How do you remind your students/parents about these things in a
professional way without making them feel guilty? I find I'm often
explaining to them that this is my living and without the proper notice, I have no way of filling that time slot.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

What are the consequences if they don't follow those guidelines?

I'm not a piano teacher but I experience the same problems occasionally. I've found that appointments will be missed no matter what you say. If someone fails an appointment it's usually an accident anyway. I just chalk it up as part of the business. yin and yang. Luckily there's a lot more yin than yang. LOL

I think all my piano families know the rules, but sometimes they still ask. Just last week, I had a student completely forget to come to their lesson, then I got an email after the fact saying they were quite busy, and could they reschedule. At a recent conference I attended, I was told a good response to this request would be, "Oh, you mean you would like a FREE lesson?" But I just couldn't get those words out to this parent. I didn't offer another lesson, but I did say perhaps the student could stay a bit longer for the next lesson.

Another student today remembered too late to actually get here for more than about 10 minutes. It must be the summer forgetfulness season!

The consequences for canceling a lesson without giving at least 24 hours notice is they
lose the option to make-up that lesson.This is what is supposed to happen. I find I'm
letting it slide more often than not in an effort to not cause friction with the parents.

If they don't give a two week notice for stopping their lessons, I will usually remind them
of the policy and most of the time they will either pay me or continue for 2 more weeks.

** You know the bottom line is- how to make people take our jobs seriously and not think that
this is just casual charity work that can be taken for granted.

Tom

Great point, this is what it's about IMO.
I used to offer makeup lessons for people who no-showed and constantly were rescheduling at the last minute. By offering these consequences, I created my own resentment and problems in my studio.
No more. This was not a healthy way to operate a business.
My suggestion for you:
say something concise and positive like, "I offer makeup lessons when 24 hours notice is given" or whatever your studio policy states. Keep your response short and positive, saying what you CAN do. Be friendly, firm, and stick to your studio policy.

Stanny- Regarding the "free lesson", I had the same thing happen yesterday. I had a mother of a student call me 40 minutes before the lesson and very casually say, that her son won't be in
for his lesson. Then she immediately asks for a make-up. So she cancels the lesson giving me no
chance to fill the time slot, and then she wants a make-up two days later. I gave in because she's been with me for over a year, but it really made me mad. I guess I need to explain to her
that I lose the time when she gives me no notice.

I think a lot of parents just think that they've paid for the lesson so they have the right to cancel at the last minute.This same parent told me last Summer that they would be back
to continue lessons in August so I held their time for them. Guess what- they ended up not
starting till September. Do I ask them to pay me for that month that I held their time slot?
This year I will tell them that I am reserving their time slot for them, and they will be charged if they don't show up.

Tom

Barb-excellent advice!

Tom

We all have this stuff happen but it's my experience that it can be minimized by not giving in and offering that makeup lesson. I know it's hard to say no and not offer the makeup, but the more we let this stuff slide and give in, the more times people will take advantage. I know, we're just being nice, considerate, and generous by allowing for this type of behavior, but is the reverse true? Are the people that no-show and ask to reschedule at the last minute being considerate? No.

This advice has been offered to me many times in this forum, I find it helpful, and we need to keep supporting each other by passing it along.

I make the parents sign a new "studio policy" at the beginning of each school year after reading all the cancellation policies.

I also try to be flexible because I've found that sometimes *I* need them to bend to my school schedule so for me it's a two-way street.

However, when it starts to become a recurring thing I pull out their signed contract and remind them of the rules.

Jennifer:

Yes, I plan to go over the policy again with everyone this fall.
I still can't figure out why it so hard to get the parents to think
of their lessons as a "class" that runs month to month. Would they
be able to ask the teacher at their school or college if they could
make up a class they missed? Why are piano lessons any different?

Tom

I think even a 24-hour cancellation notice policy is still very lenient. There's very little chance the teacher can manage to fill that spot within 24 hours anyway. Imagine if a parent cancels on you 3 or 4 times in a row but gave you 24-hour notice so they still abide by your policy. How would you like that? Most probably not!

I think what's more fair is to allow a free make-up only if there hasn't been a cancellation/free make-up X times before, and the teacher can determine what this X times is in their policy. I think a reasonable number for X is maybe 12 times (3 months). This should be sufficient for the occasional illness or emergency. If you're in school or working, you wouldn't be able to miss school or work more often than once every 12 days and get away with it, would you? Same with piano lessons. And a missed lesson already paid for (but not qualified for a free make-up) still counts toward this X number, of course, to be fair. It's not about how many missed lessons prior to the free make-up. It's really about how many previously paid lessons that would enable the entitlement of the free make-up.

If parents complain that X=12 is too long, you can clarify to them that you're not asking them to book 3 months worth of lessons. If you normally ask parents to book only 4 lessons at a time (1 month worth) like many teachers do, parents always have a chance to book around planned absences. For example, if they plan a vacation for week 3, they can just book weeks 1, 2, 4, and 5 and skip week 3. But if they have last minute changes on the 4 lessons they already booked, it should be their problem and not yours.

There can be a million reasons to cancel lessons and still be able to cancel with 24-hr notice. Student's been invited to a birthday party. Family decides to go camping that weekend. Relatives in town for a visit. On and on. Why should teachers be left holding the bag with a 24-hour cancellation for these choices made by parents at the teacher's expense, while they're holding up their end of their bargain and keep their schedule reserved for those lessons.

Probably because if a student misses a class at school/university, the class still runs because other students show up. So the teacher still teaches.

However, they probably regard one-on-one lessons as a private and mutually agreeable arrangement that can be altered on a whim by either party. You need to make it clear that you are not available "whenever", and that to reserve the lesson time for the student every week, they owe you for that time even if they can't come. If you have exceptions (eg. sufficient notice, or sudden extreme illness), you should spell these out clearly, along with what the arrangements are likely to be in these cases. Be as consistent as possible. People talk.

Parents will ask for things anyway and you can't really stop this because it's human nature. While annoying, this isn't really the problem. The problem is when they insist your policies don't apply to them.

If you were to implement a 'no makeup lesson policy', it might help to cut down on parents who try to take advantage of you. But, YOU have to stick to your guns. If parents know when they sign up that you don't offer makeups for any reason, well... they know. If they don't like a teacher with a policy like that they will find someone else, right?

I also have a very hard time sticking to my policy. I do notice that I have an easier time dealing with it via email, rather than "thinking on my feet." In an email, I am comfortable saying, "It is my policy to not give make-ups for missed lessons. If you need another copy of the policy, let me know and I'd be happy to send you one."

I send out monthly general info emails, and this year, I plan to have a tag line reminding them that no make-ups will be given for last minute cancellations, so please don't ask. Maybe if they see it often enough, it will sink in.

Part of the problem is that I teach out of my home, and many people think I haven't "lost" anything because I can do chores or whatever if they aren't here. And because I don't have back to back to back students, they figure I have flexibility.

I think one could also reverse this argument to the parent: "How would you like it if you showed up for a lesson and the child was prepared to play what they had worked on all week and came with their books, only to find the teacher not there? Then getting a call as you were waiting that the lesson would be canceled? Certainly, you'd think that unfair and a waste of your time."

My policy is that if parent gives 48 hours notice, I will offer a makeup lesson if one is available. There is no guarantee another time will be available.

But still last week I had a parent call 2 hours ahead to cancel and request a make-up. The answering machine got the call since I was teaching. And the same parent sent an email asking for a makeup. I responded to the email by saying thanks for letting me know your daugher wouldn't be here for her lesson. I went on to answer another question in his email. All week I worried that they were offended that I gave an indirect answer, and of that I didn't offer a makeup. I even wondered if they would discontinue lessons because of it.

This week the child showed up for lesson, and it was all OK. I had imagined that the parents were annoyed with me, but they weren't. I was relieved. My point it that I do stick with my policy, but it can be difficult. I even went so far as to tell the parent "I'm sorry that I wasn't able to reschedule her lesson last week". I know I had no reason to apologize other than to meet my own need to please people. But at least it brought up the issue, and that's how I found out they were not the least bit upset over it.

I felt upset that I was being asked to reschedule. But I have to accept that people will continue to ask. I just have to get more comfortable in saying no. It helps me to say that I won't be ABLE to reschedule, instead of saying I won't reschedule because you didn't give adequate notice.

There are ways of being polite, nice and sincere while telling parents to go take a leap.

"I'm so sorry David will be missing his lesson today. I was so looking forward to hearing his progress on that Ballade, and finding out how he's done tackling that Shostakovitch. But life happens - we all know that. We'll see you next week. In the mean time, tell David I'll be pulling for him and to keep up the good work." (Don't say this unless you really mean it, otherwise, your tone will betray you!).

If parent continues to insist, say, "Of course, I may be able to find a free opening later in the week, but I just want to remind you that there is a $50 additional lesson fee if I add an extra lesson in for David."

And if the parent continues to insist, you can further remind them that "Rescheduled lessons must be made at least 24/48 hours in advance."

"When you signed up for lessons, we covered the no make-up lesson policy and the reasons why. You told me you understood and accepted it. And we covered lesson rescheduling, if openings happened to be available, with 24/48 hrs advanced notice. I sincerely regret that this week, I just don't have any openings available for David."


Always try to stay positive and on-topic. It's best to avoid anything which can become argumentative.

Actions speak louder than words. Your actions (letting it slide) are different than your words (studio policy), so you've made it known that your studio policy isn't really valid.

Put another way - why do you expect your clients to follow your policy when you don't follow it yourself?

They're not, really. College students make just as many unreasonable requests. You'd be surprised at how many of my undergraduates will miss/skip class, then come to my office and ask me to go over "anything important" that they missed.

(This is a little O.T., but often when students ask me "did I miss anything important?", I'll just hand them a sheet of paper containing this poem: "Did I miss anything?" That's if I'm in a good mood. If I'm in a bad mood I just tell them that, as it states clearly in the syllabus, I am not responsible for repeating lecture material individually to students who miss class and that they will have to borrow notes from a classmate.)

p.s. Lest I sound like a heartless monster, I then offer to go over any questions they might have about the material AFTER they've borrowed the notes from a friend and have looked them over.