People today are flooded with choices. Searching for your kids’ piano teacher, a puppy, or a new computer can send even the most organized mind into information overload. There are so many options and so many competing businesses that even the smallest of details can mean making or not making a sale… or signing up or not signing up a piano student.
Consider my weekend trip to get garden soil. On Saturday, before I could hit up the local gravel yard, I had to first take a load of wood to the recycling depot. It just so happens that there is a gravel yard right next door to the recycling depot. Perfect… right? Nope!
Instead, I drove 10 minutes down the road to a different gravel yard. Why? Because the second yard has clearly designated parking and loading spaces, whereas the first yard is all “willy-nilly” with vehicles parked every which way. I find it awkward deciding where to put my truck and often worry I’ll park in someone’s way. So, I travel a ways down the road to a yard that makes me feel more comfortable. Imagine that… choosing an “out of the way” gravel yard simply because of parking stalls.
A Small Studio Detail That Might Drive People Away
Like parking stalls, there are several small piano studio details that may be driving piano parents a little ways down the road and away from your studio. True, these details are small, but they can convey a boatload of information, good or bad… true or not… about your piano studio.
Do You See Your Piano Studio On This List?
1. Your email address (we’ve written about this before)… is it ugly?
2. Your email sign off… do you say “Regards” or something friendly like “Take care”?
3. Your website address… is it too long, too confusing, or too hard to spell?
4. Your piano studio name… do you have one? (You probably should!)
5. Your print advertising… please note – Comic Sans is the world’s most hated font.
6. Your answering machine message… happy and professional or default Robot Man?
7. Car signage… if your car looks like my truck REMOVE THE SIGN 🙂
8. Piano studio entrance… welcoming front door or creepy back alley?
Your Next Step…
If you’re preparing for a new year of piano teaching, are happy with your small details and are wondering what to improve on next, then check out our guide, Piano Hands Shouldn’t Flip Burgers.
Betty Patnude says
I hear you, Trevor. In 2006, I found my downsized, someday I’ll retire home on a wooded lot in a country-like section of a much larger, busy, thriving community – it has speed bumps that slow traffic on the street off of the main road and then when you turn onto my street, it is a gravel, county road going even slower – about 7 to 10 miles an hour, anything faster and you raise dust and bump into a few potholes. I live near the end of the dead-end street with a gravel driveway and parking space (my land is more gravel than it is grass). You park and walk down a walkway because the house is laid long on the lot and the front door is in the middle of the house. It’s all quite a big effort to finally arrive and enter. I think this acts poorly for me because it’s slow going with the last 4-5 minutes of travel. There is absolutely nothing I can do about this – I rather like being away from the busyness, we even have deer here, so it very much feels like country. But, I am not getting the 100% start rate from interviews that I got where I lived previously – my record is quite low and disappointing here – and I think a large part of it is – my location and the impatience that people feel driving from the main road. I don’t know how to counter this problem. Does anyone have any ideas?
Stephen says
A garden studio closer to the main road. Maybe a little expensive but if it increases take-up rate it would easily pay for itself.
Betty Patnude says
Stephen, thanks for that thought! It’s something I had already thought about but it’s not conducive unless it’s on my property and I’m parallel but not close to the main road. A friend and her husband built a “house” consisting of one large sized garden room with glass French doors that they used for meditation, so I know these kinds of things can be done. It would really fill the bill if it were possible at a much better location and that I could afford to do this at this point in my life – senior citizen. I’m also thinking of how to landscape the property so that it’s a wonderful experience just getting to the front door – that would help.
Liz Reed says
You might have to offer something{s}that other teachers don’t offer. Maybe be up front about the distance but then show what you do that is worth the drive?
Eleanor Baldwin says
When you advertise, be up front about the location. Then say “I’m worth the drive!” You might mention the deer with a catchy sentence. If the parent has an inviting place to sit during the lesson, have newspapers and magazines available and a cool drink. Make the first lesson free. Ask yourself, if you were a parent, what it would take you to eat a little gravel. Good luck with your endeavors.
Eleanor