That post title even made me squirm… and I’m the one who wrote it.
I pay close attention to our website statistics and analytics, so when I saw that someone landed on our site yesterday after googling “how to steal piano students” my interest was definitely piqued. After all, who is out there attempting to run other piano teachers into the ground?
Unfortunately, Stealing Piano Students Does Happen
It does! It happened to me early in my career when another piano teacher convinced a family that because of my young age, I did not have sufficient experience to provide a quality piano education. All lies of course… but enough to plant a seed of doubt which ultimately led to that family’s departure.
Did I let this phase me? Of course not! Remember, people usually steal from the rich. This particular piano teacher viewed me as a threat because of my early success. So in essence, her interference was a compliment.
How do you stop piano student theft?
Just be you!
The most successful piano teachers are (no surprise) the most loved piano teachers. Avoiding piano student theft is as easy as developing a really good rapport with all of your students and their families. Connect with good families and you will have a loyal, diehard following who will go red with anger when another teachers attempts to woo them.
Don’t lose sleep over the ones that get away. As you might expect, the family that was “stolen” from me was more trouble than they were worth and I was happy to see them go.
Caring piano teachers… honest piano teachers… invested piano teachers… will ALWAYS WIN.
Thanks…needed to read that last line…
If you have good and right on your side,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, you will always win!!!
Yes, love the last line too! I shall print it out and stick it up somewhere!
David
Belonging to a professional music teachers’ association that will back you up is another way to combat this problem, because it is unethical and can land a teacher in hot water with their professional association if they attempt to steal students from another teacher’s music studio. Here in Canada music teachers’ professional associations are quite well organized; there are Registered Music Teachers’ Associations active at the local branch, provincial, and national level.
I just about passed out when I read the title… however… I will print out the final line & post it on my studio wall as well as on top of my emails especially when they’re sent to our Music Teacher’s Chapter!