Are you raising your rates for your piano lessons this year? Are you concerned about the reaction? Most of us can’t help but be a bit wary of changing up the status quo. If you’re increasing piano lesson fees, check out the 4 tips below for how to break the news to your piano studio families.
A Stress-Free Strategy For Announcing Piano Lesson Rate Increases
1. Make an announcement, but not a big deal – the worst thing you can do is to make a big deal about the change. Yes, you need to let your piano families know, but no… you don’t need to compose an oscar-worthy speech or a John Grisham novel. The bigger deal you make about piano lesson rates (by apologizing, justifying, comparing etc.) the bigger deal your piano families will make of it.
A simple sentence (on your re-registration form or in an email with updates about the coming year) saying “Please note: The lesson rates for the 2013/2014 lesson year will be $?) is all you really need. You can justify if needed on an individual basis. You may be surprised at how few people actually care!
2. Pad your announcement with some “extras” – we’ve talked a lot about adding perceived value to your piano lessons. If you clearly show 2-3 things your studio will be adding in the coming year that are different, unique, exciting and valuable then your piano families will tend to accept changes in piano lesson rates more easily. We can tell our clients all we want about inflation, keeping up with the going rate, increased cost of supplies etc. etc. but in all honesty… all they really see is their own bottom line. If they think they’re gaining something along with this increase they’ll be less concerned and their focus will be shifted to the excitement of the new offerings instead.
“Extras” don’t need to mean reinventing the wheel. Rather think about what you could add to your lessons that makes you stand out from the rest. Will you start use game-based materials to teach theory? Announce this! Will you begin offering “sing and play” lessons where your students learn chording techniques? Include this info! Will you hold bi-monthly piano parties? This is something to include.
3. Justify Simply – if parents do contact you with concerns about the increase be prepared to justify the change in a simple way. Avoid lengthy comparisons, discussions on economics, touting your personal value… all you need to say is “I’ve adjusted my lesson rates to be in harmony with the other music studios in the area and to better reflect what I offer as a teacher.” As long as your increase has been fair, it’s difficult for people to get their back up with this kind of explanation.
As piano teachers we often need to “think like business people”. Instances like increases to your piano lesson fees are much better accepted if your business practices are consistently professional and organized.
Thanks for the tips. This is always a source of anxiety for me. I raised rates last year, so I will skip this year. I will, however, keep this in mind for next year.
I have not had as easy a time with this as you say. One year I raised my fee $1. to lessen the sticker shock and still I had irate families argue with me and quit. These were well heeled folks who would not feel the shock of a dollar. My experience comes after almost 40 years in the business and my husband a string teacher has the same issues. You need to know your worth but be careful because human nature is unpredictable……..
As in any business it is the “well-heeled” clients who are the most obnoxious…I have found this to be true in several ventures I have been involved in…weird!
I’m not exactly raising my rates this fall, but I sort of am.
I’m charting a re-registration fee for the fall, which I’ve explained to the parents will cover the online theory games I will be assigning, as well as recital costs, printing costs, etc. So that is new.
I’m also going from a “tuition calculated per month” to a flat-rate monthly charge regardless of how many weeks are in a month. But it worked out so that the parents are paying the average of what they were paying between the four and five week months, so I’m not expecting much of a push-back, since they’ve all paid for a five-week month at least once.
Another way to raise rates without the monthly amount charged going up is to offer fewer lessons in the calendar year (like buying a smaller box of cereal that says new and improved for the same price). This works if you have a flat fee. You can say there will be X amount of lessons offered between August and July (or whatever months you want it to state). And then give the calendar that shows when you will be off for holidays, school breaks or whatever at the start of the school year, so that everyone can plan ahead. Put recitals and other events on the same calendar so people will see what they are getting in addition to their private lessons. Works pretty well for me, but I do get asked in December “why the same price when only 3 lessons are given?” I just give another calendar out and remind people they are only being charged for X amount of lessons during the calendar year, but for ease in budgeting, there are 12 equal payments.
Yearly tuition is the way to go. Parents can choose to pay all at once in August or half in August and half in January.
Great advice and tips from everyone, many thanks for sharing!
And yes the ‘well heeled’ ones are always the ones late and ‘forgetting’ the monthly payments because they are so ‘busy’.
I’m planning to charge the ‘well heeled’ parents the tuition for the whole semester and already charged the tuition for the whole summer, so I will continue this method for parents who always ‘forget’ to make the payment.
I will use these tips for the upcoming fall semester.
Thanks for the advice. I will be raising my rates this fall and was contemplating how to go about it. Your thoughts have made me realize that I give a lot, which parents don’t really realize. I would like other’s opinions on what you do for 45 minute lesson rate. Do you add 1/2 the 30 minute rate? Do u give a discount for 45 minutes?
Joanne
Hey Joanne, I’m not sure how other teachers do it, but I don’t base my rates on the 30 minute rate. My rates are in rupees as I teach in India but it may still make some sense:
800 rs is for 30 minutes
900 rs for 45 mins and
1000 rs for 1 hour.
So as you can see I am not doubling the rate for the hour. I think in my case it is important to charge more, but not double for the longer lessons, because it would seriously put people off taking a longer time slot, and I feel advanced/adult students really benefit from the extra time.
I’m raising my rates in August: all I did was send an e-mail stating my revised fees, and that was it! No one even responded so I’m guessing there are no complaints! I like the idea of padding it with extras 🙂
One summer I offered an introductory rate of an extra $5 per lesson for 45 min. Several decided to try it out. In the Fall I charged an extra 50% for a 45 minute slot. (So no discount) Almost everyone decided to continue the longer lessons. As piano instructors iI feel that too often we try to make everyone happy & end up shorting ourselves. Have confidence in your worth. Keep explanations brief & matter-of-fact. Remember that there will always be parents who think you charge too much or that your policies are unreasonable. The sooner you loose these people as clients, the hhappier& more stress-free your life will become! Cherish the families who appreciate your worth. If you love what you do, they will continue to find you!
I teach in 2 different localities. The bulk of my students are in a locality with a lower fee, and my fees are the highest compared to other teachers, but it’s working out well. I have just a couple of students in another locality where fees have gone up by 20% to 40%, since I started teaching there, and my question is regarding that. I’ve just discovered that many teachers here have raised their fees recently, and am wondering whether I should too, or just leave it be. I don’t intend taking more than 2 or 3 students there, but am uncomfortable undercharging, as it’s not fair to other teachers. I don’t think the parents would have a problem with a fee increase, but it would mean that I have different fees depending on where I teach. Am thinking over what to do….
Hi Anita – I think having different fees in different locations is just fine. It’s usually a good idea to base your fees on the “going rate” in your area and if that changes based on location then I would think it is fair. For example, if you were to teach downtown New York City 3 days a week, it would make sense for your fees to be higher there than they would be in the surrounding suburbs.
What if you need to raise your price a lot, as in 2-3x? When I started I was a complete novice and some of the early quotes I gave were completely off. In theory I could get rid of these students but I would feel badly for the kids, they’re 7-8 years old.
Hi Andrew – you’ll want to approach this one carefully as a rate increase of 3x would be quite a surprise for those families. I would move in smaller increments – word-of-mouth is the most important thing for a piano teacher and to increase rates drastically could potentially result in negative word-of-mouth in your community and may end up costing you more than it would to increase gradually.
I found your article about raising rates full of great advice. Thank you. I have raised rates over the years (35+ years teaching now) and its has usually gone well. As you say, be ready with an answer if asked about it. Being confident, smiling, and being positive you can say almost anything.
I am raising my rates as of January 1, but I’m doing it fairly selectively. Frankly, I’d like to have a couple of families quit. I love their kids, but they are very bad horrible no good piano students. One family is of the “well-heeled” variety and they complain about money for books all the time. Grr.
I am grandfathering-in some beloved families, keeping their rates the same. I’ve adjusted my website to reflect the new rates, so new families will pay the higher tuition.
If they talk amongst themselves and realize that some are paying more, well, I’d be gobsmacked if that happened! And if it does, I’ll deal with it.
Til then, I’m going with my plan.
Thanks for this article. I honestly haven’t raised my rates in 8+ years of teaching piano. I don’t teach piano full-time, but the extra income IS nice.
Just curious…… what do people normally charge for a 30 minutes lesson? I find it difficult to get everything done in 30 minutes, but I wouldn’t have enough hours in the day to get them all in if I did longer lessons. When my students come for their lesson, I have them play their songs from that week, and sometimes that takes so much time that there is hardly time to learn new things. What do you do in that situation? I feel bad re-assigning all songs, but if they’re not ready to move on, I feel that it won’t do them any good if they haven’t mastered the songs they’re currently working on. It’s so frustrating!
How do you get students to WANT to practice more? I feel they should be able to come into their lesson, play through their songs in 5-8 minutes and then the rest of the lessons can be used for learning new concepts. It usually is the exact opposite for me. It’s getting so stressful! I’d appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!!