Have you recently lost a piano student? A couple piano students? A whole lot of piano students? At some point every piano teacher will deal with quitting, moving, graduating and just plain old disappearing students. It leaves a hole in your schedule (and a little hole in your heart) and you wonder… “What now?!” Well, we’re here to help!
5 Ways Piano Teachers Can Regroup After Losing Students
We’re not here today to delve into why those students may have left. Students leave for a variety of reasons and whether or not some of those are preventable is for another post. But instead, today we’re here to share our 5 tips for getting back on your game and minimizing the effect that these lost clients have on your piano teaching life. So, throw back those shoulders, stick your determined chin in the air and follow along!
1. No time is ever “empty” – After students depart, the resulting “hole” in your schedule should never be considered “empty”. Until you have a newly registered student on your bench, that time should be used for other income-generating purposes that you can create using your current clientele.
Offer extra lessons to your more advanced students on a rotating basis (3 students who have one extra lesson every 3 weeks or similar), offer a duet class to two of your keen students (as an additional weekly class to their solo lessons), create some group pairings for extra theory instruction, offer a weekly composing workshop… the opportunities are endless. Making use of your existing clientele to fill that hole minimizes the financial effects and offers even more programming to your current students.
2. Offer Free Lessons to Parents and/or Siblings – Another fabulous way to fill that time is to offer a free lesson or two to a parent or sibling of one of your students. Look to the families who come for lessons either before or after your opening as it’s likely the timing would be convenient for them.
Offering a free lesson to a parent as a “Would you like to learn a bit about the piano to be able to help Sarah at home?” often can result in a kindled interest for the parent themselves! Offering a free lesson to a sibling as “I’ve noticed that Ben seems quite interested in what Cara is doing with her piano.” will also often result in a new student. The best part about this strategy is that it really builds relationships with your current clients regardless of if they then sign up or not. And if they if they don’t… you’ve lost nothing but your time… which you now have more of anyway.
3. Extend Lesson Times – Another strategy is to look to the students on either side of your opening to see if they are students who would benefit from a longer lesson time and could thus be extended into your opening. Those of you who have moved from 30 minute lessons to 45 or 60 minutes know how much more can be accomplished even with just 15 extra minutes of contact time each week. Not all families are in the financial position to add on more lesson time, so flexible opportunities such as overlapping those extra 15 minutes with another student (during which time you do duets, play your piano games, do composing activities etc) can reduce the cost but still add lots of value to their child’s piano education.
4. Offer Something New – Adding a “new” aspect to your program and announcing it to your current clients can result in students adding a second weekly lesson (or a longer lesson) to their time with you. Our studio added “Sing & Play” lessons in the past where students learned to chord along as they sang and it was a huge hit. Add beginner’s jazz piano, accompanying lessons, Sing & Play, “recording studio”, composing, improv… choose something that excites you and then present it as a brand new program to generate new interest from your current students.
Over 2000 teachers have chosen to add WunderKeys Piano for Preschoolers as their new program offering. One teacher recently wrote to say “It has only been 32 hours and I have 8 new students already booked for WunderKeys and I am waiting for dates/times for at least a dozen more”. Click here for more program information if you’re eager to fill openings fast!
5. Marketing Hour – If the above 4 strategies don’t pan out and you are still left with an opening, than commit this time to nothing but marketing and advertising each week. Sit down in this time and re-vamp the visual side of your advertising. Come up with a social media marketing plan. Create a studio Facebook page and update it regularly. Network with other instrument teachers in your area. Spending time that is set aside only for advertising puts a laser-like focus on your efforts and it won’t be long before brand new students are knocking on your door.
Get Back In the Saddle and Let ‘er Ride!
As the saying goes, “Every cloud has a silver lining”. If you learn to look at openings in your timetable as opportunities for growth, then your studio will continue to thrive even in times that would normally feel disheartening. With a bit of ingenuity you will be able to get back in the game quickly and minimize the effects that lost students can have on your financial well-being.
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Wow! Thank you for these encouraging ideas! I just lost a student on Monday. He was part of a sibling pair. He is 5 years old and loves coming to lessons, but hates practice. Mom had enough of his break-downs at home, even over a 10-minute practice session. There was no saving this child who wants to only play sports. His sister, however, loves the piano, so I seized the moment and suggested an extended lesson for her. Mom said “YES!”. This will give me more time with the sister, which was desperately needed. Thank you, Andrea, for all your encouraging posts! 🙂
In the past I experienced exactly the same issue. The parent terminated the lessons for the younger sibling in January because of practicing difficulties. The next year we tried again with the younger sibling and she is doing well. A simple case of immaturity. Offering 45 minute lessons to existing students is a good way to convert to longer lessons and raise the performance level of your students. This plan has worked very well for me.
I had a problem with one of my young students over a year ago. The mom asked me to give her a lesson in the last half hour left. Now they share lesson time 45 minutes each and we are having a blast.
Great article! Do you inform the parents that the extended lessons is for a limited time until the slot is filled with a new student?
Hi Angela – That would be up to you – if you can fill that space with a current student then you likely don’t need to fill it with a new student! If you’d prefer to add someone new then yes you could suggest a longer lesson time for a set number of weeks and then your new student would begin once the agreed-upon timeframe had ended.
Really good ideas. Has me thinking I need to explore WonderKeys. Those young students have the potential of being during the day rather than after school – which would be good.
Hi Connie – yes, lots of teachers enjoy the “different” hours that WunderKeys can provide. It’s a free program to offer – no licensing or registration fees at all. Info is on the site at http://www.wunderkeys.com. We’re happy to answer any questions you have at all 🙂
These ideas are so helpful! I want to encourage teaching WunderKeys to those teachers not yet involved. My really young students are really enjoying the curriculum, and I am too. The games suggested by Trevor and Andrea can often be adapted to these 4 and 5-year-old students. Really fun, and very workable!
I’m wondering how you “sell” a longer lesson time to a currently enrolled student and their parents? How do you make it sound to them like something very beneficial? My fear would be that they just think I want more money out of them, and that a longer lesson would mean having to practice more at home each week…
This is a good question Leslie. I think the key is in clearly explaining the benefits their child would receive (more time to delve into composing, more time to be able to more effectively polish more advanced pieces, time to explore different genres of music, time to learn theory etc.) I offer longer lesson times to students I know would truly benefit from more time – those that practice lots, that are keen to progress, that have involved parents, that are interested in other piano “projects” like accompanying, composing, improv etc.