It might seem impossible to track how all your students are doing in their English lessons. In reality, some students are weaker, some are just not understanding what is required of them, some feel overwhelmed by the method. It is your job as a school owner to make sure that everyone is satisfied. After all, your livelihood depends on it.
If your students are progressing, they’ll be happy. And if they’re happy, they’ll continue buying the product you are offering them – in this case, English lessons. At our school, for example, we offer free consultations to our existing students. It is all calculated into the overall price of their lessons, but in effect, it is free for them.
So, for example: a student is feeling a bit like they can’t keep up with the class, or they have some additional questions they might not be able to bring up during the lesson – they can arrange a consultation with you or one of the teachers to discuss the issue. This service makes them feel appreciated. They’ll feel good when they get the information they require. The one-on-one attention they get from these consultations really makes a difference. And it doesn’t cost you much time or money at all.
A consultation only needs to last about half an hour, and not all of your students are going to use this. In our experience, only a few ever do, but it’s a great thing to put on your offer and it also proves to them that they’ll get more bang for their buck. You can limit these free consultations to once a month or once per stage.
Why it’s important to track your students’ progress – How individual consultations can benefit your school
Want to have well-organized school
and happy students?
Check out our CRM4Callan, a cloud-based software that helps you keep all your data in one place and reach for it from any place in the world!
How do I know if my students are doing well?
As an owner, you’re probably not teaching all the classes and you probably don’t have first-hand knowledge of how everyone is doing in class. To get on top of this, we use a program called CRM4CALLAN to track everything about our students. In the program, teachers quickly mark off how each student has done after every class. If they performed well, they get a plus sign; if they performed badly, they get a minus sign. The students don’t get to see this, it’s just available for you to see.
If a particular student has been performing badly for a couple of lessons in a row, we get a notification warning us about this. We can then nip the problem in the bud before it gets out of hand. We can proactively approach the student for a consultation and discuss what might be causing the issue. You can then see if they feel like they can’t keep up and maybe suggest some individual lessons to catch up, or get them to repeat the stage if necessary. By identifying the problem, offering a consultation and talking to them in a friendly manner, the student really feels like the school has gone above and beyond what regular language schools are expected to do. You have found a solution to something that has been bothering them, they just didn’t know how to ask for help.
If the student had remained in the class without any additional help, they would drag the group down a bit and maybe get on the nerves of other students. The content would just get more and more difficult for them to follow. They would soon leave your school with a negative experience and tell their friends and family that it was useless and they didn’t learn a thing. Now that’s something to be avoided at all costs! Bad publicity travels far and wide.
For a language school to be a success, you need to be sure you offer good customer service. So make sure you stay on top of everything at your school. The most important thing is to keep your students happy. They are the ones spreading the news about your school. They are the ones with first-hand experience. If they are really happy with your school, they’ll be more than excited to let everyone they come across know about it.
