Happy Customers, Happy Teacher

You know the old saying "The customer is always right"? That certainly applies to life as a teacher. If you put the focus on what it is we do, we work directly with people to provide them with high quality educational materials. This means we are responsible for their development at their instrument, their happiness in the lessons and the overall delivery of a quality service. We should always be mindful of our students being happy. While the term customer makes the experience feel somewhat impersonal, we have to remember that our students are our customers. Customer satisfacation starts at the absolute root level, the service we deliver.

When we teach, we provide a service that the customer is seeking. We are their client and they are our customer. They pay us to provide them with a skill or knowledge that they can then use in their own day to day lives. In order to keep students returning we have to ensure that satisfaction is met.Let's look at a few service areas we can always deliver well:

• Always Listen to what the Student Wants. This goes without saying. If your student has preferences over how lessons should go and what content they want to learn, we should take that on board. If you have a student who wants to learn heavy metal, then as a teacher we should be mindful that they probably don't want to be learning Taylor Swift songs.
• Pay Attention to their Development. Everytime you give the student something to actively work on, make a note (either mentally or on paper) of how they are doing at that exact moment. The next time you see them, reassess that position. Have they improved? If not, why? Ask yourself these questions. This isn't to blame yourself for lack of development, this is to build an awareness of being attentive to their exact needs each time. 
• Service with a Smile. Everytime you sit down with a student, you are giving them your time. It's sometimes easy to take for granted what we do. If you aren't in the best mood that day, or you might be tired, you cannot let this imapct on that session. Every session with each student is their moment. For you, that might be the 9th lesson that day, but for them, that's the one hour of your time they are paying for and they expect you to deliver. Always try to leave any baggage at the door and deliver the best lesson you can, every lesson.

Keep these in mind each week and you'll be the best singing teacher, the best piano teacher or the best ukulele teacher you can possibly be.