One of the most important aspects of running a successful studio is finding the delicate balance between being able to reach your students and parents when you need to and being reachable when they need to contact you. For most of us, gone are the good old days of a single home phone. Instead, we have to contend with multiple phone numbers for both ourselves and our students and email, which can be either a time-saver or a time-waster. One of the features that originally drew me to Music Teacher’s Helper two years ago was its ability to act as a dashboard for emailing either specific students, groups of students, or all of them.
If only things were that simple nowadays. The last few years have marked the rise of many more vehicles of communication, including the following ways that my students now contact me:
- home phone
- cell phone
- work phone
- text messaging
- Update: Internet messaging and calling services such as Meebo, Skype, Live Messenger, ICQ, Yahoo (Thanks, Kristian!)
The problem is that with all these separate contact routes, a teacher dealing with the needs of their diverse students can often be deluged with messages in up to a half dozen places. How can one survive and thrive? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Make it clear which vehicles of communication are the ones you prefer. Whether email or voicemail, tell your students up front what is the preferred method of reaching you. This might be an excellent time to update your studio policy with specific language on contact methods.
2. Make it clear which vehicles of communication you would rather not use. This type of boundary-setting is important to establish, and may need revising from time to time. Many students send me text messages with questions or cancellations. I’m not a fan of texting and as a result, almost never check my cell phone’s inbox. Therefore, I’m going to need to communicate that desire with my students in the future, in order that I’m not left waiting for a student that has already cancelled a day previously.
3. Set aside inbox time. At least once a day, find time to check each and every place (online, voicemail, or other place) where your students might leave you messages.
4. Get Music Teacher’s Helper. This all-in-one studio solution can integrate your scheduling, contacts, and invoicing all under one roof, as well as giving you a web presence through their website creation tools. Both you and your students will benefit from the huge array of tools available through MTH’s service, and frantically rooting around for your students’ phone numbers will be a thing of the past.
5. Decide on your social media policy, and explain it to students if you need to. Do you feel comfortable joining Facebook? Or would you rather keep your privacy? If you do join Facebook, are you going to friend your students? Their parents? Are you okay with lesson-scheduling messages appearing publicly on your wall?
6. Do your best to minimize the number of inboxes you need. Fortunately, services like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter have options to send alerts to your email inbox. Use this option whenever possible so you can see message notifications in a centralized place in order to cut down on potential wasted time. Incoming phone calls can also be forwarded to another number if you don’t like checking multiple voicemail locations.
And finally…
7. Be prepared to change with the times. Technologies will evolve, and with it will change our ways of communicating with each other. Who would have known 10 years ago that our online lives would be as public and complex as they are now? Most of us have very little clue as to what technology will be like 10-20 years from now, but it’s a sure bet that it will influence our ways of communicating with students. Being aware of and open to future changes will allow you to take advantage of technologies you feel are appropriate to your agenda as a teacher while setting boundaries on ones you don’t feel comfortable with.
What are some of the changing ways that you stay in touch with your students? How do you manage the recent fragmentation of contact methods?
while new forms of social media are certainly convenient, many people appreciate a phone call for the extra effort it takes, (i suspect that’s why)
I agree, and am still a huge advocate of the telephone. However, I also need to take into account the needs of students and parents, many of whom (in social networking-obsessed Toronto) routinely use these contact methods and feel most comfortable with them.
Ironically, not using the phone for communication keeps the darned thing from ringing all the time when I’m teaching…
You forgot to include instant messaging options/free internet calls, such as Skype, Yahoo, ICQ.
Best
Thanks, Kristian. I added internet messaging and calling to the original post. You can tell how much I use those options.
I have, for the past several years, had in my studio policy that voicemail (to my cell phone only, my home number is NEVER given out), email, or cancellation on the website are the only ways to cancel lessons. I specifically state that texting is not considered a cancellation as I have, about twice a year, received text messages more than 24 hours after the message was sent. So…not reliable enough, in my opinion. I have a Blackberry, so I have texting, email, Facebook & Twitter all on one device – but email (website) & voicemail to the cell are the only “approved” methods of cancelling. I’m just trying to get into Twitter – we’ll see what happens!! Thanks Chris – I’m also a REAL fan of your Collaborative Piano page!!