With the onset of fall studio enrollment upon us, this is the perfect time to check in with your students to make sure the studio is excelling their expectations. This is also the perfect time to get feedback on what needs to be improved, and to implement strategies to progress the studio’s service.
Depending on the type of studio you are, either a one-man show out of your home, or a 20 person staff in a community conservatory, your questions are going to be specific to what you offer. However, here is a list of components to a typical studio’s service, and some sample questions you might ask to determine your level of service in each component.
Studio Facility
- How do you rate the availability of parking?
- How do you rate the entrance to the studio?
- How do you rate the studio room’s cleanliness?
- How inspiring do you find elements of the studio?
- How do you rate the waiting room facilities?
Lesson Services
- How accommodating do you find your instructor regarding scheduling and make-up lessons?
- How do you rate the instructor’s timeliness?
- How do you rate the instructor’s use of lesson time?
- How do you rate additional studio events, such as workshops, studio classes, recitals, etc?
Communication
- How do you rate the instructor’s timeliness when returning messages?
- How do you rate the studio’s automatic lesson reminders?
- How do you rate the studio’s e-mail invoice system?
- How do you rate the studio’s monthly newsletters content?
- How do you rate the clarity of the studio’s policy?
Most of these questions should be answered in a gradient scale- 1 (unacceptable) 2 (poor) 3 (acceptable) 4 (exceeds expectations). You will get a better idea if a component needs to be addressed with a scale rather than Good/ Bad. At the end of the survey, include a comment section. Specifically, ask the individual to address a particular issue regarding an above-stated question. Add another space for students to comment freely. You may be able to use outstanding comments for future testimonials on your website or brochure, so include a statement that comments may be published.
Options for giving this survey are limitless. You may use the tried and true printed surveys, which are a minimal cost and can be directly given to students at their lesson. There are also numerous services online that send out surveys to your students’ e-mail and interpret the survey data. Polldaddy.com is a free site that allows you to create your own survey, send up to 100 surveys a month, analyses your data in advanced pie charts and graphs, but only allows you to list 10 questions in your survey.
Get your students involved in the survey- for each student who completes the studio survey by a certain date, give them an incentive by crediting a certain amount off their next lesson.
Start your survey today, and let us know how it goes! What questions did you ask? Did you use Polldaddy.com, or did you try another service? Keep us posted!
If you already have a Google ID, try Google Documents — they have a Form creation wizard that provides a large array of question types, a very user-friendly interface, and the results are eye-catching and simple.
Results can be viewed easily in a spreadsheet format, sorted and tabulated ad nausaeum.
The survey is anonymous by default, so I included a blank text box at the bottom of the form for respondent’s name. Many have filled it in, some have not. They enjoyed that choice.
Another very important question:
“On a scale of 1-10 how likely would you be to recommend this studio/teacher to a friend?”
This simple question has been shown to be the single most important measure of how well a product (in this case voice lessons) is working. The other questions are really just follow-up to fix your problems, but this measures effectiveness.
For more information, Google Net Promoter.
Great comment- recommendations are key in any business, but certainly in the home studio business!
I created my own very thorough survey. If anyone wants a copy, please e-mail me.
I created my own very thorough survey. If anyone wants a copy, please e-mail me at pianomanross@yahoo.com
your singer has a tough time with the longer phrase – I employ a mental trick of speeding up the tempo to build confidence around 60 beats and the next week or in a few weeks I slow it a bit