Are you offering value for money?
The easiest way to answer this question is by removing you from your current position as an instructor and swap it with your pupil.
WOULD YOU BE HAPPY WITH THE SERVICE YOU ARE GETTING?
If the answer is no, then you need to reassess what it is you are doing.
If you want to be charging market leading prices and gaining an excellent reputation, you need to be offering a service that WARRANTS IT.
Here are just some of the many complaints that are heard in the industry.
MY INSTRUCTOR SHOUTS AT ME
MY INSTRUCTOR STOPS TO BUY A DRINK OR DO SOME SHOPPING
MY INSTRUCTOR IS ALWAYS ON THEIR PHONE
MY INSTRUCTOR IS ALWAYS LATE
MY INSTRUCTOR SMOKES IN THE CAR
MY INSTRUCTOR DOESN'T ANSWER MY QUESTIONS
MY INSTRUCTOR HAS BAD BO
MY INSTRUCTOR FINISHES EARLY EVERY LESSON
I DON'T FEEL IM LEARNING ANYTHING
MY INSTRUCTOR DOESN'T GIVE ME CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS
MY INSTRUCTORS CAR IS FILTHY INSIDE AND OUT
I'VE BEEN IN A CAR PARK FOR 5 LESSONS NOW!
I THINK MY INSTRUCTOR IS TAKING THE MICKY
MY INSTRUCTOR JUST STOPPED TEACHING ME
MY INSTRUCTOR NEVER GIVES CLEAR COMMUNCATION TO MY PROGRESS
I DON'T THINK MY INSTRUCTOR KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT
MY INSTRUCTOR SWEARS A LOT
MY INSTRUCTOR DOESN'T DISPLAY THEIR LICENCE FROM DVSA
MY INSTRUCTOR CHANGES THINGS THAT THEY TELL ME
IF ANY OF THE ABOVE RING A BELL, It's probably time to consider changing what you do, or consider a career change.
The industry has had a hard time for many years to come across to the general public as the professional industry that it should be.
All the time there are pupils coming out with these and many other comments, then it is no doubt as to why the industry is not taken seriously.
It has taken you a long time and effort to become qualified, and obviously there are always a small percentage in all walks of life that just want to take the easy option.
But to be the best, demand the best prices and the best recommendations then you have to be at the top of your game.
Take additional training if necessary, speak to the right people to get advice on things you may be falling down on.
But if you get to the stage where your reputation is slipping of you cannot charge the prices the industry is demanding, then it's probably time to either get out or change what it is you are doing wrong.
You'd expect to get someone turn up who looks the part, has the correct tools, is polite, carries out a timely bit of work, cleans up after themselves and charges accordingly for the work and time they have spent doing that work
Unfortunately you end up having a poor quality of workmanship carried out, leading to leaks, and someone having to come to repair it.
It causes additional damage to your house, the time in total to get the work resolved is unacceptable, and you end up paying way over the standard price.
The driving industry as a whole, is a self generating business. You do a good job, customers feel they have got value for their money and your name will be banded around everywhere.
How many times do you read on Social media site
"Best instructor ever, I couldn't have done it with anyone else"?
These are the recommendations you want to be achieving every single day of the week.
Encouraging your pupils to give feedback or a review on the services you supplied to them will create you a portfolio that you can use to advertise your business if you ever need to advertise.
Having account with Google or Trust Pilot etc are great ways to promote your business for free, and your reviews will be seen by anyone visiting your page.
What you don't want is bad reviews.
Just one bad review can wipe out 100 good reviews.
So just before you leave you house each day, irrelevant of what mood you may be in, consider who you are going to make you lessons the best you have given, and how that review will look at the end of the time with your pupil because you gave them value on each and every lesson.
Things that should be considered as part of that value for money.
Time keeping - do you regularly turn up at your pupils address late, or are you always a few minutes early?
Are your prices appropriate to your years of teaching, your qualifications and the quality of lessons you deliver, or are you new to the industry with not much of an idea of what you are doing yet as you're still finding your feet, but still expecting to charge what a 51/51 Grade A instructor with 30 years experience instructing and a 100% pass rate is charging?
Do you turn up to your pupil house with a clean and tidy vehicle, or do you have paperwork strewn around the back seat, sweet and crisp wrapper all over the floor, and a bodywork that looks like it hasn't seen a car wash in the last 6 months?
What about your own personal hygiene and dress code? Do you ensure you are clean (no body odour) and are dressed in a manner that looks like you are offering a professional service, or do you look like you're off out down the beach straight after your lesson with your string vest hanging out?
Do you speak to your pupils in a professional and polite manner, or are they "you're mates"? How you speak to your pupils and in the manner you speak to them all constitutes part of the value for money.
Value for money doesn't come in just one form, it takes lots of forms, and all of them combined makes a truly value for money service.
