Chasing Business Or Stalking?
Today I have been contacting some of the pupils that have “gone quiet” – those I haven’t seen for a little while, because of work, finances or other commitments.
One of my pupils (Purdy) replied that because I did not reply to one of her text messages (which I didn’t receive), she has now moved to a different driving school 
Our last lesson was about 4 weeks ago, where she told me that she had lost her bank card, so was unable to pay for the next lesson – she would contact me to book the next lesson once her card was sorted. I would have been quite happy for her next lesson to be “on credit”, as she has had quite a few hours with me, and always paid in advance.
This has led me to think that maybe I should have contacted Purdy after a week or so, to chase her up. But how soon is too soon, and how often too often? I certainly think that 4 weeks is too long (as shown by the loss of this pupil), but I don’t want to appear to be stalking my pupils either!
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September 1st, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Always a dilemma. Personally, I like to have some contact with my pupils as least once a week, but when they say something like ‘I don’t know what my shifts are for next week – I’ll let you know’, then I tend to leave it for just over a week. I have learned the hard way (like yourself), that ‘giving them space’ and leaving it too long could mean losing the pupil.