Double Booked Lessons

[DanceMentor]

I had the unfortunate problem of a double booked lesson. I had asked the desk to call and confirm a student a couple of weeks ago. They never called, and I forgot about it. Then I had two students show up at 7 pm tonight. I felt like dirt. I had already started (early) with the first student. I told the second student I would give her a fee lesson, but and apologized several times, and danced with her a little extra at the party. I think she's okay, but it was upsetting for me (and I'm sure her too).

Has this ever happened to you?

[Genesius Redux]

Everybody makes mistakes, man. Don't beat yourself up over it. 8)

[Chris Stratton]

Maybe once, also had a teacher not show up or get the time wrong once or twice, but generally I've been fairly lucky.

I'm personally far more a fan of the model where students schedule things directly with the teacher, than the one where we go through a receptionist-type person who sometimes doesn't get all the details from either the student or the pro we are trying to schedule with. But that requires teachers who are able to manage a datebook, and willing to carry a cellphone or check their voicemail and make return calls.

[Laura]

This has only happened to me once. I wasn't crushed or anything...the coach apologized profusely and we re-scheduled. And she didn't even offer a free lesson. I think you've done all you can, so don't bother yourself about it. You seem to be very conscientious, so I doubt it will happen with you again.

[SDsalsaguy]

Ditto what Laura said.

[pygmalion]

It has happened to me several times.

My first teacher/studio was be very lax about starting and ending lessons on time, so, if you were scheduled for a lesson late in his work day, you'd often have a double booking problem. Scenario: My lesson was scheduled for 4:00, for example, and he had another student at 4:45. He was often twenty or even twenty-five minutes late starting my lesson. Voila. Overbooked from 4:00 - 4:25 (previous student) and from 4:45 to 5:10 (following student.) You know how that studio handled it? They'd assign one of the other teachers on staff to start your lesson and "warm you up." That really made me mad, especially since it happened fairly often. I finally started scheduling my lessons for 1:00, his first lesson of the day. Even those were sometimes late -- smoke breaks, you know -- but at least I could know approximately when my lessons would be. Amazing that these folks have stayed in business for decades, with that kind of stuff going on, but they have. :?

The short version is don't feel bad. There are students out there being treated genuinely badly. You didn't do anything of the sort. Mistakes happen.

[Chris Stratton]

I don't know that all of those who are the best teachers from a dancing standpoint are necessarily any better than studio default folks at scheduling, but at least if you have a lesson scheduled with a person rather than a studio, you know you will get them eventually.

It's not uncommon around here to see a reference to "7:30 pm [pro's name] Standard Time"

Of course others are very good about staying on time.

[pygmalion]

For a high-level pro, I can be flexible. From a (*cough*) MUCH lower level teacher, I expect better treatment.

[Chris Stratton]

The thing is that the pros with strong reputations - the people who could afford to be difficult - rarely are. Instead, it's the yellow-pages studio settings which strike the most uneven bargain with students, despite the fact that they should look perfectly interchangeable in a way that should give students the freedom to shop around for the most favorable terms or ammend the boilerplate contract. I guess it's a testament to their marketing prowess that the toughest market is actually the one where they have the most appearance of power over the customer.

[cl5814]

I guess i have been lucky so far........my teachers have always been on time even at the franchise studio i danced at for a few weeks. One studio even called you the night/day before your lesson to remind you of the lesson scheduled - sort of the approach doctors/dentist follow in the US.

[etchuck]

It hasn't happened much with me. But I wouldn't mind the studio calling me back to confirm an appointment 24-48 hours before. Short of that, students should be able to call the secretary of the studio and confirm the lesson.

[cl5814]

The thing is that the pros with strong reputations - the people who could afford to be difficult - rarely are. Instead, it's the yellow-pages studio settings which strike the most uneven bargain with students, despite the fact that they should look perfectly interchangeable in a way that should give students the freedom to shop around for the most favorable terms or ammend the boilerplate contract. I guess it's a testament to their marketing prowess that the toughest market is actually the one where they have the most appearance of power over the customer.

Chris, you have hit the nail on the head.

[DanceMentor]

Thanks everyone .... I was having a difficult day yesterday (not just that). Hopefully, my student will be okay, and if not, I did offer a free lesson, which pretty nice of me.

[DanceAm]

I am understanding of last minute cancellations and double bookings. I can handle it once in a while. I expect an apology any time it happens but if I went out of my way to show up for the appointment and didn't find out until I got there, I expect some sort of compensation. Especially when I was at a studio that requires 8 hours notice if I canx a lesson. If I were a social dancer, then I have the rest of my life to take lessons, no big deal. But being a competitor, I have a schedule of things to do 6 weeks to two months before a comp with a week to spare just in case. I am very flexible that I can move a lesson to the next day or even double up later, as long as we try to make it up that week or don't fall more than a week behind.

I have quit taking lessons with a teacher that was unreliable. I have decided that for the money I am paying a dance teacher, I expect to be taken seriously and that my time is just a valuable as theirs. I am also the customer. So more than one last minute cancellation or 1 double booking a month, I will let my teacher know it. Where I work, if I exceeded those limits and was constantly late for the appointments with my customers, I would be on the street.

So DM, I don't have a problem with your situation, you obviously were sincere and apologetic and it sounds like an isolated incident. I like that you tried to make it up to the customer in other ways. Be aware that when you get a student like me that was treated like I didn't matter, I will be less tolarent with the next teacher. Mainly because I let the one teacher get away with too much too long and I don't want to go through that again.

[pygmalion]

Exactly, DanceAm. A lot has to do with how important the lesson is to me and the behavior of the teacher involved. In my case, the teacher I had was the most experienced male teacher in the studio, and the teachers "warming me up" had less ballroom experience than I, in some cases. And it happened every couple weeks for months on end. I think I was justified in getting upset and eventually moving to another studio, which I did.

But dance teachers and administrative staff are people, and a mistake is going to happen every once in a while. That is to be expected.

[dancin_feet]

I have had this happen to me once. The studio called me the week before because they needed to swap my regular lesson time to free up my instructor for something else. We rescheduled and I thought, OK, no problem. When I got to my rescheduled lesson, she had not put the booking in the system properly and had booked someone else over the top.

Fortunately because mine was already a rescheduled lesson, (and was probably organised first) they took me instead of the other person. Pain in the butt for the other person, though. I wouldn't have been too put out if they asked me to come back. People are only human and mistakes happen. As long as it doesn't happen all the time. I'm not sure what they offered the other guy, but I doubt he would have been offered a free lesson. They haven't called to reschedule any of my lessons since (thankfully!).