Today we have a question from a tutor:

Dear UniversityTutor,

I’d like to work on my profile to see if I can make it more appealing to potential clients. What are your thoughts on free/discounted trial sessions for students?

Sincerely,
Super Tutor

Dear Super Tutor,

A free first session is certainly one option, but I personally prefer offering a money back guarantee on the first session.  It eliminates the risk to potential clients and makes them feel more comfortable while still ensuring you are compensated for your time.

If you’re talking to a potential client on the phone you can say something like “this is really just a trial session to see if it’s a good match, if you don’t feel like you got what you wanted out of it then there’s no charge and we can part ways on good terms”.  This will make them feel much more comfortable about your price, and willing to try it out.  In my experience, you will almost always get paid after the first session using this arrangement and it will drastically increase the number of first meetings you get.  Any reasonable person will be happy to compensate you once they see you are genuinely helpful and know the material well.  In fact, the only time I didn’t get paid using this was when I really felt like I couldn’t help the person and decided not to charge them anything.

The first session really is just that, a test to see if it works for both of you.  You’ll make most of your money as a tutor from repeat business – students that you meet with week after week for months or years.  The first session is just to get your foot in the door and demonstrate that you know your stuff so that you can find a few of these students to be your regulars.

I personally think that every tutor should offer a money back guarantee on the first session, and display this prominently on their profile.  If you still aren’t sold on the idea, consider this: if after the first session a client is unhappy with how the tutoring went and refuses to pay, what are you going to do?  There really isn’t much you can do.  My point here is that you are ALREADY offering a money back guarantee, you just may not know it yet.  If the money back guarantee is there anyway, then you might as well display it up front and center, and attract some new business because of it.

Hope it helps!
Brian Armstrong

P.S. If you have a question of your own, feel free to submit it and it may appear in the future blog post.

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