Texting is a great way of communicating with teenagers.
Text confirmation of their first lesson;
Text them the night before a lesson as a reminder;
Send a text if you haven’t had time to phone them the same day;
You can set up templates on your phone to do this so you do not have to keep putting the information in, something like;
Hi, this is to remind you of your lesson tomorrow. If there are any problems please contact me. Looking forward to our lesson, Dave ADI
It is a good idea when you first meet them to get them to put your preferred contact number in to their phones memory and their number into your phone too. Pupils will sometimes ignore messages from numbers they do not recognise.
All associates for 1st 4 Driving have an on-line record keeping widget for their pupils that is filled in on-line or their phone. The pupils can access this information through their on-line login and view how ready (or NOT) they are for test. Pupils and parent alike love this little app. If they do cancel, you will both have a record. All pupils get automatic text messages the night before too reminding them of their lessons. This service alone helps cut down massively on cancellations.
http://1st4driving.co.uk/sdsoffer
Moral: put your number in their phone.
I once sent a message to a young married lady who had previously asked me to let her know if I had any extra lessons spare due to her fourth coming test. I said I may have a cancellation next Wednesday as a pupil was ill, and would let her know. On the Tuesday, having text the pupil who I thought would cancel, I learned she was actually better and could have her lesson. My response to the first pupil went like this;
‘Hi, I can’t see you Wednesday but will see you Saturday as usual’
Her husband picked up the message and she had no idea who had sent it, he demanded to know who she was meeting as she always went out at the weekend with her ‘sister’. I was nearly cited in the divorce proceedings………..
