How to fire/replace customers in a proper way

[Anthares]

Hi,
I am a freelance online maths teacher for high school students in France.

I have a recurring problem.
I really like helping my students and solving their needs.
As a consequence, they enjoy working with me and stay several years, and my turnover is low.

My hourly rate is growing regularly and I take my new students at 200E/h.
Currely half my students are at 80 or 100E/h because I onboarded them a few years ago.

I enjoy working with most of them and have built trust with the parents.

But I feel like being nice is costing me a lot of money.

I have few time slots left and my schedule is pretty busy. I can't onboard new students.

So I think that I'm ready to let go of most of my students, in order to open new time slots progressively for my new students, to double my hourly rate.

I'm open for any suggestion on how to manage that "issue". Have you faced similar situations, for example in a coaching business ?

I have a colleague who works really great, so I usually transfer to him my students. But he is almost full too.
Apart from him, my other colleagues were disappointing for my students, and as a conséquences I had to stop recommending them.

I had some former students crying when I announced that I wanted to stop the lessons.
Some parents begging.. (because in France, maths grades are crucial for accessing several studying branches.)
I had to invent very strong excuses to explain why I had to stop etc..

I would love to have a process. Because so far I'm bad at "firing" my customers.

Thanks in advance for your advice

 

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[amp0193]

Just tell your old students you have to raise your prices. It's that simple.

Some will drop and some will pay the new price.

 

[Anthares]

I understand and maybe it's the only rational way.
BUT

I think it's pretty rough. Some could write bad ratings on my profile.

Since I increased my prices, the demographics of the parents of my students have changed, so it won't be affordable to pay twice the price (private lessons are pretty cheap normally, so I think it will be taken very badly).

I don't want to sound arrogant, but there is a very limited offer of competent teachers. So putting my offer out of financial reach can be taken very badly

Is there not a more diplomatic way ? Otherwise, what has to be done, will be done..

 

[John Clancy]

I understand and maybe it's the only rational way.
BUT

I think it's pretty rough. Some could write bad ratings on my profile.

Since I increased my prices, the demographics of the parents of my students have changed, so it won't be affordable to pay twice the price (private lessons are pretty cheap normally, so I think it will be taken very badly).

I don't want to sound arrogant, but there is a very limited offer of competent teachers. So putting my offer out of financial reach can be taken very badly

Is there not a more diplomatic way ? Otherwise, what has to be done, will be done..

Have you ever run group lessons?

Could you consolidate some of your existing (lower-priced) private lesson slots into cheaper sessions for multiple students at once?

E.g. you could explain the situation, then offer a discounted rate of 60/HR for your legacy students who make the switch to group lessons. Limit to 4-6 students per group. 240-360/HR revenue. Free up 3-5 hrs for reselling, make more from that group than you would otherwise.

 

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[Bekit]

I understand and maybe it's the only rational way.
BUT

I think it's pretty rough. Some could write bad ratings on my profile.

Since I increased my prices, the demographics of the parents of my students have changed, so it won't be affordable to pay twice the price (private lessons are pretty cheap normally, so I think it will be taken very badly).

I don't want to sound arrogant, but there is a very limited offer of competent teachers. So putting my offer out of financial reach can be taken very badly

Is there not a more diplomatic way ? Otherwise, what has to be done, will be done..

You're unlikely to get bad reviews.

Here's a template for you. Tweak and adapt as you see fit. Now is the perfect time to send this out in preparation for a January 1 price increase.

=======
Dear [Parent's name],

It has been wonderful working with [child's name] this semester, and I'm excited to see the progress they are making in [subject].

This letter is to announce that starting January 1, my prices will increase to ____.

I have held off making this price increase for as long as I could, but it is necessary now in order for me to meet rising costs and remain in business.

You have been a great client and I would hate to lose you, but I also understand if this price increase makes it impossible for you to stay with me.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Your name
Your logo
=======

 

[Kevin88660]

I understand and maybe it's the only rational way.
BUT

I think it's pretty rough. Some could write bad ratings on my profile.

Since I increased my prices, the demographics of the parents of my students have changed, so it won't be affordable to pay twice the price (private lessons are pretty cheap normally, so I think it will be taken very badly).

I don't want to sound arrogant, but there is a very limited offer of competent teachers. So putting my offer out of financial reach can be taken very badly

Is there not a more diplomatic way ? Otherwise, what has to be done, will be done..

You can raise the price diplomatically without causing ill will.

Give them a time period to adjust. let us say the current rate will expire in 3 months.

They can decide if they want to continue the service at the new rate.

The reason for doing so is simple and you can be honest and upfront with them, that you have new students paying you at a higher rate, this is to be fair to new students and also to charge a rate that is more in line with your expertise and experience.

It is how you do it that makes people feel not being offended.

 

[Anthares]

Thank you very much for the recommandations.

I will drop two customers next week to free some space for my new customers. They are the ones I like the least. So it will be okay.

And I will drop / increase price for other customers for the 1rst of January and will send them a notice before.

Thank you everyone for your recommandations.

For the group lessons, I'm working on it.
I still want to further develop my resources/ improve my maths level for the highest ranking high schools (i struggle with some hard exercises), and finally need to record some videos.
I will be ready next year

 

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