3 Tried-and-True Methods to Reconnect with Past Students

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued.” - Brene Brown

We witness the impact of 1:1 tutoring every day because we get to see students succeed when they feel connected to (and understood by) an educator. This fall will likely prove to be challenging for students to feel seen and heard in an ever-evolving educational environment.

Wyzant continues to implement unique strategies to drive new students to the platform, ensuring that you’re receiving direct inquiries and the jobs board is active. But, new students are not the only ones in need of support and connection right now.

Forging Connections

Over the last 15 years, together we’ve helped over 675,000 students! That’s enough to be the 19th most populous city in the US - ahead of Boston, El Paso, or Denver! While we focus on demonstrating for new students the ease and effectiveness of Wyzant, we encourage you to reconnect with the students you’ve already helped succeed.

As experienced tutors, both online and in-person, you’ve already done the hard work of proving you can provide expert instruction to your students. We strive to provide you with tools to reconnect with these students in a way that doesn’t feel disingenuous, invasive, or too “sales-y”.

You may assume that once a student experiences the benefits of tutoring, they’re a tutoring convert for life. But many students (and parents) familiar with tutoring hesitate to utilize a tutor again, waiting until the need is acute. This is understandable, there’s a lot of things competing for their attention, and reconnecting with a tutor may not be at the top of the list. But we believe we can help this reconnection process feel more natural and timely for everyone in advance of what will undoubtedly be a challenging Fall term.

Below are some techniques every tutor can use to reconnect with students; ways to make your tutoring fit in their unique education space, offer genuine support, and resonate more deeply as a source of expertise with your students.

1. Identify the right students

First, take inventory of former students based recency, number of previous lessons, and feedback (reviews and star ratings). Then consider the sequence of grades, courses, or programs of study that student is likely to encounter. Are there students you know will transition from one subject for support to another?

Finally, develop a plan: who to reach out to, and when. Create calendar reminders to help manage this process so that the heavy lifting is done once you’re ready to begin outreach.

2. Prepare your message, but don’t overthink it

Parents and students are already feeling unsure about the upcoming school year, so a friendly message might go a long way towards reconnection.

Consider how it has felt to reconnect with friends and family remotely over the last few months — a friendly face or familiar voice is reassuring to us all. Don’t underestimate the comforting effect of a confident, familiar tutor this year.

Focus on sending a simple, personal message that shows you care. Your support, both academically and as a trusted coach, will be especially important as COVID continues to impact learning for 2020.

A lot has happened in the past few months. Remind students you’ve worked with of your expertise and familiarity with their learning style and goals. Remember: you’ve already done most of the work, because you understand the student’s needs better than their incoming instructors.

Plan to send at least two messages to each student you’d like to re-engage. This is a little akin to the Law of Large Numbers, so you shouldn’t feel like you’re overdoing it. You’ll want the first line of your messages to stand out, and the rest of the message to feel friendly, familiar, and contain an invitation for a new session.

3. Incentivize Future Lessons

You probably already do this! Maybe you only charge for an hour, but spend longer in a lesson or offer phone support for no charge between them. Only you can decide what works best for your business and students; pay attention to how you’re already incentivizing students to reconnect.

At Wyzant, we see tutors on the platform offering discounts in a variety of ways to encourage students to return to tutoring and specifically, to them:

• Reduced first lesson back
• Free lesson for referrals. Don’t forget, Wyzant also offers a referral program.
• Lower hourly rate for a commitment to multiple lessons.

Always Stay In Touch, Even If You’re Not Having Lessons

Staying in contact with your students, even after their sessions in a specific subject have concluded, has proven to increase the number of students that return to tutors on Wyzant for more lessons.

According to feedback we’ve received from tutors on the platform, one of the biggest hurdles in retaining students over time is coming up with the right way to “ask for the business” by suggesting another session. That’s understandable - who wants to feel like a salesperson?

We’ve got something in the works to help facilitate student retention. Stay tuned for the feature launch next week!