Here’s our policy in a nutshell:
- Lessons should be a minimum of one hour. That is our commitment to you, since we do not pay travel time. You should always receive at least one hour of payment. Let us know if this becomes a problem and we will explain this to the parents.
- Only report less than one hour if the shortened lesson is your fault (for example you arrive late and couldn’t tutor for the full hour) or, in rare cases, if you have agreed to shorter sessions with the parent — and have notified us of this exception.
- It is essential that you obtain the parents’ agreement if you feel that longer sessions are required. Do not casually extend a lesson beyond one hour without checking with the parent. Many parents budget for just one hour a week.
- If you do tutor beyond the hour, round up to the nearest 15 minutes.
- First lessons should almost always last one hour only. We offer a first lesson guarantee, so parents do not pay if they are not satisfied. We will always pay you, whether or not we get paid, but please keep our first-lesson exposure to one hour only, unless you get a clear commitment from the parent that they are pleased and want to continue beyond the first hour.
- A little extra non-billed time on the first lesson is appreciated. You may want to spend a few minutes getting to know the parents and their expectations. But do not let parents take advantage of you, you are not expected to provide a lengthy no-charge consultation.
Call or email if you have any questions about our policy. In these budget-conscious times, the quickest way to lose a client will be if they feel you are needlessly stretching the sessions to earn more money. We will not use tutors who are not considerate of our clients’ budgets.
A client requested an increase of time during lessons to a total of 1 1/2 hours instead of 1 hour lesson per week. I am able to accommodate this change. Do I need you to approve this change?
We do not need to micromanage your schedule. We bill tutors based on the number of hours they report, so the total number per month does not need to cleared with us ahead of time. Of course, if the client is funded by an agency, only a certain number of hours are authorized, so you cannot exceed that number.