Traditionally, the telephone was first contact with potential Yoga students, but Email has recently become another method of “first contact” for Yoga studios and Yoga teaching services.
No matter how much time and money you spend on advertising, marketing, and public relations, for your Yoga teaching services, you still have to develop a smooth system for answering phone calls and fielding Emails. Let’s take a close look at answering the phone.
Every Yoga teaching practice should have a “frequently asked questions,” (FAQ’s), resource. Your staff will constantly have to answer questions such as:
Am I too old to practice Yoga?
What kind of Yoga do you teach?
What should I wear to a Yoga class?
What should I bring with me to a Yoga session?
There could be 30 routine Yoga FAQ’s, which you and your staff constantly field in the course of a month.
You can make life easier on yourself, or your customer service staff, by listing the routine Yoga inquiry questions and answers, or by having anyone who answers the phone, list all of them.
Make sure everyone who answers the phone, knows the answers to routine inquiries. This is also good for your morale, and the morale of your customer service staff, because they will answer questions in the same way.
No one will give a “wrong answer,” and your Yoga student prospects will not hang up, while they are kept on hold. Every missed phone call, poor answer, poor customer service, or hang up, is lost revenue, which you paid for in your advertising campaigns.
If you are getting a 1% return on direct mail campaigns, with inconsistent customer service by phone, imagine what it will be if you develop a solid phone answering system. A conservative guess is that you would, at least, double your Yoga student enrollment by developing a strong system for answering Yoga student inquiries.
Let’s look at your potential client’s first impression of your Yoga teaching service. Is the person who answers the phone trained? Does the person, who answers the phone, understand that the phone is a sales tool?
Does the person who answers your phone know anything about Yoga? Does that person care about bringing the prospect in for a Yoga class? Does a trained person follow up on messages in the voice mail?
If you answered “No” to all of the above, your Yoga teaching practice is in “big jeopardy,” unless you own the only Yoga studio for miles around.
Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA. http://www.riyoga.com Paul coaches holistic health business owners worldwide. He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. To receive a Free e-Book: “Yoga in Practice,” and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html
