A pass photo, and then nothing
A pupil passes at 11am. The instructor takes a photo with the pass certificate, the pupil is delighted and hugs her mum, and they all go home. The instructor meant to ask for a review but it did not feel like the moment. A month later, the pupil's best friend asks her who taught her. She says the instructor's first name, and the friend searches and finds a different school.
Your online reviews are mostly from a few years ago. Your competitor down the road has a steady stream of new ones.
Why reviews and referrals are left to chance
- Asking for a review in person feels awkward on test day.
- Pupils mean to write one and forget.
- Referrals happen by word of mouth, and you cannot see them.
- Nobody knows which pupils came from a recommendation.
- Pupils have no easy thing to pass on to a friend: a name, a link, a code.
What you are missing
Reviews are how many learners, and their parents, choose between schools. Every happy pupil who does not leave one is a missed chance. Friends of pupils are some of the best enquiries you can get, because they arrive trusting you already, and a referral that goes to another school because the friend could not find you is a real loss. And without tracking referrals, you cannot thank or reward pupils who send you friends.
The pass follow-up we build
- When the instructor records a pass in the diary, a congratulations message goes to the pupil the same day, in your school's voice.
- The message includes a link to leave a review on the platform you choose, such as Google.
- A day or two later, the pupil gets a referral message with their own code or link to share with friends.
- Friends who enquire using the code are recorded as referred by that pupil, and the enquiry goes into the normal allocation.
- When a referred friend books, the referring pupil gets whatever thank you you offer, if any, recorded automatically.
- Pass photos can be shared on your social media with the pupil's consent, recorded in the system.
- The owner sees reviews requested and received, and new pupils who came from referrals.
| After a pass | When |
|---|---|
| Congratulations message with review link | Same day |
| Referral code or link | A day or two later |
| Consent for pass photo use | Asked with the congratulations |
| Referred friend enquires | Recorded against the referrer |
| Referred friend books | Thank you applied, if you offer one |
Review platforms have their own rules about asking for reviews and incentives, which you should follow. We keep the requests within them, and never write or filter reviews.
Reviews that keep coming
The pupil who passed at 11am gets a message at 2pm while she is still delighted, and leaves a review from her phone. Two days later she gets her referral link, sends it to her best friend, and the friend's enquiry arrives tagged with her name. The instructor never had to ask awkwardly in the car park. Over time, your reviews reflect the pupils who are passing now, not those from years ago.
Instructors like it for a simpler reason: the congratulations message goes out in the school's name, but it can mention the instructor, and good reviews often name them. For a franchised instructor, a steady run of recent reviews that mention them is worth having, and it costs them nothing on the day except marking the pass in the diary, which they do anyway.
Are passes going unmentioned?
- Pupils pass and you never hear from them again.
- Most of your reviews are old.
- You do not know which new pupils came from recommendations.
- Instructors feel awkward asking for reviews.
- Friends of pupils find other schools.