A better way to schedule tutoring sessions at scale

tutoring session

In the past, earning a degree online or receiving a certificate from an online program was not perceived to be as legitimate as in-person classes. But over the past few years, the shift to remote learning has become our new normal. From simple scheduling apps like Appointlet to industry heavyweights like Tutorbird and TutorCruncher, there’s something for every organization. It all depends on what you need.

K12 students are one of the largest groups to make the shift to online learning. And although remote learning has many benefits, it can be challenging for some students to adapt. Experts recommend remote tutoring sessions to fill in the gaps and keep kids on grade level. Adult learners have also taken to online tutoring, Tutorially, tutor bird.com, mytutoring, or Zoom to increase their job skills, change careers, and even learn a new hobby or side hustle. 

Ready to start booking tutoring lessons and taking lesson notes more effectively? Read on to find out how.

The hassle of booking a tutoring session

Solo tutors know how stressful it can be to find a time to meet with students that accommodates both schedules. When a student contacts a tutor for the first time, neither party has a clue what the others’ schedule looks like, how often they can meet, or how they will schedule sessions in the future. After an initial meet and greet and the tutor gathering some details about the student’s needs, the scheduling saga begins. 

The conversation usually goes something like this:

Tutor: “How about this Tuesday at 4:30?”

Student: “Hmm, I’m usually free at that time but not on Tuesdays. How about Thursday?”

Tutor: “I have a standing appointment with another student on Thursdays at 4:30. Would 3:30 be doable?”

Student: “Actually, I don’t get done with classes on Thursdays until —”

And on and on and on. This is frustrating and annoying for learners and their tutors, and they haven’t even gotten to studying yet!

This may be the only way some tutors know how to schedule their learning sessions. Others may have a system for organizing their availability, but keeping track of numerous students schedules is incredibly difficult. At a certain point, it may be impossible for solo tutors or tutoring centers with “old-school” schedulers to keep track without an updated scheduling system built for tutors and their needs. 

For students, the situation is even more complicated. 

By the time someone on their learning journey has started considering going to a tutor for help in a particular subject or specific skill, they are likely to have been on a rollercoaster. It is frustrating to fall behind in class or lack an adequate understanding of a key topic. Some online learners may feel like they are on an island on their own, without the classic in-person support that students are accustomed to. 

When scheduling becomes an issue, students are likely to become frustrated, feel helpless, and maybe feel like giving up on their path to higher learning altogether. For this reason, all students must have a frictionless scheduling experience. The easier it is for them to schedule a tutoring lesson, the less intimidated they feel by the learning experience overall. 

Stop going back and forth with students to choose a time. It’s ineffective, causes friction, and can cost your operation in retention and new enrollees. Plus, there is a better way. 

What is tutor management software?

Tutoring organizations and individual tutors maintain certain flexibility to accommodate their students’ needs. With the rise of online learning, tutors and learners have even more options to meet. Tutoring software helps organizations maintain flexibility without the added stress of coordinating in-person, online, one-on-one, and group sessions. Since classes and tutoring sessions may now take place in person or remotely, it’s ideal to have a scheduling or remote monitoring and management tool that can accommodate numerous locations. RMM tools allow you to leverage numerous locations while protecting your data against common threats like tech support scams, credit card theft and identity theft.

Many tutors start independently before eventually working with a team or tutoring organization and may not see the value of scheduling software as a sole proprietor. But as the number of students and responsibilities increase, so does the complexity of scheduling time with them.

On the other hand, larger organizations may already use tutor management software to oversee their student schedules (while the students themselves can view everything via a student portal). But the outdated technology used among inbound scheduling features tends to be too simplistic for the needs of tutors in today’s digital world.  

Tutor management software streamlines the scheduling workflow and reduces frustration on both sides of the equation. It helps users manage the operations side of the tutoring business to focus on assisting students to reach their goals instead of trying to figure out when to meet next. 

For companies looking to scale their tutoring business, tutor management software is essential. Depending on manual input and synchronous communication, scheduling numerous students with the right tutors is slow, tedious, and time-consuming. But scheduling business software made for tutors cuts out the noise so that students and tutors can share schedules, provide progress reports, and set lesson times conveniently and efficiently. 

Several online scheduling tools are available that have features and benefits that can help take large tutoring organizations to the next level. Solutions such as Tutorbird and TutorCruncher are popular for a good reason. They offer learning management systems that organize student data, tutoring lessons, curriculum, and scheduling tools. 

These platforms’ best feature is that they are explicitly built with tutoring businesses in mind. TutorBird provides a one-stop-shop with adaptable capabilities such as invoicing, online payments via tools such as PayPal, and learning management depending on your organization’s needs. TutorCruncher also offers marketing and customer management features to help scale emerging tutor small businesses. 

However, there are a few drawbacks to their built-in scheduling tools. While they provide basic scheduling capabilities, they lack critical components that many tutoring organizations need to scale their growing operation. 

For example, there are only two ways that clients can schedule a tutoring session using TutorCruncher: through the tutors’ website or with a password-protected login student portal. At face value, this seems logical. But to scale a growing tutoring business, extra friction such as a username/password login and creating an account can frustrate and deter potential students from getting the tutoring help they need. 

Another drawback of these tutor management tools is that their complicated features are too confusing and lack effective UX design. For example, the process for students to schedule their sessions is highly complex with TutorBird. This puts most of the responsibility for scheduling on the tutors and isn’t very efficient as far as time management is concerned. 

Plus, students shouldn’t have to learn how to use complicated business software to get a little extra help in the classroom, whether online or in-person. 

If you’re looking for a simpler way to book time with students, advanced features that are still easy to use, countless integrations, automation, and payment configurations that are synced to common options like paypal or credit card, all at the best value, then look no further. 

A modern scheduling tool for tutors

Appointlet is a new kind of tutor management software. It combines all the advanced features and integrations of similar software programs into an efficient, easy-to-use, and student-friendly solution. Users can easily schedule tutoring sessions, accept payments, and track conversions. Since organic traffic is a key metric for 76% of organizations, it’s crucial to the success of large tutoring organizations. 

On top of that, tutors can also use Appointlet’s simple scheduling page configurations. Create and share a link to enable students to schedule their appointments without double booking or choosing an unavailable time. But that’s just getting started. 

Appointlet offers more value for tutoring organizations than any other tutor management software. Other products cost a minimum of $15 per month per tutor for less advanced features than Appointlet’s free forever plan. Appointlet’s most expensive plan, that includes all the features that tutoring organizations need to succeed and grow, only costs $8 per month. 

Tutors can now eliminate the back and forth email coordination to find a time to meet with Appointlet’s user-friendly scheduling features that include asynchronous scheduling, personalized tutoring links, and group class management. 

It’s also possible to reduce student no-shows using Appointlet. Email and SMS notifications such as meeting confirmations and reminders are sent automatically with all the tutoring session details that parents and students need.

Users can even stay better organized with a detailed log of all past and future tutoring sessions. When a tutoring business begins to scale, it can be hard to manage student needs. Appointlet allows tutors to keep internal notes on lessons and activities with a detailed log of all past and future tutoring sessions. 

The best part is that Appointlet integrates with over 2,000 different apps for small businesses, including Zapier, CRMs, Stripe, email calendars, etc. 

The Appointlet team is also currently developing a mobile friendly version, to use in conjunction with your apple or android phone. Then you can have sms reminders sent to yourself or to your students as well.

How tutor scheduling works

With Appointlet, tutor scheduling is a straightforward process with everything you need to succeed as a solo private tutor or tutor organization. The minimalist interface highlights essential features such as class types, availability, dates, times of appointments, and your specific integrations. 

The streamlined UX also allows users to get up and running in less than two minutes. All you have to do is log in with your Google or Office 365 account (this makes email integration a snap, but you can create a new username and password if you prefer), then follow the simple, clear setup instructions to get started.  

The most important feature of any tutor management software is scheduling. Advanced scheduling features that include effortless cancellations and rescheduling options, email reminders, and self-serve scheduling for clients are the core of Appointlet tutor management software. And unlike the competition, Appointlet makes it easier than ever to schedule tutoring lessons. 

Step 1: Configure the days and times you’re available to meet with students

Tutoring involves a lot of scheduling banter, cancellations, rescheduling, and even some no-shows. Users input the days and times you are available for tutoring sessions or other meeting types in the initial setup wizard.

But don’t worry, it’s not set in stone! It’s super easy to change your availability from the scheduling page. 

The scheduling page dashboard displays your meeting types. This is where you can configure (and reconfigure) the days and times you are available for various tutoring sessions, including group classes, in-person, and online tutoring. 

Simply click on the three dots on the bottom right corner of the meeting type card and select Edit. Then, an editor will pop up on the screen with several options with colorful icons located on the left side. Choose Availability, marked by a green calendar icon, and then select the days and times that you are available. 

With Google calendar integrations, it’s easy to separate tutoring schedules from personal schedules, even if you use the same email account. 

Step 2: Copy your Appointlet link and share it with students or their parents

Now that you’ve configured your tutoring availability, it’s time to share your Appointlet link with students and parents or even embed it on your website!

From the scheduling page, simply click the Share button on the bottom left corner of the meeting type card that you would like to share. 

From here, you can share your scheduling page link to your connected social accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also select Copy Link to copy your Appointlet link to the clipboard and paste it in emails, direct messages, slack, or anywhere you communicate with clients. 

Alternatively, you can also select Embed on Website to add your scheduling widget to an existing tutor website or company landing page. 

Step 3: When a new tutoring session is booked, you get an automated notification

Whenever someone books a tutoring session using your Appointlet link, you’ll receive an automatic notification with the details about the upcoming meeting. You can also configure reminder emails and SMS notifications to remind you and your students of upcoming classes to eliminate future no-shows.

It’s really that simple. Appointlet is a game-changer for tutors and those seeking tutoring because it’s easier than ever to get connected, set an appointment, and hit the books. All without the awkward back and forth of trying to find a time to meet. 

Don’t take our word for it

“Our no-shows have decreased drastically with Appointlet’s automated reminder emails.”

Charvi Goyal, Founder of Tutorscope, went with Appointlet to grow their network of tutors, increase bookings, and reach more students. They said:

“Accommodating for student availability, tutor availability, time zones, and various subjects was a daunting task, but Appointlet made it simple for us. With a user-friendly system that even our elementary school students can use to book sessions, Appointlet has allowed us to prioritize both scalability and flexibility in our services. The software takes care of our scheduling so that our tutors and students can stop spending time emailing 2-3 times for each session and get back to what matters most: learning together, uninterrupted.”

With Appointlet, they saw rapid growth. TutorScope now connects over 1,500 students with a network of 60+ tutors to help students of all ages reach their education goals. And they booked over 2,100 tutoring sessions in just the first year. 

Ready to scale your tutoring business?

Appointlet makes it easy to manage bookings across all of your tutors as you grow your tutoring business over time. 

As the bookings come in, your meeting dashboard makes it easy to filter through sessions that have been scheduled. You’ll always have complete visibility into your tutoring schedule, attendees, times, and other notes to manage student learning. 

Use the drop-down at the top right on the meetings dashboard to filter results by date. Then you can further pare down your results with the search bar. Search by tutor name, student name, date, email, and more!

Another critical aspect of growth for tutoring organizations is reducing cancellations and retaining existing students. It’s easy to lose track of time and miss a tutoring session. To help reduce no-shows, Appointlet sends a confirmation email every time students book a session with you. Turn on reminder messages and schedule them to go out automatically as the meeting approaches. It can also be helpful to send a customized reminder message using automation. This keeps the details in front of them and has been shown to improve attendance.

Putting it all together

Typical tutor scheduling is an annoying back, and forth that doesn’t always precipitate an appointment. Email, Excel, and CRMs do not offer tutoring organizations the scheduling tools they need to scale moving forward. 

Modern tutor organizations using scheduling software lack key features specific to the tutoring business, such as advanced scheduling tools, numerous integrations, and automation. Tutor scheduling with other apps is complicated and comes with a steep learning curve for those new to using digital tools. 

But Appointlet works differently. Sign up for a free Appointlet account to start sharing your tutor scheduling link in minutes.

Nahla Davies

Nahla Davies

Nahla Davies is a software developer and tech writer. Before devoting her work full time to technical writing, she managed—among other intriguing things—to serve as a lead programmer at an Inc. 5,000 experiential branding organization whose clients include Samsung, Time Warner, Netflix, and Sony

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