If you've run your own music studio for awhile now, you may be be wondering what parents and students think of your offerings. If you're interested in making some changes - or even if you just want to know the general feeling about your Studio - you'll need to collect some meaningful data.
A Studio survey of parents is a great way to collect this information. A survey can:
build goodwill between you and the parents of your students by demonstrating that you care about their opinion.
give you a better idea of what parents and students like and dislike about your studio.
provide specific feedback regarding everything from your teaching style to your policies to your performance opportunities.
give you valuable insight that can guide any Studio changes you're considering making. If you'd like to send a parent survey but have never done so before, here are some tips from my experience.
Use a free platform. You don't need lots of bells and whistles for your first survey. A simple survey platform that has a free option is just fine. (I like SurveyMonkey because they offer different question formats in the free version, the importance of which I'll explain in a minute.)
Keep it short. Resist the desire to collect information about every possible topic you're wondering about. The survey is only valuable if you get a meaningful number of responses and this will only happen if the survey is SHORT. I recommend you keep it no longer than a 2-3 minute completion time. (SurveyMonkey will also tell you the amount of time your survey will take to complete as you create it so you can adjust accordingly.)
Pick two or three topics. Choose survey topics that are most important to your teaching and studio management right now, and build your survey around those topics. A survey that is too diverse will feel tedious and parents are less likely to finish it. When I last conducted a survey, I was most interested in understanding more about student practice challenges and motivations, and parents perceptions of the importance of various features of my Studio, so I based my questions on these topics.
Make responses anonymous. Parents will be more likely to answer honestly, and transparency is key to useful results.
Provide a set list of answers for some questions. As mentioned above, one of the things I like about the free version of SurveyMonkey is that it allows you to pose questions in different formats. For example, you can use the "checkbox" feature to provide predetermined parents can choose from. I strongly recommend that you use this format for at least a few of your questions as it will give you clearer information than open-ended questions. For example, I asked parents to choose the top three reasons they stayed enrolled in the Studio and provided them with a list of eight options. Using this format I was able to discover the top three most-liked features across respondents.
Ask a “magic wand” question. It is, however, also important to provide an opportunity for some open-ended feedback. I asked the question, "If you could change one thing about how the Studio operates, what would you change?" I got answers ranging from "absolutely nothing - we love everything you do!" (a great confidence booster :-) ) to "provide more performance opportunities" to thoughts about my practice expectations. All responses were enlightening, whether or not I chose to change Studio operations as a result.
Give them a deadline and send two reminders. I gave my parents a deadline of 2 weeks to answer the survey and sent a first reminder one week in and a more urgent reminder 24 hours before the survey closed. I got a 58% response rate, which is really good in survey world, so this approach seemed to work.
The information you gain from a parent survey will help you make immediate and long-term changes. It will also help you understand what parents and students find most valuable and unique about you and your Studio. This helps you not only build stronger relationships with your students and parents, but also clarifies your strengths as a teacher. This information is a great foundation on which to build your brand and grow your Studio.
>>> Get my FREE guide, 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Music Studio where I share the 5 key strategies I used to gain more students and earn more money.
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