Is Your Tutoring All Customer Service?

Is Your Tutoring All Customer Service?Many of us at one time or another may have been told by a sales person that our tutoring is not customer service. Why? How can this be?Well, a good understanding of what customer service is would help. First of all, customer service does not mean giving advice or counseling. A good salesperson does not do this. What it means is that the salesperson wants to offer you a value and they are willing to make a recommendation or support your decision.A great example of this in today's customer service is where a person with a disability is offered services to help them learn a new skill. In the event of a problem, like a disability, a trained professional is there to assist you and help you learn more about your disability. These people are knowledgeable, motivated and dedicated to helping you. They will not question your capabilities or your ability to do a particular task.Another example of customer service is when you are shopping for a new car and have an issue and the salesperson has your interests at heart and helps you make the right decision. Instead of offering advice, the salesperson has put his or her expertise into the decision making process. The customer has had someone that has taken the time to understand the situation and will work with you to make the best decision possible.Another way to distinguish customer service from salesmanship is when a salesperson asks you questions about the information that they are sharing with you. A good salesperson understands the needs of the person they are talking to and will use this information to make an accurate suggestion that relates to your goals. As a result, they are a valuable resource. That is customer service.So what does tutoring count as customer service? Tutoring is one type of tutoring. It is not customer service. When a child gets home from school or college and wants to practice, a tutor can be helpful but does not qualify for the title of customer service. If a student wishes to do homework at home and a student care professional is asked if homework is allowed, then yes, homework is allowed by home school teachers but a student care professional cannot be seen as being a teacher, student or parent.Students come to a classroom as much as teachers. Teachers may act as student care professionals as well. If a student has problems in their classroom, then a teacher may be asking students questions to better understand how the class is going and why they are having difficulty. These are all forms of assistance to the student and are considered customer service.With these two examples in mind, we can see that both tutoring and teaching forms of student and teacher assistance. So if a parent or teacher calls you and asks if you would like to tutor their child, would you say yes or no? It is more of a yes or no question than a yes or no question? We will leave that up to you to decide.