Structuring Fees to Suit Your Parents (and your accounts system)

Fees can be one of the ‘make or break’ decisions when people are choosing a school, particularly in a market where we are experiencing the most First Time Buyers into independent education than ever before. How you structure and display fees is as important as ever. Get this detail right and you will have many happy parents. Get it wrong and you may have parents questioning your integrity and transparency.

Here are 8 thoughts to consider when structuring your fees. 

Transparency goes a long way

The cost of additional sessions is usually more than if you take the sessions as a group. It is fine to charge a premium rate for parents to have the convenience of ad hoc sessions as this often includes admin and staffing fees. Be upfront about it and parents won’t feel ripped off. 

If something is not optional then include it in your fees 

When working out whether they can afford something, people want to know what they really will have to pay, rather than have a lot of add ons. For example, if lunches are compulsory and represent and extra 10% of your tuition fees then include them in your term fees so people know the true price of the term. 

Value for Money

It’s all well and good offering optional extras as long as parents can afford them. As great as sky diving sounds, if it comes at the cost of half a term’s fees, the chances are people won’t be queuing up to sign their children to the club. 

Clubs and Optional Extras

Literally a life safer for the working parent. The opportunity for their child to stay at school at the end of the school day doing something different whilst in a familiar environment. Make this more affordable than other childcare solutions and the parents will thank you for it. 

Don’t hide/bury your fees within lots of other information

It is a common misconception that people will search your website, effectively shopping for your product, fall in love with it and by the time they find the fees they are already sold on the product. 

In the competitive world we are living in, people need to know that they can afford it before they spend time looking at the product. Be upfront and you will end up with more happy customers than people who feel you have wasted their time. 

Tech-savvy customers will find your fees anyway 

The non-tech savvy will feel frustrated and that you’re withholding information, establishing mistrust and making them less likely to buy into your product. 

The ‘If this, then that, formula’ 

Tuition fees pay for the day to day running of schools but money for additional equipment, specialist staff etc is often drawn from the optional extras that schools provide. Handling the ad hoc invoices can become a full time job. Accountancy software which runs the ‘if this, then that’ formula can take the headache out of keeping up with additional invoices as well as letting you know your financial projection at the touch of a button. 

Free doesn’t have to mean ‘free’

Offering something for free can be a difficult concept when factoring in staffing costs, Child: Staff ratios etc. Offering a free optional extra that extends children’s learning can be a big winner. Children have an extra hour a week to learn a new skill, become more confident in their learning which builds more competent children, better results and loyalty from parents.