General Workflow
Our General Tutor-Client Matching Process
As a tutor, we’d like you to be aware of how our general matching process works, so you know how to make the best decisions to get the clients you want.
When clients contact BMT, they are either:
- Requesting a specific tutor
- Looking for a tutor in general
If client requests a specific tutor, we’ll reach out to the tutor first to see their availability, so the rest of the process doesn’t apply.
Most clients however, reach out to us to be matched with a tutor appropriate for their needs. When they do so, here is how the BMT office proceeds:
- Client calls us
- We talk to them to get as many details as we can to get the sense of clients and what they want, including any preference they have in their tutors. Some clients will be very specific (i.e. I want a female tutor who has a degree in botany), some clients are very general (i.e. Just find me someone who is good). Most clients however, have ‘some’ requirements which we try to incorporate into the job description.
At this point, we select up to five (usually about 3) tutors that most closely fit the client’s requirements and description of what they’re looking for. This could be a combination of skills the client is looking for (i.e. if the client needs a tutor for Calculus tutoring, we'll not contact you) as well as personality traits that client might ask for. (i.e. if the client is looking for someone more stern or friendly, more easy going, more chatty, etc.)
If you receive a job post from us (an invitation email to a job application), that means that we think that you matched the description of what the client is looking for, at least partially. We also limit the number of tutors we send job applications to, so if you apply, there is a reasonable chance that you’ll be selected. If you’re not interested in the job, there is no need to respond, and please ignore the job post.
Applying to Jobs
If you’re interested in the job, the following is what you can do to maximize the chance you’ll be selected for the job.
- Respond to the Tutor Hunt as quickly as possible ideally within 1 business day but no more than in 2 business days. within 2 business days after posting the job, the BMT office usually sends out whatever tutor options we have available to the clients. We also don’t tend to send out more than 3 tutor options to clients. When there are too many options to choose from, clients tend to get overwhelmed and pick no one.
- Make sure you write a good tutoring application for the client. For more details on how to write a good tutor application, please see the following page on: How to write a tutor application that parents like
Between Application and Connecting with Clients
Once we have several applications submitted, we generally close the job, and at this point no more tutor can apply to the job. Unfortunately, some clients do back out at this point of the process and the job goes nowhere (goes dormant). This is a normal part of tutoring, so please assume that after applying to a job, you won’t hear from us unless the client follows through and picks you as the tutor. Do not hold your timeslots you suggested to the client open. As the semester goes and we get more booked, we tell clients that tutors can’t hold their time slots open for any amount of time, so don't feel bad if someone comes to you a week later and you no longer have availability which you once promised. For job applications, in general, it’s best to submit your application and forget about it.
Connecting with Clients
If a client does follow through and sign-up, we’ll be able to only then connect them with their top tutor choice. We’ll send out a tutor introduction email - we suggest that you respond to this email as quickly as possible. Make sure you CC the BMT office in the initial conversation, so we know that you received the email, since sometimes emails do get lost. At this point, most tutors set up a time for a phone call with clients to get a better idea of the clients needs and to schedule the first session.
Scheduling and Session Reports
First Session
Once you’ve scheduled the first session, enter it on the TutorCruncher calendar. For the best results, enter your session at least 2 days in advance of the occurrence of the session, so that the client receive a session confirmation/notification email 24hrs in advance to the session. When clients receive session notifications, they’re far less likely to miss their appointment.
After Each Sessions
After each session, go to TutorCruncher and mark your session as complete. As we’ll start billing clients after each session, please mark the session complete either the day of or the next day.
Session Report
The system will require you to submit “Session Report” - For some clients it makes sense to keep the report short and for some other clients it may make sense to keep the report detailed. There may be clients that you speak to extensively that submitting a long report doesn’t make sense, however, the system requires you to put in something, just so there are no misunderstandings about what the session was about and whether it took place. Something as short as the following is fine:
‘I worked with Johnny on this and this today, we got these done, I assigned him homework, looking forward to seeing him next week.’
End of Month Confirmation
At the moment, most of our clients are billed on a monthly cycle, and we pay tutors on a monthly cycle.
On the last day of the month, you’ll receive an automated email and will be asked to verify that all of your sessions have been entered by 3pm on the 1st day of the next month (If it was for July sessions, it'd be August 1st).
Please respond to the email with as short as ‘Confirmed!’, since billing your clients without knowing that all your sessions are entered on TutorCruncher, would lead to issues and complications in the future.
Once you’ve confirmed, we’ll send out invoices to clients, collect payment, and usually pay tutors via direct deposit for their sessions around the 10th of the month.
Procedures
Post-First Session Email Follow-up
We generally send out a follow-up email to tutor as well as to parents after you’ve marked your first session with new clients ‘complete’.
Please let us know if there are any obvious issues that we need to discuss. Your answer doesn’t need to be detailed. As short as ‘everything went fine’ is great.
New Clients Check-in (Phone Call)
When working with clients who're new to our service, we’ll generally set up a brief chat with their tutors after the 4th session just to get an idea of who and how the clients are. At this point you’ll know better about the clients than the BMT office do.
Tutor Check-ins (Email/Phone Call)
Every few weeks, we’ll also intermittently get in touch with you on the status of your clients and to see if there is anything we should be aware of or if it’s a good time to ask clients to leave us a review.
