Why is my bill full-price this month even though there aren’t four lessons?
Lessons at So i Heard Music are weekly, though they follow our calendar which typically mimics the local school calendar. In reality, every month has a different number of days, and typically, the number of each day in each month varies from month to month. We have worked hard to make a system that is 100% fair to everyone who enrolls, no matter the day of the month you take lessons, hence our flat-rate billing system with a preset yearly calendar.
How does it work?
Back when we first opened our doors of the Millburn studio in the early 2010’s we tried different billing and calendar strategies, all of which ended in disaster! When we stayed open every week through holidays and school breaks, we found that kids would not show up to lessons and parents would be upset that they were billed. Parents were also not happy that their bill changed every month due to the fluctuating number of lessons each month. One bill might have been $135 in September due to various holidays, for example, while October’s bill was $225! Additionally, if someone had a Monday lesson they had far fewer lessons than someone on a Thursday in the same month due to Mondays having a lot of federal holidays. This method of billing was confusing and almost impossible to keep track of for both the business and the customer, especially as our student numbers climbed to hundreds of kids per week.
What is the answer?
After many variations of billing systems over the years, we came to the system we have today. Nearly all students take lessons at least throughout the school year, and many students also take lessons into the summer, year after year. Since most students stay for a few years at a time and of course all parents are familiar with the local school calendar and take vacations within the school vacations, we decided to follow the local school system, with one or two exceptions depending on the year. To find the monthly price, we determine the total number of lessons in the year, add up the price of each individual lesson, divide by 12, and get the average monthly cost which became the monthly flat-rate bill. Every day of the week has the same number of lessons in a year, typically 44 in total. If you enroll on a Monday you’ll have the same number of lessons throughout the year as someone who enrolled on a Thursday. The number of lessons is exactly the same throughout the school year, and even though we are closed for a late summer break for the Labor Day holiday and other Jewish holidays, the summer months have exactly four lessons each month for each day of the week. No month ever has fewer than three lessons, and some months have five.
We understand that if you are used to paying for each lesson individually this may not seem intuitive, but in our experience, this is the simplest and most fair way to bill for lessons at So I Heard Music. There is one caveat. If you sign up for only one month and only stay enrolled for one month, and that month happens to have only three lessons, you’re not going to get a good deal! That said, if you sign up and stay enrolled for at least two or more months, you will get the expected value. Since music lessons are a continual pursuit, almost every student we’ve had through the doors stays longer than one month and the system works in everyone’s favor.
Think of it as tuition for each semester, paid monthly. You are reserving the time slot and getting lessons within our calendar for that semester, with the option of leaving at any time before the end of a month without penalty for the rest of the year. Everything is easy, straightforward, automatically billed, and predictable!
Let us know if you have any more questions. We can’t wait to see you around the studio!
Thank you so much,
Sean
Owner