21/05/2024
Is Your Phone Putting Your Job at Risk?
The student’s web forums have a section about learning to drive. And you don’t need to be Derren Brown to know most of the posts are negative. But I was shocked at how many posts spoke about driving instructors using their phones while at work.
Every time your phone bleeps, pings or rings you might get mentally stressed because you can’t do anything while on a lesson. But curiosity grips you and you take a peek at the screen, or even answer the phone.
Sometimes instructors can’t handle the pressure of not looking at the phone, even though they know they shouldn’t. But your students are watching, and they know it’s illegal.
From the desk of the DVSA:
‘As an ADI, you’re training the next generation of safe drivers. So it’s important that you lead by example and put your phone away during driving lessons.
Using a hand-held phone whilst driving is a huge safety risk and, from 1 March 2017, the penalty for drivers caught using mobile phones doubled.
The impact on you
If you’re supervising a learner driver then these rules apply to you too. Check your phone during a lesson and you’ll now get 6 points and have to pay a £200 fine. We can remove you from the ADI register if you get 6 points on your licence. This could cost you your job as a driving instructor.’
What’s so important?
A missed call could be a new inquiry for lessons, or a student with a question. But that call or text must wait until you’re out of the car.
The landscape has changed for instructors since the COVID lock downs, and if you’re like most instructors, your phone never stops ringing with new inquiries. But today the most common question we’re asked is about availability, when it used to be about price pre COVID.
Even though you’re booked solid, and there’s no room left in your diary for new starters, you still feel compelled to call them back. There’s a little voice in the back of your head that urges you to call them. If nothing else it’s good customer service and business practice. You know if you get into the habit of not returning calls, one day the phone might stop ringing.
But that call or text can be returned when you finish work, or you can automate a process to manage those inquiries 24/7, so you forget about it.
Automation is changing the world, and customers can get answers to questions about driving lesson availability, and prices etc in seconds without picking up the phone.
So, if you value your licence, your job, or even your personal time at the end of the day let automation handle the enquires and even take the bookings.
For just £20 a month (less than the price of 6 take out coffees), you can forget about the customer inquiries knowing they’re handled professionally. Click here for more details.
So, how much longer will these busy times last?
When we have enough instructors to cope with the back log of learners from COVID, and the DVSA eventually bring the test wait time to a couple of weeks, the industry will return to the way it was pre COVID.
But how long that will take, well your guess is as good as mine. However, now is the perfect time to leverage automation, ensuring you can handle the current demand without burning out.
Kind Regards
Kev
Book Driving Lessons
P.S. Join the ranks of forward-thinking instructors who have already transformed their business with our innovative solution. Don’t let another inquiry slip through the cracks—automate and thrive!
