Music teachers: how do you get students (and parents) to actually remember lessons?
I'm a developer, not a music teacher, so I'll be upfront: I'm in the process of improving a small integration with google calendar that helps teachers cut down on forgotten/missed lessons, and before I go further I'd rather actually understand how you all handle this today than assume.
From talking to a few private teachers, the pattern seems to be: a student or parent just forgets, the slot goes empty, and depending on your policy you either eat the lost income or have an awkward conversation about charging for it. A 24-hour cancellation policy helps with the deliberate cancels, but it doesn't do much for the honest "oh no, I completely forgot" ones.
What actually works for you to reduce the "I forgot" no-shows? Text the night before? Get the parent's number too? Something in your booking software?
For those of you not on a full studio-management platform - just Google Calendar, a spreadsheet, whatever - how do you keep on top of reminders without it becoming a second job?