How to charge a cancellation fee

1. If a student fails to show up for class, or reschedules class less than hour before the scheduled lesson, send them the Cancellation Fee Notice Text (below in the article)
2. Go to the pairing from your KIS App dashboard
3. Select "Charge a cancellation fee," as seen in the image below. 

In the form, you need to add any screenshots or supporting information that proves the student was in breach of the cancellation policy. You need:

• evidence that student did not turn up for lesson
• evidence that lesson was scheduled and agreed upon by both parties

If you do not provide these information, KIS Admin team will reach out to you before we approve of the cancellation.

Yes, you can. However, the steps you need to take are a little different. Please refer to this article: Can I charge a Cancellation Fee for Group Tutoring?

Charging a student for cancellations is not mandatory and is your decision to make.

The reason this policy is in place is to make sure students respect your time. We recommend always charging a cancellation fee if the cancellation meets the policy criteria.

Here are some cases to consider:

• If it’s the student’s first lesson and they don’t show up - if you’re worried about souring the relationship, a warning for the first time is fine
• If a student doesn’t show up within the first 15 minutes of a lesson time and has not contacted you about it - charge a cancellation fee
• If it’s the student’s trial lesson and they don’t show up - not eligible for a cancellation fee, but if they don't communicate or give a valid reason for missing it, deactivate the pairing
• If a student repeatedly doesn’t show up to lessons - charge a cancellation fee each time
• If a student drops out of a lesson or has to leave halfway into a lesson - charge a normal lesson fee on the KIS App for the duration that you saw them (i.e. if you only saw them for 30 minutes, charge them for 30 minutes of lesson)
• If a student doesn’t show up to a lesson and doesn’t text you - charge a cancellation fee
• If a student reschedules a lesson less than 1 hour before it’s scheduled time - charge a cancellation fee

After submitting your cancellation fee, it will be pending review and approval by the KIS Team. In the meantime, please send your client this text:

Hey there CUSTOMER, seems like we might not be doing our lesson today. All good! Just letting you know that KIS Academics might send through a cancellation fee as this counts as a no-show or last minute cancellation. To avoid this in future, just let me know at least 1 hour in advance. For now, let’s reschedule the lesson, please let me know what time works for you!

If you’d like to be a bit more lenient with a student’s first no-show, I’d recommend sending a friendly but firm warning message like this:

Hi there CUSTOMER, Hope things are okay. Just wanted to ask if you could please let me know a bit earlier if you need to cancel a lesson going forwards. There's usually a last-minute cancellation fee that gets charged if you cancel less than 1 hour before the lesson time, but I'm going to make sure that fee gets waived for today if we can reschedule the lesson. Please let me know what time works for you!

You can charge them a cancellation fee if the cancellation meets the policy criteria, but it's not mandatory for you to charge them. If you are afraid of souring the relationship so early on, you can just send them a warning message: 

Hi there CUSTOMER, hope things are okay. Just wanted to ask if you could please let me know a bit earlier if you need to cancel a lesson going forwards. There's usually a last-minute cancellation fee that gets charged if you cancel less than 1 hour before the lesson time, but I'm going to make sure that fee gets waived for today if we can reschedule the lesson. Please let me know what time works for you!

Again, it's up to you! If you are happy to waive the cancellation fee, you can choose to send them a warning message: 

Hi there CUSTOMER, hope things are okay. Just wanted to ask if you could please let me know a bit earlier if you need to cancel a lesson going forwards. There's usually a last-minute cancellation fee that gets charged if you cancel less than 1 hour before the lesson time, but I'm going to make sure that fee gets waived for today since we are rescheduling the lesson. But if this happens again, I will unfortunately have to charge a cancellation fee, so please let me know earlier in future if you want to reschedule!

If the student/parent is trying to haggle the cancellation fee with you, please send them our way by sending us an email at contact@kisacademics.com

You should also make sure that you have submitted all your evidence to help us back you up. We may have to clarify the cancellation with you again if the evidence you submitted on the form was insufficient. 

If the customer refuses to pay for the cancellation, we have a 2-lesson guarantee that also applies to cancellations, so we will make sure you get paid even if the customer does not.