When I first started teaching music outside of the public school system, I was so disorganized with how I kept track of student/client contact information and interested leads who hadn't yet signed up for classes but wanted more details sent to them in the future.
I had little slips of paper everywhere... or a page in a random notebook with email and phone contact info, but I misplaced these things frequently and was horrible at following through on sending people the info they'd asked for.
This was a huge part of what was holding me back from being successful -- just staying organized. Until I created a system for keeping track of these important pieces of data in a way that was duplicatable and that I could keep up with.
Win!
Here's my 3-Step System:
1) Collect contact information in a consistent way. Don't do it on paper one time and in a spreadsheet another time and your CRM system (here's what I use as my all-in-one system) a third time and your email contacts a fourth time! Be consistent so that you always know where to find the info you're looking for. Once I stopped changing it up all the time, I didn't spend wasted energy and time looking for someone's contact info.
2) Use tags to organize people's contact info. Chances are, you teach multiple types of classes or lessons. I utilize tags in my CRM to keep track of what people were giving me their contact info for so that I don't waste time or brain space trying to remember what they needed. I can also quickly shoot an email to my whole tagged list for a specific interest that way with just the click of a button. Win!
3) Use landing pages to seamlessly send collect people's contact info and send them the information they were interested in! If I'm participating in a fair of sorts or have a booth at a homeschool convention or somewhere, having a place for people to enter their info in exchange for me sending them the info they requested automatically (without me having to manually enter anything) saves SO much time and ensures that they receive the info they asked for without human error of my forgetfulness or busy-ness.
If you're not familiar with the idea or verbiage of a landing page, here's an example. I have created a list of self-employed music teacher budgeting tips that I wish I'd had when I was just starting out. If you'd like to have it, you can grab it here. The process of entering your info in exchange for the specific list I mentioned is what I'm describing above. If you don't have a way to seamlessly do this with your offerings, I encourage you to find a CRM/landing page/email campaign system that allows you to do this. It saves SO much time and energy on my end and frees me up to do the fun stuff -- making music! Here's what I use for mine if you need a recommendation.
How do you keep track of client/student contact info?
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