AI Solutions: Putting Yourself out of the Market

AI Solutions: Putting Yourself out of the Market: Marketing the second dirtiest word after CPD, if you have ever read anything driving instructor industry related, the majority say w...

Putting Yourself out of the Market

Marketing the second dirtiest word after CPD, if you have ever read anything driving instructor industry related, the majority say we are busy we do not need marketing hints and tips, but if that is the case why are there companies out there actively seeking to take your hard earned cash. For a serious marketing campaign you need lots of cash and a solid product, not a fistful of dollars and some lesson slots.

Why are there so many involved in marketing who are looking for a niche market to offer their services? A good marketing executive will cover all areas, yet for some the ADI is seen as an easy target, with many having no previous business experience or training in advertising or growth. If the phone isn't ringing then the only way to get noticed is to get out there and be visible, expecting someone else to take your cash on a promise is not the way forward.

When Mr Nice Guy offers to promote your business, as a salesperson they are better placed with inner knowledge of the arena, so are you being offered 'hints and tips' or has your marketing agent sat down with you and explored the statistical evidence for the product that you offer.  For example, you would expect the sales of ice to rise in the summer and slow in the winter, so the marketing agent would therefore encourage sales growth in the time when seasonal sales are higher, but promote why your ice is better than the next person. As with most things, ice sells itself, when demand is high. With driving lessons, during high season, generally January, April and September, they will sell themselves.

With lots of opportunities at the current time, with media highs and lots of news stories, isn't this a great time for your PR team, or individual, to be raising demand and earning their keep. Is your hashtag lacking or hasn't it been born. It seems from the 2013 research that agents think they know what their client needs, yet when questioned, the client had different ideas, yet chose to follow the agent because they assumed inner knowledge.

Sadly marketing agents in this research uncovered the fact that they may know their market but they do not understand their client. 17% of agents believed they had a relationship with their client, whereas only 6% of clients believed this to be the case. Pointing to the fact that the company had a greater business perspective of the transactions than the agent.

Research from earlier this year also showed that clients want results, and that marketing agents are plumping up their services with lots of fluff and clever terminology but are not cutting the mustard. 38% of clients want good value for money whereas only 27% of agents thought this to be important.

So making money without the conversation, the agent says, let me do this for you, the client bows to the salesperson, the client gets caught up in a contract that doesn't deliver, they then go from recommending their agent to advising against them, word of mouth in all industries is important.

Driving instructors are in the firing line for agent approaches, along with vets and hairdressers, yet all of these services are self promoting, given the opportunity. Marketing strategies are for bigger campaigns, a national company would definitely benefit from enhanced promotion, but a sole trader would not ever be able to justify the expense. The best promotion of your business is through Google, this can be done for free and Google will tell you how.

AI Solutions: Coaching the learner Driver

AI Solutions: Coaching the learner Driver: A new learner, completely open to suggestion sits beside an ADI and stares blankly at the dashboard, the ADI, experienced, asks the ...

Coaching the learner Driver

A new learner, completely open to suggestion sits beside an ADI and stares blankly at the dashboard, the ADI, experienced, asks the novice to move the car, after a short silence the pupil says - how. The instructor responds with a volley of questions about when the pupil has been a passenger, have they watched someone else drive, do they know what the levers and pedals do. An uncomfortable silence follows when the pupil whispers quietly, I just want you to teach me to drive.

Good for business, good for self esteem, or poor practice.

Just lately we have been approached, as a company, by students asking us to just teach them to drive, please don't ask what I want to do this week, please do not tell me I know all this from being in my parents car, to one in particular, I am currently studying to be a doctor, in my life I have been ill but I do not want trial and error of my past experiences to lead the way, it could cost a life and so can this silly idea that, as my previous instructor told me, I can drive already I just do not know how yet but I can find out based on my experience.

So has the coaching concept been taken one step too far. Seven years ago a report was published that favoured coaching for learner drivers, and from that point on the business people in this arena have taken the baton and run with it. Good for them, taking the manageable income of a tutor and turn it into their own, for some an improvement in skills is a good thing, for others it is patronising and unprofessional.

Yet as educators, we know there is room within the field of coaching to make the learning environment a better place, for some.  We can build rapport with all of our clients, develop a fun informative learning place, but when we start to let the learner do all of the work while we sit smugly and observe, then it becomes taking advantage of the students time and money. That is not coaching.

Pure coaching does not have a place within the driving industry, but a method that encourages thinking outside of the box does, however, study and research into the mind is an essential element, but then as it becomes indepth it becomes a sledge hammer to crack a nut.

Coaching is fascinating to study, and coaching in practice is a strong reliable tool, it does however involve commitment and a contract. It also is known to be ineffective when dealing with a novice. If the driving test is to mark a standard that is average or minimal, then those whose experience is derived from uneducated experience or belief of another then that process would be suffocated by it's own inability to deliver the required outcome..

As a nation we are being steered away from oppressive schooling, however this is not a new concept and dates back about one hundred years.  Coaching tries to manipulate the student into creating belief systems so that the student does not feel isolated in their understanding, particularly if the student feels lost in the educational process, therefore anti-oppressive schooling allows the use of multi factored approach thereby freeing the learner.  Within the learning to drive scenario this would be difficult to achieve as the goal is a single factor.


Copyright A Green 2013

AI Solutions: Do we have the right to drive?

AI Solutions: Do we have the right to drive?: I've read an awful lot of opinion about the right to drive over the past few months, road safety experts seem to think not, yet ...

Do we have the right to drive?

I've read an awful lot of opinion about the right to drive over the past few months, road safety experts seem to think not, yet this is surely their trade. To enable safe driving as a natural progression of social behaviour and shared space.

I asked this question on Facebook too and the general response was that people had the right to follow the process, so why does it feel as if driving is become elitist. I have been helping a young lady with learning difficulties to practise for the theory test, her inability to take on information means she is unlikely to ever be given the opportunity to drive, the few I have discussed this with firmly believe if she is unable to pass a theory test then she gives up any right. I fail to see that as a move forwards, more like a dozen steps back.

A relative of mine has Aspergers syndrome, she understands responsibility and driving, an automatic, has provided unquestionable freedom and an improved life, enabling her to work and visit her family, she lives in the village where she grew up with little or no public transport. Not driving would lead to a solitary and depressing life, however she took her driving test in the early 1990's prior to the theory test. Now she would be isolated because the test wouldn't be representative of her ability as a road user.

The EU have a broader interpretation, the theory test to understand road user law is a consideration along with a hazard perception test, but is not compulsory, they view the road as shared space with everyone having the right to drive, and the right to use the roads freely without fear of intimidation from other road users, to be safe. So surely the theory test for those with a proven learning difficulty that makes the theory test an impossibility and therefore licence acquisition an impossibility contravenes that directive?

I've studied the EURSC data in detail, and although some of it is contradictory there are allowances and exceptions that are obviously too time consuming or expensive to implement, as road user requirements tighten up and the availability of driving tuition becomes an academic path. Elitism.

Road signs are meant to be self explanatory, so since signage first began to make an appearance in the 1880's they appear to have been fit for purpose. I'm not trying to over simplify here but if you are polite and courteous and know the rules then you can surely begin the process. If you are unsafe then the process will not be completed.

Traffic volumes have risen and then for some years fell, engineering has improved so much that the path you drive is dictated by white paint and traffic islands, so although the driving test has been slow in terms of evolution the general environment is self explanatory, and lets face it, those who flout the law will do so regardless of the entry process.

AI Solutions: Can you Coach a Novice Driver?

AI Solutions: Can you Coach a Novice Driver?: Oh dear is my comment to this, along came CPD and the devoted few followed the path, however CPD surely has to be something you desire...