Many tutors struggle to separate their work from their personal life. Learn how to do just that with virtual numbers.
Choosing to become a private tutor or teacher can be incredibly rewarding, especially if you’re passionate about your subject area and are excited to share that passion with others. However, working closely with parents and students in impactful situations can lead to a lot of high-stress environments. On top of that, private tutors essentially operate as their own independent business - meaning there are important aspects of your business that you may not be considering.
Not every problem with this career path has an easy solution, but that doesn’t mean that none of them do. Using a virtual phone number can help you improve your online tutoring services while keeping your life as stress-free as possible. Here's how.
If you use your real phone number for tutoring communications, then it can seem like your personal life and professional life are blended together. It might never feel like you’re really “off-the-clock”. It’s an especially big problem for tutors who provide online assistance to students without the ability to meet with them in person.
By using a virtual number, you can keep your professional and personal lives separate. The use of a virtual phone number makes it easier for you to determine what type of call you are getting, such as personal or professional, so you can answer and respond appropriately. In addition, a virtual phone number allows you to tell students when you will be available to help them. Call.com allows tutors to set their hours and enforce guidelines for when they can help students outside of class.
This gives tutors the flexibility to work when they're able, and provides clear rules on how and when you can be reached. A schedule of hours is a vital part of setting boundaries with students and their families. Speaking of setting boundaries:
Sharing the progress of younger students with parents is vital to growth; a study conducted by Harvard found that teacher-family communication increased the odds that students completed their homework by 40% and increased student attentiveness by 25%. Being proactive and updating parents frequently keeps communication going.
That said, sharing personal information like email and phone number can cause some parents to overuse these details and hit you with a million questions per day. As a tutor and teacher, you want to provide answers as quickly as possible, but there's only so much you can do in a day.
Virtual phone numbers are a great way to maintain professional boundaries with your students’ parents. They’re a clean and effective way for parents who have questions about their kid's progress to reach out without blowing up your personal number. It’s also a good way to avoid any miscommunication that could happen if a parent texts you from a number you don’t recognize - if it comes to your virtual number, then it’s professional. You can even set a separate voicemail so you’ll never have to worry that your personal voicemail might send the wrong message to parents.
By using a virtual number, you can keep your personal number to yourself and only contact parents when you absolutely need to.
Tutors usually get their clients from a network of fellow teachers, educators, and other professionals. Of course, when you first meet a tutor in your line of work, you may not be comfortable giving your number out. If you're uncomfortable giving your number out to everyone, then you can easily share your virtual number. You’ll be just as reachable to them as you would be if you gave them your personal number, but you'll still be able to guard your personal number and any information attached to it. That way, you can have a professional relationship with your colleagues without giving them access to your personal information.
As your network continues to grow and more students ask for your help, there may come a time where you need to forward or share information with other tutors and teachers. Sometimes, you may not be available to answer phone calls. However, you still want the calls coming to you to get answered. Call.com lets you automatically forward calls to another device.
If you have an assistant, or need to direct specific questions to a more experienced tutor, then forwarding certain calls can help mitigate what comes through to you while still answering students’ questions. Transferring your number is also helpful if you'll be out of service for a couple of weeks, but still want to support students.
Transferring your virtual number to another person still lets you retain control, but the transferee will be able to make and receive calls on your behalf. This lets them in on what's going on, and gives you the much needed time to recuperate or focus on other tasks.
Tutors and teachers often find it difficult to separate work and personal lives. If you use a virtual phone number, then you won’t have that problem. With a virtual phone number service like Call.com, you can handle parents' questions and answer students' questions without revealing your personal information, giving you more control over your day-to-day life and online communications. Contact Call.com for a virtual phone number today.
