About Lesson Request Cancellations
At Cafetalk we generally differentiate between three different types of cancellations.
- Cancellations caused by the student
- Cancellations caused by the tutor
- Other reasons for cancellation
All of these types of cancellations can be selected either from the student's or the tutor's side. In this explanation we will cover all types of cancellations and their effects from the tutor's perspective.
Guidelines for Cancellations
Important: Please note that cancellations generally don't have a negative effect on your profile or statistics.
There is a special case called "short-notice cancellation" which specifies cancellations within less than 24 hours before the confirmed lesson start time. Cafetalk doesn't display an exact cancellation rate on the tutor's profile, however because of transparancy and in order to thank tutors who rarely cancel lessons on short-notice, a badge declaring "No Short-Notice Cancellations for last 3M" is displayed on the tutor's profile if the tutor has not caused any short-notice cancellations or no-shows in the past 3 months or more.
For further information about short-term cancellations, no-shows and more please check out this page:
Lesson-Related Issues Policy
How to Choose the Correct Cancellation Type:
Cancellation caused by student (set by tutor):
When the student asks you to cancel the lesson due to their personal reasons you can select this reason and cancel it for them
Cancellation caused by tutor:
Personal schedule changes on the tutor's side, sickness (including family), planned doctor's visits, internet issues caused by the tutor's network, tutor's pc issues, construction work at or near the tutor's residence etc.
Important: Please don't ask a student to cancel a lesson for you if the cancellation is due to your circumstances or if the reason for cancellation is ambiguous.
If you would like to first inform the student about a cancellation by sending a message or comment beforehand, please also let the student know that once you hear back from them the cancellation procedure will be done by you (the tutor).
Other:
natural disasters, internet trouble where it can't be determined if it's an issue on the tutor's or the student's side, accidents
If you aren't able to cancel a lesson yourself, please contact Cafetalk Support. We will cancel the lesson on your behalf and notify the student of the cancellation.
In order to avoid no-shows, please cancel the lesson as early as possible or reach out to Cafetalk Support before the lesson start time if you are unable to cancel the lesson yourself in time. We will then reach out to your student and handle the cancellation for you.
The Importance of a Kind Cancellation Message
While you should try to set up your schedule to minimize cancellations, we understand that they can never be fully avoided. A professional and kind cancellation message will help strengthen your professional relationship with the student and their trust in you as their tutor.
Example Cancellation Message
"Hello, this is _____ from Cafetalk. I'm very sorry for the short notice but unfortunately I have to cancel our upcoming lesson due to _______. I have returned the points/the coupon for this lesson to your account. Please feel free to book another lesson at your convenience."
Tutors maybe also choose to offer discount coupons to apologize for a sudden cancellation.
If you are unsure about how to best handle a cancellation, please feel free to consult our Support Team via the help chat on the website.