Roshan's Blog

Problem Statement

For Whitehat Jr how do you improve the connect between the candidates and tutors after the first call?

Comprehend the Situation

What : The conversion rate after the demo call is below satisfactory levels

Why:

The children are not happy with the tutor The parents are not happy with the tutor

Clarifying questions:

What’s the duration of the demo?

Whats the structure?

Is there interaction?

Is there an internet connectivity issue?

What does the tutor focus on merely showcasing knowledge or building rapport?

Identify the Customer

Customer: Parents of young children - since they are ones paying.

Note: The purist in me wants to say the child/learner is the customer, I would like to take a different path and want the reviewers to expound on the merits or lack thereof of this approach of identifying the customer. *

Also, in principle should the customer be the one using the product or the one paying for it(when they are different)? Example in the case of B2B product etc?

Report the CX’s Needs

Assumption: the parent would assess whether the below objectives are met in the demo session by the tutor as far as the child is concerned.

1. Is well behaved - polite and patient
2. Knowledgeable and able to transfer that knowledge according to age, inclination and aptitude of the child
3. Keeps the child engaged - through interaction
4. Enjoys and has fun interacting with the kids and vice-versa
5. Ensures learning is happening - through retention and recall

Cut, through prioritization

First priority,

Enjoys and has fun interacting with the kids and vice-versa

If the child is having fun,

It will stay engaged and it will learn. It will continue to do so for long periods of time consistently. Also, it becomes a pull where the child learns without any sense of conscious effort and is therefore likely to want to learn more and remain interested much longer than otherwise.

Next thing would be,

Is well behaved - polite and patient

The third,

Knowledgeable and able to transfer that knowledge according to age, inclination and aptitude of the child

List All Solutions

1. Educate the tutors about learning pedagogy and on nuances of interacting with and educating kids
2. Seek feedback from those who didn’t sing-up on why they did not with open ended questions
3. Improve on those and iterate
4. Keep an initial rapport building or get to know your customer session where the child and parent can share what they want and tailor the demo accordingly
5. Work towards making the tutors more kind and compassionate human beings and distill the wisdom on why its good,
6. Incentivize the tutors for genuine interaction and not merely for closing the sale. Provide them autonomy and flexibility on how they want to do it and for how long. Encourage them to be collaborators and not competitors by sharing their learning and experience from interacting with other prospects.
7. Improve the quality of leads and prospects, thereby investing effort in client that are more likely to convert
8. Allow tutors to be open and honest about the limitations of their platform and service - parents are able to see through promises that are too good to be true
9. Provide time for parents to voice their concerns or queries and educate tutors on how to address them

Evaluating trade-offs

Given enough resources (funding, time) and pain tolerance - ability to withstand temporary setback

I would recommend solution 6.

Incentivize the tutors for genuine interaction and not merely for closing the sale. Provide them autonomy and flexibility on how they want to do it and for how long. Encourage them to be collaborators and not competitors by sharing their learning and experience from interacting with other prospects.

Summarize your recommendation

With the core vision of transforming the online education landscape and not just making a quick buck, one can see a much deeper concern that can be addressed using the above problem statement as a starting point.

Which is to enjoy the process of learning and being able to have fun while doing it.

With that in mind, I would recommend incentivizing the tutors (possibly through equity ownership or ESOP) to build relationships and not approach the process with a transactional mindset

also the one you don’t ask enough…

Have you been around 3 or 5 year old kids or are a parent of one?

If yes, then you would observe something interesting. They are compulsive Why’ers or atleast most of them start out that way.

That is, all 5-year olds ask one question, again and again and again.

WHY??

I tell her not to eat chocolates, her response: why papa?

Other day we were all watching a 🎥 together and an actress was crying 😭, she asked, why is she crying? I

We had to stop at the red light, and while we wait, she fired her why weapon a few times.

Why was the car red?

Why are so many folks on the road?

Why were there pot holes on the road? She answered this as well, saying I think they didn’t construct it properly🤣

I told her not to touch power sockets and her response was, you guessed it, why Papa?

The curiosity of a kid is wonderful (for the kind of questions) and torturous (because you know you will not have answers) at the same time.

While the inevitable institutionalisation (schooling & society) is likely to drive out some of the curiosity out of every child, it may not be too late for us to stop.

Take a step back.

And ask why, more often than we presently do.

After all, accomplished author and speak Simon Sinek became world famous, pivoted his career and had the breakthrough insight to Start With Why

Or if you are still wondering why should you still worry about why! Here’s Taiichi Ohno the father of Toyota production system.

German philospher, Friedrich Nietzsche had this to say:

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

If you are still not convinced, here’s another quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson an American philospher and essayist to ponder upon especially if you (like me) are working for a boss and might be one someday.

The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who knows why will always be his boss.

Besides, he (she in this case) who has the last why also has the last laugh