It’s easy now to get it right first time.

Having a friend or relative recommend an instructor is still a very popular method but just because they passed their test doesn’t mean they had value for money and learnt as quickly as possible. Many students recommend their instructor because they had a good rapport with them and unless they had several instructors wouldn’t know the difference.

Back in the day, many searching for lessons used Yellow Pages and made a decision based on a headline and a few lines of text which was a bit like booking a holiday after viewing a glossy brochure.

Things gradually started to change around 2010 with the emergence of the social media giant Facebook. Now it was possible to have a much wider exposure to testimonials posted by pupils and make the decision slightly easier.

Fast Track to 2018.

 Over the past eight years, we have become a customer review society and many people will now read several customer reviews before making a decision on any type of purchase. You only have to spend 10 minutes on the retail giant Amazon website to become an expert on post products. You can read exactly what someone purchased, why they chose it, what they are using it for and did it live up to expectations.

Driving schools and instructors were a little slow to adopt the customer review culture and start adding them to their websites. Many still use the old type testimonial where it’s more a pat on the back rather than an in-depth review of exactly why the student chose the school and why they would recommend them if at all.

A typical driving school testimonial would be as follows:

“My driving instructor was Dave and he was fantastic. He was always positive and never shouted at me once, even though I made lots of mistakes. I passed the first time and would recommend Dave to anyone looking for lessons.”

 Julie.

This sounds good, but it has no substance and apart from being positive and not shouting, it could be anyone of hundreds. Does that mean that Dave would be a good fit for you as you may have different criteria?

Here are just a few select reasons that our students have found to be the most important when sending in their customer reviews.

• The school/instructor came recommended
• Structured lessons
• High Test pass rate
• Flexibility of lessons
• Local to me
• Passion for teaching and friendly
• Approachable
• Positive reviews
• Passing quickly
• Value for money
• Preparation for safe driving
• Easy to get on with
• Patient and understanding of my nervousness
• Professional service and tuition
• Good instructor
• Adaption to my learning pace and style
• Excellent local reputation
• Great customer service
• Made to feel comfortable
• Reliability
• 2-hour lessons
• Family run school
• Success rate and reviews
• Experienced instructor
• Regular block bookings and consistency

My advice is to conduct searches of several driving school websites and read through the reviews to see what students have to say about their particular instructor and then see if that matches with your own criteria.

Driving lessons – a professional guide part one.