With a background in consulting and sales strategy, Kim Selchan felt ready to take on franchise ownership with Tutor Doctor. Because of her positive experiences with mentorship throughout her career, she wanted to bring those benefits to students through 1-on-1 tutoring.
“[Mentorship] is what the tutor is really doing. Listening to the student, what’s their learning style, their personality, [and] catering their style to the particular student.”
In order to bring positive mentorship to as many students as possible, she knew the operational side of her business needed to run as smoothly as possible. That included her communication with clients and tutors.
Prioritizing franchise growth with convenient communication
It didn’t take Kim long to realize that using her personal cell phone to text and call wasn’t going to cut it. Her phone filled with thousands of contacts and numbers. Keeping track of who she needed to talk with grew overwhelming.
Instead of continuing with all that manual work and associated stress, Kim began thinking, “How am I going to build this for the future?”
She started out with a basic text messaging tool, but it didn’t allow her to run text message drip campaigns. That wasn’t sustainable. Plus, she paid for an additional service to have business numbers to make and receive calls. “I wanted to send one message and reach multiple people… set it and forget it,” Kim says.
After being introduced to Skipio in 2020 by a fellow franchise owner, Kim felt “this is exactly what I’m looking for [and I] went nuts.”
“From the time someone discovers Tutor Doctor and communicates, they will be Skipio’d. 100% of them.”
In particular, Kim relies on Skipio drip campaigns to practically guarantee that every message gets read. And that’s without putting in hours of manual work. She runs drip campaigns to decrease staff time by:
- automating outreach to tutor applicants
- scheduling consultations with potential clients
- reminding tutors to record their hours
- keeping up-to-date with clients
- nurturing relationships with leads who never converted
Providing great client experiences as a unified team
Perhaps the best part of using Skipio for all this communication?
“Never having to worry about reaching out to a lead. It’s so much more efficient to schedule messages.”
But it’s not just Kim who’s spending time in Skipio. Her whole team gets access. Together they manage all the 1-on-1 conversations that inevitably start thanks to the automated messages. Each team member can see what’s being said, so there’s greater transparency and more context in their internal team decisions.
Plus, Kim loves the oversight she has with every message coming and going from a centralized place. When looking at conversations, she gives her team tips for client success and sales.
All that adds up to more fulfilling experiences for leads, tutors, and clients. And sustainable, consistent growth for Kim’s franchise.
