Please be aware that, just like the reviews, our team reserves the right to delete replies that go against our rules. Avoid using swear words and mentioning site links, full names and contact info such as emails, phone numbers etc. Check our rules to know more about which public replies might be deleted.

There are 4 typical types of reviews that our tutors get on Rihisi and in this article, we will give you some tips as to how to respond to them:

Here are our top tips for responding to them.

It’s always lovely to see students being happy with our classes, us as a person and/or the progress they are making. In this case, the best reply is to thank the student for their nice words and to give them some praise, too :)

Here’s an example:

Anita (student): Laura is a professional and friendly tutor, I really enjoy my lessons with her! We talk about topics that interest me, and we work on my errors. I really like how she incorporates frequent revision into our classes, how she structures our lessons and shows me the progress I'm making. Highly recommended!

Laura (tutor): Thank you for your kind words, Anita! It has been an absolute pleasure teaching you. You’ve put lots of effort into learning Spanish and you are making great progress! Keep it up!

Remember that reviews are usually not personal. Students, learning preferences, and cultural backgrounds differ, and what works perfectly for one student may not be something that another student likes. If the students are giving you feedback on your methodology, materials and teaching, it is not about you as a person. Having said that, negative reviews can help you learn a lot about your students, their needs and how to cater for them, so they are really worth reading and responding to.

Always stay positive and polite. Even if you might not agree with your student because your reply is displayed to future, potential students who are trying to decide whether you are the right tutor for them. You want to demonstrate to them that you are ready to listen to feedback and respond to students' concerns.

It’s not over yet! You might be able to solve a misunderstanding or respond to feedback so that you can win a student back, so don’t waste this opportunity! Demonstrate to your student that you understand what they mean and offer an alternative:

Here are some examples:

Anita (student): I’m dissatisfied with my classes with Laura. Her materials are boring and the level was too easy for me.

Laura (tutor): Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, Anita. I’m sorry to hear that you were not satisfied with my materials and the level of challenge in my classes. I really wish you had told me about this before so that I could have designed more challenging tasks for you. I wish you all the best in your future learning journey.

Can you see what happened here? Even though the review was negative, the tutor was able to give a positive spin on it, which can potentially win the student back or at least be something that might bring new potential students.

Here’s another example:

Anita (student): Laura told me that I would be able to pass a C1 language exam after taking 5 classes with her. I signed up for the exam and failed. I’m very unhappy!

Laura (tutor): Dear Anita, I am sorry to hear that you have failed your exam, and you are unhappy. Even though you have made good progress, I have tried to make it clear to you that 5 classes won’t be enough to progress from B1 to C1 level. I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear to you. I really hope that you will continue learning Spanish and will successfully pass a language exam in the future, once you have reached the C1 level.

What if the student’s comment is not about your teaching, but more about your behavior and professionality as a tutor? Students often complain about tutors being late for classes or not being professional in some other way. In this case, the best thing to do is thank them for their feedback and show them that you will be working on this in the future. This way, you can reestablish your professionality.

To summarize, make sure your student feels heard (by acknowledging their feedback). If it’s something that you would like to work on, make it clear to them and potential students. If it’s something you disagree with, put it politely and say a friendly goodbye to your student. New ones will come!

Sometimes it happens that a student is happy with his/her tutor and the lessons, they write a positive review but only add a few stars. This might be because they come from a different educational background where the grades work the other way around, or maybe they made a mistake. In this case, you can reach out to our customer support and explain the situation to them. Our customer support team will then investigate the case.

Misunderstandings happen. Sometimes a tutor is late for a class or doesn’t attend it because of a misunderstanding, and the student enters the classroom and waits for the tutor in vain. In this case, they might be disappointed and leave a negative review.

We understand how frustrating this situation is, and we try to help our tutors! If you think that your student is claiming something that didn’t happen, reach out to our customer support team. Of course, bear in mind that our team will only be able to help you if it’s something that you can objectively prove to be untrue (e.g. by a screenshot in your calendar about the rescheduled lesson).

If, for example, your student claims that you have been rude to them, but you don’t agree, unfortunately, there’s no way for us to prove who is right. The best thing you can do is leave a reply saying that you are sorry they felt that way, and concentrate on getting positive reviews from future students. Also, the student who left the negative review, and they see your reply, is able to delete their original review if you have clarified the misunderstanding.