5 Ways Tutor Doctor Stands Apart from the Competition

The supplemental education segment is one of the fastest growing in franchising. As schools around the world are struggling to prepare students for increasingly competitive college admissions and a decreasingly labor-oriented workforce, parents and students are seeking alternative solutions to meet their education needs, and tutoring services are stepping in to fill the gap.

A rising star in the supplemental education segment, Tutor Doctor, currently operates more than 550 territories across 16 countries. 102 of those territories were opened in 2017 alone, and Tutor Doctor’s development team is poised for additional growth in 2018.

Even in the booming supplement education segment, Tutor Doctor’s rapid growth far outpaces the competition. Frank Milner and Dan Monaghan, Tutor Doctor’s president and advisor, respectively, shared five ways that the brand has set itself apart from other tutoring services. These foundational principles have helped improve the lives of more than 200,000 students and promise to help scores more as the franchise continues to expand its reach.

A holistic approach

Tutor Doctor’s approach to education goes far beyond the mastery of discrete subjects, helping students achieve the confidence and critical thinking skills required to tackle the issue they encounter.

“Our mission statement is not just to educate kids, it is to change their lives,” said Monaghan. “We are not just about turning Cs and Bs into As, though that is obviously a key product of the system. We are more focused on changing the trajectory of students’ lives for the better. We are opening doors for them so that they do not feel that anything is outside of their grasp. We are showing students that things they previously thought were impossible are possible. Other tutoring services are mostly just homework helpers. We are more interested in giving students the tools they need to be healthy human beings who can approach any subject or situation intelligently and confidently.”

That approach is not just philosophical. Tutor Doctor offers some programs specifically designed to address long-term, high-level skills. The X-Skills program, for instance, helps students improve executive-level functioning skills, including organization, time management, critical thinking and decision making.

Meeting students where they are

Tutor Doctor’s mobile and flexible model allows students to receive a customized lesson plan, designed to appeal to their specific learning style, in the comfort of their homes.

“Our whole model is based on meeting students where they are, both literally and figuratively,” said Milner. “We go to students’ houses, making it simple, convenient and comfortable for both students and their parents. Too often, tutoring is just one more thing that parents have to work into their busy schedules. We want to remove that element by sending our tutors to their homes.

“Figuratively, we meet students where they are mentally, figuring out where they are struggling and what their unique circumstances are and then creating a customized program to educate them effectively.”

One-to-one teaching

Unlike most tutoring services that place students in small groups of three to five with a single tutor, all of Tutor Doctor’s tutoring sessions are one-to-one, allowing tutors to customize their lesson plans and teaching styles for each student.

“The format of our sessions is an enormous differentiator from other tutoring brands,” said Monaghan. “Most other services offer group classes, where one teacher is working with two or three kids at one time. That is a problem because every student learns differently. Tutor Doctor is engineered to meet the cause of any difficulty a student may be having with a subject. Our tutors can identify what the block or gap might be and then adjust their approach accordingly without interrupting the learning of any other students.

“If a student is having trouble with a subject in school and you stick them in another group-learning program, you are just giving them more of the same, and you are not addressing the problem. The one-to-one approach lets us deliver results that are far and away more effective than traditional tutoring sessions.”

Online tools

Tutor Doctor offers a suite of cutting-edge online learning tools designed to supplement lesson plans and provide students constant access to materials.

“Our online tools are a huge part of our value proposition and one of the main ways that we can meet students where they are,” Milner said. “We have an online, virtual meeting room where tutors and students can meet without having to travel. It allows us to keep appointments under any circumstances. We also have our Tutor Doctor 24/7 tool, which gives students access to their full curriculum at all times, so that no matter where they are, they can review their materials. These tools are extremely robust, with virtual whiteboards, recall functions and a host of other features.”

A personal connection

At Tutor Doctor’s core, the brand is about relieving a burden on students and parents that the franchise’s founders know all too well.

“Everyone on our team knows firsthand the importance of what we are doing,” Monaghan said. “The founders and leadership team at Tutor Doctor are not only educators; they are parents. We have seen the pressure our kids face in school. We have tried all sorts of different learning centers, and we know that awful feeling of seeing your kid think that they are dumb because they just aren’t getting something. We have a personal stake in providing relief for both students and parents.”