Parent Feedback Surveys for Tuition Centres: Get Real Replies

Most tuition centres want parent feedback and few collect it well. A Google Form link goes into a WhatsApp group, a handful of parents answer, and the owner never learns whether 12 or 120 families were asked. Worse, the replies that do come back are scattered across a form, a spreadsheet and a chat thread.

This guide explains how feedback surveys work in TuitionDesk, from drafting questions to chasing the parents who have not replied. It also states what the feature does not do, so you can decide whether it fits.

Why a survey inside the parent portal beats a form link

A link in a group chat has three problems: you cannot tell who has answered, you cannot tell who has not, and the answers are not tied to a child. A survey inside the parent portal fixes all three because parents are already signed in and already linked to their children.

How the survey is set up

Surveys live under Data sheets. When you create a table, choose Feedback survey (parents / students) instead of a plain sheet, then add your questions as columns.

TuitionDesk questions can be short text, long text, number, date, a choice from a list (select) or yes/no. Each question can be marked required, and a parent cannot submit until the required ones are answered.

A new survey starts as a draft. That is deliberate: you add your questions first, and parents are told only when you publish. A survey that is saved as active from the start is announced straight away.

What parents see

Parents open the parent portal, pick their child and find the active surveys under feedback. Parents respond on behalf of the child, and each survey takes one response per child. If a parent has two children at your centre, they answer once for each.

A parent can come back and change their answer. Saving again updates the existing response rather than creating a duplicate, and the owner is notified again.

Only parents of active students can submit. A student who has left cannot receive new responses.

Publishing: one alert per parent, once

When a survey moves from draft to active, TuitionDesk sends each parent of an active student a push notification: "Your feedback is requested", naming the survey. Three details matter:

• It is sent once per survey. Saving the survey again does not re-notify anyone.
• It respects your notification settings. If the "New feedback survey published" parent push is switched off for your centre, no alert goes out.
• It needs the app. The alert is a push notification, so a parent who has not installed the app or enabled notifications will not receive it. They can still see the survey when they open the portal.

The publish response tells you how many parents are linked and how many were notified, so you know how many families the alert actually reached.

The response-rate strip and the reminder button

Open Feedback inbox in the dashboard menu. Each survey shows a response-rate strip: a percentage, plus a line such as "18 of 40 parents responded". The rate counts distinct parents of active students, so a family with two children is counted once.

If some parents have not replied, a button appears: Remind N non-responders. It sends a push to each parent who has no response yet. Safeguards built in:

• Only an active survey can be reminded; drafts and archived surveys cannot.
• A parent is reminded at most once every 24 hours per survey. Pressing the button again sooner reports "Already reminded in the last 24 hours".
• Parents who already responded are never reminded.
• A second tap while a reminder run is in progress is rejected rather than sending twice.
• If no parent has the app installed, the strip says no parents could be reached.

Reading the replies

Responses show the child's name, the parent's name and each answer, newest first. The inbox shows the most recent 50 responses per survey on screen, and the response count and rate are calculated over all responses. Use Export CSV when you want everything in a spreadsheet for review with your teachers.

The owner also receives a push when a parent submits ("New survey response: student submitted survey"). If that gets noisy during a busy week, the owner preference for "Parent submitted a survey response" can be switched off in notification settings.

Teachers do not see the feedback inbox or manage surveys; this is for owners and centre staff.

Which plan includes it

Feedback surveys come with the custom data sheets feature, which is not on the Free plan. The number of surveys you can have at once depends on your plan:

Plan limits can change, so check the pricing page for the current numbers. The parent portal itself is available on every plan, but parents only see surveys if your plan includes data sheets.

A simple survey rhythm that works

You do not need a complicated programme. A light routine is enough:

1. After the first month of a batch: three questions on teaching pace, homework load and communication.
2. End of term: the same questions plus one open "what should we change?".
3. After a big change such as a new teacher or timetable: a one-question pulse.

Publish on a weekday evening, check the response rate after two days, and use the reminder button once. Then read the replies before the next parent meeting, and tell parents what you changed. Parents answer the next survey when they saw the last one lead to something.

Limits to know about

• Responses are per child, not anonymous. Parents' names are visible to the owner.
• Reminders and the publish alert are push notifications only.
• There is no built-in scoring, charting or sentiment analysis of answers; you read them or export them.
• The inbox shows the latest 50 responses per survey on screen.
• Teachers cannot create surveys or open the inbox.

Related guides

• Parent portal: stop the endless calls
• Push notifications for parent alerts
• Teacher and parent communication
• Progress reports parents actually open
• TuitionDesk plans explained

Start collecting feedback you can act on

Create your centre, add your students and parents, then publish your first survey from Data sheets. Create your free TuitionDesk account and see the response rate for yourself.