When you are considering a new career as a driving instructor, it can appear quite bewildering when you look at which way to go for your training or who to join – who out of all these businesses is actually any good?

It can be quite deceiving especially in these digital times because there are many businesses that create an awful lot of social media “heat” by putting up vast numbers of posts.  When you actually look at the content, you wonder why they bother.

Take the subject of customer reviews as an example.  If you think about it, any business can create social media posts with any number of “claims” about what customers say.  Here at BIG TOM we prefer to use a review platform with a bit more authenticity, we use TrustPilot, there are obviously others to choose from.  When you read a “review” from a professional review provider, you can have some greater reassurance that the review is genuine: the customer is real, the words they use were their own, and the grading of the review is quite literally the customer’s opinion, untouched.

You may well wonder does this really matter.  We are of the opinion that actually it matters a great deal.  It gives consumers the opportunity to look beyond a star grading profile, and literally read what previous customers have got to say about their experiences with the business.  Take these two reviews as one example:

REVIEW 1:  5 stars  “Great driving lesson, really good value”

REVIEW 2: 5 stars “I passed my driving test having learnt with Instructor X and would be very happy to recommend her to others.  She is polite, and calm, always turns up on time, and she managed to get me passed in just 33 hours of training.  Never was I made to feel stupid or confused about anything.”

It is possible that driving school A has literally dozens of 5-star reviews just like REVIEW 1.  It is possible that driving school B with not so many 5-star reviews, but when you read the ones they do have, there is an awful lot more information that helps you to really know their strengths/weaknesses, just like REVIEW 2.

When you are sitting at home browsing “driving instructor training” for example, bear the above point in mind.  You can either read posts from a person very busily blowing their own trumpet, or you can attempt to read reviews from customers who have actually used them before.  By the way, if you can’t find any authentic-looking reviews that are provided on a professional review platform like TrustPilot, watch out!

BIG TOM has been in business for over 13 years now, it was established in 2009.  If you can recall the times of 2009, the UK was in the depth of a recession having had to deal with a huge economic crisis that started in 2008 – those of us old enough to remember may well wince at the thought of those times.  BIG TOM survived those times despite what is generally recognised to be the most difficult two years of when a new business is established.  The business has helped hundreds of pupils learn to drive, and always openly welcomed working with pupils with disadvantaged circumstances.  The business survived the Covid times and will be prepared for any other difficulties that come its way.  When a business is 10+ years old, it has deep roots, it can handle challenging economic markets, it has developed sound systems, and crucially learnt how to satisfy customers.  All of these may sound like superficial remarks, but when you start a new business, you would appreciate the gravity of these points, especially if markets take a downward turn.

So yes, you may be browsing around our franchise site here, but do if you can flick through to the link to access the information our learner customers get to see.  Browse through our TrustPilot reviews.   You too can join BIG TOM as a franchisee and gain insight into all this vital experience that we have gained over the years.  Because ultimately, you need to know, not think, but actually know that the training provider who is helping you to qualify as a driving instructor does actually have the expertise to help you develop the necessary skills to run a successful business.  Driving school businesses come and go all the time, at a staggering rate of loss, and you would do well to ensure that you don’t join that group who tried but failed.