What does it mean to be a Recommended Coach?
A Recommended Coach is a coach who has demonstrated consistently high standards across communication, reliability, professionalism and customer experience.
The Recommended Coach status is designed to help customers identify coaches who have established a strong track record on Coachability.
It is not simply based on qualifications or the number of sessions completed. We look at how you perform on the platform and, most importantly, the experience you provide to customers.
Recommended Coaches may receive additional recognition and visibility on Coachability and may be highlighted more prominently.
The status is earned through performance and must be maintained.
1. Minimum Requirements
To be considered for Recommended Coach status, you must meet the following minimum standards.
1. Professional Coach Profile
Your Coachability profile must:
- Include a clear and professional profile photograph.
- Clearly explain your coaching experience.
- Accurately describe your qualifications and experience.
- Clearly explain the type of coaching you provide.
- Contain accurate availability and location information.
- Provide customers with enough information to make an informed decision about booking you.
- At least 3 verified reviews and one within the last 90 days.
A strong profile is important because customers and parents need to feel confident that they understand who they are booking.
2. Sufficient Coaching History
Recommended Coach status is intended for coaches who have demonstrated their ability to provide a consistently good service.
You will therefore normally need to have completed a sufficient number of Coachability sessions before becoming eligible.
As an initial guideline, this will normally require:
- At least 8 completed Coachability sessions.
Coachability may consider a lower number in exceptional circumstances where there is already sufficient evidence of strong performance.
3. Communication Standards
Recommended Coaches are expected to communicate promptly and professionally.
Your average first response time should normally be below 12 hours.
You should respond to at least 95% of genuine customer enquiries.
Customers should normally receive a meaningful response within 24 hours.
If you are unavailable, you should communicate this clearly rather than leaving the customer waiting.
Good communication means:
- Responding promptly.
- Answering the customer's questions.
- Understanding what the customer is looking for.
- Providing useful information.
- Asking relevant questions where necessary.
- Confirming arrangements clearly.
- Continuing to communicate after a booking has been made.
- Keeping customers informed if anything changes.
A simple "yes, I'm available" followed by several days of silence would not be considered strong communication.
4. Booking Performance
Recommended Coaches should demonstrate that they are able to turn suitable enquiries into bookings.
Enquiry-to-booking conversion
As a general performance benchmark:
- 50%+ = strong performance
- 30–49% = requires monitoring
- Below 30% = potential concern
Conversion rates will not be considered in isolation.
Coachability recognises that not every enquiry will result in a booking. Customers may have different budgets, availability, locations or requirements, simply not reply and some customers may contact multiple coaches.
We therefore look at conversion alongside the quality and suitability of the enquiries received.
5. Reliability
Once you accept a booking, the customer should be able to rely on you to deliver the session as agreed.
Recommended Coaches should maintain:
Repeated cancellations, particularly cancellations close to the session time, may affect Recommended Coach status.
We understand that genuine emergencies and circumstances outside a coach's control can happen. These will be considered when reviewing performance.
However, repeated cancellations or changes to accepted bookings can have a significant impact on customers and may result in a review of your status.
6. Rescheduling
Once a booking has been accepted, coaches should make every reasonable effort to deliver the session at the agreed time and location.
Repeatedly asking customers to change:
- The date
- The time
- The location
will affect your performance status.
This is particularly important where a customer is unable to accommodate the proposed change.
If you need to change an accepted booking, communicate with the customer as early as possible and work with them to find a suitable alternative. You can then edit the time and date in the Upcoming sessions tab rather than cancel/decline and ask the customer to re-book.
7. Customer Experience
Recommended Coaches should consistently provide a professional and positive experience.
We may consider:
- Customer ratings.
- Customer reviews.
- Positive feedback.
- Complaints.
- Refunds.
- Booking disputes.
- Coachability interventions.
- Communication issues.
- Repeat bookings.
Customer ratings
As an initial benchmark, Recommended Coaches should normally maintain an average customer rating of:
However, ratings will be considered alongside the number of reviews and the wider customer feedback received.
8. Repeat Bookings
A successful coaching relationship will often result in customers choosing to book additional sessions.
We will therefore monitor:
- Second-session bookings.
- Third-session bookings.
- Average sessions per customer.
- Overall repeat booking levels.
Repeat bookings are an important indicator of customer satisfaction, but they are not a standalone requirement for Recommended status.
The type of coaching, age of player, customer objectives and other circumstances can affect whether a customer books again.
9. Serious Customer Concerns
Recommended Coach status requires a consistently professional approach.
The following will result in an immediate review regardless of other performance metrics:
- Serious customer complaints.
- Unprofessional or inappropriate communication.
- Repeated failure to respond to customers.
- Failure to attend an accepted booking.
- Repeated last-minute cancellations.
- Misrepresentation of qualifications or experience.
- Attempting to take payment directly from a Coachability customer where this is prohibited.
- Attempting to move customers away from the Coachability platform.
- Serious breaches of the Coach Partnership Agreement.
- Serious safeguarding or conduct concerns.
Depending on the circumstances, serious issues may result in suspension or termination rather than simply a loss of Recommended status.
10. Recommended Coach Performance Summary
To maintain Recommended Coach status, you should aim to consistently meet the following standards:
| Performance Area | Recommended Standard |
|---|---|
| Profile | Complete, professional and accurate |
| Completed sessions | Normally 8+ |
| Average first response | Under 12 hours |
| Response rate | 95%+ |
| Response within 24 hours | Consistently |
| Enquiry → booking | 50%+ preferred |
| Booking completion | 95%+ |
| Coach cancellation rate | Below 3% |
| Customer rating | Normally 4.7/5+ |
| Customer complaints | Minimal |
| Coach-related refunds | Minimal |
| Communication | Prompt, helpful and professional |
| Rescheduling | Rare and handled appropriately |
| Platform compliance | Full compliance required |
11. How Recommended Coach Status Is Reviewed
Recommended Coach status is not permanent.
Coachability will periodically review performance to ensure that coaches who hold the Recommended status continue to meet the required standards.
Performance may be reviewed using recent and historical platform data.
This means a coach can:
A coach does not need to be perfect.
We understand that genuine mistakes, emergencies and unusual circumstances happen.
What matters is the overall pattern of performance and how the coach responds when issues arise.
12. What Happens If Performance Falls?
If performance begins to fall below the expected standard, Coachability will contact the coach and explain the area of concern.
For example:
Response Performance — Needs Improvement
Your average response time over the last 30 days is 19 hours.
Our Recommended Coach standard is an average response time of under 12 hours.
Please aim to respond to new enquiries as quickly as possible and within 12 hours.
We will continue to monitor your response performance.
Where performance improves, no further action may be required.
Where poor performance continues, Recommended Coach status may be reviewed further or removed.
13. Traffic-Light Performance System
Coachability uses a simple traffic-light system internally to identify areas of performance.
GREEN — Good
You are meeting the expected standard.
ORANGE — Monitor
Performance is below the preferred standard and may require improvement.
RED — Concern
Performance is significantly below the expected standard or there is a repeated pattern of concern.
A single Orange or Red result does not automatically mean that a coach will lose Recommended status.
We look at the overall picture, the amount of available data and the circumstances involved.
14. Why We Use Performance Standards
Coachability receives enquiries from customers who are looking for reliable, professional coaches.
When a customer chooses a coach, they are trusting that coach to:
- Respond promptly.
- Communicate clearly.
- Turn up as agreed.
- Deliver the coaching session professionally.
- Provide a good customer experience.
Poor communication, cancellations and unreliable service can result in customers losing confidence and can also mean that genuine bookings are lost.
Our performance standards are therefore designed to protect the quality of the Coachability marketplace and reward coaches who consistently provide a strong service.
15. The Coachability Standard
Our goal is simple:
- Respond quickly.
- Communicate clearly.
- Deliver reliably.
- Provide a great coaching experience.
- Keep your customers coming back.
Recommended Coach status recognises coaches who consistently demonstrate these standards.
It is intended to give customers greater confidence when choosing a coach and to recognise coaches who have established a strong track record on Coachability.
16. Pro Membership – Growing Your Coaching Business
Pro Membership is Coachability's paid subscription for coaches who want to make greater use of the platform to develop their coaching business.
Pro is separate from Recommended Coach status and is not a performance award.
Pro is designed to provide additional opportunities, exposure and tools, which may include:
- A higher enquiry allowance.
- Enhanced profile visibility.
- Additional opportunities to be discovered by customers.
- Additional opportunities from those outside of the platform ecosystem.
- Pro profile/badge recognition.
- Additional promotional opportunities where available.
The purpose of Pro is simple:
However, Pro does not guarantee a particular number of enquiries, bookings or income. Customer demand varies depending on location, availability, coaching requirements, profile quality and other factors.
Getting the Most From Pro
Simply having a Pro membership does not guarantee success on the platform.
The coaches who are likely to get the greatest benefit from increased exposure are those who:
- Respond quickly to enquiries.
- Maintain a professional and informative profile.
- Keep their availability up to date.
- Communicate clearly with customers.
- Convert suitable enquiries into bookings.
- Deliver sessions reliably.
- Encourage strong customer experiences and repeat bookings.
This is why Coachability monitors performance.
Pro gives you greater opportunity. Your performance helps determine how effectively you turn that opportunity into bookings and repeat customers.
