I would like to see ALL areas of the school take a more personal interest in our students - admissions and financial aid come to mind. Being a small campus, these areas see the students as much as the faculty does. They should be greeting the students by name, attending graudations, and so forth, so the students can see that we are a 'family'.
Three easy steps that aren't always so easy to execute, right? Maintaining focus on the customer can help with staying focused on our customer service. Thanks for your post!
Dr. Jean Norris
Customer Services is a matter of listening to the other party in order to best respond. Anyone in the school can listen, and then if they are not able to help (or respond), they can find someone else who can. So:
1. listening
2. figuring out who can help
3. helping
I think you're right Corin. Through mystery shopping we see varying levels of staff and faculty involvement during campus tours and when prospective students can meet the staff they do feel more connected to the school, and therefore may feel more 'at home'. It certainly gives the student more opportunities to ask good questions along the way to the various people. What can you personally do to initiate more involvement during campus tours?
Dr. Jean Norris
I would like to see more staff involvement when people are touring the campus. I feel that prospective students would feel more at home.
Brooke,
Great point! How else could you use the results from the customer service survey?
Dr. Jean Norris
Strongly agree with her response. The focus should always remain in customer service.. That includes close communication to low length of time that may give Customer time to seek other opportunity from another facility.
Angel,
That is a great idea! Thank you for sharing this thought in the forum.
Dr. Jean Norris
I would like to see our school conduct a brief survey for each and every potential student we meet with. In doing so, we will have a way to generate feedback that will eventually allow us to improve certain aspects of our customer service that may need a little "tweaking"!
Susan,
This is an excellent practice and it sounds as if you expanded the concept even further. Thanks so much for sharing these insights with all of us!
Dr. Jean Norris
In the past we had free tutoring offered by more 'senior' students as well as supervised study / practice time. I am not clear on why they diminished, but students have voiced their needs and we are bringing it back! After hearing from employers that some of our graduates lack confidence and direction, I am starting to implement next term the externship /mentor/job shadow options. I already bring employers in to talk about their businesses, what they specialize in and their expectations of employees and I bring them back the following term to do mock interviews with students. It's been so beneficial to both the employers and the students!
Gambel,
Thanks so much for your keen insight! What might be your first step?
Dr. Jean Norris
The customer service trends that I would like to see incorporated at my school are Tell the World and Thats Tight, specifically. I would love to see our students spread the word about their wonderful experience they are having at our school. I would also like to develope better relationships with students and prospective students. Those two trends go hand in hand.
Susan,
Very well said! Thank you for sharing such great ideas! Do you have any of these in place?
Dr. Jean Norris
Our program is intense and fairly short, so I would like to see more student support throughout their program. By support I mean tutors, free study time, supervised practice/study time where they can ask questions while working to integrate the information better.
I would also like to provide more face to face contact with potential employers, both inside and outside of the classroom, so they can grow relationships that can lead to immediate hiring after gradaution. This could look like job shadowing opportunities, employer mentors that help grads get their feet solidly on the ground in order to succeed in their business, and possible externships.
The more support students are given throughout their training, the better they stay in contact after graduation!
Very interesting Jason, so it sounds like you want the voice of your school to be a voice FROM your school. Any way we can make a connection with prospective students certainly helps. Thank you for your post.
Dr. Jean Norris
We currently do a good job, in my opinion, with customer service. Then only thing that I could think of is customer service through advertisements, meaning, having one of our team member's voice on radio advertisements. I think that will add a sense of connectivity for a person to come in and meet someone whose voice they have heard on the radio.
Many institutions are using Skype and screen sharing software to work with online students, students who can't come to the campus, or for students who don't WANT to come to the campus because they 'buy' differently. How do you think having the ability to meet more students in a convenient manner can help your process?
Dr. Jean Norris
I would like to see our school use Skype so the students could meet with us face to face as well as having that contact with the parent when completing the financial aid.
Since in can be difficult to schedule a time for both the parent and student to come in to financial aid it could be a way for the financial aid department to be able to explain the FA process face to face with a parent and student and answer any questions or concerns that a parent may have.
Kevin,
With technology changing every day and the Millenials attaching to all the latest and greatest, congratulations to your school for striving to change with the technology! How do you find the students like video conferencing?
Dr. Jean Norris
