Lance, Thank you for sharing. How can you improve this process?
Dr. Jean Norris
Our campus requires that students use a school email address. Because of this, many of them don't know how to get the email pushed to their phones and don't feel connected.
Chris, Interesting! What about inside customer service touch points?
Dr. Jean Norris
I believe that one of the most improved touchpoints for potential student's in our school would be to visit local High School's in the state and maybe surrounding states and project our school.
Edward, It sounds like your institution is doing a great job reaching out to your students. Do you feel there is any room for improvement in what you are currently doing?
Dr. Jean Norris
I think we are moving in the right direction. We've started holding Job Fairs for our students. That impacts both our students, who are looking for employment, and the hospitals and clinics that are looking for employees.
Our particular program has an advisory committee and for our twice a year meetings, we provide some sort of thank you gift to each representative as well as provide lunch or even dinner at one of the meetings.
Vanessa,
Great ideas! Thank you for sharing.
Dr. Jean Norris
External customer touch points for our school include employers who come for recruiting visits, institutional our facebook page, communtity events such as our two for the price of one weekends.
These touch points are effective, the only thing I could think of improving would be using up to date technology to support these efforts. For example videos, vine, twitter to promote the relationships with external customers.
Thanks for sharing Candace, it sounds like you have some great events in place that work well for your school. Can you think of other ways you can reach out to others in the community?
Dr. Jean Norris
Our school has various events in the community and school to encourage students to bring their friends to participate in and spend time in the classes. We have an annual car show for the drivers of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and other car enthusiasts to bring in and show off their rides and get some information about our school.
Laura,
So it sounds as if you have lots of tools but looking for something very customized. Great idea! How can you move this idea forward?
Dr. Jean Norris
My school has a web site, web chat, personal phone calls, emails & texts and postcards for upcoming events that are corporate-generated. We also have free Workshops & Open Houses at the specific campus level. I would like to see more information about graduate success & in each particular region where schools are located so people can relate more specifically to that location.
This is a great idea Janice. How can you present this idea to your president?
Dr. Jean Norris
Our president is very out going and always in the public eye promoting new programs, technology advancements & buildings at our school to drum up awareness of our school. I believe if they were to have some students & faculty accompany her to these public outings, many external customers may get a look at the whole package & the products of our school. It may be less intimidating and more personable at the student level.
It looks like you already have many wonderful touch points for your customers and that you also have great ideas for additional opportunities. How can you help facilitate improvements to your campus customer touch points?
Great idea Sara! Community events provide brand awareness and PR for the school and taking it a step further with school or charity shirts sounds like a great addition. I also like that you mention keeping it professional by having staff in slacks or khakis. Though the idea behind a dress-down day is good, keeping it professional so that first-time guests can see the same professional atmosphere as a guest arriving on a non-dress-down day is a great practice.
We have many touch points for the various external customers of our school. For potential students we have a website with information about programs, graduate success stories, and links to accrediting bodies. You can also chat with a rep right on the website. Graduates can also get information about continuing education and sign up to look at our job board.
Employers are invited to lunches to give feedback on the training they believe our program provides, and also provide direct feedback to our Career Services Director about what they are looking for in prospective employees.
I think the school catalog should be downloadable from our website, and I think the job board couple be improved by adding an option for graduates to have their own personal listing that employers can see if they are looking for work.
I think "dress-down" days could be a good touch point for the community maybe if it had a bit more of a structure to follow. Wearing school shirts or shirts with the charity/event on it with professional slacks or khakis might be a way to increase awareness of the charity while maintaining more of a professional image. Or instead of using "dress-down" days, maybe provide the staff with opportunities for wearing colors to show solidarity (such as pink for breast cancer awareness).
Danica, the internet is a great tool and now-a-days a main source for people to gather information. It sounds like you have multiple ways for someone to get in contact with you which increases the likelihood of people learning more about you.
Dr. Jean Norris
Our main touch point, I think, is the web. We have our school website with a lot of information. We also have a Facebook page for different departments to keep our students updated on certain events as well as the public. We also have open houses a few times a year to invite people in to check us out.
