Acethly,
Good thoughts. All three aspects are necessary to the overall care of the student. If any of these characteristics are lacking the overall experience of the student may suffer. It is important to balance accurate and timely processing with good strong customer service skills. Do you have suggestions for the group on how they may achieve all three aspects? If so, I am sure the group would welcome your suggestions.
Best wishes in your continued online financial aid educational experience.
Chyrl Ayers
All 3 are essential to provide a professional & ethical service on behalf of the school, because of the fact that if you lack one characteristic, the student may not feel important or accomidated.
Corinna,
Service is an important part of the overall student experience. If you are providing timely and accurate service to the students the students should definitely have a good experience and feel comfortable discussing their finanical situation with you. It is important for your students to feel comfortable and confident in your assistance each time they interact with you.
Best wishes in your continued online education process.
Chyrl Ayers
I am just starting to get in to the financial aid part of the school, and I have a lot to learn. but being an Instructor.. I have found a happy student (service) make it easier to do my job in a timely manner... although accuracy is important can we go back and check our work
ROBERTO,
All of your points are valid and valuable. Whenever a FA professional handles a student or parent's information it should be with the goal of doing all aspects accurately. Being timely does not have to mean rushing to complete the process but we should manage our time to ensure that the students receive prompt, accurate and positive service.
I appreciate your comments and wish you the very best as you pursue additional online education in the financial aid areana.
Chyrl Ayers
For me is Accuracy is the most important characteristic because you can rush to complete the student file in a Timely matter and missed something to verify. I believe if you take your time reviewing the application and the forms that are completed correctly with a good smile and with a positive attitude. The student will always appreciate your serice.
Milenka,
You are correct all three items are importanct in delivering service to your studens. It takes all three to make the campus and students successfully. Continue to strive to deliver accurate, timely and great customer service.
Chyrl Ayers
I believe all three items are very important but I believe the Service is the most important one. Because we provide customer service to a student and we are dealing with peoples money everyone knows that is a very sensitive subject and a person has to believe in you that you know your job and you are trying you best for the student. You can't have an attitude because a student doesn't understand something and you have to explain it again, this comes with the job and a student will appreciate your help and trust you in the future.
Javier,
I could not agree with you more. If you are providing good customer service to your students it also ensures that timeliness and accuracy of Title IV funding is more likely to occur. The students therefore have confidence in the financial aid office regarding their financial aid assistance. Regards, David
David McGuffee
In my opinion all of characteristics are important for the financial aid process as you mentioned before; but, I will choose Customer Service as the priority because depending on the students experience and perception it determines if he or she decides to stay with the institution that we serve and represent. We need to demostrate that we will be able to provide accurate information, propper documentation requirements, interest and willingness to help them since they do have many other educational options where they can move.
Joy,
Your response is right on target. It is critical to keep all of these charateristics out in front of your students. Great service without any substance will only result in hardsips for your students. You must focus on all three to be successful on behalf of your students and your campus.
Best wishes in your pursuit of online financial aid education.
Sincerely, Chyrl
Providing good service may be of utmost importance, however, without timeliness and accuracy, good service cannot be provided. Timeliness is always a high priority to maintain the excitement, interest and also to award funding that is limited. Accuracy has to rank high as well just for the simple reason that an incorrect award letter does not want to be generated and the student must be told that the awarded aid is not as much as originally expected. Good service starts with a positive attitude and genuineness but ends with delivering what is promised.
Luke,
Providing quality service will ensure that your students experience timely processing and accuracy. Being able to provide fast sustomer service responsiveness will enhance the student's overal experience. It is great to hear that your processing has provided such a positive impact to your students. Best wishes in your continued online financial aid experience.
Sincerely, Chyrl
Serivce is the most important part and it also plays directly into timeliness. We are in a competitive market and we provide customer service not only with personalization but also with efficiency. Our students know all about their aid package/eligibility before the other schools have even called them back for an appointment. This has made a significant impact on our enromment statistics.
Abby,
As stated most of the responses to this post is that all three aspects are of equal importance. You cannot have a successful FA Office without all components and each has a very significant bearing on the student experience. The combination will ensure that each student has a positive experience in the Financial Aid Office.
Sincerely, Chyrl
As others have noted, it is very difficult to say that one of these items is more important than the other, as they all contribute to the success of the financial aid process. For our institution, we have start dates every five weeks so all three elements are critical.
Timeliness has to be a key element because we only have so many weeks to complete and submit financial aid files for enrollment.
Customer service is always critical at any stage of the process. Due to our frequent start dates, we tend to receive a good majority of FA appointments toward the end of the enrollment period. For this reason, it is so important to remember that each student should feel like they are the only student and that you have all of the time in the world for them - not always easy when you are booked back to back for a week or two.
Accuracy is one of the most important characteristics for me and our department. As mentioned above, a good majority of the student FA appointments tend to occur during the last week or two of the enrollment period. Due to the high number of FA appointments in such a short time period, it can be easy to miss details. It is critical to take the time to ensure all details are accurate at each step of the process, in order to avoid the need for corrections, as well as avoid disgruntled students and other employees that may be affected.
Very good point about deviation. This is something that I need to reiterate time and time again to all staff.
Rita,
So true it is their responsability to provide that positive service which so many times they forget as the day is busy and there is so much work to do. This is where I find it difficult to ensure all staff deliver this to every student.
Angie,
You answer is well-thoughtout and delivered. It is difficult to ensure that all three aspects are exhibited each time there is an interaction with a student or parent. However, I always encourage FA Professionals to inspect what they expect. If you want to guarantee that your staff are providing the best service you will need to make time to watch and evaluate their interaction with students. The best practices related to documents are to have a standard set of documents and require these based on specific scenarios - no deviation. When one deviates is when one has the opportunity to make an error.
Best wishes in your continued online FA educational experience.
Sincerely, Chyrl
Timeliness, Accuracy and Service are all the up most of importance; however if you do not have outstanding service it is difficult to deliver the other two. The reasoning behind this is that without service your customers will dwindle. To me service is not just the friendly aspect; but that of which consists of setting clear expectations with the customer and gaining credibility with them. Timeliness and accuracy is part of that credibility. As we set expectations for the student in return we should inform them of what the process consists of on the schools part. If we fail to process timely and accurately this lowers the service to the student. If one has to keep going back and asking the student for more documents that should have been reviewed and collected upon the initial processing, or a student has to keep inquiring about their funding not paid it lowers the credibility of the FA Office as well as the service to the student. Students take a big step when they enroll in school and it is the service that can make a student decide to or not to enroll which could impact their lives forever. I believe our job in the Financial Aid Office is to change students lives for the best and by doing so make sure we provide the upmost service by educating them on all available funding, assist in lowering their debt, process their funding accurately and on time so they may focus on their course studies. By doing just that we will help them continue on their journey to be a successful student.
All though we would like to ensure we provide service to our students sometimes it is very difficult to obtain the documents required from them. What best practices would you recommend to assist with this?
Although I would love to say my staff provides the best service to every student I sometimes find it difficult to ensure they are all doing so and all the time. How would you recommend going about ensuring this happens?
