Nikki,
Oh this is a GREAT point and one that many admissions reps can learn from. One size fits all tours really miss a big opportunity to connect with and help a student make a decision. Thanks for posting!
Dr. Jean Norris
Making the experience on campus unique to each student. I think as an admissions rep, they should have the ability to tell how people respond to certain aspects and what's important to them. Unfortunately, on my campus i feel like sometimes they go into robot mode and do the exact same speech, tour and enrollment process for each student. They need the ability to read a student to see what is important to them.
What a nice idea, Edward! Thank you for sharing in the forum.
Dr. Jean Norris
We have started a video board with the students names who are arriving that day. I feel this helps make the student feel more important and welcomed on campus by prsonalizing a greeting to them specifically than just an orientation with all new students.
Susie, All of these are great suggestions. Keeping students engaged is key! How will you specifically engage more students?
Dr. Jean Norris
The way I would like to see customer service in our school is a focus on active learning for our students. This is already a strong focus for us but I believe it could be better. Young students don't like sitting in a lecture, the more we can get them up and moving and experiencing the content hands on, the more engaged, happy and satisfied they will be.
We also own any problem that our students may have. If they have a financial aid question we not only connect them with the appropriate person but make sure their problem is taken care of completely.
All of these tools are great ways to connect with students, Edward, it's great your school has them. What do you need in order to start utilizing these tools?
Dr. Jean Norris
I would love to see our school move so we had access to a chat function for students and faculty or eve Blackboard or other communication system, I realize that Skype is available, but have not started to use it--my bad.
John ,
Interesting! What are ways you can get to know each student better that you can do right away?
Dr. Jean Norris
Taking the time to get to know each student as an individual prior to starting school as part of the Admissions process. We do a good job of getting to know them once they begin classes, but sometimes that is 10-12 weeeks into the program. By that point many issues have arisen which could have been circumvented before they became problems needing to be dealt with.
Vanessa,
These are great suggestions! Thank you for sharing.
Dr. Jean Norris
I agree there are new methods growing in social media, such as Vine videos and Instagram. Those two interest me because they are fairly easy to create.
Great idea, thanks for the suggestion Dr. Jean Norris.
A trend I would like to see incorporated at our school would be online interaction via chat and video. This could tell us what our customers want or need from us, by providing information we may not otherwise gain from them.
We could also provide educational videos to build a social media following that could act as a form of marketing through sharing.
These steps of expanding our social media influence might help us with customer acquistion and loyalty.
Robert,
Excellent point. Each person that comes into your school deserves the same customer service. What are some benefits to treating everyone your schools encounters with great customer service?
Dr. Jean Norris
I would like to see customer service become everyone's responsibility. Everyone can affect someone's decision whether or not they decide to go to our school. It has to start from the time they enter until they leave.
Leberth,
Great suggestion! Thank you for sharing!
Dr. Jean Norris
Amanda,
Great suggestion. Do you feel this is something that is doable in your school?
Dr. Jean Norris
I think online scheduling could benefit my school. We are a massage and skin care school and we can fill our appointment slots very quickly. It is sometimes difficult for our appointment setter to to explain to our customers that we have completely booked our slots within a couple of days and not receive a backlash for completing her task efficiently.
With online scheduling our customer could have the ability to see for themselves whether there are openings available or not and book those appointments themselves. This goes along the lines of "see it to believe it"
It would be nice for our students to be able to access school information on a formal web page instead of a Facebook site as not all of them have liked or friended the school pages. I feel they would be better served with a page that the staff could update with events and school closings as well as the media outlets that are already in use.
David,
Excellent point! Students can benefit from everyone in your school taking an interest in their outcomes. Thank you for sharing!
Dr. Jean Norris
