The external customers starts as a potential student. They extend to their suppport outletsas well as employers, local businesses and massage partnerships. We always welcome and value graduated that wish to return to contribute to the future of the campus as well as hosting events here or on various sites to educate and promote the school
Very well said Laura. When we recognize this cycle I think it helps to understand the significance of providing a high level of customer service to EVERY customer, both external and internal. Thank you for contributing to the forum.
Great examples of your external customers Rachel. How do you provide your customers with the level of customer service that will motivate them to hire your graduates?
Thanks for sharing, Mariah. These are definitely important external customers that are important to include in your customer service efforts. What do you do to help these customers have an exceptional experience?
That's an extensive list of external customers Tim! Tell us more about the tourism professionals, leisure coordinators or senior community administrators since these are unique to what has been previously posted on the forum.
It seems we have unending external customers…. And in a cyclical way. Tina’s comments really resonated with me because, along with our students, employers of our graduates are key external customers. Our school’s reputation has a huge impact on these employers.
In turn, prospective students (including their family and friends) hear about our reputation through any number of external customers. We also offer our services to the public (more external customers) as part of our student’s curriculum which enhances their education and exposes more customers to the quality training program we offer. Our grads then go out into the work force and perpetuate our reputation. And the external customer base continues to expand.
The external customers starts as a student, go on to be therapist or Ta's and or teachers so they also become future employers of our students in time.
My school prepare students to become massage therapists and facial skin specialists. Our external customers are potential employers, students and the community at large.
One of our most important external customers are the clients who visit our student clinic. We privide them with a valuable service through our students, at a much lower rate than they would find elsewhere, while treating them as if they were clients at an exclusive resort. They, in turn, provide an imemsnse service to our students by providing real life experience in their training! They, in turn, become our student's clients upon graduation. This shows that great service to these clients from the beginning will eventually turn into doing our students a service by providing them with a client pool upon their first steps into the workforce.
Our external customers include students, graduates, employers, the public (everyone in the world is a potential massage therapy client), the medical community (alterative therapies can and do become mainstream therapies with effective networking), tourism professionals, leisure coordinators, senior community adminstrators...I think I will stop here, but I could go on.
Our external customers are our students and paying clients over the weekend clinic,we also offer Discovery Workshops every month.
It sounds like you consider everyone outside of your staff as your external customer and that's great. What are some of the things you do to ensure that your customers are having a positive experience at your school?
I think everyone is our external customer. We provide services to the public and they are our customers as well. Students/families/friends that are checking out the school for the first time are also our external customers. Sometimes without them, we can't get a student to enroll. We must serve everyone the same by always being in relationship with them.
So it looks like word-of-mouth marketing is a big part of recognizing your external customers - that's fabulous! I would imagine that your outreach efforts translate to a good amount of personally developed inquiries or referrals. Thank you for your post.
That's great Tina. How do you extend the above average service to your employers since they are so important to your graduates, school, and the community?
External customers are our vendors, perspective student family members, neighboring businesses and weekend clients. Vendors and businesses are served by our patronage and welcoming them to our business as they route through. Weekend clientele come in to receive menu items learned by the students throughout the week. Student family members are serviced with just as much customer service as the perspective student is as they help influence the decision by that student.
Our school supports other local business and they support us. On staff coffee breaks, we have left flyers at coffee shops, talked to the the owners as well as all the barista's. I just asked one of them yesterday if they would like to come in to the clinic and check it out. We also work with spas, chiropracters, health care organizations in the area. We've offered discounts to nursing students. We also have an outreach program where students can do volunteer work helping people with HIV, war refugees, sports teams and dance companies.
Our external customers are our students, their family and friends. We also have clients we serve that come from the community. Our employers who seek to hire our graduates and local businesses.
We serve them by offering our services to the public for a lower price than average to give them an above average service.
You got it! The letter carrier might have a friend or family member looking to attend college and he/she may remember the pleasant exchanges that he/she experienced at your school. Think about your own personal experiences with memorable 'WOW' customer service. Wouldn't you recommend that place, person, or event to a friend? Keep up the great work.
That's a great observation. How do you demonstrate high levels of customer service to your employers?
