I get the sense that you appreciate personal development and understand the impact it has on an individual in the workplace. I'm a big fan of continuing education and taking advantage of conferences and publications that can provide you with information to help both personally and professionally. Your point on feedback is valuable too. As others have noted in this forum, having feedback gives you the opportunity to better serve your customers. Thank you for your post Janice.
Dr. Jean Norris
I would definitely use the customer survey! Having customer feedback will definitely work in many positive ways!
I believe EDUCATE would best serve initially. We are in the business of educating young minds but we, ourselves, need to lead by example and remain on top of any trainings and conferences available. We are the FRONT LINE and we must ensure that we stay ahead of the game. The other strategies I would then execute would be FEEDBACK. Collect this & sit down to create a customer friendly service system.
Ariana,
Thanks for the post! I'm sure your students welcome the opportunity to share the good as well as the opportunities. I'm curious, do you ever seek input from those students who do not choose your school?
Dr. Jean Norris
I agree with everyone who has discussed the importance of evaluations. We have our students complete evaluations at the end of each term. We not only have them evaluate the course and instructor, but all of our administrative staff. We also review the additional comments and concerns to find areas that we need to continue on improving.
You bring up a great point Dee. Many class surveys are conducted after the class has concluded and though it may provide helpful information to improve the next session, it doesn't necessarily help the student who might have been having a difficult time during THIS session. I encourage you to design the questions from an appreciative inquiry perspective so that students can focus on improving what's right rather than opening the door for complaining. Thank you for your post.
I'm thinking I'll incorporate an in-class survey for student feedback. I've thought about that in the past, have asked for feedback but never formalized it as a survey.
Now we survey them after the class is over. They're growth opportunities but aren't helpful with the class I have at the time. Better late than never isn't a great motto in customer service. Too much can be lost without the opportunity for a 'do over' or 'do better' if it's after the class is over.
I think mid-quarter might be a good time. It's the halfway point and I can still adapt to overall positive requests to make the class experience better.
That's an interesting idea Thomas. It sounds like there is an opportunity to improve interdepartmental communication at your school. What can you do to proactively improve communication with other departments in lieu of having a formal evaluation in place?
Dr. Jean Norris
We currently use evaluations for the students to evaluate the school as a whole, but I think we should start using evaluations internally between departments. As with the student evals, we could use them to develop strategies for better dealing with each other on campus, which in turn creates a better atmosphere for the students.
Student surveys are a great tool for understanding their perspective and to determine our opportunities. What do you do with the information received from the surveys to improve your customer service strategies?
We use several of the strategies for customer serivice. Every phase we do 2 surveys for the students to fill out and we display our responses on our information board for the students to see what improvements we can make for them.
Miriah, that's a great idea. We can all learn so much when we walk in the shoes of another individual. You could even apply the 'Walk a Mile' strategy with other departments to observe their experiences too!
Awareness is the first step and I get the sense that you are aware that there are some opportunities. I like your student-focused approach and looking at things from their perspective to create better customer service practices. Good luck Rachel, let us know how it works out and what you come up with!
So it sounds like the information is helpful for improving customer service in each department. How does this impact the students? I'm curious if they know if and how their feedback helps the school and ultimately the students.
I think you're right Laura, when a person feels heard and appreciated it builds value and the extra step of extending gratitude for their time and input can to just that. Thank you for your contribution to the forum.
Our school collect "tons" of evaluation that do get reviewed and feedback incorporated when and as appropriate. What I like is the added step of thanking our students for their time and input. I think knowing they are heard and appreciated will be very valuable!
My plan is to speak with my supervisor and see how we can implement this.
My school does surveys after every class module usually about every 5 weeks. Than we have a managers meeting and discuss the out come. Managers go back to their own departments and discuss as a whole.
The customer service strategy that I will adopt is create customer service friendly systems. My organization adopts a lot of policies that are not customer service friendly. the first step is to review each policy and review if it is helping or hurting and develop a plan of action to eliminate programs which are preventing/hindering good customer service. What are the signs that I know that our policies are hindering good customer service is the high number of drops of students each month. Our campus student population is way below it needs to be despite the fact that Admissions is meeting their monthly expectations.
Tim, thanks for sharing these. So, now that you have identified these strategies, what is your plan to put them into place?
Dr. Jean Norris
Thanks for sharing Linda. What information do you gain from the evaluations?
Dr. Jean Norris
