Monday, May 31, 2010

Poor Advising and Customer Service Lead to Attrition: 5 Ways to Improve


The other day I was working with senior student services and academic administrators at a major university when one of them said he didn’t think that most students ever saw a faculty advisor. “And what is the problem with that?” I asked without thinking it over. I suppose it would have been more politically correct to have phrased it differently but at least it was an honest response built on empirical research on over 100 college campuses.

Advising, most often by faculty, has come up as a negative at every college and university we have audited for academic service. Students invariably expressed a concern that advisors were not well informed on most aspects of requirements for a major and graduation. Students also stated that advisors did not know course sequencing or when or what semester required courses would be offered. This has led, and could continue to lead, to serious problems for students. And this is a growing serious concern because schools are now offering some required courses only once a year (a major disservice to students) in either Fall or Spring semester. What’s more, advisors do not know this. As a result, students often miss the course only offered in the Fall for example and have to stay an extra year. This of course increases the cost to the student and his or her family as they must pay tuition and fees for the additional, unplanned for, time.

After my original comment shot out, I realized that it might be interpreted as possibly a bit harsh. True but harsh. I will accept that it may be possible that I am being a bit overly cynical. But I wonder why colleges have not done enough to correct the advisors’ lack of awareness of the once a year course schedules? Schools should be aware of the problem of required courses being offered only once a year. Advisors not being made aware of this reality and thus “mis-advising” forces students to have to stay in school at least an additional semester to take a course missed due to the scheduling. I had to wonder if they are also aware of the additional revenue of adding more tuition to a student’s total bill. Could it be that schools are endorsing benign neglect? Allowing the lack of information to increase a student’s time at the school to increase its numbers? And revenue? Students who have to stay in school due to incorrect advising on when classes will be offered still have to pay.

That would be a much too cynical motive to attribute to administrators even though they have been accused of even more heinous deeds by the rumor mills of some campuses. Colleges are after all not credit card, banks or other such predatory companies that want customers to make mistakes that add to their bottom lines.

In a Harvard Business Review article Companies and the Customers Who Hate Them Gail McGovern and Youngme Moon write about the issues of companies that like credit cards that benefit financially from late payment fees and let/allow/cause customers make mistakes that benefit their bottom line. They write that

Some companies consciously and cynically exploit customers in this way. But in our conversations with dozens of executives in various industries, we found that the majority of firms that profit from their customers’ confusion have unwittingly fallen into a trap. Without ever making a deliberate decision to do so, they have, over a period of years, taken greater advantage of their customers. In most cases, there’s no defining moment when these companies crossed the line. Rather, they found themselves on a slippery slope that led to an increasingly antagonistic strategy…

Companies can profit from customers’ confusion, ignorance, and poor decision making in two related ways. The first evolves out of the legitimate attempt to create value by giving customers a broad set of offerings. The second emerges from the equally legitimate decision to use fees and penalties to cover costs and discourage undesirable customer behavior.

Colleges are most likely in the category of those which have fallen into “a trap”. It is unlikely that schools would knowingly create situations that would extend the student’s stay. It is more likely that this situation is caused by three factors

  1. Trying to please customers
  2. . the attempt to rein in costs,
  3. . lack of communication between campus groups and units and
  4. . inertia.

Trying To Please Customers

Courses and sections are offered to meet requirements and desires. In most all cases, needs and desires are defined by the faculty. Most decisions are made from best intentions to deliver value to students. But, there have been considerations that some subjects are required to maintain numbers and enrollment in some disciplines and to maintain base income to the institution. Some electives are offered because students express a desire to learn about a certain area. Yet others are offered because some faculty member has a strong interest to impart knowledge about some current interest to share with students whether they express a need or desire or not. And once offered, it seems to be difficult to get rid of many required courses in particular and electives as well.

College administrators usually stay out of curriculum decisions for two very good reasons. First, faculty are the curricular experts; not administrators. And second, faculty take a very dim view of administrators tampering at all with the curriculum so administrators keep hands-off whenever possible. They do not want to upset one of their most important and powerful customer sectors - faculty. Administrators recognize that they have a set of customers ranging from faculty through students. And for most college presidents, the primary customers are the faculty since they can vote no confidence or cause the most problems. Students are important of course but since they approach issues as individuals they are not as strong a force as faculty who may belong to a union and if they don’t still have significant collective power.

So, courses are added over the years to meet the demands determined by the faculty for the benefit of the school’s customers. But too often as some courses and requirements are added, others are not removed since they represent a constituency that has its requirements to be met. This will often lead to an increasingly broad and often confusing array of requirements and courses to schedule and advise students about. This curricular expansion over time has recently come in direct conflict with the financial realities of higher education

The Attempt to Rein In Costs

As revenues decrease and the public is increasingly suspect of collegiate cries of fiscal distress and thus not supportive, administrators have had to seek ways to reduce expenditures. One way to cut costs has been the ever increasing dependence on higher education’s serf class – adjuncts. Another way has been to decrease the number of sections of courses being offered. Fewer sections mean lower salaries even for the indentured serfs. Too often, rather than cutting back electives to a manageable group of offerings that could meet student needs, many administrators left quite a few electives alone rather than upset some faculty customers who enjoy teaching them at the expense of required sections. Moreover, other administrators have been rebuked in their request for full-time faculty to teach required undergraduate sections. Others have simply run out of available, credentialed adjuncts to teach.


So, the decision has been to cut out courses and/or sections with low enrollment first followed by those that may be tough to get a teacher for, then courses with multiple sections. If this does not get the cuts to where the budget can balance, courses taught in both semesters/quarters/terms are cut back to being offered in one of the other semester/quarter or term.

It is typical for universities to try to control costs by cutting the number of courses and sections offered. This is a terrible customer service error. The true cost of a course is quite low especially when compared to the cost of lost tuition revenue for a student who leaves because he or she cannot get courses needed to progress or graduate in a major. Consider also that parents who pay the bills still consider graduation to be in four years. Thus they do not plan to have to pay for another year. This creates financial difficulty which can and does lead to stopping out. That in turn often leads to either dropping out if going to another college to finish.

Lack Of Communication Between Campus Groups And Units

If required courses are to be offered only once a year, it is imperative that all of those who advise are fully aware of this. Advisors must know the days and times the course is being offered in the major areas they many advise within. If they are not aware, they cannot appropriately advise students. They also MUST be counseled to advise students they must take the required course when offered or chance having to stay another year.

But, as we know, colleges are actually small collectives, fiefdoms that do not interact well to share information well.

It is often the case that as long as things appear to be going okay and there are no obvious problems or calamities, those in the chain of command are busy enough themselves to not rock the boat. They leave things and people to do their work in isolation since that is easier. This leads to what are called “silos” in the business literature. In higher education, offices and people in some schools have been left alone to follow their own initiative enough that they don’t live in silos but in a castle. Many even have metaphorical or institutionalized moats made out of procedures, paperwork and technology they chose without regard for integrating it with the rest of the MIS system. The Power of Retention

This situation certainly mitigates against the sharing of information which leads to the well-known campus shuffles, or turfing and also includes lack of sharing changes in when courses are offered. The result is that the information does not get to advisors and not to students until they learn the hard way.

Academic advising is an issue that most everyone knows is important to student success but like the weather, most usually discussed but not much done about. In fact, students complain about weak or poor advising at most ever campus we have audited from the very first back in 1999 to the last one this year. Moreover, many time when we report that advising is a very questionable academic customer service on a campus, we are greeted with comments that boil down to “yuh, we know.” But little is done to improve advising.

Why?

Inertia

Change in higher education is quite often talked about but little done. We may often realize we need to change something but the collegial process involving committees is actually structured to make certain that most things stay as they are. In higher education, meetings are considered to be actual action and reports with recommendations merely another vehicle for further committees. Moreover, as discussed earlier, the very fiefdom structure mitigates against change since any alteration especially by an administrator could lead to conflict. Administrators do not wish to challenge the system since doing so can be fraught with danger for their position. So many things and processes such as advising even when they harm students are left alone.

But change is needed is advising especially in reference to the situation of providing students who should be higher education’s primary customers poor academic customer service.

Two Questions

Among the questions McGovern and Moon make in Companies and the Customer Who Hate Them ask are:

1. Are our most profitable customers those who have the most reason to be dissatisfied with us?

Yes. Students and the public are the ones who provide funds to the schools so they can run. The students and their families are the ones being most harmed by the cutting of sections and only offering required courses once year. McGovern and Moon go on to write If the answer is yes, the company is extracting value from customers who do not feel they are getting a fair return and in the process exposing themselves to a range of risks. Remember that 84% of drops are due to poor service making the experience not worth it. Colleges facilitate the worst customer behavior which for them which is having their paying customers leaving the school. The public is also losing its belief in the value and word of higher education.

2. Do we make it difficult for customers to understand or abide by our rules, and do we actually help customers break them?

Yes. We make it not only difficult but when we do not make sure advisors and our customers know of course and section reductions we withhold information students need to be able to schedule their programs and be able to graduate in four/two years. McGovern and Moon go on to state “Companies should also examine their product portfolios to determine whether their diverse offerings are designed to provide value or to take advantage of customer’s ignorance or difficulty in choosing options in their best interest.”

Five Steps to Better Advising and Course Scheduling

1. 1.Anyone who advises must be fully conversant with all and any aspects of the curriculum. Students during audits stated that they would have to stay at college longer to complete their requirements because their advisors did not provide them accurate direction or advice on their program and when required courses were offered.

2. 2. All advisors must know the scheduling of required courses and advise their students to take the courses when offered and not assume the courses will be available next semester. It is vital that colleges realize that if a student is not advised properly or believes the advice caused him or her to stay longer than should have been necessary, this invokes questions of fiscal return on investment –Am I wasting money or my time?- and can lead to dropping out.

3. 3. It is necessary to hold advising up-dating workshops for all those who advise as well as those who may ever find themselves in a position to help students with scheduling. If people who are advising students do not go to the up-dating workshops, they should not be allowed to advise. This could lead to a need for more full-time advisors but this could be a benefit in the long run.

4. 4.The workshops should also lead to a FAQ document that can be made available to the university students and employees so answers to questions on curricular changes and the such could be readily available.

5. 5. Colleges should consider creating and implementing curricular maps. A curricular map is a program outline that assures the appropriate sequence is followed. They are sort of like an AAA, Mapquest or GPS set of directions. These directions take you from point A to point B by having you follow the exact turns in sequence. If you do as told, you will get to your destination. If a driver decides to take a detour, he or she has to also assume the responsibility for getting off the road, perhaps losing direction and the time lost. Curricular Roadmaps work in a similar way. The Roadmap says that you follow this route (group of courses) for two semesters then take another route for the next semester, and so on. If the route is followed as directed, the student will move from point A to point graduation within the specified time. If a student wishes to take a course that is not in the map that is okay but he or she assumes responsibility for the decision to take a possible side trip. Thus some freedom in course choices is available with a full understanding that the decision could slow down progress to graduation.

IF THIS MAKES SENSE TO YOU, CONSIDER BUYING A COPY OF MY BEST-SELLING NEW BOOK ON RETENTION AND ACADEMIC CUSTOMER SERVICE

THE POWER OF RETENTION:MORE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN HIGHER EDUCATION by clicking here


The author of the article is Dr. Neal Raisman the president of AcademicMAPS, the leader in training, workshops and research on increasing student retention, enrollment and revenue through academic customer service solutions for colleges, universities and career colleges in the US, Canada, and Europe as well as businesses that seek to work with them.

We increase your success

CALL OR EMAIL TODAY
www.GreatServiceMatters.com
info@GreatServiceMatters.com
413.219.6939 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 413.219.6939 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 413.219.6939 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Neal is a pleasure to work with – his depth of knowledge and engaging, approachable style creates a strong connection with attendees. He goes beyond the typical, “show up, talk, and leave” experience that some professional speakers use. He “walks the talk” with his passion for customer service. We exchanged multiple emails prior to the event, with his focus being on meeting our needs, understanding our organization and creating a customized presentation. Neal also attended and actively participated in our evening-before team-building event, forging positive relationships with attendees – truly getting to know them. Personable, knowledgeable, down-to-earth and inspiring…. " Jean Wolfe, Training Manager, Davenport University

“Neal led a retreat that initiated customer service and retention as a real focus for us and gave us a clear plan. Then he followed up with presentations and workshops that kicked us all into high gear. We recommend with no reservations; just success.”
Susan Mesheau, Executive Director U First: Integrated Recruitment & Retention University of New Brunswick, CA

“Thank you so much for the wonderful workshop at Lincoln Technical Institute. It served to re-center ideas in a great way. I perceived it to be a morale booster, breath of fresh air, and a burst of passion.”
Shelly S, Faculty Member, Lincoln Technical Institute

“We had hoped we’d improve our retention by 3% but with the help of Dr. Raisman, we increased it by 5%
.”
Rachel Albert, Provost, University of Maine-Fort Kent


Thursday, May 27, 2010

College vs. Retail: Points of Sales and Academic Customer Service

academic customer service, customer service in college, college, university, retention, graduation

In separating retail customer service from academic customer service one need only look at point of sale versus points of sale concepts. Yes, point of SALE. In higher education. Yes, we are definitely involved in selling our schools, our images and our seats to students – our customers. That’s what we do. We sell the school to students to bring them and the money they and society spend into the school. That’s how we pay bills and salaries, buy equipment, benefits, heating, cooling, lights and so on. If it makes you feel better to call sales recruitment or enrollment management, do so but the euphemism does not hide the reality. We sell our image, products, services and benefits to students and their families but our point of sale is very different and that helps distinguish academic customer service from retail.

Point of Sale and Customer Service

First let’s roughly divide retail into two categories. Hard/tangible goods sales and soft/consumable goods sales which can include some services. Sales not goods exclusively. We will focus on the processes of providing customer service in the sales process of the goods but not the goods themselves. Thus the definitions are not as fixed as they might be in a strictly economics presentation of hard versus soft goods but not all that different. Hard or tangible good sales include anything that provides the buyer with something hard that is meant to last and be serviceable for a period of time. This can be anything for example from a refrigerator or car to a shirt or underwear (though some would even say these last two are soft goods too). These are tangible and even touchable. Soft goods are ones that wear out or are consumed. These includes cosmetics, food, paper, and I am including softer things such as services performed in the hotel and hospitality (H+H) industry. Some might argue that H+H is really part of the service industry since they provide experiences but the customer service here is very much like that in other soft goods sales. They sell a product during a set period of time that will indeed wear out and is meant to do so.

Colleges and universities are intangible professional product/service providers. We sell a set of component products we call classes, majors, and degrees and the administrative, educational and training services to make them happen. Our final product is an intangible thing we call and education with a durable but not really tangible branded degree and a definitely soft something we call learning that needs to be enhanced over life.

Higher education is different than other professional product/service providers like doctors or dentists though we do share some similarities in aspects of customer service. Doctors and dentists treat a known identifiable and tangible need that has a set outcome such as a treatment, a prescription, a cure or even death. It is also a relationship of client to provider that can change and occurs in a series of encounters most normally with periods of time between each encounter.

Colleges treat an unknown and certainly intangible need we call knowledge and skill and the outcome is not one that can be changed after graduation. Once a graduate always a graduate. One can change doctors after a series of treatments and a cure but not is the same for a graduate of a school. A dentist for example can clean teeth every six months or replace a replaced crown or a patient can get another dentist after the work is completed while a degree at graduation is forever. Once branded with graduation one is a graduate of that school always.

Retail Point of Sale – Hard/Tangible Goods

Retail whether of hard or soft goods is al about the point of sale. The sale must be completed during the period of opportunity or the sale is lost since the period is fixed and finite. If a person comes to a store for a blue shirt if the sale is not made while he or she is in the store, there is no sale at all. The point of sale is therefore fixed and limited to the time in the store. Thus customer service in the retail world is also fixed and limited. Service begins when the customer enters the store and ends when he or she leaves. And it is all focused on the sale itself. Service is to get the customer to buy something.

The usual scenario is the customer enters a store, passes through the decompression zone where he or she might be greeted by an official greeter such as was done well by Wal-Mart years ago. (They have since replaced the official smiling grandma and grandpa greeters with bored apathetic floor workers decreasing their initial customer service interactions.) The customer then goes onto the sales floor seeking the product he or she came to the store seeking. The physical appearance and ease of shopping is a part of customer service. The sales floor is set up in a way to try to maximize sales in a well thought out customer service point of sale store such as a Nordstroms, Whole Foods and many other smart sellers who realize that making their goods look appetizing and desirable increase sales.

The customer finds the shirt he is looking for often with no assistance from an employee. At best, the employee is stationed behind a sales desk with a register. If the customer approaches to ask the location of shirts, the employee does engage in some very low level service. “Hello, may I help you? Men’s shirts. They are over there” perhaps smiling and pointing. Perhaps the service increases a bit when the employee says “come with me” and guides the customer to the shirts.

“What size? Color? Long or short sleeve? Ahh, here we are? May I ring that up?’ Back to the sales desk. That’ll be $xx. Cash or charge? Thank you very much. Thanks for shopping…….Come again” with a smile. This is a level of service often related to a commission sale which can often lead to greater service as well as a suggestion of a tie or pants to go with the shirt. The increased service can thus lead to an increase sale size which can benefit the salesperson in a commission-based environment especially in big ticket items sales such as a car.

On the lower side of service the customer finds the shirt himself. Takes it to the sales desk. Hands it to a bored cashier who asks “cash or charge?” Rings it up. “Thank you. Have a good day. Come again.”

In either scenario as soon as the bag with the shirt is handed over to the customer, the sale ends and so does customer service in most stores. In a high end store such as Tiffany’s a guard greets and checks you out as you enter and leave. Always a wonderful touchy feely moment. Service over.

Retail Point of Sale – Soft/Consumable Goods/Services

There are of course less intensive soft sales which follow the retail pattern discussed above but in an intensive soft sale such as food at a restaurant in which product and service combine there are a few more points of sale and points of sale customer service (PSCS).

PSCS One- The sale starts with parking and entering the establishment as it did with the hard product sale but this is quickly followed with the first PSCS in the form of a formal greeting. There is the greeting as with all sales by a maître d’ or seater who welcomes you and asks something. This is true for all food sales and they range from “Good evening, Welcome to…. How many in your party/your reservation is under….” to “You by yourself? Two?” to “How may I take your order?” The customers are led to a seat where they are told “the waiter will be with you soon.”

PSCS Two Initial Point of Sale – The waiter comes to the table, provides menus and “sells” drinks and appetizers. “Hi my name is Bart. I’ll be your waiter tonight. Can I get anyone a drink? Okay. An appetizer to start you off.” The service is more personal since part of the sale is for Bart to increase the tab while increasing his tip. Since there is a direct connection between the customer’s perception of his service and the pay-off for him, he will, or at least should be more attentive to customer service. So he starts with the Give a Name technique though he does not try to get the customer’s name just a larger tab with drinks and appetizers knowing that the total sale will be the basis for his percentage tip.

PSCS Three Follow-up and Point of Sale – This is when the waiter moves the customer to the entrée for the meal. He will take the order often reassuring the customer that he or she has made a good choice so as not to raise any cognitive dissonance issues in the choice-making process. The re-assuring at this point of sale is an important part in developing a relationship for the tip.

Point of Sale Two and PSCS Four – The soft product, the food, is delivered and eaten. The customer will now formulate his or her definition of the success of the sales process with determining the value of the food itself. The food is the actual product with the waiter’s efforts as part of the customer service essential to secondary valuation of the experience. If the food is not up to expectations, the entire sale will founder. The waiter’s services will depend on the product itself finally. There is no way to fully separate the product fully from the service in a restaurant situation just as they valuing of the food experience will depend on the service and expectations of the product and service as discussed in the section of The Power of Retention on the famous for infamous service but excellent food Durgin Park in Boston.

Point of Sale Three and PSCS Five – The entrée dishes are removed and deserts are sold. If the product and service experiences have been good to this point, the possibility of upselling to desert is better than if either the service or product have been weak to this point. Weak service and the customers will want to leave sooner than if service has been good. Weak product and there is no probability of extending the sale to include desert and increase the tab as well as tip.

PCSC Six- The bill is presented either after or without desert. There may be another minor upsale attempt with “coffee anyone?” but that is normally a signal that the bill is about to be brought. In fact, coffee may be the last thinking the waiter who knows that another dollar or two will not increase the final tip much cares about. The sale is concluded and it is really “cash or credit” to get to the tip time. “Thank you for coming and have a nice day/evening” and the sale is fully concluded with the receipt of the payment, the tip and the customers leaving. Sure the restaurant would like good word of mouth and that is also the result of the service and especially the product but there is not a real expectation that the customer will return for the next meal of the day or even the next day. There will be time between the sales and purchases.

A company that is often pointed to as an exemplar of customer service is Disney. Their soft product sale approach is even easier than in the restaurant and is not really applicable to the academic sale scenarios, academic PSCS that follows. In fact, Disney has a fairly easy customer service to provide. They have a fairly captive audience that has prepaid to use the facilities or they cannot get into the park. Pre-payment helps keep customers in the park even with horrendously long waits for rides. Not only do they not have to worry that one of their lead employees wearing a character costume will not say something that will harm sales because Sleeping Beauty, Goofy, Mickey etc are not allowed to talk, just perhaps hug . And Disney does not have to worry that a character actor will not smile since their smiles are painted on. In the stores, the scenario is the same as above for hard goods with the restaurants like the soft goods. The hotels are a bit different but somewhat similar to food PSCS since they are often pore-paid so customer are less likely to leave and leave their money behind as well though tips are important.

Disney compared to academic customer service and PSCS academic service is not comparable. Disney is easier. Imagine telling a faculty member he had to smile all the time never mind be nice to students and their parents and be out on the campus saying hello to everyone or get fired. Don’t see it happening.

Academic Customer Service and Points of Sale

Let’s make this easier and simply accept that admissions is the initial point of sale with stitch-in as part of the sales process getting the student into the classroom on the first day of school. The points of sale of concern here follow from these and include most every class, process and interaction of student and college. The sale is not one to make more money except at the end of a semester, term or year when a bill becomes due again. The sale is to reinforce of the engagement between college and student based on the students’ appreciation of the faith in the engagement and the academic customer services rendered.

To try and keep this to a reasonable length please realize that the final good of higher education is an intangible we know as education leading to hope for a job and thus a better life that becomes embodied in the only close to tangible thing we provide – a diploma. This good is thus both hard/durable because the tie between college and graduate cannot be broken as well as soft/consumables such as classes and direct services like at a restaurant.

We sell belief and hope in the experience we call college that leads to retention and graduation. We do not as with other professional services fill a tooth or mend a bone, cure an illness or prepare and serve food to be eaten during the sitting. We make promises and then grade our customers as opposed to how most every other businesses does. They have the customers grade the product and/or service. Yes, we have evaluations but they are only responded to in the extreme. We do not produce our products based on what customer want or need but based on what we think we want to give them and what we feel they need (sometimes that means just what we need to deliver to give someone something to do and save budget and positions or because a prof wants to teach a course whether the customer wants or needs it.)

We can do this because our products are intangibles that have been pre-sold as required credentialing required to be able to succeed in a career and society. We have also positioned our business into the position of expertise that is not to be questioned. In fact, question it too much and we will often find ways to fail the customer.

But because we sell a goal – graduation and a job – that takes long period of time to achieve, colleges are exposed to many more points of sale and points of customer service than other businesses. In fact, the sale is not completed at admissions or the first day of classes. Students make “buying decisions” every day, every class, every hour, every contact with the school. In the morning or evening when homework or a set of classes looms ahead, the student must decide whether or not to spend time and effort to buy the classes. Buying in this point of sale is not with money at this moment, that’ll come at the end of the semester but to purchase with effort and time. The decision to go to class, to buy the class must also be made for every single class. Attendance is thus a good indicator of the strength of the desire to continue buying and staying at the school.

Education is an emotional sale that is based on engagement, trust and faith that “if I give myself over to the college it will get me to my goal of graduation and a job”, points of service are each very important since they are all points of reselling the school and its ability to deliver.

The sales are based then on trust and faith. The currency is not dollars but buy-in. These are emotional investments that require constant, continuous and consistent selling to the customer through service and sales after the sale to provide them the belief that there is and will be strong emotional and affective return on the investment of trust if they but buy us one more day, one more class, one more semester.

Thus it is extremely important to recognize that every person, every contact, every interaction with the school from the parking lot through people, policies and procedures creates a point of sale and a point of sale customer service situation. Every person from the president on up needs to realize his or her role as a salesperson of the school. All offices must accept that they are also points of sale and service. Faculty must understand that the ways they sell their subjects, their information and training through lectures, demonstrations, interactions and so on are all points of sale and service and their are the most important services of all. People who answer the phone, the website, cafeteria, housing, maintenance, security, everyone and everything are points of sale. The campus itself needs to sell the school after all the lack of a place to park might very well mean "no sale" for the day as the commuter student drives away in a huff; or poor lighting in the halls can make a student feel unwelcome or even a dirty bathroom can cancel the sale that a the school cares about its students. It is extremely important that all of these PSCS go well to increase sales of the school leading to increased retention and graduation rates.

A longitudinal study of six-year graduation and attrition rates of over 1400 US four-year colleges and universities of all sectors indicates an average of only that PSCS is not going well. The study shows that American colleges are losing an average of 48% of every cohort it starts. Moreover since this is the average over six years of six year graduation cohorts, an average 48% of all students are leaving higher education every year. If any other business lost that many sales, it would likely be out of business a long time ago. Very few businesses, even one that represents 2.6% of GDP can normally exist with such a high level of lost sales and revenue.

Higher education needs to embrace academic customer service and train at every point of sale to retain students through graduation and its own revenue stream.

IF THIS MAKES SENSE TO YOU, CONSIDER BUYING A COPY OF MY BEST-SELLING NEW BOOK ON RETENTION AND ACADEMIC CUSTOMER SERVICE

THE POWER OF RETENTION:MORE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN HIGHER EDUCATION by clicking here


The author of the article is Dr. Neal Raisman the president of AcademicMAPS, the leader in training, workshops and research on increasing student retention, enrollment and revenue through academic customer service solutions for colleges, universities and career colleges in the US, Canada, and Europe as well as businesses that seek to work with them.

We increase your success

CALL OR EMAIL TODAY
www.GreatServiceMatters.com
info@GreatServiceMatters.com
413.219.6939 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 413.219.6939 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 413.219.6939 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Neal is a pleasure to work with – his depth of knowledge and engaging, approachable style creates a strong connection with attendees. He goes beyond the typical, “show up, talk, and leave” experience that some professional speakers use. He “walks the talk” with his passion for customer service. We exchanged multiple emails prior to the event, with his focus being on meeting our needs, understanding our organization and creating a customized presentation. Neal also attended and actively participated in our evening-before team-building event, forging positive relationships with attendees – truly getting to know them. Personable, knowledgeable, down-to-earth and inspiring…. " Jean Wolfe, Training Manager, Davenport University

“Neal led a retreat that initiated customer service and retention as a real focus for us and gave us a clear plan. Then he followed up with presentations and workshops that kicked us all into high gear. We recommend with no reservations; just success.”
Susan Mesheau, Executive Director U First: Integrated Recruitment & Retention University of New Brunswick, CA

“Thank you so much for the wonderful workshop at Lincoln Technical Institute. It served to re-center ideas in a great way. I perceived it to be a morale booster, breath of fresh air, and a burst of passion.”
Shelly S, Faculty Member, Lincoln Technical Institute

“We had hoped we’d improve our retention by 3% but with the help of Dr. Raisman, we increased it by 5%
.”
Rachel Albert, Provost, University of Maine-Fort Kent