Tuesday, October 30, 2012

OSU Tries a New Approach to Connecting to Students


Ohio State University has come up with an idea to increase retention. It is working to place faculty and others in the dorms for activities and just physical presence in the dorms to increase contact with students and to let them know that OSU does care about them. It is also providing participating students and faculty stipends for their involvement. Money is always a good incentive to get involved but other schools could do the more important mentoring and being with students at their own schools with great results. 


I personally do not think that it is necessary to offer students a stipend to get mentored. Just the opportunity would draw in a huge number of students but money is even better than pizza which often works.The details of the approach which looks to be a great way to deliver even more customer service to students are available in Inside Higher Ed article Paid to Live on Campus.

Mentoring students has been shown to be a significantly good way to increase retention. It not only shows that the university cares but also provides an outlet for solving issues and getting extra help when needed where students live in the OSU example. The article makes OSU look like a deeply caring institution that wants to put student needs foremost in its mind. Unfortunately, it may not work out that way. As the article states:
...apparently not all faculty members are on board with the idea, either; one commenter on the Lantern article who identified as a faculty member criticized the administration as being “disconnected” from the university and trying to turn it into a “giant liberal arts college.”
     “If I want to be promoted, or to create a national reputation for myself and my department, I can’t think of a worse use of my time than to babysit undergraduates in this fashion (most of whom wouldn’t welcome it in the first place),” the commenter wrote. “What an unbelievably stupid idea. The only faculty who will say yes to this are those who are not active scholars (i.e., people who shouldn’t be on the faculty in the first place).”
This rant shows so many of the reasons why student retention and learning has suffered over the past number of decades. Too many faculty do not see teaching students as their primary responsibility. This faculty member obviously has the attitude that students and teaching are impediments to him or her success. They get in the way of his selfishness and narcissistic focus. Moreover, this faculty member goes further than just students and teaching get in the way of my goals, he or she demeans all other faculty who do care about students and teaching.

The statement that these people should not be on the faculty to begin with is a sharp statement that shows why we have such horrible national retention to graduation  and graduation rates.in six years. Yes, that is six now; not four. This faculty member is a cause of our decline in international rankings and even our future. Furthermore, this faculty member does not have a clue why our society supports universities like OSU and hard to believe it is not for its football team!

Our society supports colleges and universities because they believe they educate our sons, daughters, mothers and father to have a better shot at the American dream and a stronger society. We provide funding directly and through programs like Pell because we believe colleges and universities will prepare our students to succeed. Even though public direct fiscal support has been dropping in many states, the reason there is any at all is to support the educational mission; not the petty personal objectives of faculty who place research above teaching.

Want proof? just let a college or university state that research is why it exists and teaching is something it does not want to do and see how long it survives. Faculty who do not understand that are harmful to the students as the one above is.

If this article made sense to you, you may want to contact N.Raisman & Associates to see how you can improve academic customer service and hospitality to increase student satisfaction, retention and your bottom line
UMass Dartmouth invited Dr. Neal Raisman to campus to present on "Service Excellence in Higher Ed"  as a catalyst event used to kick off a service excellence program.  Dr. Neal Raisman presents a very powerful but simple message about the impact that customer service can have on retention and the overall success of the university.  Participants embraced his philosophy as was noted with heads nods and hallway conversations after the session.  Not only did he have data to back up what he was saying, but Dr. Raisman spoke of specific examples based on his own personal experience working at a college as  Dean and President.  Our Leadership Team welcomed the "8 Rules of Customer Service", showing their eagerness to go to the next step in rolling Raisman's message out.  We could not have been more pleased with his eye-opening presentation.    Sheila Whitaker UMass-Dartmouth

If you want more information on NRaisman & Associates or to learn more about what you can do to improve academic customer service excellence on campus, get in touch with us or get a copy of our best selling book The Power of Retention: More Customer Service for Higher Education. 

Monday, October 08, 2012

Customer Service System to Increase Attendance

When a school has realized that attendance is one of the most important retention factors and put a required attendance policy in place, then it is time to build the system to support the policy. We don’t want the attendance policy to be simply counting prisoners in the cell block. Nor do we want attendance to just be seen as a negative accounting tool. It is important that a system be in place to use the results of taking attendance.
When I hired Bill Berry* to be the VP of Retention and Graduation Success at Briarcliffe College… Well, actually I was not able to hire him for that position because the powers that be thought that was not an appropriate title. We should not be so obvious that we were focusing on retention after all. So… well, let’s call the position VP for Student Services. So being a compliant type, I…Okay so I was not all that acquiescent. I disagreed since I always felt the title should be an accurate description of the reality. 
Anyhow, the position was so important to student success as well as our own
(retention does lead to increased tuition revenue after all) that I would have let them call the position Melvin to get Bill in place. 
Bill came on board as we put the required attendance policy in place. I would like to be able to say that I convinced everyone including faculty of the value an rightness of requiring students to attend but that would be a lie. After months and months of debate at the Faculty Senate which acted a bit like Blue Dog Democrats, we did not have a policy. I had set a deadline for a recommendation and that deadline came and went – twice. So after the second closing date coming and going, I made the decision. Retention was just too important an issue to allow it to be debated to death while students were dropping out or being flunked arbitrarily due to the college not having a clear and supportable attendance policy. So, we put one in place. (This was the royal we I must admit)
The policy allowed students to have no more than three unexcused absences from a class. Following the third absence, the student would fail the course. 
The Attendance Support System
It was decided that every class would have a roll call at the beginning. The completed roll call was to be brought to the Student Services (read Retention) Office immediately at the close of class. This was planned to be made an instant electronic system in which the roll would be on-line and a simple X beside a name would be sent to the Retention Office in real time.
If a student missed a class, the faculty member was to call the student at home to see if there was anything keeping the student from attending. We did ask students to contact the faculty member prior to the class or as soon as possible if he or she was not to be in class for a valid reason which could consist of illness or unavoidable emergency. The faculty member would decide if the emergency was unavoidable and also determine if this was an excused or unexcused absence.
We quickly grew to find which faculty did call the students and which did not. Notes were sent to faculty who did not indicating that the call was part of their responsibility to the students and the school. To the students because if the faculty member found out a student was ill for example, the faculty member and student could make arrangements right then and there to assure one another that the student would get the notes from class lectures or discussion as well as the homework. This way the student could perhaps stay up to date with the class and not lose time and learning.
The school also learned right away if there was a problem with a student so we too could help out. If a student missed classes because of a transportation problem, we could try to find someone close by that the student could care pool with. Or we could develop a public transportation option that would help.
VP President Berry hired three counselors whose jobs would be to stay in contact with students at least once a week for most students and twice or more a week for at risk students. At risk-students were identified as those who had missed two meetings of a class as well as those who were in academic jeopardy, had indicated some concern about staying in school, had financial issues and the such. 
VP Berry also met with the most at risk students himself on a regular basis. Students soon came to see Bill and his counselors as those who were always there to help them solve problems, get extra help or just listen when they needed an ear to drop some personal thoughts or concerns into.
The counselors received the lists of students who missed classes so they were able to keep their spreadsheets up-to-date. They did not have to wait until the problem had passed into the red zone to act. They could help students almost immediately. They would pick up the phone and find out what was going on in a student’s life that was keeping him or her from school and do something about it. When for instance they found that there might be a financial issue, they would often go with the student to the business office to see what could be worked out.
The counselors knew their jobs were to keep students in college so they could graduate. That was their primary and secondary mission and purpose. 
Immediacy is Important to Attendance Success
When a student misses a class and there is either no sanction or no one seems to miss him or her a strong message is received. If the class is cut and there is no penalty, the student can learn it is easier not to go to class than to go. Staying home and watch TV for a day because he or she just does not feel like going to class can be much more pleasant than sitting in a class one does not enjoy or care about. Watch TV and hey…No problem. No penalty. Well, why not just do this again? 
So the student cuts another day. No consequence again. No one seems to care that another class was missed. “I’ll go back the next class.” But when that comes around the student often feels like “Well, I missed two days and no big deal so one more….And besides, I missed some stuff and maybe I’m gonna be too fare behind so… Yuh, I’ll just get the notes from someone and go back after I catch up. I mean no one seems to miss me from there so I guess it’s okay.”
The second lesion is included in the first. No one seems to care. And that is a very dangerous consideration. Especially since the feeling that no one acres about me is the top reason why students drop out, or fade away into the land of attrition. But when a faculty member would call the same day and ask the student why he or she was not in class, a very different message came through loud and clearly. 
WE CARE ABOUT YOU. And if your teacher did not call, I a counselor am calling.
We care enough to try and find out why you missed class. If you are pout for a good reason we are also sending the message that we will do all we can to help you stay up with the class and get you the information you missed. If there was not a valid reason to miss the class, the message is equally clear. We noticed you were not in class. We care about you learning as much as is possible. There will be a penalty which will range from my embarrassing you with a call all the way to some grade affect. So you better get back ASAP.
The immediacy of the contact from the school was powerful. If a student were out for valid reason, the immediacy reinforced the sense that we cared. We cared so much that we were not waiting to see if there would be a second day missed. If a student just cut, the immediacy said we are not kidding about the importance of class attendance. And we are concerned about your cutting class. One student who was called said it was worse than if his parents found out he cut a class in high school and they really gave it to him. This was the College coming after him for missing a class. And sometime the College came right to the dorm room to see what was going on!
Involving The Home Front
We knew that if a student missed a second class without reason that student was now at serious risk. The greatest correlation between probability of dropping out and then actually doing so was the number of class sections missed. We also knew that if a student had three unexcused absences that student would fail. That failure usually led to dropping out for fear of failing out.
We were primarily a commuting school so we took advantage of that. We also realized from experience that many times, the parents had no idea the student was skipping classes. They became aware of the absences when the student was dropped from the College for missing too many classes and failing. That was when we heard form the parents. They would call angry at us for not doing anything to keep the student in class. Well, that was more prior to putting the attendance retention system in place. 
If a student missed a second class, a postcard was sent to the home. The card said that we were sorry he or she had missed two classes and was now in jeopardy of failing the course. Please contact the faculty member or the College immediately so we could se e what we could do to help them stay in the class and in school.
That really did the trick for many students. Somehow parents who were paying the high tuition of a private college were somehow bothered that their son or daughter was not taking full advantage of the education Mom and Dad were working hard to pay for. Most often, attendance was not a problem for that student going forward.
The phone calls home could also have a similar effect if a message was left on the phone when no one picked up during the day. “Hi (student) this is ________ at the College just checking if I need to get you the notes from today’s class since you missed it. Just call me and let me know.”
And yes, we did comply with FERPA and did obtain FERPA waivers from students during orientation whenever possible.
THE EFFECTS OF THE ATTENDANCE POLICY SUPPORT SYSTEM
The results were simple. Retention went from 54% to 76%.
Not bad. VP Berry and his folks tracked every student, showed they cared about every one of them and made the attendance policy a very positive factor for students and the college.
IF THIS ARTICLE MAKES SENSE TO YOU, YOU WILL WANT TO OBTAIN A COPY OF THE BEST-SELLING NEW BOOK ON RETENTION AND ACADEMIC CUSTOMER SERVICE THE POWER OF RETENTION: MORE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN HIGHER EDUCATION  by clicking here
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Monday, October 01, 2012

The Role of Emotion in Student Perceptions of Service Returns on Investment and Retention



1.      Financial return on investment
2.      Emotional return on investment and
3.      The affective return on investment.

The phrase return on investment makes these sound like a rational calculation that students perform to decide if they are indeed receiving the ROI they expect and want. That is not so. These are not the business calculations that a company might make to determine if an investment is worthwhile to make. Business calculations take into account outlay of funds that will either realize a profit, a return, of not. The calculations students make are instead subjective investments, feelings that are made by students in schools.

The role of emotions in retention is an extremely important one that is not taken into account enough. Students make their initial decisions to attend a college or university from an emotional attachment to the school (“I WANT to go there”) all the way through to the emotional decision to leave a school (“I hate this place.”) Yet we do not take the emotions and the academic customer service that builds them up or tears them down into account enough. Service and hospitality make a student feel as if the school is worth it or not. Good service and the students feel a better ROI in all three categories. Weak service and hospitality and the students feel the school does not care about them and they do not feel they are getting the ROIs they expect.

The involvement of a student in his or her school is almost purely an emotional one that determines for the student if they are receiving back at least as much as they are putting in.  This is called emotional equity. Of the three returns on investment they one that comes closest to a calculation can be the first, the fiscal ROI. The question it asks is simply felt as is this worth it? Will I get to my goals? Is this school worth the money it costs and the effort and time I am investing in it.

If a student feels (that’s right feels) that the money and time he is investing will pay off in a job that will get the student to where in life he wants to go, the investment can be deemed worthwhile. The payoff need not be a fiscal one by the way. The students want a specific career that he or she will love for her life. For example, a student who is an art history major will almost never make all that much money in his or her career. The money invested is not to make more money but to do something she wants to do. Something he loves doing so the investment leading to some sort of job in the world that calls for an art history degree can be seen as well invested even in an expensive liberal arts university.

The return on investment here is then an emotional one as are the others. But if the student feels that the investment of time and money will not lead to a job he or she will either quit or at least change majors. So even in the fiscal return the decision is a subjective one. One that depends not on a calculation but a feeling, an emotion. A feeling that the academic customer services we provide – education and help with learning – will lead to the objective of a fiscal ROI. These are customer services by the way in our enterprise of higher education. The how they are provided is what can determine if a student will see a fiscal ROI in her future or not. 

If the educational services are provided by caring professors who show they are concerned with the student’s learning and succeeding then the student will feel as if she has a chance to succeed. If taught by uncaring faculty who see it as their goal to get through the material and get out the door, the perception of the fiscal return on investment will be lower and the odds of a student dropping out higher. It is after all a subjective decision finally.

Those emotions are developed not by a calculation of feelings either but primarily whether or not we serve the student as she wants to be served to meet the other two ROI’s – the emotional and affective. Let’s realize that most students are highly capable of deluding themselves about their prospects. Each student who stays in school believes that she will be the one who will get the job out there. If they did not they would quit or go somewhere else. So the other two ROI’s become quite important too in determining whether a student will stay or not.

The emotional ROI is what it says it is. “Do I feel people care about me?” That is do I feel emotionally attached to this school and do I feel that people are giving me back emotionally to make me feel happy and comfortable here?  This is probably the strongest of the ROI’s by the way. Since the decision to leave a college or university is an emotional not calculated one the perception of whether or not I am getting an emotional ROI becomes paramount. Consider also that the one of the major findings of the reasons students leave a school is the feeling that the school does not care about me. Students do not feel that there is an equal emotional ROI coming from the school to justify continuing an emotional investment in the school. In fact if one asks ( as we do) why students left a school the response is often something akin to “I hated that place” followed by “all they cared about was my tuition money”. These are emotional rejections of the school.

And where do these emotional rejections come from? From the second major reason why students leave a college – poor service and weak hospitality.  Students see themselves and feel that they are the customers of the school yet we too often do not. We too often see them “as privileged to be here” as one faculty member told me recently. We really believe they should feel fortunate to be at the school. That flies in the face of the emotional perspective of the students who feel they wish to be given good service and made to feel welcome.

A good example of a school that seems to get the service and caring aspect is Lynn University which has revamped its campus tours along the lines we have been writing about for years for example to personalize them and make the potential students feel welcome on campus. They do not do the “impersonal walking backwards group here’s the library tour.” They take each student separately around campus and make sure they meet people who provide a gracious welcome to campus. They make sure they meet faculty in their intended major; students majoring in the area and administrators including the president when available who provide a hearty welcome. That sets the emotional ROI expectation in place. Their applications have risen exponentially and their retention should also if they keep it up.

They have realized the strength of the emotional attachment to the school and are playing it for everything it is worth in their new tours that are working very well.

The affective return is also an emotional one. It asks the question of whether or not I want to be known as part of the school. Do I feel an attachment to the place? This is the ROI that leads to such things as sports at a college or university. Ever wonder why colleges invest so much in having a top football or basketball team? Sure they are for donations from alumni but it is also a way to get students to feel an attachment to the school.  A winning team can make people feel proud to be part of a school and that provides a good affective ROI. That’s also why schools brag about a faculty member publishing a book, a research project or a graduate getting a good job. That makes students feel proud to be known as a member of that school. This is also an emotional attachment.

For schools to succeed in attracting and then keeping students through to graduation they need to focus on the students’ sense of their ROIs which means focusing on their emotions. That is done through increasing the services and the excellence of the services we provide just like Lynn University did on its tours. 


If this article made sense to you, you may want to contact N.Raisman & Associates to see how you can improve academic customer service and hospitality to increase student satisfaction and retention.
UMass Dartmouth invited Dr. Neal Raisman to campus to present on "Service Excellence in Higher Ed"  as a catalyst event used to kick off a service excellence program.  Dr. Neal Raisman presents a very powerful but simple message about the impact that customer service can have on retention and the overall success of the university.  Participants embraced his philosophy as was noted with heads nods and hallway conversations after the session.  Not only did he have data to back up what he was saying, but Dr. Raisman spoke of specific examples based on his own personal experience working at a college as  Dean and President.  Our Leadership Team welcomed the "8 Rules of Customer Service", showing their eagerness to go to the next step in rolling Raisman's message out.  We could not have been more pleased with his eye-opening presentation.    Sheila Whitaker UMass-Dartmouth
If you want more information on NRaisman& Associates or to learn more about what you can do to improve academic customer service excellence on campus, get in touch with us or get a copy of our best selling book The Power of Retention.