Slides for Free Retention Audio Seminar

These slides are to accompany the Monday Nov. 24 2:00 EST on-line audio seminar 20 Complimentary Minutes to Increase Retention over Thanksgiving. The audio seminar is sponsored by The Administrators Bookshelf to provider a service and of course let people find out about them and my new book The Power of Retention: More Customer Service for Higher Education.

Thanksgiving is a period during which many students complete their decision to stay or leave your school. Most powerfully, if they are not sure they fit or that the college cares, the comfort of gathering with family and friends will exacerbate any questions of do I want to go back next semester? They are among family and friends where any discomfort, apprehension or concern about your school can be magnified. They compare their feelings to those of friends who say they love their college. Too often, you lose.

Too often, you lose.

But there are some easy, quick and compelling how-to’s Dr. Raisman will share that can help you and your school make students come back from Thanksgiving feeling valued and re-assured they made the right enrollment choice.

Presenter: Dr. Neal A. Raisman, President of AcademicMAPS and author of The Power of Retention, recognized internationally as the leader in retention and customer service research and training.

Recommended for anyone interested in retention and students including presidents, chancellors, campus directors, provosts, budget directors, student service, enrollment management, admissions, start directors, student life, and others who may be affected by reductions in budgets due to attrition.

Q+A: Following the 20 minute presentation there will be an open-ended Q+A session to address issues from the presentation and any other retention or academic customer service issues you may have.

At the end of the presentation, there will be information on obtaining a discount copy of Dr. Raisman’s new best seller The Power of Retention.

Additional slides that can ad to the general understanding of academic customer service are available on my LinkedIn page. Please click here and join my network and the Administrators Bookshelf group.

“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-Farmington

“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

“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, Lincoln Technical Institute

AcademicMAPS has been providing customer service, retention, enrollment and research training and solutions to colleges, universities and career colleges in the US, Canada, and Europe as well as to businesses that seek to work with them since 1999. Clients range from small rural schools to major urban universities and corporations. Its services range from campus customer service audits, workshops, training, presentations, institutional studies and surveys to research on customer service and retention. AcademicMAPS prides itself on its record of success for its clients and students who are aided through the firm’s services. CALL OR EMAIL TODAY TO SEE HOW WE CAN HELP INCREASE YOUR SCHOOL'S RETENTION
www.GreatServiceMatters.com
info@GreatServiceMatters.com
413.219.6939

Creating Successful Interactions- Give a Name Get a Name in Action

Every so often, something happens to make me feel like schools are getting the message. That customer service is growing and students really are being provided the service they deserve and expect. That faculty are using academic customer service techniques that make teaching and work easier and more enjoyable for them. And that will lead to improved retention with corresponding student success alongside greatly increased revenue (i.e. more money to fund budgets and programs.)

I recently had not one but two of those rewarding occasions recently while visiting my mother-in-law in the Beverly Hospital north of Boston. No! My mother-in-law in the hospital was not the cause of any happiness. I don’t do Henny Youngman or mother-in-law jokes. But at the hospital and in an article by Boston Globe writer Peter Schworm (an education writer well worth reading) , I found examples of some of the techniques and approaches I teach. In particular, I found examples of get a name-give a name implementation in colleges and in the Beverly Hospital.

In his piece, In College, It’s Who You Know, Peter Schworm wrote about how faculty at UMass-Amherst, Bentley, and Northeastern spent some time learning their students’ names and faces. The professors all reported classroom and instructional benefits by learning the students’ names.

Bernard J. Morzuch, a UMass Amherst professor of resource economics is quoted as stating …the occasional cold call transforms the classroom dynamic, professors say. Students sit up straighter and may even forgo their habitual Web browsing in class if there's a chance they'll suddenly be called on by name and thrust into the spotlight.

And, Gregory Hall, a psychology professor at Bentley College explained if you feel a personal connection, you feel obligation… It creates a sense of community in the classroom.

Umass-Amherst and Bentley both have on-line systems with names and pictures of students that can assist professors learn their students’ names.

Beverly Hospital has been rated as one of the top medical care facilities in the US. It shows in all they do and especially in how they serve patients and staff alike. Other hospitals and we could learn a lot from Beverly. Right now it has an effort underway to get every employee to always begin every interaction with a patient with a variation of Give a Name- Get a Name since they already have the patient’s name. Start all interactions by providing your own name. This was an action being taken to decrease the number of patient complaints and potential law suits. The HR people know that establishing a connection with a patient is key to avoiding lawsuits from the work of Alice Braunstein (formerly Alice Burkin) one of the premier medical malpractice researchers and litigator.. In an article titled 10 Ways To Guarantee A Lawsuit, what Braunstein says about medical doctors could easily be said about academic doctors.

"The most important factor in many cases, besides the injury itself, is the quality of the patient's relationship with the doctor. I've never had a client come in and say, 'I really like this doctor, and I feel terrible about doing it, but I want to sue him.' People just don't sue doctors they really like."

"The best way to avoid getting sued,” says Burkin, "is to establish good relationships with your patients, and to treat them with respect. That requires taking time to talk with them, and more important, to listen." Doctors who don't are asking for trouble.

The best way to quickly begin establishing that relationship is to exchange names. This process is explained in the Give a Name- Get a Name technique. The following is an excerpt from The Power of Retention: More Customer Service in Higher Education that discusses the technique.

Give a Name-Get a Name – A Core Issue for Success

One of the techniques worth knowing and practicing is called “Give a name; Get a name.” This is a technique that should be used in all customer service situations. It is especially useful when confronting an angry student or client. Give a name-Get a name is just what is says. The service provider creates a “community of two” by entering the interaction by giving his or her first name to the student. The surname name can be given but only as a reinforcement of the first name. And after a pause so the first name takes precedence and primacy in the listener’s mind.

Last names are for business interactions or to place yourself in a power relationship to the student. Like what we do in classrooms. “Refer to me as Mr. or Dr. Somebody while I demean you by using only your diminutive first name.”

“Hi. I’m Neal.............. Neal Raisman. I’m the Vice President of Somethingorother.”

Then the person asks for the student’s name.

“And you are….?”
If the student is angry he or she will often respond with “Pissed off.”

”Okay, Pissed. Or do you prefer Mr. Off? What can I try to help you solve?” The response here is not to say you will help or promise more than can be done. That would be a sure way to simply postpone even greater frustration and anger for later. The goal is to indicate a genuine interest in trying to help.

Once first names have been exchanged, a small, maybe tentative, yet real community of two is formed. If nothing else, it is much more difficult for an angry student to retain a full level of anger when you have exchanged first names. You are no longer just a nameless representative of the anonymous school. The YOU or U, if you will. You are a person with a name a first name. You could even be a friend when I have your first name. The exchange of first names is the initial step in creating a friendly relationship. Just picture a bar or social gathering where you wish to get to know someone. What do you do after checking your breath as you walk over to the person? “Hi, my name is ......”

It is much harder to be angry with a real person with a name than an entity, a thing that has no feelings to hurt and no heart to break. So, giving and getting a name can defuse anger and allow you to provide better customer service, actually solve a problem and not get yelled at and insulted as the nameless representative of the school.

I knew that this worked with people but I found out from a faculty member at one of the ECPI branches that it also works with machines!.”

After a customer service and retention workshop for faculty and administrators in Virginia, Prof. Bob Loomis of EPCI College of Technology in Roanoke, VA provided a powerful example of the value of names.Prof. Loomis was responding to a discussion of the Give a Name – Get a Name technique we had just worked through.

It seems that he supplements his teaching income by doing some computer repair and consulting for businesses on the side. He will go to a business and do all he can to repair a computer or software issue right then and there. From what I can figure, he is rather successful at doing so.

There are however times when he has to take the computer back with him to make the repairs. In those situations, he provides solid service by leaving a computer behind so the customer has something to use. This loaner, he has named Freddie since it travels with him on all calls just in case and he is with it a lot. Though Bob checks it each time to maker sure it is fine, there have been a few times when the loaner may develop a problem since it is used by many different people with different preferences and networks. He can be sure he will hear about it rather quickly.

One time Bob had mentioned to a client that he was going to leave “Freddie” behind as a loaner. The client was a bit confused until he realized that Freddie was a computer. Well, the next day Bob received a call from the client. “Freddy is having a bad day” he said. Not “the damn machine isn’t working right.” A kind, understanding “Freddie is having a bad day” instead.

The client was not dealing with a soulless machine after all but with Freddie (a soulless machine but with a name.) Ever since that experience, Bob does not leave a loaner computer behind but lends the customer “Freddy”. Complaints with Freddy have dropped and Bob attributes it to giving people a machine with a human name.

It has been pointed out to me at times that it is true that Give a Name – Get a Name may not work with spineless, ineffectual soulless machines and tools with personality deficits who have names and work at schools. There are some folks that have less personality than a computer. For working with people who have less personality and customer ability than Freddie, Principle 15 may be worth considering even if you know their name.

15. Not everyone is capable of providing good customer service. That does not mean they do not have value somewhere.

That does not mean they do have value either but that is a decision you make. Just get them away from interacting with your students and other campus clients. Or your students and colleagues will develop names for them that are not very flattering, though possibly very indicative. When a person has a name like Quasimoto, The Thing or The %$#&#! take that as a powerful statement too of the person's ability to negatively affect customer service. Move them away from people.

By the way, check your job descriptions and position requirements. It may be that you are creating some of your own problems by the way you hire. Being too mean to work at the DMV is not a job qualification one should seek for those who provide customer service to students.

This is a technique that you can implement with very quick and positive results. If you have any questions, just contact me. If you’d like a copy of the 15 Principles of Good Academic Customer Service, they are in the new book, The Power of Retention or you can email me here and just ask for a copy.

“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-Farmington

“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

“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, Lincoln Technical Institute

AcademicMAPS has been providing customer service, retention, enrollment and research training and solutions to colleges, universities and career colleges in the US, Canada, and Europe as well as to businesses that seek to work with them since 1999. Clients range from small rural schools to major urban universities and corporations. Its services range from campus customer service audits, workshops, training, presentations, institutional studies and surveys to research on customer service and retention. AcademicMAPS prides itself on its record of success for its clients and students who are aided through the firm’s services. www.GreatServiceMatters.com
info@GreatServiceMatters.com
413.219.6939

A Professor and a Student Walked into a Bar........

There is a core concept behind much of positive customer service in college or for that matter anywhere. Smiling.

Not only is it great for increasing customer service and retention, it has wonderfully salutary and powerfully positive effects for you too. Smiling creates huge returns on a very small investment. And according to a study completed by the British Dental Health Foundation, smiling can save you weight too!

The British Dental Health Foundation, co–ordinators of National Smile Week (May 15–21) — the biggest oral health event in the UK calendar — spoke after scientists revealed that a smile gives the same level of stimulation as eating 2,000 chocolate bars or receiving £16,000 in cash.

The clinical tests, carried out on volunteers in Scotland, measured brain and heart activity as participants were shown pictures of people smiling and given money and chocolate.

The results were analysed by psychologist Dr David Lewis, the author of The Secret Language of Success, who said that seeing a smile creates what is termed as a 'halo' effect, helping us to remember other happy events more vividly, feel more optimistic, more positive and more motivated.

Dr Nigel Carter, chief executive of the Foundation, commented: "We have long been drawing attention to the fact that smiling increases happiness both in yourself and those around you, so it is good to receive the backing of this scientific research.

2000 bars of chocolate! And the halo effect. When you smile, it causes other to do so too. During a workshop at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, I proved the strength of smiling by putting a smile on my face and going up to members of the audience. Eevery one of them responded with a smile. Now, whether it was because they felt the power of a smile or because they were thinking I had gone mad and best smile back to keep me from some odd behavior focused on them, I can not say for sure. What I can say for sure is they all smiled back, even one who had done her best to tell through a rigid frown and body language to state to me she was not going to buy anything I would say. In fact, after I got her to smile just by grinning at her while talking about smiling, she lost the frown and relaxed the rigidity in her body for the rest of the workshop.

If we smile, we release endorphins and serotonin which some obtain though marijuana use. So, smiling can save you more money, loss of job if caught and no lingering pot smell on your clothes to make your colleagues wonder if they need to create an intervention for you.

Smiling also has been found to reduce stress, lengthen life expectancy, lower blood pressure and make the smiler appear younger and more attractive. Maybe that explains the attraction Jerry Lewis to the French?

Smiling also makes you appear to the viewer as if you are pleased to see him or her and that produces a halo effect. The other person feels happier as a result and will even like you more. This is true even if your smile is fake. A faked smile will have as much positive effects as a real one for the viewer. Granted a real one may be stronger and thus produce greater effects on the viewer and yourself, but a faked one is a great start.

Moreover, when you smile it is fairly impossible to sound as frustrated, tired or even as angry as you may really feel. Your voice and one will have a more positive, upbeat, perhaps even friendly tone caused by the smiling. The smile-influenced voice will carry out to anyone hearing it and affect their mood too. Even if a person cannot see your smile, he or she will hear it such as when talking on the telephone. That makes the listener feel better and even welcomed.

So, SMILE

Quick pitch: We are quickly filling up our dates for school pre-opening convocations and workshops as well as customer service week (Oct6-10). We would like to be able to help you too so please contact us ASAP for a date. info@GreatServiceMatters.com

AcademicMAPS has been providing customer service, retention and research training and solutions to colleges, universities and career colleges in the US, Canada, and Europe as well as to businesses that seek to work with them since 1999. Clients range from small rural schools to major urban universities and corporations. Its services range from campus customer service audits, workshops, training, presentations, institutional studies and surveys to research on customer service and retention. AcademicMAPS prides itself on its record of success for its clients and students who are aided through the firm’s services.www.GreatServiceMatters.com 413.219.6939 info@GreatServiceMatters.com

Gordon Gee's Bowtie and the Ties That Will Bind Them into Returning

Right now as I write and you read, one of your students considering whether or not to return to your school. Away from the place and noisy dorm or daily commute. With old friends from high school who go to other schools. In an extremely familiar bedroom. The bed that welcomed her every night. The mattress broken in to accept body shape just perfectly. Breakfast on the table. No assignments to do or skip. No quizzes other than old friends with only one question “what to do tonight?” The only test is “Do I want to go back to that place?”

And right now you have an opportunity to help provide an answer to that question and retain some students who might answer that question with a quiet “no”.

Stop for a second and think about images and feelings that unite the statements above. Familiarity. Comfort. Home. Friends. Attachment. All images of fitting in. Of belonging. .

This is a time when student’s determine if he or she “fits in” at your school. “Do I feel as if I have a place at the bar?” (That’s an allusion to Principle 1 of the15 Principles of Good Academic Customer Service.(For a copy, click here and request.)

Sure the students have been dealing with that all along but now, the deliberation intensifies. Has the student made friends or just acquaintances? Roomies or roommates? Where do I feel as if I fit in? Am I appreciated there? Wanted there?

That’s the key here. “Do I feel like people at my school want me there? Have they shown anything that indicates I am at least an valued or important person to them?”

Feeling Important - a key customer service concept.
Have you shown your students they are important to you? The actual goal is to make every student feel as if he or she is the most important person at the college. That no other student is as significant and they all are essential. This may indeed be one of the key concepts of success.

Okay. How do we do that? I will provide two ways. One longer term and the other immediate.

The longer term will build the sense of meaningful community at the school.

The second will, and I guarantee this, will save some students from deciding to quit or transfer during Holiday Break.

A Longer term Way of Building Students’ Sense of Importance
I used to wonder why Gordon Gee was worth over a million dollars a year to Vanderbilt and why Ohio State University was so thrilled he returned. It seemed to me (and actually still does) that no college president, EVEN ME (though I might be willing to consider it), is worth a million dollars a year. Not even $900,000. $800K. And keep going. It just seems excessive when others at the school are losing jobs to budget cuts and adjuncts are living in their cars. Are such high salaries really warranted, or earned? Sure it is a tough job. But it is the same tough job at more or less money. Money does not make the job any easier but it sure as hell does make some people feel as if they are worth all that money. As if they somehow are a campus treasure and should be treated as such. Others would do the job for less because they believe in the calling, president as a vocation. The others? President as Louis XIV. We read about them in the Chronicle and on-line even at places like Oral Roberts U where one would think there would be a higher calling than excessive expenditures.

Okay. President Gordon Gee. What he does is create community at the school and the community. He gets out and about the campus. Makes certain he is seen and contacted by students. He waves to students and others on campus and makes certain he is visible in the general community. And to be certain he is noticed, he has branded himself with a bow tie. Yes. A bow tie. He always wears a bow tie that he ties himself. And what’s more, he lets everyone know about the bow tie. (I used to wear bright, vivid ties that made people see them and comment on them and thus recognize me by the ties quite often. Never made that kind of money though.)

That is an important part of the bow tie. Not that Dr. Gee wears it but he makes sure everyone knows he wears it. That bow tie helps make him even more visible. When people see a bow tie-wearing man on the OSU campus, they almost always associate it with Gordon Gee. And when that man wearing the bow tie waves at you or smiles your way or says hello, you have been greeted by the President of the University. Even if it isn’t him sometimes but the effect is the same. (He could even set up some kind of bow tie squad of Gee-look-alikes and have them walk around wearing bow ties and waving. People would think he is everywhere!)

“The President waved at ME. I am important.”

“He’s out there among us. We must be important.”

Gee makes students, and others feel they are appreciated and noticed on campus from the top of the University. And if he cares, everyone else must….The whole university cares. And it is a very large one too. One that can, and must for many students, feel too large and impersonal. But a wave from that guy with the bow tie can make it seem small, cozy and personal. Gee has a way similar to Bill Clinton that makes whomever he is with feel or smiling at feel as if they are important. And that is key to retention. Making students, and all member of the campus community feel they are valued.=

Get Out of Your Office and Get on Campus
I am not saying you need to wear a bow tie. No, not necessarily. What I am saying is that to boost retention if you are a president, you need to be visible and known to students. Get out of the office and on campus. And what is true for the president is equally true for everyone else. Getting out of the office and saying hello to students should be a part of the job. Be out on campus, being seen, greeting students, saying hello and talking with the college community EVERYDAY AND EVERYWAY. Go to the cafeteria. Get a cup of coffee and join a group of students. Let them know who you are and simply ask them how it’s going or some such broad “I care” question. Pass out your business cards. Do what Dean Schaar did. Imagine what the campus atmosphere would be like if everyone in the school spent part of his or her day saying hello, talking to students and getting to know them and them you?

“But,” The president of the school (and others) says “they’ll call me and I’m busy. I won’t get my work done. I’ve got to figure out how to fix the budget for the rest of the year.” Two things here. Not much is more important than retaining students. Just ask schools in trouble or for that matter, what’s second term/semester enrollment look lie? Budget going to hold? Oh, attrition higher than projected? Catch any irony here anyone?

I will bet that any school that had its people out getting out and getting known will increase retention and reduce student/staff problems, stress and complaints. Anyone who wishes to take me up on this bet or learn how it can be done, click here and let me know. I’ll do what I can to help without any cost to you to help get it done as my Chrismachanukwansakah present to you.

Guaranteed Short Term Success
Obtain a list of all students who are on the cusp. (Born in the rising sign of anxiety and not sure about returning and the dropping out of school sign for all the astrologer types out there). Oh where to get the list?

Just go to your retention office….Don’t have one. Not good but you can email your retention officer and ask for…. No retention officer? Retention not an issue on your campus I guess. No drops? Alright, well then at least contact your student services office…Ahhhm downsized that a bit? Students not important on your campus? Then what the heck is?

Well, somehow get a list of students who are on the edge. Low grades. Late registration. No registration. Money not down for second semester. Advisors report they have been talking about leaving. And so on. Follow the instructions in the article Greatest Gift of All - Saving Enrollment. And then add to that.

For those students you couldn’t reach, send them a personal note. Use small engraved cards that one might use to invite someone to an affair. They can be obtained quickly at one of many office supply stores or you can even make them yourself. But the engraved, raised lettering of your name and title make for a more impressive impact.

All you need to handwrite inside is a short message such as

Missed you when I called. I do hope I will see you on campus nest semesters. It is students such as yourself that make this college what it is and give it and my work meaning. We depend on you. If I can help don’t hesitate to contact me. In fact, here is my direct email address. Hope to hear from you.

Or something hyperbolic like that. These statements work. They reach to emotion not intellect. It is emotion functioning at a limbic flee or fight level that makes the decision so appeal to it.

Students will respond. And when they show the card to their parents as most of them will if the parent didn’t already open it to see what was in it, the parents will become your allies in pushing the student to return. They will appreciate that you are intereste3d in their son or daughter. That is exactly what they wish to now right now. The card will also make the parents like you and the school whether you make close to a million or don’t even wear a bow tie.

And what’s more. You will be keeping a student on track to meet his or her goals. Plus you will feel better about what you do and the school. Just as writing this piece for you has snapped me out of my personal funk. That is an even greater set of rewards.

AcademicMAPS has been providing customer service, retention and research solutions to colleges, universities and career colleges in the US, Canada, and Europe as well as to businesses that seek to work with them since 1999. Clients range from small rural schools to major urban universities and corporations. Its services range from campus customer service audits; workshops, training, presentations, institutional studies and surveys to research on customer service and retention. AcademicMAPS prides itself on its record of success for its clients and students who are aided through the firm’s services. www.GreatServiceMatters.com 413.219.6939 info@GreatServiceMatters.com

College Tours to Nowhere Can be to Additional Enrollment

One of the most important parts of the enrollment sequence – the campus tour - is also one of the worst for many potential students and their parents. We have cited before that at least 12% of potential probable enrollees is lost as soon as the interested potential enrollees encounter the campus. The poor customer service of the tour is a major contributor. Not the only one by any means, but can be a major one.

Most colleges relegate the tours to a group of students who likely start out enthusiastic and interesting but soon devolve into the bored rote voices of students who have more important things than this #$%ing tour on their mind. This is especially so for students doing the tours to make minimum wage.

And the tour itself…. “Here is a typical classroom (yawn). A computer lab (Woopie! Computers in rows) This is a sample dorm room (which is almost always staged much better than any other room). This is our cafeteria (where the food sucks but I have to pretend it is fine), And on and on. How exciting and motivating.

The tone of an article in today’s (2/13/07) New York Times summarizes rather well.

College tours are pretty standard. A student walking backward will show you the library, the athletic center and a typical dorm room. Then there will be the requisite safety talk. The tour guide will point out blue boxes -- emergency call buttons for the campus police -- and extol the security systems in the residence halls. The spiel usually includes a bit about how, if a student feels uncomfortable walking alone at night on campus, he or she can simply call security for an escort.

Gee, wouldn’t that tour just light up your “gotta go there juices”? Not really since most any tour of one school could also be the tour of another. Sort of interchangeable like school catalogs and websites. No wonder the student tour guides lose their enthusiasm too even though taking students to the library might be their only visit too.

The idea is that a student will provide a more authentic voice and customer service that will seem genuine. Can’t be done when the tour is trying to please two audiences at once – parents and students. These are two very different audiences and one rule of customer service is that it must e focused correctly on the correct audience. And well, let’s face it. Students have different interests than their parents.

Students want to know they will get a good education but also have a good time. Parents walk through the tour focused on the ROI for their tuition dollars, yes the library because they believe students will use books rather than the web, safety issues and how much this all is going to cost me.

Okay, the solutions. First, have two tours and two tour guides. The potential students should go off with a student without the parents. That way they can see the aspects of the school they really want to see and ask real questions like “where do people really eat? Is one dining hall better than another or should I skip them entirely?” “What dorms are the ones you don’t want to get stuck in?” “What’s with web access for downloading on campus?” “If I rush a frat/sorority which is really which?” And so on. Take them to where students really hang out. Buy them a cup of coffee or the such and talk there, in their habitat; not the schools official one. They will feel more comfortable and will feel as if they have joined the school community already. And community is one thing this generation craves. They feel isolated by the society so they have a need to feel as if they can belong in some community. Sitting and talking in an environment they are familiar with sets them into a sense of community with the group around the table. We already suggested this sort of structure for admissions to increase enrollment in another posting.

Parents should go with an adult tour guide and be shown a classroom, a library tour, safety including a brief meeting with the head of security, an introduction to the financial aid office and director to set appointments, an quick introduction to an academic officer, a dean or a chair if you schedule by academic interests. They should meet the Dean/VP/Dir/ Head Honcho of student services too. They want a feeling that there are real people there to help them and their potential tuition provider.

If it is not possible to have two tours, then hire professional tour givers or train the admissions officers to give the tour. And I do mean train. Do not assume that because a person is an admissions representative, he or she can give a good tour. Simply walking with people and pointing out the classrooms like a flight attendant pointing out the emergency doors “two doors aft and two doors in the back…” is not pointing out the safety aspects of our Boeing College 387. Teach them how to fake enthusiasm if it is not there and then wonder why you keep a less than enthusiastic admissions rep. Train them how to get the tourists to talk more than the reps. Teach them questioning and listening as a touring technique.

Combine aspects of the student tour with the parents tour on a checklist and ask the tourists what they want to see. Let them decide or at least provide them the illusion they are deciding. Ever been on a guided tour and felt like you were really missing the good stuff on the “okay everyone, over here now!” Find out what interests them and not what you assume they want to see. Then show it to them.

Keep in mind that this is the ME generation. The I will Manage my Experience generation which by the way is more a state of mind than an age. From what music they load on their IPod, to designing their own home and Face Book pages, to Tivo-ing to watch 24 when they wish to rather than the time the network set, to most everything, they want to make the decisions on how their experiences will be set up and managed. They want control and community. They want to control/manage their experiences. So let them make some decisions and don’t assume you know what they want to see and experience.

Also when setting up the basic concept of the tour, you may want to get external guidance that knows what students really want on a tour. There are consultants who can help. Or get some focus groups pulled together from high school students and learn from them. Let them guide you so you can guide them on their tours of their school - if the tour doesn't lose them somewhere out by Classroom Building B.

Feel free to contact us at AcademicMAPS with any thoughts, questions or issues you'd like to discuss. We are always there to help. Or contact Neal directly at Nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com at 413.219.6939.

Newsletters Can Increase Morale, Customer Service and WTP

A comment came to me from the postings on bathrooms.

“I heard you talk at a recent conference and your message about getting the good news out to build a stockpile of morale and service with students and parents is one that certainly rang a bell. We have been trying to increase our “school pride” communications to students and parents as you recommended. We use the college website, the student portal and emails to get out the information but I am not sure anyone is noticing. Any recommendations on how to better serve our community on a limited budget?”

I am not sure there was a direct relationship between the question, bathrooms and my keynoting at a conference, but the concern is an important one so here is a response for everyone.

Students and their families do use technology more and more. But, we have found they do not use college websites once in school, seldom use the portals except when they must (registration, payments…) and skip over most school email as spam unless they know the sender by name or are interested in the sender. They assume emails from colleges usually have to do with bills, or something they have to do but don’t wish to, or will just be boring. So they delete them. They are intrusions into their on-line world.

By the way, they are right. School communications are almost always boring, overwritten in academicese and targeted to faculty, staff and administrators who may read them; not to students. And they just have too many words. Students see the world in metaphors and graphics. They don’t read it in words. And certainly not in the words we academics toss around. For those of us in academia, words are the coin of the realm and lord don’t we spend them freely. Students may go to our schools but they do not live there as we do.

So the solution. Printed Newsletters and Snail Mail

Well-designed, brightly colored, picture-filled, newsletters with brief headlines that tell it all and short, simply worded pieces mailed home and slipped under dorm doors. Showing up under the door first thing in the morning like a menu from a Chinese take-out or a US Today at a Hilton will get attention. They will be read, or at least scanned too as students often seek reading material as they head into the bathroom. We take the US News. They’ll take your newsletter into the bathroom with them. (AHHH, maybe that is the connection between the posting and the question!))

By mailing the home, parents will read them too.

Newsletters can put forward the feel good about your school messages that are so very important. They provide a very necessary customer service by informing readers about the school, its activities faculty and accomplishments. Newsletters are very important vehicles to build up and stockpile morale and pride in the school that will be needed when tuition goes up for example.

If done correctly, newsletters have built upon a wall of good news that can help block the full impact of bad news. If people feel good things are going on at the school they will feel they are getting a good ROI on their investment. The newsletter is also a prime customer service vehicle because it reaches out to the students and families. They do not have to seek.

Moreover, our studies have found that reading all the good things that are going on also increases WTP (willingness to pay). There is a direct correlation between WTP and perceived value of service and ROI.

When I was the president of a college, I worked with a PR firm to develop newsletters we could mail to the community to gain support for the school. We created a series of images based on billboards that told the whole story in one quick image. We also used the newsletter images and articles for ads as well as advertorials. The result? A top of mind increase of 21% and positive recall went up 24%. Equally important, the coomunity learned about what we were doing and supported the request for a new facility.

If you are like many schools and do not have the staff to write, photograph and produce newsletters, not a problem. Don’t hire someone to do the newsletters. Save the money to hire a faculty member instead. And don’t dump it on the short-handed PR staff person or some staffer who may not do a good job on it anyhow. It takes skill and experience to know how to create a good newsletter.

Outsource the newsletter and save time, money and the hassle. There are a couple good groups out there who could handle it all for you from creation though fulfillment at a cost that is not bad at all. If you need or want a recommendation, just ask. I’ll be glad to help out.