Making the Glow of Move In Day Last

Students are starting to arrive on campus. And most every college is doing all it can to make the arrival day welcome big and hearty. Presidents are walking around greeting students and parents. A few may even help carry something in. Administrators are on hand doing the same. At some schools faculty are around to help out too. And of course, student ambassadors are everywhere helping, pointing, guiding and smiling to try and make the move in easier and friendly. Great start. Sort of like drop off day at summer camp feeling.

Too bad it is like Tom Lehrer’s line in his song National Brotherhood Week. It’s only for a week so have no fear. Be grateful it doesn’t last all year. If he were singing about move in, it would be Thank god it only lasts a day and not all year. As it should!

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Yup, as the last parents drive away, their tears drying, it all ends. The president goes back to his or her office. Administrators too. Now faculty will be available for classes and help when needed. The student ambassadors wash their polo or tee shirts and put them in a bureau to be pulled out at the next organized move in or orientation day. But the excitement and happy welcome end.

Dumb move.

The days after move in day are some of the most important there are to build retention. They are the days the real anxiety builds. When the real work of college starts for students. When they need the most help. Where is building….? Where do I go to….? Who is the one to see for…..? How do I…..? My laptop needs and where ….? Do I need to….? And so and on.

But this is when we have decided to let the news students sink or swim; if they can figure out where the pool is on campus and how to get a locker. And what do I need to bring to use it and what are the hours and….and…. The jolly helpful crew is only out there on the day we have labeled move in. That is the easiest day of all. It is just schlepping in stuff, material stuff. Now when the new students need to set up the psychological stuff, we are not there to help enough. And it is the emotional concerns that will be coming into play when the reality of I am here and where is that and will I fit in and like this place an did I choose the right place. I feel so all alone and I’m sharing a room with some people I don’t know and one is really strange and I’ll have to dress and undress in front of strangers and ….starts to disrupt the new students.

This is when a little irritation such showing up late for the first class at 8:00 am can become the first step on dropping out because I didn’t know how to get to the humanities lecture hall building and the signs don’t help because they just give me names of the buildings so the professor used me as an object lesson about never coming late to his class. And I so felt like a jerk and wanted to just get out of there. And then I wasn’t on his class list so he sent me to the registrars and where that is was a real mystery and there was no one who I could ask to help me out so I waited until later and missed the whole class. I am not sure I made the right choice. I feel so screwed up here.

And all was needed were some of those same administrators and ambassadors, and yes the president, out and about with tee shirts that say “ASK ME AND I’LL HELP” to assist new students. The administrators and the president really do not have any work more important than helping students. Yes, that is right. Students are their business. Their core business. They need to be seen and recognized as a positive friendly force. The ambassadors will be upper class students, so they will not be dumb enough to schedule anything too early in the morning. Besides, all one needs to do is make a schedule so the campus is covered.

There should be someone at the entrance/exit of every dorm; at every parking lot walkway and at every intersection on campus with some in front of various administration buildings to let new students know if they are at the right place. On the first two days of classes, there should be a full effort with everyone out there to help students. This way you’ll be sure to get both the Monday-Wednesday and the Tuesday-Thursday class schedules.

After the first two days, the ambassadors should still be at intersections and paths from the parking lots just to handle any issues or questions that might come up during the first two weeks. After that, set up a Q+A area in the main student building or a main lobby to continue helping any students and any visitors. And, SMILE, SMILE, SMILE.

And to help you smile and learn some more chemistry, here is a link to Tom Lehrer’s Elements Song. It is certainly worth it and will make you smile.

Kissing the Year Off Right
And here’s an idea for the first days of classes that will make that first day a sweeter and memorable occasion. It is taken from an ancient Jewish tradition for students on their first day of studying. The day the youngster is to go off to school for the first time, the parents take a prayer book and drop honey on it. It is given to the student who then licks the honey off symbolizing the sweetness of learning.

If possible, have faculty do the following in class, but if not have student ambassadors or others greet students at the doors to classes. They greet the new students with a welcome and give each a Hershey’s Kiss or other small candy to start the year right. It sounds corny and it is. But it is also very effective in creating that set of feelings that this school is a (excuse me) sweet place. I have never heard from any school that did this that students were anything than very happy for that early morning kiss.

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

Required Attendance is Good Customer Service and Smart Retention Policy

Customer service is in no way equal to pandering to students. Though I often hear academics, mainly faculty say that they believe customer service will just mean giving students easy grades, that is very far from what real service is. In fact, giving easy grades would clearly be a disservice to students, to the school and to the integrity of everyone. And it would be a major offense to clients and customer service.

Clients/students come to us to be prepared for a future job and career. That requires us to give them the best service we can to fulfill our obligation. Not to lie or mislead our students. Just as we would never knowingly provide students incorrect information, knowledge or skills, neither should we provide them education, training or grades they do not require nor deserve.

I’ll say it again, customer service is not pandering or simply smiling or pretending the customer is always right. As we have already discussed – they aren’t. And here is another example of when they are wrong and we can be too depending on ho we do things.

Considering that students go to school to “become something” and get a job, part of the service we need to provide them is not just knowledge and skill training but also” job prep”. Yes, preparing them to not just get a job but keep it. That is an important service. A very important service. And humanities folk, no job prep does not go against the mission and values of the liberal arts. Simply realize your goals are to interest and prepare students to enter liberal arts areas and activities like teaching and the same rules will apply for them in their work as it will Oh by the way, most of your liberal arts majors will go into jobs like sales and entry-level management that will have the same or similar requirements for those that majored in business, engineering, medicine or any other endeavor. And if they go on for a master’s or even a PhD, they will have requirements that come with their “job” such as assignments, due dates, appointments they have to be at and the such.

So what is involved with job prep? Teaching students to be responsible employees so they can keep the jobs they get. To begin with we review the important quote of that major corporate guru W. Allan. “97% of life is showing up”. And that is a keen summary of a major issue for employers but they also add “on time.”

The first lesson on job prep, which will also have very strong positive impact on retention is having students learn to show up for class. That’s right! Attendance.

If your school does not have an attendance policy, it is making a big mistake. First, it is failing in providing a specifically important job skill. Employers do not leave it up tp employees to decide if they want to come to work or not. It is not a personal choice. It is a work requirement. If an employee misses a day or two of work without valid reason, he or she doesn’t simply lose half a grade. He or she loses a job!

So to really serve our clients we should require attendance to help prepare them for life. And as a wonderful by-rpoudct of providing this customer service is an increase in retention.

When a school or a faculty member tells students it is not necessary to attend classes that is also a statement that what goes on in class has no value. If a student can pass a course without being in class to hear the lectures, see how the problems are solved, learn from the faculty member, that is a strong pronouncement the classes and faculty member have nothing to offer. Nothing. Besides what does it say to students when a faculty member says you can pass y course without coming to class? It says I have nothing to offer you. I can be replaced by the text books. And if you can pass the course without my help, you certainly do not need me. I have no education value to you. Wow, what self-respecting faculty member, what professional would want to stand before a room of clients and offer up that? Yet, professors do that regularly. How self-insulting.

Students need to value their education, learning, skill attainment and job prep. But when we do not value classroom learning and indicate they are without value and a waste of time. By extension, the whole college can be without value. If that is so then why stay?

Granted, a lack of an attendance policy is not the only factor for a person to drop out or transfer from a school. But it is one of the most significant contributors for many. How do I know? Every school that we have worked with to implement an attendance policy has increased retention the semester the policy was put in place.

Customer Friendly - The College-Way

I often get calls or emails asking about good books to read on customer service. Many people ask about ones by or about Disney, Nordstrom’s, Starbucks, Southwest, and some by Ken Blanchard and company. These are all good to interesting books. You can pick up some ideas from any of them. I have read most of them as I look for new knowledge I can apply to our unique world.

But they do not really talk to our issues in higher education or post-secondary. These are all focused on retail and commercial services usually in entertainment or food areas. They are all part of the company’s branding control campaign as well. They are promoting the image that the company is great on customer service which is true for some, may have been true for others and just a marketing illusion well sold for others. Keep in mind that if you tell customers we are customer friendly, they may believe it and buy from you.

Isn’t that the basic marketing approach of most schools by the way? No, not customer service. Schools do not talk about that. They just claim things like “small classes, caring faculty”. By the way, small can run anywhere from maybe 25 to 250 in the small amphitheater and no student is over 7 feet tall. If the school can make the language part of its language, can present it often enough in its marketing, the view book and admission presentations, they believe they can create an image that will “sell” the school best. Just like businesses try to manage their impression.

A quick example. I was in a Starbucks the other day. One of my favorite places for coffee and nosh plus observing our students in their natural habitat. College is an unnatural environment really. I was standing in line so I could order and stand in another line. Always seems to be a line. Hmmm, people hate lines yet we all know Starbucks is high on the customer service list. Oh well, the people there are invariably friendly and the coffee usually good. In any case, the young woman behind the counter announced she could help the next “guest”. Me. So I stepped forward and asked if I were a guest. She assured me I was so I ordered and then she asked for money. “You want me to pay? But I am a guest. I never ask my guests to pay for their drinks or meals at my place. That’s what you ask of a customer. To pay.”

She was bewildered of course but I helped her out. “Okay, here is my credit card but I am not a guest. Guests don’t pay. I don’t mind being a customer by the way so why. I came in here expecting to pay. Why do you have to call me a guest?”

She explained that it was a new company initiative to improve customer service and improve branding of the image of Starbucks as being customer friendly. Not that they actually need to do that. I would suggest they seem to have figured out that if they can please customers with good coffee and make-believe drinks plus friendly servers, they will keep customers and build their business. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if this approach works for them.

Could it work in higher education? Outside of the fact that they are notoriously cheap with coffee, it could. If schools actually provide good service and not just lip service.

Let me give you a suggestion to try to put all the stuff above into action. Not with words, but action. And an action that will not just put action to words but make students believe you on day one, or maybe two.

During registration, or anytime when students new students stand in that long line have a coffee station there. Let students get out of line to get a cup of coffee and then take it back with them. Better still, build off of what I found at North Georgia Technical College as students waited to meet with financial aid advisors. There, students took a number to meet with an advisor. They could wait in one of number of rows of chairs set up for them to wait for their number to be called. What if the school had a coffee bar for them to get a cup of coffee, tea, soda or juice students could get up and grab to keep them company while they wait. Better yet, what if they had tables, couches and comfortable chairs? Now, that’d say guest. (Cue the Beauty and the Beast.)

Actually, as you can see the solution is simple. The school is your home. You’ve invited these guests in. Just show them the treatment you would provide to any invited guest. And don’t get all hung up over the small amount of cost involved. It is absolutely insignificant. Simply place the cost of some beverages and snacks against lost tuition when a student gets fed up waiting in lines and being ignored. I mean a couple hundred dollars against what…anywhere from a few thousand to $25,000-plus when just one student gives up. Do not overlook the reality that that having to wait for anything is in the top ten “things I hate” of students. Students will actually walk out if they feel they are waiting too long. Or they may not leave right then and there, but the “this place does not give a damn about me” can certainly start in a slow moving line.

Think about where you can make students feel like real guests who wish to stay?

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.

Beckfield College Selects Leadwise to Personalize and Increase Enrollments

Beckfield College (KY) has chosen Leadwise, the award and enrollment winning web-based generator of self-qualified enrollment leads and personalized marketing to power its website. “There isn’t anything out there that can speak so personally to potential students while providing us self-qualified leads and real-time marketing information so we can focus our marketing dollars better,” said Dr. Ronald Swanson, President of Beckfield.

Leadwise matches student interests from a questionnaire to a college’s catalogue and marketing materials to generate a fully personalized College Plan focused specifically on that student’s interests and goals. Leadwise simultaneously takes the details the student enters and sends it to the admissions department as a self-qualified lead in script form. The individual responses to the questionnaire are compiled in a Marketing Management Data Base to inform marketing decisions based on what potential students want and are viewing.

Leadwise personalizes college catalogues and materials while also generating informed leads that convert to enrollments. The program digitizes college catalogues and marketing materials so that when students complete a brief questionnaire on their background, goals and interests, a fully personalized, on-line “college plan” is created and sent back to the student’s computer. The questionnaires include basic information such as name, etc but also obtains information on radio, magazine, movie preferences through higher tech information like pod casting or mobile webs. The pages all use the student’s name combined only with that information he or she wants. Each section is also personalized to the college using the pictures and welcomes from administrators, faculty and others.

Leadwise also generates a self-qualified lead in the form of “sales sheet” from the questionnaire providing the details an admissions representative needs to help the student decide to enroll at the school.. The program also adds the individual details from each student into a data base that the school can use to inform its marketing decisions.

Leadwise™ is a flexible system that is customized and personalized for each school to integrate it into the college’s visual identity. It has been shown to increase applications and interest in enrolling by 14% and has cut admission’s representative time by as much as 34%. This allows admission representatives more time to follow up to increase show rate or enroll more students.

The system was developed by AcademicMAPS and COREdataCenter in New York. Jerry Alloca is the award winning president of CORE and wrote the technical software for Leadwise™ in partnership with Neal Raisman, president of AcademicMAPS. For information on Leadwise, contact AcademicMAPS or Jerry Alloca at Core Data

Service Equity and Faculty Classroom Pleasure at Cheers University

Know Their Name

A basic aspect of customer service in colleges is the creation of service equity between the customer and the school, its personnel and certainly the faculty. Service equity then resides in the perception that the college and faculty put as much into the relationship as an indidudal styudent does. If students perceive a level of service equity in the way they and the faculty interrelate such as through the“give a name/get a name” technique" (a basic customer service tactic) there is a corresponding incrase in willingness to learn (WTL).

Faculty often present their names in large, hard to read chalk letters the first day of classso students can see they are open and friendly, “Hi call me Dr. Professor Fred, PhD” but as often make little effort to learn the students’ names. Not much equity in that.

Learn who they are. If your memory for names is not all that great, set up a seating chart. It’s okay. You can even tell students you are doing this so you can learn their names because they are important individuals. And will get rid of the chart as soon as you do so. It’s also okay to admit your memory for names is not as great but it is important that you get to know each of them as an individual. Look at the list it to call on students by name. First names! Not last unless you teach at a British boarding school in the 1920's.

Names create engagement and shared sense of value. The result will be that students will follow professors’ assignments, rules and lectures more fully. i.e. they engage. Faculty will have students who are more involved in class, compliant with their instructions and requirements, and engaged if faculty get to know their names. It shows not just sharing but respect.h

Be Glad They Came

Make the students feel as if you want to teach them; as if you are happy they came to your class. And indeed all faculty should be. After all though the dumb adage goes “This would be a great place to work if it weren’t for the students” there would not be a college if there were no students. It should be seen as an honor for students to choose your class or as an almost equal honor if they are assigned. You’ve been given the chance to really make a difference in the rlives through your teaching. If a faculty member does not feel this honor, this opportunity to help students grow and become stronger intellectually and personally, one should find out what the heck he or she is doing teaching.

Faculty should develop and show a recognition that the students are valued and important. Students should never feel as if the faculty member looks down on them. The mean, austere, demeaningly dictatorial teacher might be good for movies but not for classroooms. Students want to feel as if the faculty wants to reach them and will work as hard as they with respect given and expected. In more technical terms. they expect and demand a sense of service equity.

If faculty feel they should have better students in their classes to teach, they have it wrong. The goal should be to do all you can to make the students faculty teach in their classes better. That is really the job anyhow. Learn to like the students you have and enjoy life more. The students will learn more and maybe even look forard to going to classes.

Customer Service, Happier Teachers and Student Learning - Part 2

The customer service/willigness to learn contention is supported not only by the Taffee Tanimotos of academia whose customer service engages students by providing extra service in learning and success, as well as the results reported from colleges that have engaged faculty in customer service training. There are other formal academic studies and reports that help forward the case. Two fairly recent studies such as the 2006 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and another by Hombury, Koschate and Hoyer in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Marketing on customer service and WTP (willingness to pay) alongside consideration of interactional equity theory support our conmtentions with their resaerch.

In the 2006 NSSE Director’s Report (P10) report,the following is stated

"For years, researchers have pointed to involvement in educationally purposeful activities as the gateway to desired outcomes of college. Students who engage more frequently in educationally effective practices get better grades, are more satisfied, and are more likely to persist. Two decades ago, this literature prompted Chickering, Gamson, and their colleagues to compile a list of “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” which are reflected in many NSSE survey items. Recent findings from independent studies have corroborated the relationships between engagement and indicators of student success in college such as grades and persistence with undergraduates in different types of institutional settings. These studies also show that while engagement is positively linked to desired outcomes for all types of students, historically underserved students tend to benefit more than majority students."

We have no disagreement with this observation. Instead we add that the same is true for faculty when they become engaged with their students. Moreover, we add that though there is no disagreeemnt with the NSSE panel's recommendations of curricula and pedagogy they feel would add to engagement, true engagement comes from appropriate customer services to students.

The 15 Principles of Good Customer Service in Higher Education begins with:

EVERY STUDENT WANTS

TO ATTEND

CHEERS UNIVERSITY

AND EVERY

EMPLOYEE WANTS

TO WORK THERE!

“where everybody knows your name

and they’re awfully glad you came”

This is the type of engagement that must be created before pedagogical or curricula engagement can be achieved. If students feel that no one knows their name, i.e. no one cares about them, they will not engage with curriculum or pegagogy.

If you would like a copy of the 15 Principles of Good Customer Service in Higher Education, click here to request.