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!

COPIES AVAILABLE NOW

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

Two Ears and One Mouth

For the past five, AcademicMAPS has done a study into student desires and expectations and ours are never broken. Of course, we may be cheating since we have a better attitude and opinion of students from all the work we do with them for colleges and universities trying to improve their customer service and retention. We do something that too many at the schools themselves do not do – LISTEN.

In most of my training seminars and workshops I tell the audiences that people were given two ears and one mouth for a definite reason. To tell us to listen twice as much as we speak. Now, I realize that is not what we in academia do well. We are speakers; not listeners. After all, it would get very quiet in a classroom if faculty did not speak and lecture. But the same is not true for administrators. We forget that the job is no longer to lecture to others but to minister to their needs.

I would be remiss if I didn’t state that I learned that by acting like I had two mouths and one ear. I like many other administrators thought was an administrator because I knew things and was capable of getting them done. So my assumption was that what I had to say was important. More important than listening to others and learning from them. Took me a while but I finally learned the lesson. That was not just important to me as an administrator but now in life as a student and consultant of academic customer service.

If I hadn’t learn to use my ears I would have done what so many schools do and assume I know what students want and need. There would be no need to find out what students think or really want. I would already know. Even if I felt it was important to hear from students, I would create surveys that would be self-fulfilling prophecies for example. I’d already know the answers after all. But I did learn and so I and my entire group really ask and listen to students. And here is what we learned this year.

The study compares what 400 faculty and administrators think the 600 students we interviewed want and need versus what students said they actually want. The differences are illuminating.

What Faculty ad Administrators Think Students Want

5. More Parking

4. No reading assignments

3. Short classes

2. A minimum of homework

1. Good grades with little effort

And What the Students Said They Want

5. More parking

4 Safety in the parking lots and buildings

3. Instructors who know their names and staff/administrators who care

2. The correct course on time

1. An environment that encouraged and supported their learning.

The only area that there is correspondence of opinions is in the area of parking.
It seems that legs are becoming vestigial. No one wants to walk. In fact, behind the correspondence is a wish to be able to park right inside the classroom or office. Maybe we should all be building drive-ins so no one would have to even get out of their cars.

The differences belie some very interesting points. The faculty and administrators’ views of what students want indicates a rather negative attitude toward the students they are supposed to educate. It seems they bought the stereotypical belief that today’s students are under-prepared, lazy, coddled children who demand high grades. That should not surprise mist people since that is a rather prevalent belief on most campuses. It is usually expressed by the statement that “admissions needs to recruit better students.”

With a belief that the students are sub-par, it is no wonder that schools fail to meet their real needs. They don’t care to do so. If a person feels that another is below them or not up to their expectations, they will necessarily treat them in an inferior manner. This degraded attitude is a definite cause of weak customer service that leads to retention problems.

Review the thoughts the students presented. Taking them seriously and learning from them will help any school.

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.com413.219.6939 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

Hierarchy of Student Decision Making Step 5- Will I Like it?

This is the final installment on the Hierarchy of Student Decision Making.
Introduction How they Choose click here
Installment 2- Can I Get In? click here.
Installment 3 - Can I Afford it? click here
Installment 4 - Can I Graduate? click here
Installment 5 -Can I Get a Job click here



The Hierarchy of Student Decision-Making Step 5

Will I Like It?

When the four other hierarchical steps/decisions are satisfied in one or another way, the final enroll/stay question comes into play. This is a question that is less practical perhaps but becomes the primary concern for students once issues 1-4 are resolved. This decision question - Will I like it?

Colleges and universities almost always make the answer a rather simplistic statement of a fairly complex issue. Most schools boil the enjoy issue down to one of two words – satisfaction and/or enjoyment. And they then implement these through activities the institution provides such as events or spectator sports. The belief is that if students enjoy things, they will be satisfied. But what one person likes or enjoys may not be what another does. What a school does in the belief that “they will enjoy it” often, nah, usually misses the mark by a wide margin.

Satisfaction?
Is the student satisfied? As it was put so well so many years ago by the Rolling Stones “I can’t get no satisfaction” no matter what I try. Part of the reason is that no one knows what satisfaction really is. And when found, it is quite fleeting. What is satisfying to one is not necessarily satisfying to another. Could it be pleasure? But pleasure too seems so momentary and hedonistic. Like eating a good meal or even making love. When it is being eaten or being made it may be pleasurable but when done… It’s over. Satisfaction? Fleeting at best. Not what one wants to base a service program on but so many will settle for it because it sounds right and there are even surveys that can “measure” it. So maybe satisfaction is a good indicator of….

But to give it its due, satisfaction is an important concept in customer service. We even have it in one of the 15 Principles of Good Academic Customer Service. (Click here to request a copy) It’s number 12

12. Satisfaction is not enough and never the goal.

Why not?

I’ll give a personal example. I travel a great deal as I work with schools, colleges, universities and businesses that wish to improve their customer service and success. When I returned home after a ten day trip out, my wife who is a great cook made a fantastic meal. It was an Asian delight. Hot and sour soup. Green onion pancakes. Fried dumplings. Peking pancakes with meat topping and a vegetable stir fry. This was a meal that she had really putchkeyed over; cutting the vegetables, filling the dumplings, sautéing the meat, rolling out the dough and just putting a great deal of work, preparation and emotion into it.

At the end of the meal with the sink full of pots and pans that would need attention, she asked me “How was it? I smiled and said “quite satisfying”.

I have been eating out a bit more than I used to now. (BTW, this is an imagined experience that would be true if it ever happened. Even though I was a college president, even I am not that dumb)

Shouldn’t satisfaction be more long lasting than a great meal anyhow? Well, maybe it really is happiness which we know even less about?

In his book Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment (Henry Holt and Company; 2005) Gregory Berns writes:

Seeking satisfaction is distinct from chasing pleasure. Satisfaction is an emotion that captures the uniquely human need to impart meaning to one’s activities. When you are satisfied, you have found meaning, which I think we all agree is more enduring than pleasure or even happiness…(p.244)

Most schools believe that intercollegiate athletics are a draw; something that will retain students since they enjoy watching sports. But the studies do not support this in most schools. For the football and basketball powerhouses, there is some entertainment value certainly but when one drops below the top tier, the stands are often empty.

Let Them Eat Football
Living in Columbus, OH, it is clear that OSU football is the center of life. When there is a home game, the city is fully animated. It would appear that students love going to a football game. Look at how the Horseshoe fills up completely every game with mostly non-students. Football tickets are for the non-student population. Football is not for the students. It is for the alumni, donors, significant supporters and administrators. In fact, when OSU was playing Florida for the national championship, only 1000 of the 16,000 OSU tickets were set aside for students. Only band members were assured a ticket. The team may have built school pride I suppose but that eroded a bit after the loss. Moreover, there was no satisfaction at all with the team’s performance and loss in the championship. And the retention numbers were not affected. Football is not a true customer service for students or the campus community as the recent testimony before the Knight Commission indicates.

Sports can indeed add to the school’s image and help with recruitment. For instance, when I was Associate Provost at the University of Cincinnati, the basketball team made it into the Final Four. The University president, Joe Steger, said we could cut the marketing budget for the next year. The sport’s success would attract more applications. And he was correct. But it did not have any effect on the retention at the University. When I was the Chancellor of a three-campus career college, I increased the number of intercollegiate sports teams from 4 to 13. Why? Because students wanted to play collegiate sports. It increased enrollment by over 140 students a year. Athletics helped our intake enrollment but did not help us with retaining population in general just as the Bearcats in the Final Four did not help UC retention. Activities like athletics do not add to retention unless the students are on the team, the band, a cheerleader or somehow involved with the team or activity.

The Engaging Feeling of Activity
There is that word activity again. And it is worth stating many times for that is the key to student’s liking or not liking, enjoying or not enjoying their collegiate experience. It is the level of engagement a student feels that really counts, but not as defined by the NSSE which looks at academic engagement alone.

Whether a student will like being at a school and likely stay has to do with how well the individual feels the institution actively engages him or her. Actively here means involving him or her in the institution is a way that makes the student feel valued and significant. That engagement that makes someone feel valuable can be as basic and as very powerful as our Good Academic Customer Service Principle 1

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”

Just recall the Cheers TV show for a moment. People who came into the bar were made to feel as if they mattered; as if they had value. The simple act of welcoming Norm by calling out his name made him feel valued and important in the bar. Maybe nowhere else but there, he was NORM! The same is true for students. A school may not have everyone line up and shout out students’ names as they enter a building of course for two reasons. First, most people would feel dumb and awkward doing that. And two, we generally do not learn the names so we would get them wrong. The wrong name. Not a great welcome.

But it would be possible to at least recognize each student and employee/colleague. Not every character on Cheers received the Norm greeting but they all did get a “Hi” or Hello”, ‘Good to see yuh” and the such. Every student can and should be given a “Hi or Good Morning. How are you today?” as we pass them in the halls or on the campus. And then we should actually listen for the response and even react to it. (This is discussed in greater depth.) This simple activity creates engagement and leads to a person feeling a part of the university no matter what size it is. The more hellos from those identified with the college or university, the greater the active imprinting on the student. The result is that students become happier to be at the college and that improves their sense of liking it. They feel a valued part and thus are greatly inclined to stay where they feel appreciated and respected.

Those Who Can Engage - Do
As I have studied all levels and types of schools, another key retention factor comes through. Students who are actually active in the school through activities such as work-study, part-time jobs, band, athletics, newspaper, frats and sororities, volunteering, and clubs tend to like the college more than those who don’t. They are happier. These are all activities that provide the hello as well as an obligation and giving something. The responsibility is important since it ties the student to the activity and the activity to the school. It makes the activity important and in so doing makes the student more important. Even if the part-time job is sweeping a hall, that hall becomes “my hall.”

In fact, providing students part-time jobs to make tuition money is a better way to spend dollars than even scholarships. Scholarships may attract the student at first and help answer hierarchy concern 2 Can I afford it, but the beneficial effect of a scholarship is short-lived. Once in, it is passé. If a school gave some scholarship in the form of part-time work, and even better, part-time work that could relate to major, that investment is one in retention and happiness. Imagine a chem. major helping in a lab. A soc major assisting a sociology prof and so on. These activities would connect the students to the school much more than an initial handout.

In Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) (Hartcourt:2007) Tavris and Aronson discuss the virtuous circles that can create a spiral that starts with a deed that helps another or an organization and increases another’s attachment to the person or organization.

When people do a good deed…they will come to see the beneficiary of their generosity in a warmer light. Their cognition that they went out of their way to do a favor for this person is dissonant with any negative feelings they might have had about him. In effect, after doing the favor, they ask themselves: “Why would I do something nice for a jerk? Therefore , he’s not as big a jerk as I thought he was – as a matter of fact, he is a pretty nice guy who deserves a break.” (p.28)

Students who work at or participate in the university will also feel the institution is a positive place to be.

The truth of this can be seen and heard in what Jeffrey Docking, President of Adrian College in Michigan did to increase enrollment at the school. He added activities such as band, athletics and other co-curricular activities that would attract and retain students. Pres. Docking also did give every activity an enrollment goal which made it important for the coaches for instance to create a Cheers atmosphere in the Division III, no scholarships college. Without scholarships, the coaches had to use personal attachment and customer service to attract students so they could meet their goals. The result, a 91% increase in freshman enrollment that also translated into retention.

While some feared academic standards would suffer, the effect has been the opposite. The freshman class has a higher academic profile, and the percentage of freshmen who returned to second semester jumped from 77 to 93 -- the highest retention rate in the school's history.

Adrian is providing students the opportunity to engage in something they enjoy and the college at the same time. They get something out of playing sports, being in the band, writing the newspaper and so on. They invest in these activities. These activities also engage them in service to the activity and school thus increasing their ties to the college.

So, there is one customer service that colleges can provide the students that will also increase retention and happiness. That is the service of being active in the school and being able to serve it.

The First Step in the Hierarchy- Can I Get In?

This is part 2 of a 6 part discussion on the Hierarchy of Student Decision-Making

The first issue Can I Get In? is of course the most primary and pragmatic of the concerns. After all, if a student can’t gain acceptance to a school, all the other issues are moot. If they cannot be admitted they never have to worry at all about whether they can pay for it or if they will be able to graduate from the school. Not be admitted generally answers these questions by making them rather moot. Therefore, students put the most effort into choosing schools they believe they can gain entry into.

This does not mean they do not attempt to get into schools for which they know are long shots because if they do somehow get into a “selective college” they have still answered the question. In fact, if they are accepted into a school that was a “stretch” they feel better about their initial acceptance.

But they are also immediately thrown into an at-risk situation because they may believe they could be able to succeed and graduate, but the school may actually be less sure. Too many schools accept students who are marginal so they can assure they have the “right number” of students to start the year and revenue stream. These schools may partially delude themselves into believing they are providing a chance to the student but too very often the acceptance is to meet less altruistic goals. Keep in mind that colleges build what they believe may be the annual attrition percentage into the budget. If it is planned for then that is an “acceptable attrition number”. It may not be as acceptable to the students who either fail or decide that this college was not for them. But let’s keep in mind the budgetary needs of the school even if they could not be compatible with the financial condition of a marginal student.

As you might have guessed from the minor irony above, not only is selling the wrong school to the wrong student poor customer service, it is ethically challenged. Admitting students who really are marginal is neither fair to the students nor the school. Clearly the students who are accepted into the wrong school and drop out because of bad fit are cheated. The have wasted money, time and a more importantly, a large part of their self-confidence and emotional investment.

The school also loses. Sure, it loses money but it also is cheated out of its ability to fulfill a section of its mission. It has defaulted on its chance to improve on someone’s life and future. The college have lost the ability to make a difference in the future not just of a person but the society and culture.

So, perhaps schools should be certain that they use a variation of the primary question to assure they provide appropriate customer service to its clients, students and itself. That question that should be answered honestly.

1. Should this student get in to begin with?
   

Is an enrollment that important? Should it be?

Keep in mind that a rather steady and strongly correct argument I have been making is that retention has power. Retain more students and the admission numbers can actually become less important. Retention reduces the need to replace drops which is a major factor in the admission’s quota. Simply put, if admissions does not have to replace as many emptied slots, they and the school will have fewer students required to come in.

For the beginning installment of Hierarchy of Student Decision-Making clck here

The Hierarchy Of Student Decisions Making- how they choose

Over the past two years, we have been interviewing students to listen and better understand what they seek from going to college. We also sought to hear what motivates them to make their decisions to choose a school or leave it.

There is much we learned from the 618 students. One of the things we came to understand is that there is a five step hierarchy of student concerns that guides most of their decision-making in choosing a school, then deciding to stay or leave. These steps in the hierarchy are governed primarily by some logical decision-making. The emotional aspects of fit and all seemed to be there I am sure but it did not come up except as a last aspect of the decision hierarchy when the other four preceding, or more important steps were answered in their minds.

The hierarchy takes the form of five questions students (and parents) think about when considering a college, university or career school to attend. Can I get in? Can I afford it? Can I graduate? Can I get a job? and Will I like it?

In some ways the questions parallel the organization of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need which starts at physiological concerns such as breathing, eating, drinking, procreating – all issues that are basic to just staying alive. Also as with Maslow simply because a question or need is fulfilled at a point in time does not mean a student will not regress down the hierarchy to return to a lower-level need. This will almost always occur for example when tuition, fees, housing, meal tickets and so on come due for payment. The need to focus on Can I afford it comes back until the question is answered.

As we can see in Maslow’s hierarchy, without being alive, none of the following higher level needs matter after all. If one is dead, it is hard to worry about anything else. And so it is with the Student Decision Hierarchy. They proceed from basic issues of “being alive in a decision process” such as getting accepted to the school. They then move from lower/basic considerations of necessity and immediacy to considerations of ROI, the future and even an issue of satisfaction. But, the question of a satisfying experience is the last issue for consideration by students. This placement suggests a parallel to Maslow’s category of “esteem” but maybe not yet self-actualization. Enjoying school can only be a concern after the very practical survival issues from gaining entrance to a job are addressed. After the basic and practical considerations are resolve allowing a student to worry about having a good time as a decision point.

So what does this say to us?

It says that students start from basic and practical considerations toward their college experience as a way to a means. Granted, not every single one perhaps. There are students who may go to college for the parties and the college experience or because their parents have told them they will go. Students in these groups may not deal with the issues of the hierarchy seriously but then they are usually not serious students and have a tendency to either do something academics refer to as flunk out or finally getting with the script. Those that are going to funk out because they really do not attend the college except to participate in its social life are seldom students we can affect positively no matter what we do. So we cannot focus too much effort on them but on the major cohorts of students who can be affected positively to stay at the school through customer service

To do so a significant part of customer service needs to focus on their hierarchical concerns and how they see college. They see it, as we already know from the annual CIRP UCLA Freshman Attitudes study as a means to an end, a job/career. For students, that end is quite practical just as the hierarchy shows the beginning decision-making is. At their core, students are practical about attending higher education. From start to finish, students go to college and will stay at a school if it can supply that objective of a job.

Sure they would like to enjoy the experience but they will endure if it means they can get that job. That is the major focus They wish to enjoy their time at college but they cannot do that until we serve their other more pressing concerns – paying for it, getting what they need to graduate and finally, an assurance they can get a job or get into a good grad school on the way to a career from their college experience.

Yet, though students are practical and career-focused in the drive to attend and stay at a school what we find is that most schools spend most of their time , money and effort attempting to affect the highest-level, lowest need concern in the hierarchy – enjoying school. From the first day of orientation, “you’ll love it here” is the focus when perhaps focusing more on paying for school in the future, graduation and careers is a better investment. It may be that when we concentrate too much on trying to make students enjoy their experience, we are not serving them as well as we could. Nor are we necessarily helping retention as we will discuss in the next posting which continues the discussion on the Hierarchy of Student Decision-Making.

The Hierarchy of Student Decisions appears to me to be a bit blurred. It if looks the same to you, please contact me at nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com and I will send you a clear JPEG of it. Course, I have been working all day at this laptop and my eyes may just be blurry and not the diagram.

Simple Customer Service Tips to Increase Retention of Students Who Hate Lines - THAT'S ALL OF THEM

As we do college customer service and retention audits, some common issues pop up. As well as some simple solutions. One problem we find at most every school that has lines for anything is...well, lines. Students hate them and you should too.

Colleges lose as much as 3% of enrollment from students having to wait in lines. You don’t like to stand in lines I don’t like to stand in lines. Students HATE to stand in a line. Unless it is to be part of some major historical event. Like tickets to the Stones. But paying a college tuition bill or registering for courses or adding/dropping a course…

But your school does not need to lose enrolled students to lines. In this case, we are talking physical lines as opposed to virtual lines caused by poorly designed web sites.

Here are a few customer service tips to help you retain students who would leave a line and never come back.

Appoint a customer service assurance person or two at the school. Provide these people both training and the authority to use that training. Place one or both of the service assurance people smack dab in the middle of any line. Have the person continually moving up and down the lines talking to students to assess your process, their progress and their level of frustration and/or readiness to bolt.

If the customer service assurance person notices a student who seems upset, the assurance person should go right up to him or her and try “Hi, I’m (name). Can I help you?” Next move the student away from the lines before the grumbling becomes viral. Let the student know that his/her place in line will be saved. “I want to help you and can do so better over here.”

Go to a quiet place, away from others and hear him or her out. Normally the issue will be having to wait in line. Agree. Then ask what he or she is trying to get done. If you can solve the problem, do it. If you cannot, let the student know you will see what you can do to help out. Then walk the student back to the line. Say “thank you for letting me help you. I’ll see what we can do to speed up the line” so others hear. That’s the message to get out.

By the way, if the student has an idea to get the line moving faster – try it.

Also have the assurance people act like an airline agent during busy travel periods. Review the paperwork students have with them to see if the documents are complete, the information required is there, and that they are in the correct line. Nothing ticks people off more than standing in the wrong long line!

An airline agent after talking with a traveler and ascertaining that the person is in the right area with the right paperwork may send that person to a digital kiosk to get a boarding pass and save time. In the same way, the customer service assurance should see if a student can complete his/her business by computer or college kiosk.

Or consider letting students whose paperwork is in order to step out of the line an drop the paperwork off to be processed later. Your clerical and administrators can enter the information when things quiet down and the lines end. Mail and email the acknowledgment that the paperwork is completed and entered. Also make sure that if there is a financial transaction, a receipt is sent.

“Yes. But what if the student is trying to register for courses and one of them is closed?”

Easy. Simple customer service answer. Call them as soon as possible. Offer them another section. Provide them an alternative. If that one won’t work, continue with the student until you both agree on a replacement. Closed sections are a major source for walkouts by the way. But, when you provide the service of making the decision for them, odds go way up that you will keep them.

Here’s a way to make the time go by faster in line. Turn the line into a “party”. Hand out candy. Provide free coffee or soft drinks. Pipe in some music. Not MUZAK stuff but music students actually listen to. Make it feel more pleasant than the drudgery of lines.

And, DO NOT FORGET THE WORKERS! Keep thanking them. Encourage them. See if they’d like some coffee, a coke, juice, cookies, whatever. Make sure they know you appreciate them and their work. If they are happy and feel appreciated, odds are better they’ll make students happier.

Serve Customers When They Are Hungry

Want a positive response from students?

Easy. FILL THEIR BELLIES.

We have found that colleges are like fast food restaurants in the minds of students. They are places they go to learn when they are hungry for knowledge.

When they are hungry. These are the key words. Not when the restaurant feels like serving but when the customers are hungry.

Sure we older academic folk still adhere to notions of breakfast, lunch and dinner. But then we love traditions and traditional structure.

Not so the students we seek to recruit and retain. Breakfast. Not time for that. Lunch. Gotta run. I’ll grab something. Family all gathered around the table for dinner. Ahhhhh, that Norman Rockwell picture will not be seen on SaturdayEveningPost.com.

And the old burgers with the ketchup, mustard and pickle sitting wrapped under the warmer? Nope. I want it my way not the way it is easiest for your production line and workers. Won’t do it my way? Someone else will and I will go there. I will think beyond the bun.

Yet oddly enough the product is basically the same. The thin, high fat, low nutrition burger in a bun or ground up, seasoned in a taco shell. Quality is not the issue as Mickey D found out a few years back when it tried to sell a low fat, more nutritional burger. Health? Certainly not. Just try to find a veggie burger even at B’King which tried to launch them a few years back.

“When I want it” is the issue. Have you noticed yet how the fast food places have expanded their hours to serve those burgers and fries when the customer is hungry? Fourth meal anyone? Two a.m. at the take-out window? Ready when they want it.

Why? Because they like long inconvenient hours for management and workers? No. Because that’s when they want to eat. If restaurants want to sell burgers they have to do so when the customer is hungry. Not simply when they feel they would like to serve.

Okay. A true example, observed a few months back while at a client college that is trying to increase its retention but will likely fail if it doesn’t recognize the time needs of its client students.

An adult student was talking to an advisor. Students could not register for courses without the okay of an advisor. The student explained that “my job is changing and I need a tech writing course as soon as possible.”

“No problem. We have an excellent one.”

“Great. When can I start?”

“Well, let me see. The next semester starts in June.”

“JUNE! No you don’t u8nderstand. I need the course now. I need to the course now. I need it for my new job. I can’t wait until June.”

“Well, I’m sorry but it’s too late for this semester. June is the earliest. We had to cut back on sections because of financial issues….” She said to his back as he walked out.

Where did he go? To another educational restaurant ten miles down the road that would serve him when he’s hungry.

Would you stay in a restaurant that said it decided to not serve lunch today co come back later for dinner? No. You’d find somewhere else that’ll serve you lunch now, when you are hungry. When you want it. And distance is not the question anymore as much as time is. If the commute is within 15 to twenty minutes, maybe up to half-an-hour and the place has the course when I want to be there… Give me the car keys.

An example. I taught in an executive MBA program that met all day, one weekend a month. Students drove over two hours to get there. Stayed overnight. Were in class all day. Gave up their weekends because the timing fit their schedule. It met their educational appetite.

Our campus customer audits have found college menus (i.e. course schedule and offerings) are not designed to meet student hunger at most schools. For instance, we offer the wrong courses at the wrong times. You can get an introductory appetizer in the fall in early morning but in the spring, the next course in the sequence is available for brunch and the student just has twenty minutes for lunch because other required course were scheduled in overlapping times. Or even worse, the first required course is offered in the fall but the second half of the required sequence is not even offered in the spring.

One thing we have realized is that if courses are not offered, students cannot sign up for them. And if they are hungry enough to learn and graduate, they will go elsewhere to get the course. Especially if that is one course that they will need to graduate.

So what to do? Here are some suggestions.

Learn more about your students’ educational eating habits. Find out when they may be hungry rather than simply when you might wish to serve. And you may even wish to find how long they feel they want to feed as well. It may surprise you.

Stagger the start of some basic courses like English composition. They do not have to all start on the same day. Try offering a start every two weeks with varying time commitments and class lengths that match student hungry times.

Schedule to the customer. People want education when they need it ad the hunger is there. Some colleges have realized this and schedule to need. They offer staggered starts throughout the semesters, condensed programs, variable formats, in class and on-line, fully digitized and hybrid. They are succeeding with their students, building market, enrollment and a reputation for great customer service that will lead to even greater success.

Study your offerings and schedule. Se if you can provide students an educational menu with the right choices in the correct order for proper nutrition and pleasure. And oh yuh – do not substitute candy for real leaning meat. Don’t weaken content in an attempt to say you are meeting student needs.

Oh yes, to those who shake their heads and say “learning is not like fast food. It takes time to develop and maintain quality. Anything less than a semester length in normal times will lack integrity.” Right! What about the three, four, five and six week summer courses we are offering to students to try and maintain some enrollment during the summer? If we can do it in the summer, why not all year round? And if the summer courses are not as good as “regular semester courses” why do we offer inferior education in the summer? Hypocrisy anyone?

Bottom line here – if you want a positive gut reaction. Schedule offerings to meet the customer’s hunger.

Taxonomical Issue 3 Can I Graduate? and What You Can do to Make the Answer YES

When a student finds resolution or answers to the first two questions in the taxonomy, he or she then has to face certain realities. Now is when taxonomy question 3 comes into play. “Can I graduate?”

During the can I get in and pay for it levels, there is an undying optimism. “Sure I can do okay here. I’ll just study harder and apply myself. This is college and I will buckle down and get to work.” Phrases well learned after being used after every high school break, midterms, finals, grades, and even a few botched tests. But the results are quite often the same as New Year’s resolutions – unused exercise equipment and unread text books.

Consider that most students have been told that “You won’t be able to get away with that in college.” Even if that is not necessarily true. You can often get away with much more. For example, attendance. Do you REQUIRE attendance? Likely not, so it is much easier for students to skip class and get on the road to failure. (In fact, not having an attendance policy is surely very poor customer service to students and faculty. But more on this later because it really is a big service issue.)

Students know their own adequacies and inadequacies. They know if they may have trouble. And since the goal of attending college is to graduate and get that certification, that ticket to a career, that degree, they will focus on whether or not they can make it. They will ask themselves “Can I graduate?” regularly.

They care about graduating. Just look at the joy on graduation day and all the folks they want to invite to see them walk across the stage and get that empty folder (Your degree will be mailed to you). That day is what most every other day is about for them. And if they ever get the feeling they may not be able to graduate from your school, they will leave it to find another they can graduate from.

You may not realize that because most schools don’t really focus on graduation. They, we, focus on enrolling them in the first place. What happens after that. Well that is up to the student. Sink or swim approach. You’re in college now. Schools spend so much time and money recruiting yet retention is not a big enough issue on most campuses.

I’ll bet your school is like that new pair of jeans or shoes you bought. You spent a long time searching for the right ones, tried it on, checked it out in the mirror, maybe even asked a fiend to add an opinion. Now that you got it home and worn the jeans or shoes, they have lost their importance. Shoes have gone unshined and the jeans washed whenever and folded up into a draw with others and you are now thinking about something new to go and seek out. The new almost always outweighs the interest in what we’ve got. That applies to the jeans, the shoes and surely to students at our schools.

Do you even have a director of retention whose job is to be responsible for retaining each and every student? If you have anything close to this, does he or she have a staff anywhere as large as the admissions staff? Your answers will quickly tell you if there is a commitment to retention or admissions.

Learn and Earn or Churn and Burn?

For most schools, life is a treadmill. Just keep running and lose calories? Not quite. More of churn admissions and burn enrollments. That’s our basic M.O. And it is a losing one too. Loss of students does equal loss of revenue, loss of morale, loss of integrity and loss of the chance to actually meet that mission statement so prominent in catalogues but not many other places I fear. Churn and burn is a loss not just for students but for schools. (If you’d like a copy of the article from University Business “Learn and Earn, not Churn and Burn”, just let me know at nealr@greatservicematters.com)

And graduation? Just a day to have a small committee arrange, get a speaker, pull out the academic robes and see if anyone else from the school shows up unless they have to.

But just because we don’t care all that much, does not take the concern away from students. This is especially true of neo-traditional students. Those students who used to e called non-traditional (adults, single parents, minorities, lower socio-economic students…) but have become sought after admits for schools to make their admission quotas. The neo-traditionals know that their cohorts graduate at much lower rates than the traditionals who came from better schools, families with an educational focus and money to at least obtain loans and be able to pay them off.

The March 23 Chronicle of Higher Education article "The Graduation Gap" states that

..students from low-income backgrounds are less likely to graduate from college than their wealthier peers. For college students from families with annual incomes of $25,000 or less, slightly one in four earns a bachelor’s degrees within six years…For students from families with annual incomes of $70,000 or more, that figure is 57% percent.

One in four. Wonder if students in the lower-income cohorts are concerned about their own chance to be in that 25%? You bet they are.

And the 57% from better economic backgrounds? Wonder if they…. Hey wait a minute! Only 57%. That means 43% of all students who start higher education do not get a degree? Do not graduate in six years? Sure some take longer but this means that a huge number of students just do not graduate. THEY DO NOT GRADUATE! NOT FROM YOUR SCHOOL? NOT FROM ANY SCHOOL?????

With those numbers in mind, do you start to see why question 3 is “Can I graduate?” And if the answer is “No” or Maybe not” can you also see that since graduation and the degree is why people attend and pay for college, students will quit or at least transfer to another school where they feel they may have a better chance to graduate?

If students do not believe you will help them answer their taxonomic question 3, you will lose them. Sink or swim is not a good retention or customer service position. Think and help them swim is a much better way to go for you and for them.

Focus on helping them succeed.

Not just in remedial courses freshman year but with help, assistance and attention to needs every year, every week and every day. They ask the question over and over again. Some every week, every day. Be there to help answer the question with assistance, with tutoring services that are important enough to make sure tutors know enough to really tutor. Students might be nice in class, but that does not necessarily make them good tutors.

I have a bet for anyone reading this. You name the stake. Here is the bet. I wager your school does not care enough about students graduating to either have enough tutors or to ever train them in how to tutor, to teach. If you do, let me hear about it. Consider also that most schools use "peer tutors" - a euphemism that means we use the cheapest labor we can find even if they may not know all that much more than the people they try to help. Peer tutors are other students, often from the same class! They may be bright enough in class but not smart enough to e able to find ways to explain and help the student in need. I mean let's face it, we have enough people with Ph D's in front of classes who do not know how to teach and they do have more education. Plus they have experienced more teaching so perhaps by some form of amoeba-like osmosis they picked up some techniques. But, why believe an under-educated peer/student with no teaching ability can do the trick for the weakest students. If tutoring is supposed to help retain students by supplying help to make them believe they can succeed, at least train the tutors. Give the students and the tutors a chance to be successful. Correspondingly, get some classroom professionals to do the tutoring and drop the peer idea. A rather small investment in professional tutors can reap very large revenue savings. One tutor at say $30,000 plus benefits who helps keep 20 students in school at 20 X tuition... You do the math.

Another Starting Place

Okay, so now where to start. Here it is. Give enough of a damn to require students actually attend all their classes. Make attendance obligatory. Make learning required. Drop the “right to fail” approach and replace it with a demand to succeed. And don’t wait until they are in “academic difficulty”. Waiting until they are in grade trouble is like watching a person who can’t swim go down three times and then trying to help when a good swimming lesson could have saved everyone some trouble.

Make students believe they can graduate and you will be there to help before the question becomes so prominent that the only true answer is “Don’t know.” If you wait, they will answer it for themselves, or you will and you will lose a student, they a chance at their dreams. And all of us the opportunity for our society to get stronger and better.