How good is the customer experience at your school?
Schools provide a service to their community. Like it or not, it is a competitive market. If parents are not happy with the service provided by the school, they may choose to vote with their feet. It doesn’t matter if it is a public or private school, parents who enrol their children at another school take with them resources and staffing allocations.
I am NOT saying that we need to keep parents ‘happy’ at ALL costs. I know there are some parents who are ‘high maintenance’ and take more than their share of attention. However, if numbers are declining, then this will impact on the school resourcing and staffing levels.
One place to consider is the level of customer service provided.
Consider this scenario. Your favourite celebrity moves into your area and is considering enrolling their children (or grandchildren) in your school (think Hollywood ‘A’ lister, sports superstar, music legend, TV host etc).
Their ‘people’ have contacted the school to make an appointment for the celebrity to visit your school next week.
Would you make any preparations?
Tidy the reception area?
Plan where you are going to take them?
Mulch the front garden?
Give staff a ‘heads up’?
Think about what you are going to wear?
Offer tea or coffee?
Bake your famous scones?
On the day of the visit, would you do anything differently?
Would your front office team roll out the welcome mat for Brad Pitt or Chris Hemsworth?
It would be nice to think that they would receive the same high level of service as anyone else but is that really true.
Would a teacher dress differently if Roger Federer or Serina Williams were visiting for parent-teacher interviews?
Geoff Ramm is an expert in customer service. He works with airlines, hotels and big retailers to help them raise the level of their customer service from great to incredible. He challenges them to provide CELEBRITY SERVICE. That slight lift in customer service and going the extra mile is what Ramm refers to as Celebrity Service.
Are parents blown away by the service that your school provides?