It takes a lot of energy to get through a school or working week. Every interaction parents and students have with your school defines their customer experience. It’s their perception — and assessment — of your brand promise to them.
Across Australia and the world, the education sector is keenly aware of the impact social, lifestyle and economic change can have. What we imagine, seek out and then respond to is important because it can endorse — or adjust — life as we know it.
Communication requires us to consider very carefully how we represent and express an organisation or cause to particular individuals and groups. At its best, communication is a conversation in multiple directions, that acknowledges and empathically respects people’s ideas, desires, demands, concerns or appreciation. Effective Customer Experience (CX) is always closely aligned to how we communicate because its purpose is to provide the customer with an opportunity to introduce themselves to us — and gives permission to deepen the conversation.
When we meet our customers for a conversation — such as in a meeting, short discussion or gently formal qualitative interview — we discover aspects of their lives they may have never articulated until now. We discover what it is like being them.
CX is an irresistible combination of psychology, sociology, emotional awareness, self-awareness, financial awareness, even national and global awareness. When you add environmental and social responsibility to the list, the influences become even more intricate and textured. These are precious, invaluable insights by any standard.
You may say: “Students are students, not customers. Parents are parents, not customers. It’s not really an ‘experience’ anyway, it’s an education.” As it relates to the educational sector, CX considers the educational experience that parents and students feel every day, every week, every month and every year that they attend your school. No matter when they start, how old they are, or when they leave, they are accepting or rejecting what you offer them — and you want to know why!
CX is an irresistible combination of psychology, sociology, emotional awareness, self-awareness, financial awareness, even national and global awareness.
How do we find out what they experience? Teachers guide learning, arrange excursions, encourage cooperation and participation, resolve problems and write reports. Parents stay informed via newsletters, apps, parent/teacher evenings, face-to-face meetings and talking to other parents. These are all highly valuable opportunities, but CX asks:
Are you fulfilling the reason parents (and their child/ren) joined your school in the first place? What keeps them there?
If the answer is positive — what is the frequency of that positive/yes feeling? If the answer is negative or supplied with hesitation — what is the frequency of that negative/no/disconnected feeling?
If there’s one thing you remember from this article, make it this: parents select a school because they want help raising their children in the best way they can. And they are willing to pay for it.
So, it follows that every time parents interact with their child, they wonder, “Is my son becoming an empowered young man? Is my daughter growing in the ways your school promised?” And why wouldn’t they?
Parents spend over 30 hours a week away from their child (at any stage of development). They are working, the child is studying and has sport and co-curricular activities during the week and on weekends. It’s unrelenting. No wonder they want reassurance, fast resolution to problems and real answers regarding their return on investment. Does it sound harsh? It isn’t. Schools and parents inevitably enter a relationship, and at the centre is their child. There will be emotional responses on both sides.
Authentic relationships take guts. Without students there is no school. Without parents, there are no students. They don’t run your organisation but, just as a government listens and leads a population, your school or college needs to do the same. Hospitals have patients. Hotels have guests. Airlines have passengers. Cafés have patrons. Schools have students.
If there’s one thing you remember from this article, make it this: parents select a school because they want help raising their children in the best way they can. And they are willing to pay for it.
It takes courage for a school to take some time to think like a student or put themselves in the place of a parent. It takes determination to talk to a student, a parent or a teacher and dare to listen to their answer as fully as possible. It takes a strong resolve to see both positive and negative feedback as an opportunity.
How do parents feel about the relationship they have with your school every day/month/week/year? That’s right — your educational, emotional, sporting and social community, the one you cultivate every day, in every interaction, online and in real life.
Increase (and encourage) the positives. Decrease (or eliminate) the negatives. Genuine CX insights will show you how.
Andrew Sculthorpe, aka Scully, is the Managing Partner of imageseven. With a wealth of experience gained in both the UK and Australia, he is perfectly positioned to deliver insights that create a world-class impact for schools and their Heads. imageseven.com.au
