As we head full steam into the summer months, many of you will (or should) find time to unplug and recharge after a grueling 2023-2024 school year. You may find yourself on a relaxing family vacation or a solo trip to the mountains, lake or coast. Wherever it is you go or whatever it is you do to recharge, I encourage you to weave in time to reflect about experiences you and/or your team has had in the past year. And, even more so, seek to draw parallels to experiences you have this summer that can help to reframe how you think about your customers – your employees, your students and their families, community members, and even new families relocating to your school community in the year ahead.
Two words will shape this blog: service and experience. In the context of customer service and customer experience. At face value, you may not see a difference between the two as often they are used as synonyms. However, let’s peel back a few layers.
Customer service is transactional. This is a single occurrence when the customer seeks support, resources, or needs help. In short, this is part of the customer’s experience. Meanwhile, the customer experience is holistic and refers to the overall all encompassing experience that a customer feels about your school, your district, your staff, and how they are emotionally connected.
In schools, it’s no longer enough to be the system that has the best academics, arts, or athletics programs. We are in a season where how we make people feel matters. Like it or not, education is a service industry and we are in the business of serving others whether that be students, employees, community members, or prospective families. In this, satisfying customer needs becomes the baseline measurement from which we grow. It’s in the moments when we develop an emotional connection – an experience – that loyalty is developed and ambassadors are created for your school system.
Always look for moments that are ripe for meaningful experiences. It’s not rocket science. Just try to give your customers more than they expect. Just show them a little more care and compassion. And, in today’s often politically-charged and divisive world, show that you have empathy. Beyond the superintendency, imagine for a moment if each and every employee in your school system did this each day. Give your employees the autonomy and resources to consistently exceed customer expectations in each engagement – conferences, unsolicited “atta boy” notes home, personal phone calls for good behavior or grades, and the like. Demonstrate that you listen and care to concerns, requests, and comments.
A few examples of turning the mundane service into meaningful and impactful experiences:
- Listen, Understand and Respond: We get too busy doing the work and operational tasks that we forget to pay attention to the underlying needs. Listen to understand what they are saying and not saying. For example, a new family to your community has requested to visit a school. Aside from the spiel about the school itself, be inquisitive about the family’s relocation. Be willing to make the visit to the school memorable by including student ambassadors to talk and interact with the children while the parents take the deeper dive into the nuts and bolts of academics, curriculum, and extracurriculars.
- Personalize the Experience: Be intentional to make each engagement unique. Use information you have learned to personalize their experience. Get to know them and seek to build a relationship during each transaction. Using the new family to your school experience, be sure to use their names in conversation. And, to use a Ted Lasso reference, be curious. Be curious as to why they’re interested in your school and your community. And we know, strong relationships require two-way communication so be open to your experience living and working in the community. If appropriate, share about raising children in the community. Make a human connection.
- Surprise and Delight: Do the unexpected, no matter how small, to leave a lasting impression. As you’ve learned more about the family and the children, ask yourself how you can further personalize the experience. Is there a swag box filled with school or district items that the children can pick from at the end of the visit? Or, are you able to provide complimentary tickets to the school performance or game that week?
Doing this can have transformative effects on your school and create a passionate following that will not be rivaled by neighboring systems. In the year ahead, this is the secret to unleashing your school system’s super power.
Your School Spirit PR team is here to help develop and lead your customer engagement strategy through our hands-on strategic planning workshops. Don’t miss out; we want to help you wave more banners in 2024-2025. Book a Huddle today.
