Great Service Matters

The Best Information Center on Any College Campus

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Mon, 07 May 2018 21:11:00 +0000

David DeCenzo, the President of Coastal Carolina University, wanted to improve customer service on the campus. He knew how important academic customer service is to enrollment and the University. President DeCenzo wanted to provide faster, friendlier and more accurate help for students. He was intrigued by the idea of a concierge service to help students and turned to newly hired April Betsch to explore the idea.

April ran with it. She set up focus groups with students to explore the concierge concept. She focused on one very pertinent question. “What frustrates you most about Coastal?” The responses surprised her. One of the items that came up often was the campus map. It was very frustrating for students especially new ones trying to find their way around because the map listed buildings by their names while their schedules listed them by an abbreviation. They could not find their way to classes easily. Campus maps by the way are often bad because they are created by people who already know their way around campus as was Coastal’s. April added abbreviations (and I would suggest that she and others add functions within the buildings, i.e. billing, classroom, financial aid, etc, to further help).

She also heard a problem common at most universities, especially ones growing quickly as Coastal was under Pres. DeCenzo. Communication was a major issue. Things were happening, events taking place, locations changing and students were not being informed that well about these and other issues on campus. Students were also getting “the shuffle” as they tried to get answers to issues. April felt that she needed to address communications as a major service issue so she came up with the idea of a “super communication’s desk” rather than a concierge and the President supported her idea.

CHANT411 was born (CHANT is short for the school’s mascot Chanticleer).

This desk was going to be able to answer all student questions and meet all student inquiries no matter what it was from a class location to a movie’s schedule to where is…. and what is…..and...? And CHANT411 does all this and more so well that it is used extensively by the Coastal community, not just by students.

Faculty and staff call it to get answers to students’ and their own questions too. It has even has received calls from other university students seeking help. Like the time there was a snowstorm that closed Western Carolina University. Students from WCU could not get information at their own school to they contacted CHANT411 to see if their local Starbucks was still open. The person at CHANT411 did some investigating, found out it was, and called the students at WCU back to let them know.

CHANT 411 takes both phone calls and even more often, text message issues and questions. In fact, 92% of the total number of questions it has received have been via text message.

Since its start five years ago when CHANT411 received 8,601 calls, texts and questions, the volume of calls and texts has grown. In the second year of operation, the desk received a 162% increase to 22,548 and last year its volume grew to 57,382. Daily this year the desk receives 150-200 calls or texts on an average day but that numbers grows precipitously at the start of a semester when it receives questions from “Can I bring xyz to my dorm room”, to locations on campus, events, financial aid concerns among other issues like “how do I reach Prof..z and what are his office hours?”, even “I heard there is sis there a shuttle to the airport for students. Is this true?” (BTW, there is a shuttle at the beginning of a semester as there is during major school breaks to make it easier for students). There is no question CHANT411 does not get or won’t answer.

CHANT411 has a staff of 14 students and 1 professional. The desk is held down by two students with a third added during peak periods. These students are chosen through a fairly rigorous hiring process. Potential receptionists must display excellent critical thinking skills. They must know how to listen well and ask the right question to narrow the caller’s issues down to the actual critical concern. They must know how to tactfully drill down to focus the caller and get to the nub of the issue rather than respond too quickly. They must also have the persistence to gig through and get the correct information and answer for the student the first time. This can require many calls to get the correct response. Giving an incorrect one is simply not acceptable. They must also have excellent spoken and written grammar and spelling skills. Coastal Carolina does not want to be represented by someone who will not provide it a good representation.

And finally, and almost most importantly, they must be passionate about Coastal Carolina University and helping others.

Each question and response is recorded and entered into the system for review and monitoring by the staff’s one. non-student, professional. He checks each response to assure it is accurate. If it might be not quite correct, the information specialist needs to get in touch with the caller and provide the corrected information. This by the way does not happen often but “CHANT411 does not want to misdirect or not give fully accurate information so each response is nitpicked” according to Betsch.

To experience CHANT411 for myself, I called on a Saturday at 6:00 p.m. I asked a question that I thought might be from left field but the information specialist picked it right up and answered it completely and quite politely. I asked if the University had any programs for seniors. She told me about the OLLI (Osher Life Long Learning program she also gave me its phone number and politely cautioned that I should wait to call on Monday after 8:30 because they were not open until then. She then went on to assure that I was completely satisfied with the information which I was.

“The main thing CHANT411 has done for Coastal Carolina, its students, staff, faculty and anyone who calls in is take the I don’t know out of Coastal” said Betsch. And I fully concur. CHANT 411 is the best student information center I have found on any campus.

Well done Coastal Carolina University which, by the way, is a national leader in academic customer service.

Become a leader in service excellence and increase your retention and graduation rates, call us today at NRaisman & Associates at 413.219/6939 or at NealR@GreatServiceMatters.com. Don't wait to increase service excellence and retention. Do it NOW.

Call Backs - The Right Way to Get Back to Students

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 18:30:00 +0000

There is actually something worse than delivering poor or weak service. And that is promising great service and then not delivering. Or mollifying the customer by telling him or her you’ll look into the situation, will get it resolved and either do not get it resolved or not get back to the customer.

Say a student or customer comes to you and asks for help. Perhaps a student leaves a phone message or an email account of the problem asking for you to assist in a problem he or she has. You get back to him or her by telephone but miss the person. So you leave a message.

I am sorry to hear that you feel you may have a problem……..

(Yes we do use the conditional all the way through to protect ourselves as the HR and lawyers taught us to do. May, perhaps, could, maybe, might, possibly, or combinations might possibly may perhaps have an issue…..But never simply say, holy sh%t, he did that? Never commit or accede. That’s the way to please the lawyers but perhaps, maybe, possibly upset the customer more.) But then we go and commit to look into it and make what the student takes as a promise.

…I will look into the issue, see if anything can be done and get back to you as soon as I can.

Granted soon is… well to us it is a sensible period of time as we see it. Soon as I can get the information, or contact the person, or find if there is a problem or even if there is a solution. To a customer or student with a problem, soon is now or by the end of the day, if not …well if not sooner.

Or the person tells the student, I’ll look into it and get back to you by Friday. If you make that commitment you’d better get back by Friday. That is a promise of delivery of service that the student customer will expect to be fulfilled. And rightly so.

Or the person has been to the legal seminar on commitment so he says I’ll get back to you by Friday if I have anything to tell you. There’s the conditional again. If I have anything to tell you. Covers you. Right? Nah it doesn’t because what the student hears is I’ll get back to you by Friday period. The expectation is that you will have something to tell him or her even if it is I have nothing to tell you yet.

This is the psychological background the student brings to any conversation in which service is offered/promised. Offered by you. Promised in the mind of the student. And soon is now. Oh yes, let’s not forget, the student expects a solution especially if you or your school tries to claim it cares about it students. And well you should because we are there for student success which is our success.

What is above is essentially the same we expect from service providers we pay. For instance right now I am getting quite frustrated by a guy who put in some tiling in a bathroom so I could work on my new book. There were a couple tiles that were not quite right. They need to be taken out and replaced. He said he’d be here at 9 a.m. It is now 11:25. He has failed. I will let him know so by the rating I will give him on Angies’s List. I will also tell anyone needing a tile person not to hire him. For him and a college that disappoints on promised service the Malthusian Custopmer Service Progression definitely comes into play here. Students may not go to Angie’s List to comp-lain. They will show their dissatisfaction by ending up on the drop list. Then they will tell everyone who even hints at asking about college or why he dropped out.

So here it is.

The Six Point Solution to Proper Call Backs

When you tell a student you will look into IT:

If you are not sure when you will have an answer - say you are not sure when you will be able to get back but I will get back to you.

If you know you can get back on a certain date – say you will get back by XXXXday but I cannot promise I will have an answer/solution. Then, MAKE DAMN SURE YOU CALL ON THAT DAY even if all you have to say is I don’t have answer but I am working on it. Then provide an update on what you and/or others have been doing.

If you get a resolution or answerer sooner than when you told him or her to expect an answer it is okay to give good news early.

If you are not able to call back on time, it is imperative that someone calls for you and givers an apology and an update for you. Though do realize the customer will surely believe you just don’t want to talk with him. Not a god thing but better than no call at all on the anointed date.

You can let someone else call back with good news. No one complains if you let someone else tell them good news.

You cannot let someone else call with bad news. If you do, you will create a doubly angry person who will eventually come to see you anyhow as if to check if what he heard was really true.

Finally, DO NOT SAY YOUI’LL CALL AND DON’T DO IT AT ALL. That will make the student feel like a jilted lover. And you’ve seen the movies about the rejected lover and the rabbit or the guy in the hockey mask.

That’s right. Michael Myers was expecting that call from the Dean that never came. Look what happened!!!

BTW, I am waiting to hear from a major communication (internet, cable, telephone) company that has promised to call back and said it will try to help on two issues. If the company which I won’t name just yet but WOW, they were named as the best by Consumer Reports for service. But at this time, it seems local service is good but WOW, some of the corporate…. They may be trying but need to read this piece and not let passive aggressive types work with customers. Nor should you for that matter. I mean WOW, use the right WAY to do things.

IF THIS ARTICLE MAKES SENSE TO YOU, YOU WILL WANT TO OBTAIN A COPY OF THE BEST-SELLING NEW BOOK ON RETENTION AND ACADEMIC CUSTOMER SERVICE THE POWER OF RETENTION: MORE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN HIGHER EDUCATION by clicking here

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“We had hoped we’d improve our retention by 3% but with the help of Dr. Raisman, we increased it by 5%.” Rachel Albert, Provost, University of Maine-Farmington

“Neal led a retreat that initiated customer service and retention as a real focus for us and gave us a clear plan. Then he followed up with presentations and workshops that kicked us all into high gear. We recommend with no reservations; just success.” Susan Mesheau, Executive Director U First: Integrated Recruitment & Retention University of New Brunswick, CA

“Thank you so much for the wonderful workshop at Lincoln Technical Institute. It served to re-center ideas in a great way. I perceived it to be a morale booster, breath of fresh air, and a burst of passion.” Shelly S, Faculty Member, Lincoln Technical Institute

Class Distinctions on Campus Hurt Morale and Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 17:08:00 +0000

After a webinar on customer service I gave last week, an email question came in from one of the participants. It dealt with an important issue of class distinctions in universities and colleges that hurts morale and retention. The issue is an extension of George Orwell’s description of colleges as an animal farm. As stated by Dean Snowball.

All members of an academic community are created equal, only some are more equal than others, and I’m not just talking about faculty here.

Here is the question:

One of my co-workers would like to know what you think of a school policy that requires some staff personnel to log in their hours each day, while other co-workers (considered professional staff, mainly because they have earned a college degree) are not required to keep weekly time sheets. It is a matter that many consider unfair and somewhat demeaning.

I believe that is a mistake on a number of counts. First, it hurts any possible sense of a team throughout the institution. Having two or three classes of people in a college makes a statement that the institution has a sense of a class system. Sort of like Orwell – "All animals are created equal but some are more equal than others” A tiered structure like this has to have harmful effects on at least some of the people at the college. And that will in turn harm the levels of service to students and the internal community as well. I am willing to bet that this procedure also has a negative effect on employee and student retention.

The system also says that some people are more trustworthy than others. Those who do not have to punch in are by inference more honest than those we make punch in. We believe the non-punchers will not cheat on their time sheets. There is no evidence that this is true at all by the way.

It also separates “professionals” from “non-professionals”, a very false distinction. Nothing is more destructive than demeaning the contributions of the staff who fall into the non-professional designation. Everyone is a professional and has value and a purpose within their work area and concentration and should be so recognized. Those who do not act in a professional manner, no matter what the title, role or salary, need to be replaced. Anyone who does not do his or her job well, should not have that position.

The systems are usually put into place because of management problems. Usually supervisors cannot manage and be responsible for their staff and their time reporting. Some are afraid to direct people to show up on time and work their hours. They are concerned that if they have to reprimand or direct someone to remedy their behavior, they will either not be liked or a bad worker will rebel, maybe even quit. They simply do not know or want to do the hard part of the job which is to direct and manage the staff. Breaks the “family” feeling after all. Need to train them to realize that they will be a family either way – just a dysfunctional family at some level, as are all families. And dysfunctional is not so bad after all. Just the norm.

Bottom line. Install a team and instill a drive to do good work by appropriate leadership and customer service to employees. Again recall that customer service does not mean pandering. It means treating people with dignity, honesty and when needed, clear, firm yet humane correction. If people are cheating on their time, correct them. If they cannot be corrected, that is an issue of integrity and honesty so start progressive discipline and have them move on rather than harm the entire internal community which in turn has a negative effect on retention and population. That would serve the community better than a caste system.

Hope that is not too blunt but it is what I know and feel. If I can help out, just let me know at nealr@greatservicenatters.com or call at 413.219.6939

Get a copy of the best selling academic customer service books The Power of Retention and From Admissions to Graduation today by clicking here

Admission Attrition Costs Quantified

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 19:06:00 +0000

CSFactor 2

CSF2 = [(SL x CA = -E) + CSL1]

There is a universal law that it should take less energy to sit on a flagpole than to climb it. Seems logical. Climbing it numerous times to gain four different views would require burning more

calories than shinnying up once and sitting up there to look around for the views.

Yet there are certainly those who seem to have not learned the lesson. Colleges that have not yet focused on the value of retention which can be increased through some simple customer service training rely on the old churn and burn approach. Keep bringing in ever increasing numbers of new students and don’t worry if they just drop out never to return.Just get some more. These schools make admission folks in particular climb the pole over and over, burn calories and just plain burn out trying to meet ever-increasing admission goals.

You’d think some universities had never heard of flag pole sitting on a pillow called retention. Or the stabilizing element of customer service that creates the toochas-saving cushioning in the pillow. Or ever concerned themselves with little issues like revenue, budgets and paying for things. Or the energy-saving and budget building value and cost-savings of retention. Because flagpole climbing not only burns calories and people, but piles of revenue.

Admissions Costs – Retention Saves CSF2

Another simple reality here. Every student a college enrolls costs it money to do so – big money too! Every student retained costs from nothing to quite little.

In fact a study we did two years ago found that the average cost of enrolling a student is $5,460. This study of 40 randomly chosen colleges, universities and career schools included ALL cost of enrolling a student. Most colleges just look at direct marketing costs per student and forget about all the associated costs. They divide marketing and advertising, maybe lead costs too, by the number of students and voila – a miscalculation.

The real costs of enrolling a student include the marketing costs yes, but also the marketing staff, advertising, publications, admission staff, clerical people, travel, orientation, printing, allocated time and effort from bursar, registrar, academics, counseling, advising, student services, financial aid, orientation, registration, and so on; mailings, emails, phone calls, website and so on and on and on. Fixed capital costs associated with most all of this add another 7-9% on the average. There are in fact very few parts of a college that are not involved at some point and time in admissions. We also found that schools were not including all students who had made inquiries to the college. Every time a student is responded to there are costs. These all add to the time and costs. Considerable costs. At least an average of $5,460 worth of costs to recruit and enroll a student. These costs were calculated six years ago so costs have indeed gone up.

For some schools, the cost of recruiting a student can actually equal or even outweigh revenue received from them. The ones that survive are generally assisted by some public assistance based on an unduplicated headcount formula. But even with public assistance many schools still lose money on student acquisition when he or she who drops out. (I suppose they intend to make it up on volume?) This is especially so if the student leaves before providing tuition and fees at least equal to the acquisition costs. And every student who leaves must be replaced with at least another at another additional expenditure of $5,460. But it usually required more than one re[placement student and associated acquisition costs.

In fact, to obtain one FGE (full time graduate equivalent) at the average annualized attrition of 32%, it will take 3-4 students acquired to get one FGE at a two-year school. 6-8 will be needed at a four-year school, with an average graduation at 5 years. If average graduation is more than 5 years, add another admission needed to get the FGE.

By the way, annualized tuition is the number a school should use to figure its real attrition. Not the retention between the freshman and sophomore years which is a very popular one. That leaves out all the students who already dropped out before the end of the second term or semester. That number fudges failure. For instance, if a college began a year with 100 new freshman and 99 left in week one but the remaining student stayed the whole year and returned, the freshman to sophomore percentage would be 100%.

Annualized attrition includes all students who left. It does not look at a starting class such as the freshman class as an isolated entity. It recognizes the Sophomore Bubble, the junior jump, senior slide, super senior slump and the “I’m not sure what I am except outta here” slump. Students leave at all times and should all be counted in the attrition number to be able to not just be real but to really understands how a college and its budget are actually performing.

The cost of retention at one school was reported by a participant during a workshop I was presenting at the Small College Admissions and Retention Conference (a very good enrollment management conference by the way) said her university spent an average of $35 per retained student.

The Growing Importance of Retention to Graduation

The public, employers and legislatures (local, state and federal) are starting to catch onto the fact that the number of students who start or attend a college or university at headcount day is a meaningless statistic. Granted it may improve a person to get some education and even a drop out may have added value before leaving a university. But it is the diploma that is the real indicator of the success of a student and a school. That is the certification that everyone uses to determine someone has been educated and trained enough to contribute to the economy, the culture and society. It is the diploma, indifferent to whether it really indicates the holder is truly educated or really capable, that is the sign this person can be considered for a job and add to the economy.

This is our own fault to some extent. We keep telling society and legislatures that higher education is the fuel for the engine of the economy. And they have started to believe us to the point that they want to put the emphasis on the number of graduates that schools put into the economy. This is where political accountability is starting to move. The number of grads, not just attendees. Support formulas are going to start moving to the number of graduates and work backwards to entering students.

Starting with the number of graduates will make retention and even more important issue than it is now. This is due to retention rule 4 – students who drop out from the school tend not to graduate.

CSFactor 2 Using the formula.

CSF2 = [SL x CA = -E) + CSL1]

SL - # of students lost
CA – Cost of acquisition
-E – Enrollment $ lost
CSF2 – Total revenue lost

So using the numbers from the prior CSF1 example:

[198 x $5,460 = $1,081,080 + $2,574,000) = -$3,655,080.

This school has lost $3,655,080 along with almost 200 students. If it had retained the 198 students, it would have saved the $3.6 million. Even if it did cost $35 a student to retain them, that would have cost them $6,930. Even if we wish to extend that out of four years, the $27,720 is still just a bit less than $3.6 million.

Seems again that retention saves while attrition costs. And one hell of a lot of money.

But let’s not forget the human costs of people working very hard to bring students into the school just to see them leave. We have not even worked in the costs of replacing admissions and enrollment people who simply burn out from the ever-increasing new student goals and the psychological pain of climbing the ever-growing flagpole every start when they should be able to just sit there every so often and enjoy the retention view.

Start on a course to increasing your retention and revenue today by contacting me today at Nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com or 413.219.6939. We have helped over 450 colleges, universities and the academic-related businesses in the U.S., Canada and Europe increase their success since 1999.

Figuring How Much Revenue You Are Losing Due to Attrition

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 17:04:00 +0000

Following a recent workshop presentation on customer service and retention, I was asked by one of the attendees if I would supply the way I figure ROI from retention and customer service. She wanted to compute how much money customer service issues were costing the university so she could show literally that poor service costs money. She was not the only person who has asked for the formulas I use in my work so I decided to post this one for everyone’s use.

The following is about Customer Service Factor 1 (CSF1) The Value of Retention (or the Losses from Attrition). CSF1 helps a college figure out how much revenue/money it is losing from its actual attrition.

The formula is expressed as

CSF1 = [(P X A= SL) X T]

In the formula, P represents the total school population; not just the starting fall freshman number. Most schools use the fall incoming freshmen numbers and that is an error. The assumption is that attrition occurs most in the first six weeks of the freshman year. That may be close to correct but the reality is that students are leaving colleges and universities in any one of their six plus years of a four-year degree and in the four plus years of a two-year degree.

Students leave your school throughout their experience at the school. In fact, some schools are beginning to realize this and worry about the Sophomore Bubble. But the really need to worry about the super soph sluff, the rising junior jilt, the junior jump, super junior split, the fourth year flee and so on. Colleges need to be concerned with every student every day of their attendance for it could be his last.

So we look at the total population.

A equals attrition. Again not just from freshman but an annualized attrition rate. And this rate is to include ALL students who leave for any reason. It does not matter if the student says he or she will be back. They are not back in the population and bringing in revenue until they actually do return. If they pay a “place holding fee”, that does not count them as an student until they are actually back in classes.

If your school is like most everyone I work with you likely do not have a clear fix on an annualized attrition rate. Many schools have never figured it A simple way to figure annualized attrition is to look at graduation rates and subtract them from 100. This will show an attrition rate. 100% minus graduation rate of 62% equals a 38% attrition rate. If you want you can average it out by taking an average of five years of graduation rates to subtract from 100%.

SL stands for students lost annually from total population and revenue production. And T equals tuition at the school.

So here is what showed up when we analyzed CSF1 for a particular college which for our purposes we will call Mammon University. You may know it. Its motto is Omnes Por Pecunia. Anything for a Buck. More on Mammon U later.

Its total population was 500 students.

Annualized attrition was at 39.6%

So SL (students lost annually) was 198.

Times an average tuition of $13,000.

The school uses a differentiated tuition scale per program.

So, the formula becomes:

[(500 x 39.6% = 198) x $13,000] =

a revenue loss of (sound of a trumpet flourish but on a kazoo since Mammon U cannot afford a real trumpet since it has lost) ($2,574,000)!!!!

To carry this forward a bit into a more positive note, we can plug in other numbers and see how an increase in retention could add to the bottom line and thus the ability to pay for full time faculty, staff, their benefits, increases for adjuncts, instructional equipment, tutors, research release, new curricula and programs, maintenance, …. All those pesky costs that make a college or university better.

If attrition dropped by 5% for this school and we substitute 5% increased retention for attrition percentage in the formula.

CSF1 = [(500 x 5% = 25) x 13,000] =

$325,000 more revenue.

Any school, college or university that doesn't want at least another $325,000 in the budget?

Plug your school’s numbers in and see how increasing retention affects your budget and instructional strength.

If you are not happy with your retention numbers and the large revenue loss from attrition, call us today and we will help you increase your success. NRaisman & Associates, 413.219.6939 or email by clickinghere.

Is the Customer, the Student, Always Right?

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 18:46:00 +0000

Which of the following is true?

The customer is always right. True ⁮ False ⁮

If there is a question, refer to number 1. True ⁮ False

It has been an inviolable adage found in the backrooms of most retail outlets and restaurants that both number 1 and number 2 are correct. The customer is always right. It is therefore our role to do all we can to please the customer; to make her feel we accept that she and her business are number 1 to the store or institution by fulfilling every wish if at all possible. To go the extra mile to make the customer happy. To indulge, pamper, spoil and if necessary, to even pander to each whim to assure the customer is satisfied and will come back. This has been the concept that has been central to Business 101 and been hung on posters and fliers in backrooms across the country almost since it was reportedly created in 1908 by French hotel owner César Ritz (1850-1918) when he stated 'Le client n'a jamais tort' - 'The customer is never wrong.” The current, more American usage was established by the Marshall Fields store in Chicago and then popularized by Harry Gordon Selfridge who left Fields to create London’s Selfridge’s department store in 1909.

It is this time honored concept that is so strongly at odds with many people on college campuses. Influential segments of the college community believe this idea that the customer is right imposes a construct of business on a very non-commercial institution – academia. A basic bastard of business which has money as its goal forced upon intellectual institutions with our ideals of intellectual pursuit and learning, in that order. Obviously not just a mismatch but an attempt to undermine the very nature of the academic environment and “corporatize the academy” as one faculty member told me prior to a workshop he refused to attend. Colleges and universities are not about money and revenue after all.

In fact, money corrupts the purity of the intellectual community, (except when it comes to my office or department’s budget perhaps or my salary, benefits cost or equipment). But then the money is only needed to be able to provide education or services to others to make the institution stronger to be better able to meet its mission. And after all, we do not have customers many academic say."Students are not customers". Students do pay for an education so they must be customers. According to the basic definition of a customer, they qualify. They exchange money for goods and service like courses and services and that makes them customers. Call them students or clients if that makes you feel better, but they are our customers and that changes the equation quite a bit. So don’t pick 1 or 2.

And we are in a business, an academic business,a service industry which is underfunded in too many situations, so we must "do business" to make sure the revenue comes in. After all, without money coming in how are we to fund budgets, pay for salary and benefit increases and all the other things we need to meet the mission. So we need to consider that number 1 may have some merit. Perhaps we need an ad hoc committee to study……. (Lord save us all from even one more committee!) Let’s just realize that in typical academic reality, the positions above are all or nothing postures that are both wrong, and yet still sort of have some validity. .

Consider that if you checked number 1 as correct, number 2 necessarily follows as acceptable. But if you chose number one as true, you are wrong to begin with. The customer is not always right. Yet, that does not make the faculty member who derided customer service as illegitimate in higher education right. Not at all, for he is also wrong. Very palpably wrong at that. And in this case, your wrong and his wrong do not make the customer right.

The reality is that the customer is often wrong. Particularly in higher education. Just think of your last quiz. I am sure you found many students were wrong in many of their answers or guesses. That is the nature of a quiz or a test after all. Though we would hope that the customer would be always right and prove that he or she really understood the lectures, the readings and the assignments, such is not the reality of most classes and schools. Students, our customers, are often wrong.

And students are wrong by very their very nature as students. They come to college to learn what they do not know; to become more correct in their knowledge and abilities. They are in school to replace erroneous or uninformed notions with information and learning. In fact, if they already knew, if they had the skills prior to coming into school, they would not have to enroll.They would not become students, our clients and customers.

So they old adage is wrong in higher education. But there is a saying that does fit what we need to know to keep our students satisfied and in school. "The customer (the student) comes first". That is a statement I hope we can all get behind.

It is not an Admissions Problem but a Retention Problem at Southern Illinois and Other Universities

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 21:42:00 +0000

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale has an enrollment, and thus a revenue problem. Student population is shrinking. They have lost around 50% of the freshman population over the past three years. Official fall 2017 enrollment at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is 14,554, a decline of 9% percent over 2016. Their new Chancellor, Carlo Montemagno is saying it is “because we are not offering programs that are distinctive and relevant to today’s students.”

But is that the reality they are facing at SIU-Carbondale?

They are losing 56% of every entering class the graduation rate is only at 44%. The University also recognizes that it is not necessarily a problem of underprepared or incapable students because it stated there is “a continuing increase in ACT scores for new freshmen and ongoing growth in freshman retention rates” which is at 68% freshman to sophomore year which is not all that great really. The University if losing almost a third of every entering class before sophomore year.

What his all means is that attrition is losing the University $113,801,801 annually. (To calculate how much attrition is costing your school click here.) It is losing more than it has to spend. That is a financially dangerous situation to be in.

The Chancellor’s response is a radical restructuring of the University out of individual departments into groupings that will cut the overall number of departments and colleges. He has proposed that the University collapse its existing eight colleges and 42 departments and schools into five colleges and 18 schools, two of them being law and medicine to cover the lost revenue. He further plans on eliminating some departments entirely. He hopes the new structure will stimulate synergy and cross thinking to generate new ideas and programs. These, he believes will stop the population erosion.

The Chancellor believes new relevant programs will attract more students.

But this does not make logical sense since the problem is that the University is losing students after they come to school. The students originally chose the school for its programs and degrees to start with but something else made them leave. The offerings were sufficient to get them in the door but then something is happening to make them leave. Attracting more students will just lead to more dropouts. It is not admissions that is at fault. It is something else.

The issue is not how to attract more students but how to keep them? How to increase retention from 44% to some rate that will begin stabilizing, then growing the student population. The University cannot keep losing over half of its students annually if it is to succeed no matter what the structure of its departments and colleges.

It, like most every college and university, needs to focus on retention to stabilize its population and revenues and that will not come about by re-organizing the departments and colleges. It needs to find out why students are leaving. If it does and corrects the issues, it can and will increase population making a radical restructuring that will turn faculty against the Chancellor unnecessary.

Southern Illinois has an engagement problem that is made worse by poor or weak services that would attach the students more fully to the school. A large part of what is occurring very likely is that the University is not providing students what they need and expect especially in how they are treated, i.e. academic customer service. We already know that 76% of attrition is caused by poor or weak service provided to students as shown in the chart below. The major reason students leave a college is that they believe the college does not care about them and that is very probably a factor at Southern

Illinois as it is with so many other schools we have studied to see why students left them. The University is not providing an ease of service and procedures that make the students believe the school does not care if they succeed or not. They are probably putting students seeking help into “the shuffle” of having to go to office to office trying to find the services they need.

If we were to do a study of the University’s student attitudes I would be willing to bet our fees that a major concern students would express is that “I have not been treated and helped very well. The school does not care about me. All they care about is my money.” I can make this offer because we have found this to be the situation at just about every college that we have studied with a high attrition rate. The University likely does a good job of recruiting students but not as good a job reselling them on the school every day by providing the services students want, need and expect.

We also know this is quite likely true because closely behind the reason for leaving “The school does not care about me” is the category of “weak to poor customer service”. Students report that they cannot get the services they need to complete a needed function for example. They go to an office to get help and are given less than good service, maybe even abrupt and indifferent treatment students report. This in turn feeds into the belief that the school does not care about them. Just think how you feel about a business or a restaurant that treats you poorly or gives bad service. You don’t go back. Well, students make a buying decision to attend class and stay in school each and every day. If they are treated poorly, they will not want to invest their tuition and fees in the school and leave as you would a store that ignores you or gives you bad service.

All of this makes the students believe that it is not worth it to put up with a school that does not care and treats them poorly and they drop out. It is also quite likely that at Southern Illinois they are cutting sections to try and save money. This is a normal, but wrong way to save money because it also cuts students out of classes they need to progress in their major quite often.

We observed a school recently that decided to only offer some required courses once a year in the Fall but did not fully communicate that to students, and advisors did not seem to know of it either. One of those was in the senior year. Students waited to take the course the next semester when it could fit in the schedule to find it was not offered. They had to wait until next year to get the course which often meant they had to take some course that might not fit in their major to remain full-time to get full financial aid. They had to stay longer in school to get the course complete their program. This caused problems because they had to stay another year to make up courses but their financial aid ran out in four years and they had trouble affording the cost of the extra year. Many could not and had to drop out to earn money to pay for school often not coming back.

This is all indicative of a school not with an admissions problem but a retention and customer service problem.

Would this be the situation at Southern Illinois or your school for instance? It is likely that weak or poor academic service is leading to much of your dropout/attrition rate. If Southern Illinois found our precisely what services were not being done well and fix them, it would increase its retention rate and the revenue needed to operate instead of causing major upheaval which likely will not solve its real problem – retention.

To uncover why students are leaving your university or college, call us today at 413.219.6939 or contact me by email at Nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com.

Retaining Students Over the Thanksgiving Break

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 20:10:00 +0000

Thanksgiving is approaching and it may not lead to many thanks for some students and schools. Thanksgiving is going to be the most extended time

away from school for many students. It is a time when students get together with family and friends. It is a time when there is time for questions and thinking. And a major topic is going to be “how is it at….?” Some students are going to think “actually, not all that great.”

Thanksgiving turns out to be a major tipping point in the decision to stay or leave a college. With that knowledge, it is also a time you should engage students to keep them from dropping into the attrition side of the decision. You could also leverage relationships with parents and families to bring them into any stay or drop decision.

To-Do
Send every student a personalized letter or formal card. The letter should of course be stationary and the card must be printed with the name of the office or person in raised engraved letters such as Office of the President. The letter or card should have a brief written statement such as

I want to thank you for the honor and pleasure of having you as a student at ………………….. If there is anything I can help you with, please contact me at (EMAIL SET UP FOR RESPONSES)I look forward to seeing you on campus and at your graduation.
Sincerely, AND THEN SIGN IT.

Mail it to the student AND FAMILY. This way family members will want to see it too. This helps enlist them as supporters. With luck, you will get some responses in the special email box you set up. There may even be some thanks to you but what you are really seeking are issues that could get in the way of staying in school at your school. If you do, you can find solutions and keep that student in school.

BTW, these letters and cards really work.

If cards are not feasible, phone calls to the house work too. Just a quick thanks like what is written on a card will work. Especially contact any students you know are at risk. Making contact with them might be just the thing that will keep them in school. Remember, the major reason students leave a college is the belief that the school does not care about them so a call or card home states very clearly that you care.

If for some reason you can't do any of the above, crank up to CRM system and send out an email blast with the statement above. This is not as strong but it can help make students understand that you care.

There is just enough time between now and Thanksgiving weekend to get it done and increase retention,enrollment and a family's hopes and dreams

Let me know how the letters, cards, calls and email work for you.

Call me at 413.219.6939 and I will help over the phone at no cost to you to keep retention and success rising as my way of saying thanks to all my colleagues and clients.

Student Engagement Depends on How Well They Are Served In and Out of the Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 19:06:00 +0000

Though some faculty deride academic customer service as a noxious import from business, it has been found that faculty who provide

increased levels of customer service will have a better and more satisfying teaching experience. And their students will learn better with greater desire, compliance and increased retention.

When students believe a faculty member provides them good service and cares about them, they are more willing to listen and learn. Students are also more compliant with the teacher’s instruction, more willing to engage in-class and complete assignments.

I recall a master teacher and academic customer service provider named Dr. Taffee Tanimoto at the University of Massachusetts in Boston back in 1969. Dr. Tanimoto was the chair of the math department. He loved math and was always bothered when we students had problems with algebra. He also loved teaching. Our diffidence bordering on hostility toward math baffled him and he admitted it in class. He also said that he might not make us become mathematicians but he would do all he could to have us learn algebra and maybe even like some of it if we would just work with him.

To back it up, he started 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. tutoring classes that met every Tuesday and Thursday. He lived over 30 miles away from the University and took the train in to be in the classroom by 7 if any of wanted to show up early. He would also be available in his office until 5:30 every day to go over problems with any student who needed help – even if they were not in his class. He even tutored me once at the Back Bay train station over coffee as we both waited for trains.

He was patient but did not pander – no physics for poets type of classes. Full bodied algebra, calculus and trig. He demanded but did not reprimand. He provided excellent and extremely important customer service that made us want to learn algebra. And we did succeed and as he said, he succeeded. I even got a C+ but even more I learned to like math even if it didn't always like me because of Dr. Tanimoto. His extra service made me want to learn algebra and trig even though they were foreign languages to me. If nothing else, his going beyond my expectations not only made me inclined to want to learn, they made me fell an obligation to do so.

Dr. Tanimoto was going out of his way to provide us extra help and thus academic customer service so we could understand algebra. As a results, I felt I needed to do all I could to try and learn the material. I did not learn to love algebra even if I did learn it but I did have feel a great affection for Dr. Tanimoto.

I also grew to love the University because of the customer service I was given in and out of the classroom. And the faculty loved the University too where they could take some maybe not the always most brilliant kids and make them into educated future successes.

Dr. Tanimoto made me want to learn from him. As a result,customer service helped me and a group of math clods pass algebra. And it helped him and many other faculty like their jobs in the classroom much better than many others who saw teaching as just a job.

The customer service/willingness 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. Studies such as the 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 contentions with their research.

The studies have found that the greater the feeling that one received good service. the greater the willingness to pay for that service. Thus, if a college provides good academic customer service, students will not resist tuition payment, or even increases, much. They will feel they are getting a good fiscal return on their money as a result of being served well in and out of the classroom.

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 under-served 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 disagreement 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 25 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 service 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 pedagogy. But if students do feel that the professor cares, that will increase the willingness to learn leading to greater learning and increased teaching satisfaction for the teacher.

If you would like a copy of the 25 Principles of Good Customer Service in Higher Education, click here to request.

To increase retention, graduation rates and enrollment get in touch with us now at 413.219.6939 or email me at nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com

Academic Customer Service is Not Retail Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 16:52:00 +0000

Customer service in academia is a very different animal than retail and commercial service. For one, the buying patterns are very different. At

Nordstrom for example, the service focuses on a unique one-time purchase and hoped-for future purchases for those in a particular social bracket. The purchase is a one time event.

Let’s say I go to Nordstrom (for me, the Rack) one day to buy a shirt, maybe a tie to go with it. These are limited and specific material objectives I can obtain and achieve in this one event. I buy them and leave, not to think of a purchase again until a particular need arises. The service focuses on that one purchase.

Disneyworld the same. One vacation a year. Not so college. Purchases are made very day, every class.

Too often we think that the decision to enroll is the one and only buying decision of our students. Not so. Not at all. That is just the first of many, many purchases on their way to graduation or attrition.

In college, our customers are in a constant buying/purchasing pattern. They are making a decision on your product every day and most every hour/class. Every day, students get up and decide whether or not to go to school and go to classes. They decide whether or not to go/purchase each and every class depending on a number of service-based factors and ROI’s, “is this worth my time, does the faculty member give a damn, is it part of my major, can I blow it of and still get a good grade, do I just feel like it today?”. These decisions ultimately lead to retention or attrition with steps in between of course. We buy a shirt once every so often. College is an every day purchase. And one might successfully argue that it is more important then a shirt.

This is very different than a unique purchase in retail which is a self-contained event in all cases with a simple temporal and commercial conclusion. Retaining a customer in retail is much easier than in education. When I buy a shirt, I walk out with it I can even wear it right away if I want. It’s material.

Retaining a student is much tougher than getting someone back in a store. In fact, once a student leaves a college, she does not come back while if a store has provided weak to poor customer service, if it has what a person needs at a good price, he will very often go back. Part of the reason is that there is little investment in the store. It does not cost anything to wander the aisles looking for a shirt for example. It does cost to go to classes looking for the education needed to get a job. Further, a person can often do without getting that shirt. He will usually have others at home he can wear. But a person may not be able to get a job without buying that degree with six years attendance and paying (that's the average time to graduation now).

An education? Can’t wear it. Can’t carry it. Can’t touch it. It’s more like love. We all need it. We all crave it but it can be hard to define, pin down or sometimes even know it is happening. It takes faith, trust. And that is often the basis of retention because all one can get from an education is trust that I have have been trained to get a job and learned something, I can get a job with. All I have for the thousands of dollars I paid into college is a piece of embossed card stock with signatures that says education took place. At Nordstroms I get a shirt I can wear. In college, I got a diploma I can hang in my office that somehow says I am trained and educated sort of like the Tinman in the Wizard of Oz..

Bad service in a school may well make the student leave forever as studies have shown. In fact, weak or poor academic customer service can account for 76% of all attrition.

Yet schools most always tolerate bad behavior and service from its employees. That is another difference between academic and retail customer service is you can’t even get rid of an obviously poor service provider in college while in a store, if they don’t perform according to store requests for service and at least a smile, one can fire them. Try firing a faculty member because he or she treats students like crap. And teaches with total indifference to the customers’ needs and learning style. Have fun in the grievances and court. Unless of course the faculty member is an adjunct. Then we will let him or her finish the term, teaching horridly, pissing off students and increasing attrition. Don’t need the hassles, grievances, lawyer calls and legal suits to follow. Better to provide horrendous service to our customers. Or a worker in a service office like the registrar's or business office who growls when she has to help students. Can’t just let her go. Need at least a long period of progressive discipline before one can even contemplate dismissal. And if she is in a union… Rather different than most stores or a resort. If a person angers and repels customers there, he or she is gone quickly.

There is quite a bit more too. Poor service in a store just makes the customer leave and go elsewhere. Unless of course he needs the particular item that the store sells and is the only one so doing in the area, then he’ll grin and bear it to buy it. She may want to leave but if the product can only be obtained there, she will have to either get it there or forgo it completely. Education? Can get composition, math, psych, etc. etc. most anywhere even on-line so one does not have to be bound by location and exclusivity.

There is another and most significant difference between academic and retail customer service. In academic customer service, we know "the customer is not always right". In fact, that is proven every day on tests and quizzes and too often in the ways that they can act. It is the job of the college to teach the student to become "more right" through teaching both in and out of the classroom. Out of the classroom? Yes because we are not only teaching information and ideas but preparing students for life after college and for job. In a store, there is no interaction to improve the customer while in college, that is our mission.

To assure you retain more students through academic customer service, training is needed. We can't expect our faculty and staff to provide good service if they have not been trained to so so. Contact us today to learn how we can increase retention and graduation rates through improved customer service training at 413.219.6939 or email me at nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com.

We can and will increase your population and enrollment.

Higher Education is Vocational Education

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 15:51:00 +0000

A colleague of mine who is a faculty member in allied health at a large university said to me that if he had it to do over, he would teach at a community college where they have vocational

education. I was surprised. Not that he wanted to leave a university for a community college but that he that he didn’t realize that higher education is vocational education.

The difference is that for the most part, universities teach some higher level vocational ed.

Universities teach vocational education?

Yes, just ask any student attending a university or four-year college why she is there. The answer invariably is to either “get a job” or “become a botanist, teacher, computer analyst, engineer, poet or some other work-related professional. Even a philosophy or art major is taking the courses to become something – a professor or an artist.

Our students are not at college to “learn” but to get a job and earn. This is not new. The first university, Harvard, was started to teach young men to get a job as ministers. That was their vocational goal. Harvard is still a vocational school but one for future professionals like all other universities.

Students view college education as training for a job. And they are right for all courses except some required courses. The courses in their major all point toward becoming qualified to become something, to get a job in a field. If required courses were not required, students would not take them unless they somehow worked into their career goals. The required courses are an attempt on the part of the institution and faculty to broaden the curriculum and the students but they are just add-ons to a vocational curriculum.

Now, if this argument is not making faculty spitting in rage by now I would be surprised. For the most part, they refuse to see the vocational orientation of what they do. They see themselves as teaching in an institution devoted to learning not jobs. The very idea that a college has vocational bases is wrong and pure heresy to them. They persist in believing students are there to learn and broaden their intellects. The majority of faculty refuse to see going to college as a means to an end even though they all went to college to get a job as a faculty member in a major field to teach others how to become a professional and get a job. It is the majority, quite often those in softer fields like literature, the social sciences and other required area courses that are most adamant about the university not being job-related.

A very close friend of mine taught classical literature at a graduate program at a university. He would invariably get quite angry when I would bring up the subject of higher ed being vocational. “I don’t teach students so they can get jobs. I teach them to expand their minds” he would say even as he trained graduate students for teaching jobs. He expanded their minds so they could become intellectually qualified to get a job. And the students knew this. Any course they took that was not directly related to that job they wanted was considered worthless and if at all possible, avoided. For example, when the teaching associates at the university I attended for grad school were required to take a course in practical classroom pedagogy to teach, they rebelled as believing this course was a waste of their time.

As a result of these differing views of the very nature and role of the college it can be seen that faculty and students go to two different schools together. One is a professional training intuition and the other is an academy of learning. Fortunately, the two colleges do come together for the most part in the classroom when the course is within the student’s major. The student is there to be trained and the teacher is there to train them through teaching them and having them learn the material. The students learn the material so they can apply it in their vocational area. The faculty member gets to teach and expand the students’’ knowledge which can make him happy.

It is in the required courses where the two college situation is a significant problem. Students do not see them as leading directly to their vocational goal while the faculty see the courses as intellectually enriching and valuable in their own right. As a result, students rebel against the required courses and that rebellion is too often seen in their not applying themselves very hard to the work of the class. It takes last position behind anything that does relate to the job goals.

This creates real tension and even anger in the faculty who have to believe that what they are teaching is important and cannot accept excuses such as “I had to study for a test in my major so I couldn’t do the homework”. This is why faculty who teach required courses are most vocal about students “not caring, disengaged, unmotivated, and not college material”. They are teaching at a college in their minds that does not exist in the students’ minds. It is a clear anomie situation. They see the standards and values breaking down in students and the university and that causes tensions and stress between the faculty and students as well as between faculty and the college itself that let these students who are not prepared or engaged into their classrooms.

They need to understand that there is a real gap between them and their students in how they view and exist in the college. They need to accept that students are there to meet their own goals and get a job. They should understand that anything that does not lead to that goal is considered unimportant and alien to most students.

Yes, there are some who will respond enthusiastically to a required course. They may even be enthused by a literature course for example to become an English major and work to become an English teacher as a result of a required English II course. But then the reality is that the course became part of the student’s vocational goals by defining the goal more clearly and becoming a building block in the goal itself.

So what are we to do about this? First realize that students and faculty are at different universities and need to all be at one. Next, recognize that the student is the one who pays the bills and is the reason for the existence of the college. Without them, there would be no college. Thus, it is for the faculty to move closer to the students’ college and accept the reality that the students are there for a vocational reason and goal. Faculty need to accept that some of the courses they teach will not be seen as fitting into the students’ college and not take umbrage at the students’ indifference to the course.

Moreover, when possible, faculty should make the course fit more closely into the students’ vocational mindset. Make the course materials more relevant when possible. So for example, when I taught composition, I had students write job application letter. I did not assign any literary essays but readings about the world they live in and business-related topics.

This will not necessarily be possible in all courses. For example, when teaching a world literature course. But if the faculty member recognizes that the students are in the other college, at least the experience may be more predictable and change the expectations of the faculty member to make the experience easier and more satisfying.

Retention important to you? Then get copies of the best selling books The Power of Retention and From Admissions to Graduation by Dr. Neal Raisman today by clicking here.

Requiring Attendance and All the Attending Excuses Against It

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 16:20:00 +0000

For the life of me I do not understand the attitudes and rationale of so many faculty toward student attendance. All I need to do at most every retention study and workshop is review the

institution’s attendance policy with the audience and kaboom, the fight is on. Yes, I did say fight. Most faculty and some administrators immediately disagree with me. They yell out “what do mean we should not have an institutional attendance policy? We then insist that students "learn the most they can by attending every class and learning from you. Don’t you realize that required attendance is a major positive factor in keeping students in college leading to their graduation and institutional success. That required attendance will return a significant percentage increase in retention and revenue? What’s more….”

Every college and university should have a clear, consistent and emphatic attendance policy that states that being in class is so important that students must attend all classes. Important because students who do not attend classes are at greatest risk for dropping out. Important because students who miss classes are not gaining the value of the teacher’s instruction and thinking on the material. Important because the student also loses out on the very important teacher-student communication and relationship. Important also because it is the student and faculty interaction that is the reason we have faculty at a college or university. If students do not need to learn from in classes, the need for faculty disappears.

Yet every time I raise the topic of requiring attendance, someone is bound to disagree AND speak out. (There are always people who disagree but remain quiet until later when they get animated and assertive among like-thinking people because that’s the academic passive-aggressive way we do things.) And when they disagree in a workshop for instance, they do so vehemently. Example, a week ago I was giving a workshop in retention and customer service at a large community college. I mentioned that the college had about a thirty percent four-year retention/graduation rate that would be significantly improved with a consistent and encompassing college-wide attendance policy. A policy that would make attendance mandatory. Immediately a faculty member passionately shook her head no and raised her hand. I saw her and asked her what she wanted to say.

“Students are adults and they need to learn to be responsible for their own choices They need to learn there are consequences to their actions” she said as does someone at most every presentation and workshop I have ever given. This statement of course indicates the belief or assessment that students have not yet learned to be responsible so we should teach them that. By allowing them to be irresponsible!

By permitting them not to come to class and learn the material properly we allow them to become intellectually bankrupt on the subject. Then we let them prove their irresponsibility by putting material from class lectures on the exam knowing that if they did not attend class they cannot pass the exam. Sort of like letting someone have a mortgage they can’t possibly pay for and we know it but sell it to them anyhow. I suppose that’s sort of teaching them financial planning by going bankrupt?

The students in our classes are not yet responsible or even learned enough to make many decisions. That’s why when we assign homework we give a date for it to be handed in. That we can eve be fairly firm on. “It is due on next Tuesday. If it is not in then, I will not accept it without a valid reason.”

Why is it so important to not trust them on turning in homework on time but it is okay to let them not attend a class in which the homework assignment and material related to it are handed out or have been discussed? Am I the only one who sees a major contradiction here? Why not just trust them to hand it in on time? Or better yet, why not trust them to hand it in at all? Why isn’t homework an optional attendance sort of thing. “Hand it in if you think if you think it’s important? Or if you can pass the class without doing or handing in enrollment, fine?” Contradictions anyone?

Why do we even believe they are responsible enough to make the right decision to attend or not attend class? What is it about enrolling at a college or university that makes anyone believe these people are responsible or even sensible? This is especially so for freshman which by the way is who the faculty member who asked the question at the workshop taught.

The Tinkerbell Theory of Student Maturity

It is the widespread academic belief in fairies that makes people in colleges believe their students are adults. it. You know, Tinkerbell, the maturity fairy of the Tinkerbell Theory.

The Tinkerbell Theory is most clearly elucidated in the belief colleges have that their students know how to be students. Actually, too many schools have a misguided belief in Peter Pan and fairy dust. They believe that somehow magic occurs on the stage in the local school auditorium at high school graduation. An immature high schooler starts across the stage. And with him or her walks all the attitudes, ways of thinking, and attitudes ingrained over 12 long years. These are the same very characteristics that made the soon-to-be high school graduate have to prove he or she was capable of succeeding in your college. Then, he or she stops and just as the high school principal hands him or her a diploma, a small, invisible maturity fairy flies overhead and sprinkles magic knowledge dust on the graduate. POOF!! You’re a college freshman! What was a latent college student suddenly sheds his or her immature ways and is suddenly metamorphosed into a mature college student ready and capable of meeting the demands and dictates of college!

And if for some odd reason the fairy dust did not complete the transformation, the next ten weeks of summer vacation complete the transformation. After all, that freshman is no longer a high schooler. He or she is a freshman at Neverland U and all our students know how to be students. After all, they are here at college.

But this is far from the truth. Peter Pan was fictional and so is the belief that incoming students are college students upon walking on campus. (The Power of Retention: More Customer Service in Higher Education; p. 157)

The Tinkerbell Theory also applies to upperclassmen Perhaps not as obviously but it does apply to most of them. Simply because they have been attending your college does not make them mature or responsible. And we all know this. We even complain when they act irresponsibly.

For example, do students suddenly shut off their cell phones in class if they are juniors? Not unless they have been taught to do so. Do seniors not text during class? Only if taught they cannot do that in class. When a freshman returns to campus as a sophomore does he or she come to class on time? Even better, if he or she has passed Comp 1(and 2 if you demand it) is the student’s writing now mature and correct? Etc. Etc……. What else is fictional is that we teach them responsibility by letting them choose to be irresponsible; to go to class or not.

Physical maturity in no way equals mental maturity. Maturity is something that is learned and taught. We accept that as a given with young people for example. We teach them how to share, how they need to clean their room, brush their teeth, wash, bathe, look before crossing, do their homework … If we want children to become a religious, we teach them and even demand they go to church, temple, mosque… If we want them to play a musical instrument we make sure they attend classes and practice. And we do make them go to classes, if they are our children!!!!!

If It’s Good Enough for Your Kids…. . When people start the argument on class attendance, at some time I will ask that person or persons if they have children in college. Most every time at least one does. “Okay, Let’s assume you are paying only $10,000 a year for school. Only $10,000. Public-affiliated university. Your child completed a FAFSA waiver at school (which should be done at every school) so you can call to find out why Jennifer is concerned her grade in a class is not that good. You are told that Jennifer is not attending that class. What do you do?”

The faculty member invariably says something akin to “I’d tell her to get her butt in class, not skip classes and go for extra help!”

So if it is good enough and important enough for you to tell your child to go to class, why isn’t it equally good and important for other peoples’ children in your classes to have to attend? That’s when the “ahhhhhh” and “we fell into that” light bulb moment hits. But fear not, the light gets turned off quickly.

And then I respond “Why didn’t you just shrug your shoulders and say something like ‘well I guess that’s her just learning to become responsible?’ Or don’t you want your children to learn responsibility the very hard way you would let other peoples’ children learn responsibility. By dropping or flunking out and getting to work at some minimum wage job? Oh by the way, most every business does not teach responsibility by making showing up for work an option. When workers do not come to work, they learn about looking for another job. Interestingly enough, that is true at the colleges and universities at which we work too.”

Not Enough Time and I’m Not a Disciplinarian Excuses

Okay but how does taking attendance make someone into any of the above? It doesn’t. It is like teaching itself. It is all in the way you do it. If one gets to know her students, attendance is easy. You can recognize who is or is not in class and check them off. If you don’t know them well enough, then you may not be doing a great job of connecting with them anyhow. Little says connecting and caring like “yes, whatsyourname” or “you in the blue blouse.”

It is easy and quick to simply go through the roll, call out their names and see who responds. That way you can check to see who is here and…Wow! Start to learn their names!!!

One could also assign some student to take the roll or pass the attendance sheet around. That is not as effective of course. Some students will work it out so they can skip and not learn from you. And you will not learn their names since it is a way to not get too acquainted with anyone in the class. And yes, I know you will say you get acquainted to many of the students in class in the process of teaching. Of course, you can’t get acquainted with those who don’t show up. And we all know the pile of research that indicates that a feeling of association with a faculty member is a very important retention and learning factor.

Just Not Enough Time to Take Attendance Roll

I also get the excuse that there just is not enough time in the class to take attendance every day. The two or three minutes it might take will kill the ability to learn all the material. A way to make sure there is enough time is to just start the class on time. As I investigate retention issues and customer service for universities an colleges, I am always amazed at the high number of classes that simply do not get roiling until at least five minutes have gone by wasted. In many cases, the delay is caused by late students, late faculty members, faculty talking to students at the front of the class rather than office hours or after class or the faculty member and class not knowing how to come to a decorous academic order.

Staring class on time is also good teaching since it reinforces the need for students to be on time. The major reason new employee graduates from college lose jobs is they do not show up on time. So why not emphasize a life lesson by startling the class when it is supposed to start?

Taking or calling attendance is a way to call the class to some sort of order. It can be the signal that the academic world is about to intrude on the more relaxed and disorder of the non-academic world in which people can do as they please without regard for others and a faculty member. Calling the roll also signals that the faculty member is asking for decorum, academic decorum in the classroom. Calling the roll is a well recognized signal to students that a separation from the non-academic to the academic has taken place so get with the appropriate decorum.

Another excuse I hear is that faculty do not want to be made into those who cause students to get into trouble, to report on them. But then if that is a concern why give grades and report them? After all nothing can cause problems more than a low grade.

I Have Nothing to Offer

A quite prevalent response to required attendance is that this is college, an academic environment in which we are teaching ideas, ways of thinking through specific course material and information to students to prepare them for life. We are trying to instill in them a process of inquiry that can lead to mature decisions later on. Okay. Fair enough but can students learn if they are not in class?

If students can learn as much when they are out of classes as they can from a faculty member in the class, the issue is not attendance at all but the value or lack of value the faculty member brings to the material and learning. If a student can learn the same amount of information or whatever just by reading the books, frankly that faculty member teaching the class is…well…not worth much. Maybe nothing. Maybe less than nothing since he or she is wasting student time and institutional resources.

Realize that when a professor tells students that they do not have to attend his lectures and they can pass by reading the assignments, doing the homework and taking tests, he is saying “There is no value to my lectures or classes. I, in fact, have nothing to offer you that you cannot get from a book.” This is a clear admission that I am useless as a teacher. I have no value for you. And in turn that diminishes each every faculty member teaching at the college or university. The fact that “there is room here for someone useless and I am paying for this worthless piece of the faculty” makes students wonder about other professors. And it does not mater if he or she is a brilliant researcher; not to the student in the class trying to get something of value out of it.

Anyone who tells students directly or indirectly that attendance to hear and discuss the lectures is not required to pass the course is saying I have nothing of value to offer and should not be teaching.

The Required Courses Paradox

The “this is an academic environment” excuse leads directly to another popular reason why faculty oppose required attendance although I have yet to have anyone argue against required courses. Why do we require some courses? Because if we did not students would not take them. We believe these courses are fundamental to a good education and preparation for life in and after college. We require these courses but do not require students to attend them.

If we assign these courses as so important that all students must take them, we must also assure they are important enough to make students attend them.

Weak Administrators and Legal Ramifications

The reason why some faculty oppose required attendance is they believe that the administration will not support them. They believe that if they are going to fail a student due to missing too many classes, the student or parent will go to a senior administrator who will tell the professor to work something out. Make it go away.

I have to concur that there are some administrators who would do just that. Often while waving what they claim is customer service. It is people like these that give customer service a bad name. What they say is customer service is not. It is just making the problem go away because I don’t feel like dealing with it or listening to an angry parent or student. Keep Academic Customer Service Principle 11 in mind:

11. The customer is not always right.

That’s why they come to college and take tests.

(If you’d like a copy of the 25 Principles of Good Academic Customer Service just click here and just ask)

Furthermore, these people can get away with asking you to make it go away or figure something out because there isn’t an institutional attendance policy that the weak kneed need to lean on. In the same way they can point to an institutional, state, federal or some other agency policy and tell a student or parent “I’d love to help you but my hands are tied because….”

This can occur because there isn’t an institutional policy. With a patchwork of individual faculty class policies which hopefully are elucidated in the syllabus, it is much easier for a weak administrator to pass the buck. If one section of a course requires attendance for all lectures except for excused absences; another has no required attendance; and a third lets students miss three meetings, you can see how easy it would be for a weak administrator to manipulate the situation if a student in the no miss section had two unexcused absences and was flunking as a result. Moreover, just think how well some attorney will be able to present the inconsistencies to a jury when some family sues because junior flunked the course due to the two unexcused absences while other students never went to the same course, different section, and passed.

An institutional policy takes away the possible manipulation and even legal action in which a plaintiff could sue not just the school but you individually. It also would not allow an administrator to suggest, ask, imply, persuade a faculty member to possibly consider passing the student against the attendance policy in the section even if other students may have flunked for non-compliance with the attendance policy for the section.That could definitely lead to a lawsuit?

But these are the weak people-pleasing administrators. When I ask the senior administrators at the over 450 colleges and universities I have worked if they would support a faculty member who followed an institutional required attendance policy, every one of them state support for an institutional policy.

So now, why oppose an institutional policy? What is the value of a hodgepodge of non-policies? They do not help students. They open faculty up to disparagement and even legal sanctions. Whereas an institutional policy helps students, promotes learning and keeps faculty out of court.

An institutional attendance policy will increase retention, persistence and graduation rates at a school as much as 18%. That alone is a powerful reason to have such a policy. But it also means that more students will be in the classroom to learn more and that is core to any institutional mission and educational success.

If enrollment management is important, get copies of the best-selling books The Power of Retention and From Admissions to Graduation at The Administrators' Bookshelf.

The Cost vs. Expectation Correlation in College Retention

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 17:34:00 +0000

A reader from Point Loma Nazarene University sent me an email that started this piece on school costs, expectations, retention rates and

customer service.

He wrote:

"I’ve enjoyed reading your blog and am currently reading your book, The Power of Retention. I have a question about the difference in responses of students in private versus public colleges and universities. Have you found that students who leave private universities do not leave for poor service as frequently as they do in public ones? Our retention rate is much higher than the ones in your examples."

No I don’t. In fact, customer service issues are a stronger reason for leaving a private college since there is usually more investment at stake. To start with, the higher cost of a private college or university over a publicly-affiliated college brings with it higher service return demands. There is an interesting correlation situation created by cost in reference to service provided. In all but the top schools, the higher the cost to attend, the higher the expectations. Or to be even more accurate, the greater the personal fiscal impact, the greater the expectations. If school costs are having a negative impact on a person’s budget, their expectations for the school will always be high.

It is the same as if you were going to an expensive restaurant versus a McDonalds. In a higher cost eatery or bistro.(don’t you love the way the name of the place often equals overpricing? Joe’s Diner versus Joseph’s Refectory? Also why so many colleges suddenly became universities….Same food just seems more impressive?) In the bistro where a burger, (excuse me) ground Angus steak costs $15.90 or more, one expects more meat, more quality and flavor and the burger or ground steak should be served with a side of pom frites (French fries would not do in a bistro), a side of vegetable perhaps, on nice dishes, cloth table cloth and really “your way.” The customer also expects some nice ambiance and surroundings. That guy on his cell phone on the table to the left is annoying because he is talking loud to make sure the listeners and the world hear him. But you sit on a comfortable chair, place a fresh cloth napkin on your lap and wait for a server to come to you. He or she takes your order and then presents the meal. If the burger is not cooked the way you want, you call the waiter over and expect a replacement to your satisfaction. You also expect that the waiter will be attentive to your needs as well as ask at least once if everything is okay? The waiter should be conscientious but not overly so. The bill is brought and with tax, the food and experience are $18 plus a $4 tip and an hour of your time

Now let’s say that in the bistro, the waiter was a bit slow to respond to your request for more water, or the burger was served cool; not hot but not cold enough to really complain. The frites were fine but there were just a few of them. And the vegetable side was slightly overdone broccoli. Was the burger and resta…uh bistro worth it?

At McDonalds, you stand in a line. Wait to shuffle to a counter where an underpaid young person waits for you to come to her. She asks for your order. You say what you want, stand and wait some more. A thin meat puck on a bun wrapped in paper and a small bag of thin fries is handed to you by the inattentive young person who simply may say “thank you” before turning to the next customer or friend behind the counter. You walk away; sit in a hard chair at a cold Formica-topped table wipe your hands with a small, paper napkin feeling just fine with the purchase. People around you are on cell phones, talking a bit loudly and there is a kid running around the place. The bill for the burger and fries - $4.96 and no need to tip.

Less than a third of the cost and likely a greater fulfillment level even if the burger and fries were actually not as good as at the Bistro. Why? Because the expectations were lower for McDonalds and they were fulfilled. The Bistro costs more so more is expected. The Bistro is expected not only to provide a good burger and fries but service equal to the cost as well as an ambiance to match. The noise at the Bistro is disturbing; at Mickey’D’s expected. The uncomfortable chairs, well what do you expect? It’s McDonalds. It is anticipated and there are lower expectations anyhow.

Of course, the expectation commands a great deal of the fulfillment of it. Even a very negative expectation in service can lead to fulfillment and full ROI such as at a restaurant like Durgin Park in Boston as explained in my book The Power of Retention . (C’mon, You should expect I will at least mention the book which is about to go into a third printing since the first two sold out!!)

So now to relate it to schools. A more expensive school produces greater expectations. If one is paying $35,000 a year, that student and family will expect a $35,000 experience. If they get poor service from people at the school and it feels more like “would you like fries with that course?” the feeling of return on investment fulfillment will be low. If a student can’t get required classes because the number of sections were cut, that’ll feel like “we’re out of burgers tonight even though we advertised them to you. We’ll have them again Fall of next year…” The response is simple “Hey we are paying $35,000 tuition a year. If I wanted to get a $5,000 experience, I’d go to Mickey D College down the road.”

If the university serves decent academic customer service and food like courses (which again is not just smiling and pretending to be nice though that does help) then the expectations might be met. Students will feel and calculate they are receiving return on their investments and complete the daily buying opportunities. They will go to classes and feel a part of the University.

Now to all that there is also difference in demand level based on the investment within a pricing band. A pricing band is a set of schools that are similar in what they offer within a similar price. Bands are often also governed by location since bands are flexible in whom they include. The bandings are often made by buyers much as they would consider another group of possible purchases by cost, i.e, 42 inch flat screen TV’s. from $700 to $1200. (Oh, right schools are not TV’s. Not a product that is decided by price and affordability….. And how did you decide what schools your child could look at? And you could afford?)

Schools within a price band are usually the ones that the customer compares one another. These are what we can afford and are located where the student and we have a comfort level while offering an Angus burger. The higher the cost of a school within a band, the higher the expectation of academic service and ROI of course. So, if a private college with a $35,000 tuition is in a pricing band of private schools ranging from $22,000 to $38,000 of more or less equal brand value, the investment in the $35,000 is thus considered to be higher than most, but less than others. So students and parents will expect ROI based on cost within band; better than some, less than others.

If a student chooses a lower level cost within the band the expectations will be lower for it. “It may not be quite as good as University A but we can afford it. The dorms are older, and it does not have as many major but it’ll give Janie a good education”. Expectations will be lower and the odds of meeting them will be higher.

Now should Janie have to drop all of the schools in the band and look at a public school or even a community college, the expectations drop of course but so does the probability of success. The expectations can be met surely but they have been dropped so low that they are not even really expectations as such. They are just acceptances. The immediate expectation of going to a private school has been replaced with an almost unpalatable alternative. So actually, the expectations are that the college will not be able to meet real needs and the original ROI. In the case of community colleges chosen as a low-cost alternative to a private school or even a public university, there is no way it can fully meet the expectations of a four-year degree. NO WAY!

Students who originally decided they wanted the Bistro angus burger who have to get the McD’s will find it unpalatable. They will leave for the Bistro as soon as is possible. This partially explains why community colleges have such a low retention to completion rate.

There are indeed many cases in which students go to the community college which meets many parts of their multifaceted ROI such as getting their money’s worth within a caring and student-focused environment in which they feel welcome and a part. And there are numerous situations in which students find that the community college provides excellent teaching and learning which are of course central issues to a real educational ROI. They adapt to the McD’s of education and find that they are pleased and might even look forward to it keeping the Bistro burger for a later date. Some even find they don’t want the Bistro burger at all. In these cases, their expectations have shifted.

That said, schools that have a clear mission that is embedded in all they do such as a religiously-based school like Point Loma will often have a higher retention rate than one that is not focused. Point Loma Nazarene University being a religiously-based or focused college thus has an advantage in that its students sought it out for a faith-based reason as well as an educational one Their expectations of ROI are shifted a bit from financial to emotional and affective so the money issue lessens in favor of am I getting the spiritual and personal attachments I expected and need as well as the education? The singular and fulfillment of focus is helping Point Loma.

I recently did a customer service for retention audit at a very fine university that had lost its clear focus. It had moved from being one of the finest military-focused educationally universities to trying to accommodate too many focuses. Students came to the University because of the military corps culture. Both the military and civilian students selected this University because they either wanted to focus on military training and education or they felt that a school with an active military training program would be serious and safe.

They were having retention issues starting in the sophomore year because of the loss of focus. Freshman cadets went through a training regimen that identified them and the University as the militarily-focused school they expected. Then after a full freshman year experience, the military dropped off enough to make too many students question the focus they had signed on for.

Our audit pointed out the perception that the University had strayed a bit as well as some other issues. Students did not feel as if they were getting the ROI they had paid for. The President of the University is a solid leader and has been issuing clear statements of focus and purpose that have been very well received by the corps of cadets and the non-military students. The message that maintaining excellent teaching and learning as it has over the years and attention to some other overt customer service issues are underway but we believe the most important finally will be the clarification of a unified and singular focus. That will retain many more students than in the past.

Finally, since Point Loma can boast of recognition in US News, it adds to the sense of value and ROI whether it is really there or not. Students and parents believe they are getting the ROI’s for the most part as a result of the external certification. For example, the 306 name brand schools have a higher retention rate than most other colleges not only because they can enroll those that fit their culture but also because students believe they will get the ROI and service based on the brand name. The difference between a Rolex and Timex. Each will tell time but people will invest more in the Rolex and believe its time is more accurate and thus worth the extra cost. The Timex will be accurate as well, but it is a Timex. But if the watch is a Timex and costs $25,000 it will not sell. This is due to a negative expectation. Timex belongs in a certain pricing band and if it wanders that far out of it, it cannot find a customer belief it is worth the price.

Finally, Point Loma and other schools that have a higher than average retention rate may be doing a good job of meeting student expectations and providing good academic customer service. That’ll of course increase retention rates. I was just on a university campus with an 86% retention rate. It is doing well considering some of its factors. It is well above the national six-year rate of 59% for four-year schools. It is doing some things really well to get there. But, we believe we can increase retention by attending to some customer service factors like how some offices work, scheduling set up, breaking done some silos, altering a couple HR processes, etc. Point Loma and other colleges and universities may well be in a similar position. Point Loma does exceed the national average in the past because of some of the factors mentioned above but it could still be many percentage points below what it could be.

So, start looking and thinking about what your university can do to increase its rate and meeting student expectations today.

Get your copy of The Power of Retention referenced in this article today by clicking here.

Mobile apps Can Provide Great Service to Students

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 17:21:00 +0000

I was eating lunch on a college campus the other day and watched as four students came and all sat down to lunch together at a table. Now, this was not a monastic college but not one of them said

anything to another throughout their sitting together. Nor did they seem to acknowledge one another’s presence though it was clear they had chosen to sit together. They were all too busy looking down at their smart phones to engage one another.

It was amazing to see how they could scroll through the phone and even text with one hand while the other hand lifted food and miraculously found a mouthy to place it in. I was saddened by the lack of communication with one another. It was equally frustrating to realize that students seem to be more engaged in their phones than anything else on campus.

But then it came to me. Why not use the phone as a college service device? Why not realize and accept that the phone has become more important to most students than for example the computer or conversation? That phones are not for talking on anymore but are for communicating in other ways such as texting and that email has been replaced by text? It dawned on me that rather than lament the dominance of phones and their capturing students’ attention, why not use the phones as a central point of service provision to students?

Mobile apps could be a very potent customer service delivery system as well as w ay to increase engagement with the school alongside great person-to-person customer service. Colleges could put a massive amount of information and access right in the hands of students who would be untethered to a computer or the campus. Considering that so many students have lives off campus and cannot always get to offices on campus, the ability to have access to services anywhere in the world was powerful concept. This would be especially great for commuters and community college students whose schedules often precluded being able to get to the campus to obtain services.

Moreover, providing a mobile app with as much information a student can use and want is also a sign from the college that it does care about making the student’s life at the college as easy as is possible and that leads to great service and engagement.

Why not harness the power of the phones attraction of students and use it as a main service provider on campus? This could, should be big. I thought about setting up a company to design mobile service apps for colleges but then realized I know nothing about mobile app development so I decided to do some research into mobile apps and college.

That led me to realize what I should have already known. This was such a good idea that it was already being done. There is a company named DubLabs that had already designed mobile apps for over 150 colleges and did so extremely well. The apps that they had developed met student needs and desires rather than those of the college or its IT department. Too often when a school decides to go mobile they try to develop it themselves and while this is helpful, it does not always mean it is useful to students. In fact, when investigating two mobile apps that were developed by the schools, students complained that they were “clunky” and “not very user friendly just like many website that were homemade.

I found that DubLabs had designed mobile apps providing service to large universities like University of California – LA mid-sized school like Bridgewater State University in MA and community colleges all over the country. And they had gotten very good reviews from students at the schools. They were able to put everything students needed and colleges wanted them to have in the hand of the student. Their mobile apps gave students full information and control over their college lives from class schedules to lecture notes, grades, registration, ebills, add/drops, college forms, access to Blackboard , class cancellations, bus schedules and all else right in their back pockets that was easily accessible and immediate. And the apps integrated with the college’s native IT system like People Soft.

Here is a list of what’s available to students on one example of a DubLabs mobile app.

· There is a dashboard for notifications, assignments, grades, class discussions, news and video;

· Access to the college ‘s Blackboard

· The book store where students could search for courses, required and non-required texts and even college clothing;

· Courses where all classes, and locations are available for immediate view with the ability to pin them to a mapping ability to locate the classrooms

· Course announcements and assignments;

· Media where students can watch class videos or whatever video pertains to them or their classes if posted;

· A student’s final exam schedule;

· A campus directory with active links to all college employees with contact information;

· One click calling for emergencies or student services offices;

· All grades;

· Register from the phone;

· Pay bills through the app;

· The library website;

· Employment opportunities with internships available;

· Dining information with dining hours;

· Real time bus schedules for students who commute;

· A calendar with events and where students can enter their own events.

A study by a company named Rapid Insight found that a mobile app by DubLabs increased communication between the school and student enough so it attributed a 2% enrollment increase to the mobile app. That translated into 133 more students retained and an additional 2.6 million available for the college's budget That is nothing to sneer at.

This is all great information for a student to have and it also shows the college does care about students having the information to be able to manage their days and lives all in one hand.

So now when I see students staring down at their phones I can believe they are using their college mobile app rather than just wasting time and ignoring one another.

Since 1999, NRaisman & Associates as been helping over 450 universities and colleges increase their admissions, retention and enrollment as the international experts on academic customer service through its consulting, training and campus service excellence studies

It's time for you to increase retention and customer service on campus.Call today at 413.219.6939 or email me at GreatServiceMatters.

How To Make Irritating Students Less Irritating

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 16:13:00 +0000

I keep receiving reports that students seem more irritated,less patient, quicker to anger and less tolerant these days. That makes it tougher to

work with them and help them. Though we may all realize that a student’s anger and even insults are not personal, they sure feel it. This is especially so since students keep pointedly using that second person pronoun “you” as if it were a weapon since they believe you are the school when they speak or even may curse at you.

They see you as the representative of that cold, impersonal money-grubbing abstract “the college” that has caused some disaster in their otherwise imperfect life. They have not learned how to separate the particulars from the universal. And when they are talking to you, you are a true representative of the college. As such, you equal the entire collection of bricks, mortar, people, rules and offices that is the university. So, at that moment, in that encounter, the student believes you are responsible for any wrong done; especially is the wrong may have been committed by the office that underpays you.

Thus when he or she is snide, nasty or even shouts and curses at you, that action is not really at you but as you as a symbol of the college - unless you have done something to call for it. Yes it is irrational and even misplaced but it is real because the student is feeling some hurt or harm.

(The following is excerpted from The Power of Retention)

Social critics and we in higher education have found the general lack of civility in our culture also exists on our campuses. This should be no surprise. The people who live in our Happy Bunny “It’s all about me” culture are our students and even some of our employees. They are our faculty, administrators and lo and behold, they are also us.

As Walt Kelly had his cartoon character Pogo put it so well back in the 60’s We have met the enemy and they are us. The people who attend and work at our schools are the exact same people in the exact same culture we think we have left behind when we enter the retreat for intellectual and academic pursuit we know as a college campus. But what we find is that what attitudes apply in the so-called real world outside of academia also apply on a college campus.

This reality can also explain differences in the ways we perceive and act toward one another. Our students come from a cultural group that has been immersed in a cynical, smart mouth me first attitude which has eliminated most of what older

America

grew up knowing as social civilities and courtesies. The Captain Kangaroo/Mister Rogers world of please, thank you and general polite regard for one another has been replaced by a hip-hop attitude that revels and condones a general rude incivility toward one another. Radio shock jocks use language and casually discuss topics on the radio some of our generation may well be taken aback by and even find anti-intellectual or uncivil. Language that might have been thought of as anti-social and rebellious is now everyday colloquial use in casual discussion even in classrooms and offices. Attitudes that would have been unacceptable and considered rude such as taking a phone call in class or napping during lectures have become the norm according to many faculty members.

Our parents and their parents and theirs all the way back to Young Socrates in the Platonic dialogues had difficulty understanding and accepting the current younger generation’s music, hair, language, attitudes, mores, actions. Each generation knew the student group was more out of control than the last.

Or as Paul Lind sang about it in Bye Bye Birdy

Kids!

I don’t know what’s wrong with these kids today!

Kids!

Who can understand anything they say?

Kids!

They are so ridiculous and immature!

I don’t see why anybody wants ‘em!... Kids! They are just impossible to control!.... Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way way? Oh,what’s the matter with kids today?

Actually, there is a difference in kids today. More than in the past perhaps and that is causing some service clashes on campus. We, the boomer and yuppie generations taught them too well. We encouraged them to take the next step in being more rebellious, more anti-authority, discourteous, disrespectful and become self-centered, demanding.

In a large sense, we created the college students we encounter. Our generations rebelled against authority and carried that forward by replacing much of the processes of etiquette with a sense of privilege for the next generations. They were taught that they are as good as anyone else. You can be anything they wish to be. Don’t let anyone tell you no. Age is not necessarily an indicator that a person warrants politeness or respect. On the one hand, students were inculcated with a media and marketing liturgy of their importance in the quest for class-free equality. The motto of “don’t trust anyone over thirty” has continued though the age threshold has dropped to anyone older than oneself. We also turned them into cultural and consumer cynics as we taught them not to trust advertising, marketing or promotional media. Unfortunately for colleges that cynicism does extend to the marketing they do. As a result, we created the consumer mentality we not find so offensive when a student tells us “hey, I’m paying for your salary.”

Additionally, technology has allowed the members of the current college student generation to isolate themselves from the larger community thereby greatly reducing the many social and face-to-face interactions one needs to learn social and cultural mores, codes and folkways. The Educause Center for Applied Research reported in 2008 that 80.3 percent of college students report using social networking sites regularly, up from 72.3% in 2006. The social networking sites are also the most used of all sites on the web attracting the largest amount of the average 16 hours of web browsing and usage per week. The social networks of YouTube, My Space, Hi5, Facebook, Friendster, chat rooms, download pirating networks like The Pirate Bay and Mininova allow students to be in a community without any need to ever be with someone physically. These communities have different mores, traditions, codes as well as greater tolerance for negative or boorish behavior than the analog world of higher education found on the campuses of colleges, universities or even career colleges where behavioral codes can be a bit more lenient. Emails also permit the student generation to communicate with others without ever having to deal with in live, face-to-face interaction.

As a result, they learn social codes that can tolerate anti-social behavior such as flaming. Wikipedia defines flaming as

…the hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. Flaming usually occurs in the social context of a discussion board, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) or even through e-mail. An Internet user typically generates a flame response to other posts or users posting on a site, and such a response is usually not constructive, does not clarify a discussion, and does not persuade others. Sometimes, flamers attempt to assert their authority, or establish a position of superiority over other users. Other times, a flamer is simply an individual who believes he or she carries the only valid opinion. This leads him or her to personally attack those who disagree.

Flaming is not always tolerated on all websites or networks but it is common enough to be found on most interactive or participatory sites. Moreover, people can feel quite at ease with full freedom to flame without concern for retaliation since they can hide behind a user name or the oft used moniker anonymous that does not directly identify them in analog life. As a result of this anonymity flaming, bullying and an assertive nastiness that would not be well tolerated in a real face-to-face social interaction can be common. Furthermore, a communication problem can arise for student communicators when after either participating in or reading enough flaming messages the aggressive and mostly anonymous communication behavior transfers into real life interactions. Students do not necessarily learn or acquire the socialization needed to learn in person inter-personal skills. This lack of social communication skill development certainly limits them with the normative variations in successful inter-generational interactions. This can account for some of the clashes found in working with uneducated communicators and even trying to assist them on campus. Students with weak communication skills just may not know how to communicate appropriately with campus community members of a different age and role.

Technology is only one contributing factor that has blurred the distinctions between what the sociologist Erving Goffman described so well as front and backstage performances in his classic book Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. (1967) Goffman describes the social world of communication events as happening as if they were on a performance stage of a society. He divides the stage into its two major locations of front stage and back stage. As in a play, front stage is where the actors perform their formal roles. They are aware they are being observed and judged by the audience so they play the proscribed part. In society, front stage performers are aware they are being observed and thus perform using socially and culturally proscribed roles and language acceptable to the role they are playing and to the audience listening to it. For example, when a faculty member steps before a class to lecture, he or she does so using tone, language, gestures and the such that would be far different than when he or she is explaining how the day went to a spouse. He or she would use a very different tone, language and performance values when telling a child the same information just told to the spouse. The performance would be appropriate to the role and audience.

Backstage communications occur when the actors are off stage, behind the curtains so they cannot be seen by the audience. They can be more of their so-called natural selves as opposed to playing a specific part in the play. Their language does not have to be that used in front of the audience for example. Granted they are as Goffman notes, playing the role of a person in a play but not on stage at the moment. As a result, they are under less pressure to perform in a particular approved manner or speak specific lines appropriate to their formal performance role. Behind the curtains, they can be more relaxed and speak and act in a more relaxed manner if they wish.

Front stage social roles place pressure on the people involved to perform their roles appropriate to the interaction of the situation, the audience and social norms. If a young person is talking with a priest for example, there are normally restraints placed on the use of language, tone and attitude. If the actors realize they are involved in a front stage performance. The interaction is one that most academics have come to believe should be similar to that of a student interacting with them. But if a person does not realize that he or she is in a front stage performance or has not learned normative social interaction behaviors called upon for the role, there will be a resultant clash between the expected and the actual.

For many students today, the separation between front and backstage has eroded. Students have not been taught the front stage social roles that many academics desire and expect. Whereas academics expect some level of respect for their positions and/or titles, students do not show much deference to either. For instance, just because someone has the designation of Doctor attached to the front of his or her name does not impress students much. Being a PhD does not place much front stage pressure to conform to behavioral models including an automatic show of respect for our educational labels. This is a learned indifference that we have some responsibility for by the way.

When educational attire went from suits, shirts and ties for men and dresses for female teachers, this shift in costume signaled a change in the way students were top address educators. The formal attire was a sign that the teachers were playing a formal role. It stated that we are dressed this way to signal to you that we are in our official front stage roles and you should be too. Just as a costume change in a play lets the audience knows that the character is in a different mood or role so the shift from formal to informal attire sent a message to the audience – students.

The change to more informal, more relaxed dress how one might away from the classroom backstage type of attire was a clear statement that the roles had shifted. The attempt to forge a less formal and more relaxed atmosphere worked. Perhaps too well because it also took away the pressures to perform in socially prescribed front stage roles and behaviors. That carried over to higher education in which the dress can be even more backstage than in K-12. Over time, the informal roles helped erase the academic lines between front and back stage roles. As a result, many of their communications with faculty and others on a campus are backstage behaviors which are similar to those they might use with friends. The college personnel might be using more front stage communication modes so there will inevitably be a clash which will be interpreted by the college member as a lack of respect when it is a lack of communication alignment.

If one realizes that what is occurring is a clash of front stage backstage expectations. It may become easier to deal with the clash. If one can understand the clash of communicating modes not as a statement of disrespect but what it really is - the variance in communication styles between generations. It should also be easier to predict the clash and it is hoped, not be taken aback by it nor simply believe the student is not being respectful and not deserving of one’s attention and help.

How to Cope and Overcome Irritated and Irritating Students

1. Smiling but do not overdo it. There are psychological and physical values to smiling at an irritated student. (Actually we should smile at everyone and even when there is no one there.) Smiling affects mirror neurons in the limbic system which is in the most primitive part of the brain. This is where the fight or flight response takes place. To keep it simple, when we smile, we tell another person that we do not plan to attack. The smile also turns mirror neurons on in the other person. They reflect the smile within the person to affect emotions that start to tell the person to relax and feel happier.

However when one person is angry and the other smiles too strongly, that can possibly trigger a negative response. An emotional reflection that “this other person is too happy while I am angry. Is that smile mocking me?” A fun if overdone example of this can be seen in a sequence from the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Steve Martin has been dropped off by a car rental company at a car that is not there. He has to walk back to the counter through snow, slush and moving airplanes. When he gets there, the receptionist is on the phone having an inane Thanksgiving dinner planning session with someone. The combination of the no car and then her breaking most every customer service rule by making Steve Martin wait while she giggles on inflames him. When she finally gets off the phone, she turns to martin with an exaggerated, phony smile on her face. She asks the usual but wrong question” Welcome to Marathon, May I help you?’ His response “You can start by wiping that f’---ing dumb ass smile off your f---ing rosy cheeks”.

A too energetic and/or faked smile will be like the proverbial red flag in front of an angry bull. It’ll just make the student charge. A smile is correct and called for but it needs to be an empathetic one. A simple, small smile that says “I see you’re upset and I WILL try to help.” The smile you would use with one of your children with a problem. Students are someone’s children and will respond to this smile.

2. Give and Name- Get a Name This is a technique that asks you to do exactly what it says. You provide an irritated student your name and ask her his or hers. “Hi. I’m ________. And you are?” When you exchange names you create a small community of people who know one another. That makes it less likely the irritation will be brought into the discussion. Remember, the student is not irritated at you but the institution. The anonymous amorphous “COLLEGE”. It is also harder for a student to be angry at someone her or she knows by name.

3. Apologize This is a lesson that we learned from people like Captain Kangaroo on TV as discussed in much greater length in the chapter “How To’s: Good Morning Captain” in The Power of Retention. Captain Kangaroo taught us to use manners and be polite. One of the things we could learn is how to simply say “I’m sorry”. If for example, he thought Bunny Rabbit had played yet another trick but he was wrong, he would simply say “I’m sorry I thought it was you Bunny Rabbit. I was wrong.”

A simple statement of apology to a student can go a long way even if you are not at fault. Even if you had nothing to do with the situation. Often what the student is looking for is to have someone recognize that he or she is upset and may not be to blame. To hear someone accept the situation with a simple apology rather than turfing him to the next office can work wonders.

The apology does not have to be an acceptance of error or wrong either. Greeting an irritated student with “I see you are upset. I’m sorry for whatever caused it. How may I help you?” Or “Gee, I’m sorry something has caused you to be upset…” or “I’m sorry if it’s something someone at the school did to get you upset….”

The irritated student will not be expecting someone to accept any level of possible accountability. By saying sorry, you sort of accept some accountability not for you but for the student’s being upset. You are not admitting guilt or a wrong has been committed if you say “sorry you have been made so upset”. But you will be recognizing the student is emotionally stressed and the apology will start to lower the stress levels and in turn the resultant anger.

Sometimes the student’s response will surprise you. It may range from “well thanks, but you didn’t do it” to “about d—n time someone realized I was upset. Than you.”

4. Compliments This might strike you as the most odd thing you’ve read but believe me it works. When a student is approaching you, your desk or window in an irritated state one thing you want to do is to interrupt the flow of adrenalin flowing through the body that reinforces the anger. The adrenalin affects the limbic system’s fight or flight decision. The hormone pushes blood into the muscles to prepare for a fight or flight. The next set of signals the limbic system receives will determine the decision.

So the objective is to interrupt and lower the stress level and thus the adrenalin flow. What can cause that to happen most readily is to introduce a pleasurable event into the situation. A simple pleasure? Receiving a compliment!

Yes it may seem contrived or phony but so what? You will need not to encounter angry students or your own adrenalin level increases, providing stress that makes your heart pump faster. Blood pressure rises. Other hormones like cortisol are released adding physical and psychological stress that can and will cause physical weakening and make you more susceptible to illness and other health problems. So if you need to give a fallacious compliment to keep you and the student healthier, do it.

Here’s an example. “Hi, I’m _____ Just want to say that I like your tee shirt, blouse, hair, glasses, jeans, backpack...” whatever seems to strike your eye quickly. Say it casually too so it will sound less contrived. Then as the student’s anger is interrupted you can even follow it up with a normal secondary question such as “Where did you get the tee, blouse, glasses….”

The student will most often just tell you where the tee was bought or even stop and think about it. This absolutely interrupts the flow of stress and anger and opens up a much more comfortable and congenial path for you to then ask how you may help.

These four techniques are tried and true. Try them and you might just feel that this job is worth the short hours and high pay.

If this makes sense to you, get the full book The Power of Retention by Dr. Neal Raisman from which part of this article is drawn.

Looking for a speaker for you school, contact Dr. Raisman today at

nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com or 413.219.6939.

The Hierarchy of Student Decision Making in Choosing and Staying at a College

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 21:36:00 +0000

Over the past two years, we have been interviewing and speaking with students students to listen and better understand what motivates them to make their decisions to choose a school or leave it.

There is much we learned from the 818 students we interviewed and spoke with. One of the things we came to understand is that there is a hierarchy of student need that guides a great deal of their decision-making in choosing a school, then deciding to stay or leave. This hierarchy takes the form of five questions they consider when looking at a college or consider leaving one.

Can I get in?
Can I afford it?
Can I graduate?
Can I get a job? (or get into a good grad school)
Will I enjoy it?

In some ways the questions parallel the organization of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need. They proceed from Primary Concerns, basic issues of necessity and immediacy, to practical considerations of Return On Investment to finally a Personal consideration. But, the question of a satisfying experience is the last issue for consideration by students after all others have been sarisfied. This placement suggests a parallel to Maslow’s self-actualization. It can only be an issue after the very practical survival issues are addressed. Yes, the initial reaction and desire to attend a specific college is there but it is a first response to a school which is over-ridden in most all cases by the hierarchy of student decision to attend or stay.

The most obvious initial basic concern is getting in to the college. Potential students first decided if the school is one they will be accepted into. This even applies even if one of the ones they apply to is a "stretch school", one in which their acceptance is not assured. They know if they can't get into the school, there is no reason to consider other issues in the hierarchy.

Next they stay with basic concerns and decide if they can afford the school. Granted some miscalculate out of their initial enthusiasm for the college, but if students can not answer the question of "Can I afford the school?" positively they will not go further in the application process or will drop out when the answer to the question become a no..

Then they face the practical question of "Can I graduate" from this school. Students generally all believe they will do well and graduate but if they think that the school is too much of an intellectual stretch, they will pass on it for or drop out due to a fear that they will not make it through to graduation.

This is followed by another practical question that deals with can I get a job if I do graduate from this school? If a student does not believe he or she will be able to get a job after graduation in the chosen major (except for some majors such as theater arts where there is a recognition going in that a job is not necessarily there at graduation) they will not go to that school or drop out from it. All students attend a school to complete the program, get the degree and get a job.

It is only after the basic and practical considerations are answered that a student proceeds to the more personal issue of "Will I like going to this school?" It is quite usual that after the practical needs are answered, students can convince themselves, at least initially, that they will "love" the college or at least have a good time. But if this final concern is not a positive on or in the case of a student who is already attending who finds he is not enjoying school, he will not go or drop out in most cases. But if the preceding hierarchical questions are all positive, I can get in, I can afford it, I can graduate and I can get a job, they are often strong enough to keep a student in school even if the experience is not what he had hoped for. This is especially so in a "brand name", top tier school with a record of getting employment by its graduates.

This issue translates itself once a student in is in the school and all other issues are resolved. It becomes "Do I like it here? And most importantly "Do they care about me?" as we have seen in the results of the study of why students leave a school.

Keep in mind that initially the students come to the school because they have made an engagement with it similar to when a couple gets engaged once they have answered the basic and practical issues positively. The students have decided in advance (for the most of them) that they will "love" the school. Therefore, they will enjoy their stay. But that decision is one we can either support or defeat with the way we treat the students and the service we do or do not provide. We are the ones who can reinforce or break the engagement.

So what does this hierarchy tell us. It says that students have a very practical view toward their college experience. They are going to school to "get a job" after all and that is a very practical matter. And so customer service needs to focus on their concerns and how they see college. They see it, as we already know from the UCLA Freshman Attitudes study, the CIRP, as a means to an end. For students, that end is quite practical. A job. It also says that when we focus too much on trying to make students enjoy their experience, we are not serving them as well as we could.

Yes, 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.

If this is helpful to you, please consider having NRaisman & Associates help you reverse the student and revenue loss from students dropping out. We are the leaders in increasing retention through graduation through our workshops,training, presentations and full campus audit of academic customer service.and other retention strategies. We guarantee results.

Contact us today at nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com or call 413.219.6939

Get a copy of the bestselling book The Power of Retention by Dr. Neal Raisman and find out how you can increase service excellence on your campus. Just click here.

The Vision of Academic Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 19:20:00 +0000

In order to change the culture of a college community, it is necessary to have a consensus on a customer service vision for the campus. Every person at the school must have the same concept of what customer service is. They must have a vision that overrides their personal definitions and concerns and everyone needs to encompass one that all can understand and embrace. A vision is not a set of lofty statements such as students are our business our only business that one might find in a seven steps to salvation mission statement; meant to be read not enacted. A vision must be a practical guide to see how things work and should work on campus.

A vision is like corrective lenses on someone who is nearsighted and can only see her own office and work. Most everyone can see after all, but not everyone sees the same. There are differences of perspective and angle, of ability and cognitive function and some people really do have such bad eyesight that they need to have corrective lenses out in font of their eyes or they will walk all over students who get in their path. They just do not see them. So think of the college’s vision statement as a set of eyeglasses to get everyone focused the same and on the same object and purpose.

I do not mind seeing the customer service vision statement as a corrective set of lenses either because most campuses do not see students correctly and some don’t see them clearly at all. Students may be ruder than in the past but that is not who they are finally and that must be seen.In fact, there are some schools that wear blinders to keep students out of their research and self-centered vision of the world.

The vision needs to start from an understanding of who our customers are. Students primarily,. There are more than one set of customers on a campus of course. There is the entire caste system and everyone in that academic caste system is a customer of one another but for this vision formation we will focus on students, the primary customer.

And yes, I know there are people out there who hate the idea of student as customer and the college as a business but all I can say by now is “get over it.” It is true and a fact. Colleges are businesses and here it is once and for all. We are businesses whose budget depends on selling the University (recruitment) to its customers (students and parents) by sales (admissions) and collecting revenue (tuition) by billing (bursar) based on the college's brand (reputation), products (courses, programs, degrees), services (advising, FA..) and creating a connection with the customer (client services) by employees (faculty, staff, administrators) (some in unions) who receive salaries and benefits, delivering product (learning opportunity) fulfilling customer need (degree and career/Grad school). Get the message?

So what should the vision contain? Six elements.

1. Providing a positive return on student investment;

2. Making students feel welcome and valuable in the classroom and on campus;

3.       Providing the care, concern and services needed to retain students in a college or
         university…from making a school into Cheers University… to scheduling and advising to
   classroom decorum and assistance… to all the services that can yield success for students
  and showing them you want them to be there

4. Doing all this with a smile and pleased attitude that one can help students succeed and stay in school

5. The Hillel thing –Do unto students as you would want done for your son, your daughter, your mother or your father

6. Following the 25 Principles of Good Academic Customer Service. (want a copy. Just click here and ask)

Make Every Day Like Day One on Campus to Retain Students

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 14:13:00 +0000

It was move-in day at OSU around here and the campus was humming with activity. Students are starting to arrive on your campus too to get ready for the school year, or semester, or few weeks for some. But that first day is a magical one for most all students and parents as colleges roll out their best for move-in day.

And most every college will be doing all it

can to make the arrival day welcome big and hearty. Presidents will walk 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!

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, we hope. 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 and 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.

If this article made sense to you, contact N.Raisman & Associates to see how you can improve academic customer service and hospitality to increase student satisfaction, retention, and your bottom line.

UMass Dartmouth invited Dr. Neal Raisman to campus to present on "Service Excellence in Higher Ed" as a catalyst event used to kick off a service excellence program. Dr. Neal Raisman presents a very powerful but simple message about the impact that customer service can have on retention and the overall success of the university. Participants embraced his philosophy as was noted with heads nods and hallway conversations after the session. Not only did he have data to back up what he was saying, but Dr. Raisman spoke of specific examples based on his own personal experience working at a college as Dean and President. Our Leadership Team welcomed the "8 Rules of Customer Service", showing their eagerness to go to the next step in rolling Raisman's message out. We could not have been more pleased with his eye-opening presentation. Sheila Whitaker UMass-Dartmouth

Get Dr. Neal Raisman's best-selling books by clicking here.

How to Figure How Much Attrition is Costing You Each Year and What to DO About It

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 18:21:00 +0000

The New York Times (6/7/17) had an article about the enrollment and revenue problems colleges and universities are facing. In it, the author Jon Marcus wrote:

Because of a dip in the number of 18 to 24-year-olds…
enrollment has been dropping for five years, meaning that there are about 300,000 fewer undergraduates to divvy up among America’s campuses than there used to be.

That makes each and every potential and current student vitally important to a college’s bottom line especially since public support of higher education has also dropped significantly over the past decade. Each student’s tuition and fees go to the bottom line of a school and thus is needed to help make the budgets, slashed as they are, work.

Yet, at least 52% of college students will drop out of colleges, universities, community colleges and career colleges before the year ends. They will take over $250 billion out of higher education at a time when academic budgets are already feeling the hard slap of the economy. This also means that the tax payers have lost most of their investment in future college graduates and a stronger economy since most of the first money in is from federal and state funding.

Your school may only lose a few 100,000, maybe a million or two, or three dollars…. What will that translate to? Cuts, jobs lost, equipment canceled, salary freezes, benefit reductions, release time gone, larger classes, fewer sections, more deferred maintenance, (deferred maintenance in America’s schools equals around $30 billion right now)general morale shot to pieces. That is bad but not be as bad as for some schools which will have to either merge or go out of business. The Department of Education has over 500 colleges and universities on its list of schools that are performing so financially poorly that they are under heightened review for fear they could go under. But it does not have to be. The exact amount that your school will lose can be easily calculated. Just use Customer Service Factor 1 which calculates dollars lost due to attrition. (The following is excerpted from my book The Power of Retention: More Customer Service in Higher Education)

CSF1 = [(P X A= SL) X T]

In the formula, P represents the total school population; not just the starting fall freshman number. Most schools use the fall incoming freshmen number and that is an error. The assumption is that attrition occurs most in the first six weeks of the freshman year. That may have some validity for the freshman year but the reality is that students are leaving colleges and universities in any one of the average six-plus years of a four-year degree and in the four-plus average years of a two-year degree. Students leave a school throughout their experience at the college. In fact, some schools are beginning to realize this and worry about the sophomore bubble. But they really need to worry about the super soph sluff, the rising junior jilt, the junior jump, super junior split, the fourth year flee and so on. Every year, every semester, in fact every day is a chance for a student to drop out. Colleges need to be concerned with every student every day of their attendance, for it could be his or her last. So we look at the total population.

Annualized tuition is the number a school should use to figure its real attrition. Not the retention between the first and second semester or the freshman and sophomore years which are very popular ones. That leaves out all the students who already dropped out before the end of the second term or semester. That number fudges failure. For instance, if a college began a year with 100 new freshman and 99 left in week one but the remaining student stayed the whole year and returned for a sophomore year, the freshman to sophomore percentage would be 100%.

In CSF1, A equals attrition. Again not just from freshman but an annualized attrition rate. And this rate is to include ALL students who leave for any reason. It does not matter if the student says he or she will be back. They are not in the population bringing in revenue until they actually do return. If they pay a place holding fee, that does not count them as a student until they are actually back in classes.

Fudge with the numbers if you have a need for delusion or are insecure, unethical or want to keep the Board feeling better, but when you use the formulas, be fully honest. It will help you understand why the budget is not working or may suddenly implode. No one likes surprises, especially ones that have parentheses around them in the budget and lead to freezes, cuts and the like. Using the formulas honestly can help forecast a reality to avoid surprises and initiate work on retaining students to maintain fiscal and operating health.

SL stands for students lost annually from total population and revenue production. And T equals annual tuition at the school. So here is what showed up when we analyzed CSF1 for Mammon University. You may know it. Its motto is Omnes Por Pecunia. Anything for a Buck.

Its total population was 500 students
Annualized attrition was at 39.6%
So SL (students lost annually) was 198.
Times an annual tuition of $13,000.

So, the formula becomes:
[(500 x 39.6% = 198) x $13,000] =
a revenue loss of ($2,574,000)

To carry this forward, we can plug in other numbers and see how an increase in retention could add to the bottom line and thus the ability to pay for full time faculty, staff, their benefits, increases for adjuncts, instructional equipment, tutors, research release, new curricula and programs, maintenance, and so on. All those pesky costs that make a college or university better.

If attrition dropped by 5% for this school, and we substitute 5% increased retention for attrition percentage in the formula. CSF1 = [(500 x 5% = 25) x 13,000] = $325,000 more revenue.

Plug your school’s numbers in, and see how increasing retention affects your budget and instructional strength while attrition will sap the ability to meet budget and mission. Most of the billions of dollars, lost futures, economic growth and tax revenues can be avoided. All your college needs to do is engage is some real academic customer service. Yes, that’s right. ACADEMIC CUSTOMER SERVICE. Yup! Treating students as if they really do matter. Like they're your clients. That’s Academic customer service starting with as strong a focus and effort on retaining students as enrolling them in the first place. It costs your school at least $5,640 to recruit a student. Why lose them by not expending some inexpensive time and about $25-50 a student to keep them.

Hmmmm. A $25 investment against the loss of thousands, maybe millions. If only the Congress could have gotten that good a deal for the economy we’d be in much better shape. 76% of all students leave aschool due to weak attention to their real needs as educational clients and customers. It’s not good grades they are really after. That’s an academic misapprehension as wrong-headed as the old “look to your left, look to your right” or “this’d be a great place to work if it weren’t for the students…”

Another delusion is that academic customer service is like the forced smile of an underpaid clerk in a store. College is not a retail store. Here the client can be wrong. Just look at test scores. But students want to feel as if they are valued and important. Students and their families want what the schools have promised but do not always deliver – fair return on significant investments of money, time, emotion and association.

Colleges sell themselves as Cheers U and the students really expect to feel as if they do know their name and really do care about them. They may be Cliff or Norm in real life but want to feel as if they have meaning and value. And it can start with some of the easy how-to’s of academic customer service from signs on campus, facilities through Capt. Kangaroo’s, Smiling like Dean Bill Schaar, telephone protocols, give a name-get a name and other academic service techniques. But it needs to start now if your school wants to save its budget.

If this is helpful to you, please consider having NRaisman & Associates help you reverse the student and revenue loss. We are the leaders in increasing retention through graduation through our workshops,training, presentations and full campus audit of academic customer service.and other retention strategies. We guarantee results.
Contact us today at nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com or call 413.219.6939

How to Tear Down Silo/Castle Walls

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 19:27:00 +0000

academic customer service, customer service, The Power of Retention, graduation, student success

Many of the causes for poor customer service at an institution can be resolved in part through better communication. This is an issue for all

academic institutions. As colleges and universities have grown and become more complex, we tend to know less of what others do, are doing and plan to do. We also have fewer chances to interact and learn since our jobs become busier and more demanding just as the need to integrate and share information becomes greater.

Moreover, technology, especially email, makes us all believe we are communicating when we send a message through technology. We generally are not communicating since we end up with a flood of emails and discriminating which we should read becomes difficult. Most people do not read most emails and eliminate or ignore many they should read. But since we believe that by sending an email we have completed a communication, we do not get up from our desks and actually interact. No need to. I just mailed it.

Additionally, as the work becomes more demanding, we focus on what we need to get done and may lose sight of the flow of functions across offices, Our focus is on my area and its work. So we end up making decisions to assure they affect our area best without regard, or at least enough regard, for other areas.

Liege Lords of Higher Education

It is often the case that as long as things appear to be going okay and there are no obvious problems or calamities, those in the chain of command are busy enough themselves to not rock the boat. They leave things and people to do their work in isolation since that is easier. This leads to what are called “silos” in the business literature. In higher education, offices and people in some schools have been left alone to follow their own initiative enough that they don’t live in silos but in castles. Many even have metaphorical or institutionalized moats made out of procedures, paperwork and technology they chose without regard for integrating it with the rest of the college. The directors or managers of the area becomes like a liege lords with a show of loyalty to the school or president but will rule their land as they wish.

Presidents often have to manage and accommodate their lords and ladies so they don’t rebel and lead a revolt. Presidents hate rebellions. Weakness on the part of the president makes the office and division lords stronger yet. And worse for customer service considerations, to keep the castle free from disturbances, some offices take the meanest dog in the office and make him or her the receptionist to scare of intruders, i.e. students and colleagues.

At many colleges and universities there are some very strong liege lords. They take care of their operation in a way that suits them best. They may make decisions that will meet their own objectives without regard for the colleagues and offices that their work is “handed off to”. They may also make decisions that please their office more than the customers since castles are essentially focused within the walls in which they exist. Customers, students in particular, become seen as an interruption or a nuisance. Colleagues might have to be tended to differently because one lord might need an alliance to defend against a proclamation that might force changes or some loss of control.

The Castles and Their Keep(aways)

This an administrator’s castle is MY home attitude can often be seen in the physical layout of offices. The offices are set up to accommodate the workers while the customer is provided very little, and often inconvenient space for a proper reception or interaction with staff.

One of the most noticeable examples of the physical castle with moat can be found in most bursar offices. There is a physical wall between the staff and customer. This wall is made to look strong and heavy. The wall is interrupted by thick, very thick solid sheets of glass that may be broken only by small round holes or perhaps a slot at the bottom. Customers are forced to speak through the holes or slots sort of like prisoners in a lock-up. But this is really more of a lock-in and lock you out.

Bursars will tell you that they need the protection in case someone tried to rob them. There is money back there after all. The thick bulletproof glass would keep the people in the office safe. Okay. But what about the customers in the hall? All the situation does is place them in greater danger. What would stop a robber from grabbing students or colleagues, holding the gun on them and demanding money for their safety? Well, but we inside are safe!

Perhaps I am wrong here but it seems that placing a student into a position in which he or she can be held hostage or even harmed on campus may not be viewed as good customer service.

The fortified walls and all are really just to show the importance of the people in- side and protect them from the customers who might want to actually get better service. Even banks have done away with the thick glass and all because it was getting in the way of being able to provide better customer service. They were keeping them, the tellers, from being able to try to form a mini-momentary community of two with the customer. From being able to engage the customer better. But offices that are set up for the staff do not want to engage. They wish to disengage.

In many, too many offices, students/customers are often made to wait for a break in the staff’s activity to even be recognized. Receptionists or people who may be positioned in a reception location seldom look up to greet and welcome a customer or visitor to the office. Greetings are peremptory, even curt at times as if purposely conveying that the person is inconveniencing them. This makes students feel unwanted, unappreciated and even angry. As one student stated, “they don’t seem to care or give a @#$% that I am paying their salary.” A sure statement of someone who has experienced staff indifference and poor service-two major factors in attrition.

Furthermore, some offices do not provide colleagues in other offices with what they need to do their jobs well. Schedules for accomplishing tasks may not jive. Information requested from students as part of the process may not be what is needed later in another office so students are often asked for more or even the same information if it is not shared. One office may not be able to complete required paperwork if the previous functional area has not completed its work so a student can enroll or pay a bill

Finally, with people living in their own fiefdoms, not knowing what another office does or who does it, students are forced to engage in a continuous shuffle from one office to another as they try to accomplish a required or wanted task. The shuffle or the run around seems to be a constant of student life at every college and university. Students report at every school that they are almost always sent to at least two to three offices when trying to get a simple task done. The offices may also be in the academic areas it should be noted since there is an apparent divide between the academic and non-academic silos.

Starting the Siege to Tear Castles Down

Begin by setting consistent institutional customer service standards on simple things such as proper telephone and personal greeting (no more than three rings) , time in which all emails and voice mails should be responded to (by the end of the day), time to recognizing a visitor to an office (immediately), physical structures, reception areas, etc. Then create a functional workflow process and diagram that integrates all offices around the needs of students and one another to assure also that the offices are doing their work at a time when it benefits both students and colleagues who depend on their finishing the work so they can then do theirs.

For example, an integrated team for all offices involved can develop one diagram that would follow a student from application through to showing up on first day of classes. Every step in the process should be charted and a responsibility center indicated. Dates by which the work needs to be accomplished for smooth integration with the next office should be noted. Any paperwork needed should be indicated and by whom it needs to be received as well as if information on it needs to go to another office. Review all forms to make sure they integrate material and assist not only the originating office but the next one. And be certain they are really needed or are we just making students and families do extra work so we can have our personal form?

Doing this diagram could also help identify points of contact that are causing students to turn away from showing up on the first day of classes and save the new students who might drop out of the process when faced by that point of contact and its problem

Finally, students, the customers must always come first. Make sure that every step is streamlined to require the least amount of time and effort for the student and the family first. Second, make certain that every step is actually needed and in compliance. We recently helped a school that was losing students trying to change or drop a class because it demanded eight steps and they did not want to bother completing the eight steps. Third, be sure that every step is understood and integrated by all other offices and people involved. Fourth, whenever possible all material, forms, information and data should be entered into a single, integrated CRM and MIS systems. This could also allow for increased customer service by letting the system pre-fill all and any areas on forms such as name, address, etc that a student might have to complete. Any time we can remove additional repetitive work for a customer, the happier they will be. This can also be accomplished for colleagues if the information is in an integrative data base.

Workflow diagrams can be made for any and all processes that need to be accomplished in the administration of the school and by students. Creating them will bring people together into teams. Force them to work together. Help them learn what others do. And perhaps, start taking chunks out of the walls of the silos so people can start to gain a larger integrated vision of the college.

FAQ User Sheets and School User Manuals

Schools may also wish to consider putting together FAQ sheets of the most frequent student issues or questions in each office. Ask the people who work in each office to compile a list of the ten most common student concerns or questions as well as the common ones that are asked but do not apply to their office. Next, supply a brief answer to the question. Once compiled, these can be turned into an indexed School User Manual (Our University for Non-Dummies?) that students and employees could access to find answers to their questions. Even better, the FAQs can be put on a searchable intra-net so employees can look up a question when faced by it and answer it for students. These could be used also to find answers to issues or needs students have but may not be specific to the office. In turn, the manual would provide people in each office with information to know the answers to many common student questions so they could direct students to the correct location for an answer. A user manual could also be the basis for giving people the information needed to end the shuffle.

To really make this work well, devote a day to bringing all offices that interact together. Let each office stand up, say what it does on a daily basis and then go over its ten FAQ items for everyone to hear. Allow for questions too so if there is any confusion it can be cleared up.

All these efforts can start to tear down walls caused by lack of communication. Interaction is the best way to get people to learn about and know who one another is and what they do. As a result, this can and will improve performance, satisfaction and service to one another and students.

Any questions from this article or desire for more information on any of the discussion, just get in touch with me and I will clear it up so you can start knocking down the castle/silo walls. Nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com 413.219.6939

IF THIS ARTICLE MAKES SENSE TO YOU, YOU WILL WANT TO OBTAIN A COPY OF THE BEST-SELLING BOOK ON RETENTION AND ACADEMIC CUSTOMER SERVICE THE POWER OF RETENTION: MORE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN HIGHER EDUCATION by clicking here

NRaisman & Associates is the leader in increasing student retention, enrollment and revenue through research training and academic customer service solutions for colleges, universities and career colleges in the US, Canada, and Europe as well as businesses that seek to work with them

We increase your success

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“We had hoped we’d improve our retention by 3% but with the help of Dr. Raisman, we increased it by 6%.” Rachel Albert, Provost, University of Maine-Farmington

“Neal led a retreat that initiated customer service and retention as a real focus for us and gave us a clear plan. Then he followed up with presentations and workshops that kicked us all into high gear. We recommend with no reservations; just success.” Susan Mesheau, Executive Director U First: Integrated Recruitment & Retention University of New Brunswick

How Much Does a Course Section Actually Cost and Should You Cancel it?

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Wed, 24 May 2017 18:53:00 +0000

The Real Cost of Class Sections

Imagine for a moment that you were in charge of an affair for hundreds of people. You made arrangements with the caterers months ago. They had given you a list of food you could choose

from. You chose it. Put down a deposit. Sent out invitations so people could attend. Chose all the necessary accouterments and all the arrangements. Took off a few days from work to be able to attend. Bought the guest books. Prepared fully.Then a few days before the affair, the caterer called and said that it was canceled because there were not enough guests to make it worthwhile. Sorry! Would you be upset? Likely so. Mad enough to spit and quit! Never use that caterer again.

Your school is that caterer most every semester, quarter and/or term when we cancel classes after registering students into them.

One of the greatest dis-services we provide students is during the scheduling of classes. Well, actually the non or re-scheduling of classes. Even more accurately, the canceling of classes during the last week or two prior to the start of classes.

We in higher education show absolutely no real concern for our students and the serfs we employ as adjuncts (more on this another time and how it effects service) when we decide to cancel a section late in the game. And we do this so very often. We have a very bad habit of waiting until the last week or two then determining that there aren’t enough students in section 8 so “off with its head! Cancel it. Screw up the lives and schedules of the students’ who registered for section 8. So what if they registered months ago and planned their lives and schedules (academic and personal) around the promised section. So what if they planned their work around the sections they chose and we let them believe they would have right up until now. If they have to choose between work and non-intellectual stuff like food and paying for tuition, they should realize what comes first! Our convenience and poor planning!! And if they don’t like it they should just quit their job and……. What’s that? They did quit. Not the job. School. Well, we were right to cancel their section. They really aren’t dedicated to learning enough to change their entire schedule, their life, job, arrangements with others, and all the things we were equally ticked about when we were students.”

Right! Just because we made an offer to them which they accepted and put down money for, that doesn’t mean we have a real contract because this is not the real world. Oh no. Don’t start with me on that. It isn’t. In the real world when you make an offer that is accepted and money passes hands, paperwork is filed that is an actionable contract. And in the real world, the one who breaks the contract is liable often for real money, or at least for some penalty. But in our world, it is the client who feels the pain and we wonder why they are angry and dropping out to go to another restaurant…uhhh school.

Most of the time, colleges and universities decide to cut a section for “fiscal reasons.” They believe there aren’t enough students in the section to make it fiscally reasonable. Colleges and universities just cut back on the number of course sections offered and then cull out sections with small numbers to save on the budget. They think that if they do not teach a low enrollment section, they will save money. Not really so as we’ll discuss below. Not simply because the calculations are wrong but because losing a student because of a cut section is just poor money management.

How many Students Does it Take to
Keep the Lights On?

For some reason, perhaps academic tradition, colleges and universities often use the number 10 as the required number of students enrolled in a section by a certain date to let a class go forward. That in itself befuddles fiscal and staffing realities.

Consider that the average number of adjuncts (i.e. part time indentured servants who get very low pay and no benefits. At least Wal-Mart gives its serfs a staff discount and $4 generic drugs and you don’t need advanced degrees to work there…) teaching course sections in the average college or university has risen to somewhere between 50% to 64% and could be more if figured by individual departments. That’s the number of adjuncts by the way, not the percentage of courses taught by them. That number is not available but could run as high as 75% considering some will teach as many sections as one section below full-time teaching loads, reductions in loads and such. And though I do not have but anecdotal information, it seems most of the introductory courses and required courses not taught by the newly hired junior, non-tenured, full-time faculty are taught either by adjuncts or T.A’s, i.e. part-time grad students who get tuition reduction and sometimes some pay too. So the odds are quite good that a course section especially required or introductory courses will be taught by a low-paid adjunct or T.A. How low paid? As low as possible. When $3,400 a section is like a princely sum. At $3,400 a section, an adjunct teaching 3 sections can make as much as $10,200 a semester!! Times two semesters that’s as much as $20,400 a year. There are hotel maids that don’t make that much though they do get tips which adjuncts don’t.

Now, I don’t mention the high pay of adjuncts alongside of the employment demands of advanced degrees for which many adjuncts are still paying off loans strictly for political reasons. No, that would be wrong! (Well, maybe not.) I bring this forward as part of a larger customer service point about the fiscal truths about canceling sections and pushing students to think very negatively about your college or actually quit. By the way, there have been many students who believe last minute class cancellations and bad advising are two methods used by schools to make them go additional semesters so they can make more tuition money. That’s absurd. We aren’t quite bright enough to do that as part of a business model. And I actually believe we do have more ethics and morals than to do that. We just do not have the right business thinking.

The Real Cost of Sections

All the above is to also question whether or not students are receiving the most important customer service of good teachers who are dedicated to their learning and available to assist them when they need help. Maybe not. But what the numbers show is that most courses in colleges and universities are being taught by underpaid, non-benefit receiving part-timers. Yes, some schools do provide some benefits and some adjuncts have unions to try to gain them better pay and benefits but to this point, it’s still serfdom for most.

According to the College Board's article "Trends in College Pricing 2016" the average tuition costs were as follows:

Four-year private $33,480
Four-year public $9.650
Two-year public $3,520.

Now let’s assume that the average student takes 4 courses for twelve credits each semester or 24 credits a year. So the four-year private student pays $4,185 per course; (annual tuition and fees/24), four-year public $2,412.50 per course, and two-year public $440 per course in tuition for a three credit course; more for a four credit course. For public schools which do get some public financial support, tuition is not the only revenue source so the cost per course is actually lower for the student but to keep the paying field even, we’ll just figure tuition and fees.

Now, consider that the better paid adjuncts seem to get around an average $3,400 a course, no benefits. Most get less and some quite a bit less but for this discussion let’s use the high priced serf cost. That way we won’t be understating costs. So to equal pay for an adjunct at a two-year school would need just about 7.7 students in the section to break even; a four-year public college or university would call for 1.4 students and a four-year private would need just a torso, not even a full student. Granted there are associated costs but this should provide a general notion that the number of 10 in a section for fiscal responsibility is just wrong. You can of course really figure the particular break-even at your institution as follows with RPC equaling revenue per student per course; the annual tuition and fees divided by 24:

RPC = Tuition per student (revenue per student per course) x 3 (credits)

Cost of instructor per section = NUMBER OF STUDENTSRPC TO BREAK EVEN

If a school can break even in the teaching of a course, it should always offer the section as a customer service to students and as a retention service to itself. A canceled section loses students due their accurate perception of customer non-service and indifference to their needs by the school. The student realizes he or she is not really important to the school. The college loses because students will drop out when courses are not available. Though universities may think they save money when they cancel an under subscribed section, when one looks at the formulas above that belief is often proven untrue. The institution may very well either break even or make some money. Yes, we all know that most colleges are not into it to make money but a fund balance never hurts. And those that are for-profit, why lose revenue and EBITA?

Why cancel sections students need to progress to graduation and lose students we all need to make revenue to run the college? Especially when there is lost? Except when you cancel sections for no good reason

NRaisman & Associates 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. NRaisman & Associates 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 nealr@greatservicematters.com

If You Say You Will Do It - DO IT!

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Thu, 18 May 2017 22:59:00 +0000

There is actually something worse than delivering poor or weak service. And that is promising great service and then not delivering. Or mollifying the

customer by telling him or her you’ll look into the situation, will get it resolved and either do not get it resolved or not get back to the customer.

I am sorry to hear that you feel you may have a problem……..

…I will look into the issue, see if anything can be done and get back to you as soon as I can.

So here it is.

The Six Point Solution to Proper Call Backs

When you tell a student you will look into IT:

If you are not sure when you will have an answer - say you are not sure when you will be able to get back but I will get back to you.

If you know you can get back on a certain date – say you will get back by XXXXday but I cannot promise I will have an answer/solution. Then, MAKE DAMN SURE YOU CALL ON THAT DAY even if all you have to say is I don’t have answer but I am working on it. Then provide an update on what you and/or others have been doing.

If you get a resolution or answerer sooner than when you told him or her to expect an answer it is okay to give good news early.

If you are not able to call back on time, it is imperative that someone calls for you and givers an apology and an update for you. Though do realize the customer will surely believe you just don’t want to talk with him. Not a god thing but better than no call at all on the anointed date.

You can let someone else call back with good news. No one complains if you let someone else tell them good news.

You cannot let someone else call with bad news. If you do, you will create a doubly angry person who will eventually come to see you anyhow as if to check if what he heard was really true.

Finally, DO NOT SAY YOU’LL CALL AND DON’T DO IT AT ALL. That will make the student feel like a jilted lover. And you’ve seen the movies about the rejected lover and the rabbit or the guy in the hockey mask.

That’s right. Michael Myers was expecting that call from the Dean that never came. Look what happened!!!

We increase your success

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info@GreatServiceMatters.com

413.219.6939

Service Excellence and Points of Contact/Sales

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Thu, 11 May 2017 22:30:00 +0000

Following some oral surgery in preparation for a tooth implant that took place in the morning the surgeon called the patient in the early evening just to see how he was doing. There had been no call from the patient about any problem or discomfort. The oral surgeon simply wanted to check on his patient and let him know he cared. This is a solid example of service after service.

In the retail world there is a concept of service after service. This is the activity in which a customer service specialist contacts a customer following the sale to show concern and care. A store, in fact any business that cares about retaining its customers employs a practice of checking in with its customers after the initial sale. This is done to maintain service contact with the customer to show concern and care. Businesses, most business care about retaining their customer since they know that there is a real cost to obtaining new customers and once they have the person as a customer it is easier to sell to him again.

For example, when I bought a new car, the salesman called me back within a week of my driving off the car lot in my new Subaru. He asked if everything was okay and if the service I received was to my expectations and liking. He also extended a discounted oil change and a request that I complete a survey that would grade his and the dealership’s service and preparation of the new car. The oil change was a way to say thank you and get me to come into the dealership to spend more money having the car serviced at the place where I bought it. The survey was one that went into the dealership itself as well as Subaru North America so it could grade the service being provided by the dealership. This was a part of the systemic approach to service being taken by Subaru that started at its advertising the cars for the dealership through to the checking on the satisfaction of the buyer.

Subaru controlled the full process of the buying of the car from the initial ad and brochures through the actual product and even the way the car was sold. It provided the salespeople with training on how to sell the cars and process the sale itself. It wanted to make sure that its name would be strong in the customer’s appreciation of the car and company. It left nothing to guess since the service people and mechanics also underwent training to make certain they took care of the cars appropriately. They also controlled the pricing of parts and the service after sale. Subaru knows that its reputation depends not on just the initial contact through advertising as well as the sale but what happens with its products (cars) after the sale. Subaru realizes that the initial sale is only a small part of protecting its name brand and keeping its customers for the next sale of a car in the future.

The sense of service after sale is another way that colleges and retail customer service are different. Colleges do not seem to care all that much about service after the sale because they seem to believe that the sale ends at admissions. It does not, it is made every day, every contact with people in the school is a separate sales, point of contact/sales event. But schools do appear to end the sale for the most part as soon as the deposit in in to hold the seat.

In fact, once the deposit is in the student’s account, the college’s contact with the student shifts from a sales approach to an academic one in which the customers are treated as if they are no longer all that important. The communications tend to move to what you have to do and here is the bill. When the colleges should be stitching the students into the school by sending notes thanking students for choosing the school along with helpful information, surveys about their experience in selecting the college and offers to help solve any issues that might cause them any problem with finally arriving at the college, they send bills. The schools act as if the deposit is a sure indicator that the student will show up so there is no need for service after sale but there is always a difference between the number of deposits and the actual yield, the number of students who actually show for classes.

In separating retail customer service from academic customer service one need only look at point of sale versus points of sale concepts. Yes, points of SALE in higher education. Colleges and universities are definitely involved in selling their schools, images and seats to students – their customers. That’s what they do. They sell the school to students to bring them and the money they and society spend into the school. That’s how schools pay bills and salaries, buy equipment, benefits, heating, cooling, lights and so on. It makes colleges feel better to call sales recruitment or enrollment management, but the euphemism does not hide the reality. Colleges sell their image, products, services and benefits to students and their families but our point of sale is very different and that helps distinguish academic customer service from retail.

Retail Point of Sale – Hard/Tangible Goods

Retail whether of hard or soft goods is all about the point of sale. The sale must be completed during the period of opportunity or the sale is lost since the period is fixed and finite. If a person comes to a store for a blue shirt if the sale is not made while he or she is in the store, there is no sale at all. The point of sale is therefore fixed and limited to the time in the store. Thus customer service in the retail world is also fixed and limited. Service begins when the customer enters the store and ends when he or she leaves. And it is all focused on the sale itself. Service is to get the customer to buy something.

The usual scenario is the customer enters a store, passes through the decompression zone where he or she might be greeted by an official greeter such as was done well by Wal-Mart years ago. (They have since replaced the official smiling grandma and grandpa greeters with bored apathetic floor workers decreasing their initial customer service interactions.) The customer then goes onto the sales floor seeking the product he or she came to the store seeking. The physical appearance and ease of shopping is a part of customer service. The sales floor is set up in a way to try to maximize sales in a well thought out customer service point of sale store such as a Nordstroms, Whole Foods and many other smart sellers who realize that making their goods look appetizing and desirable increase sales.

The customer finds the shirt he is looking for often with no assistance from an employee. At best, the employee is stationed behind a sales desk with a register. If the customer approaches to ask the location of shirts, the employee does engage in some very low level service. “Hello, may I help you? Men’s shirts. They are over there” perhaps smiling and pointing. Perhaps the service increases a bit when the employee says “come with me” and guides the customer to the shirts.

“What size? Color? Long or short sleeve? Ahh, here we are? May I ring that up?’ Back to the sales desk. That’ll be $xx. Cash or charge? Thank you very much. Thanks for shopping…….Come again” with a smile. This is a level of service often related to a commission sale which can often lead to greater service as well as a suggestion of a tie or pants to go with the shirt. The increased service can thus lead to an increase sale size which can benefit the salesperson in a commission-based environment especially in big ticket items sales such as a car.

On the lower side of service the customer finds the shirt himself. Takes it to the sales desk. Hands it to a bored cashier who asks “cash or charge?” Rings it up. “Thank you. Have a good day. Come again.”

In either scenario as soon as the bag with the shirt is handed over to the customer, the sale ends and so does customer service in most stores. In a high end store such as Tiffany’s a guard greets and checks you out as you enter and leave. Always a wonderful touchy feely moment. Service over.

Retail Point of Sale – Soft/Consumable Goods/Services

There are of course less intensive soft sales which follow the retail pattern discussed above but in an intensive soft sale such as food at a restaurant in which product and service combine there are a few more points of sale and points of sale customer service (PSCS).

Point of Sale Customer Service (PSCS) One - The sale starts with parking and entering the establishment as it did with the hard product sale but this is quickly followed with the first PSCS in the form of a formal greeting. There is the greeting as with all sales who in this case a maître d’ or seater who welcomes you and asks something. This is true for all food sales and they range from “Good evening, welcome to…. How many in your party/your reservation is under….” to “You by yourself? Two?” The customers are led to seats where they are told “the waiter will be with you soon.”

PSCS Two Initial Point of Sale – The waiter comes to the table, provides menus and “sells” drinks and appetizers. “Hi my name is Bart. I’ll be your waiter tonight. Can I get anyone a drink? Okay. An appetizer to start you off.” The service is more personal since part of the sale is for Bart to increase the tab while increasing his tip. Since there is a direct connection between the customer’s perception of his service and the pay-off for the waiter, he will, or at least should be more attentive to customer service. So he starts with the Give a Name technique as he provides his name though he does not try to get the customer’s name just a larger tab with drinks and appetizers knowing that the total sale will be the basis for his percentage tip.

PSCS Three Follow-up and Point of Sale – This is when the waiter moves the customer to the entrée for the meal. He will take the order often reassuring the customer that he or she has made a good choice so as not to raise any cognitive dissonance issues in the choice-making process. The re-assuring at this point of sale is an important part in developing a relationship for the tip.

Point of Sale Two and PSCS Four – The soft product, the food, is delivered and eaten. The customer will now formulate his or her definition of the success of the sales process with determining the value of the food itself. The food is the actual product with the waiter’s efforts as part of the customer service essential to secondary valuation of the experience. If the food is not up to expectations, the entire sale will founder. The waiter’s services will depend in large part on the product itself finally. There is no way to fully separate the product from the service in a restaurant situation just as they valuing of the food experience will depend on the service and expectations of the product and service as discussed in the section of The Power of Retention on the famous, or infamous, service but satisfying food at the restaurant Durgin Park in Boston.

Point of Sale Three and PSCS Five – The entrée dishes are removed and deserts are sold. If the product and service experiences have been good to this point, the possibility of upselling to desert is better than if either the service or product have been weak to this point. Weak service and the customers will want to leave sooner than if service has been good. Weak product and there is no probability of extending the sale to include desert and increase the tab as well as tip.

PCSC Six Finalizing the Sale- The bill is presented either after or without desert. There may be another minor upsale attempt with “coffee anyone?” but that is normally a signal that the bill is about to be brought.

In fact, coffee that will just delay the completion of the transaction may be the last thing the waiter who knows that another dollar or two will not increase the final tip much cares about. The sale is concluded and it is really “cash or credit” to get to the tip time. “Thank you for coming and have a nice day/evening” and the sale is fully concluded with the receipt of the payment, the tip and the customers leaving. Sure the restaurant would like good word of mouth and that is also the result of the service and especially the product but there is not a real expectation that the customer will return for the next meal of the day or even the next day. There will be time between the sales and purchases.

A company that is often pointed to as an exemplar of customer service is Disney. Their soft product sales approach is even easier than in the restaurant and is not really applicable to the academic sale scenarios, academic PSCS that follows. In fact, Disney has a fairly easy customer service to provide. They have a fairly captive audience that has prepaid to use the facilities or they cannot get into the park. Pre-payment helps keep customers in the park even with horrendously long waits for rides. Not only do they not have to worry that one of their lead employees wearing a character costume will not say something that will harm sales because Sleeping Beauty, Goofy, Mickey etc. are not allowed to talk, just perhaps hug. And the employees have to go through a rigorous training program to assure that each and every one of them acts exactly alike right down to giving the same looking autograph to park goers. This could not happen in academic.

And Disney does not have to worry that a character actor will not smile since their smiles are painted on. In the stores, the scenario is the same as above for hard goods with the restaurants like the soft goods. The hotels are a bit different but somewhat similar to food PSCS since they are often pre-paid so customers are less likely to leave and leave their money behind as well though tips are important.

Disney compared to academic customer service and PSCS academic service is not analogous. Disney is easier. Imagine telling a faculty member he had to smile all the time never mind be nice to students and their parents, and be out on the campus saying hello to everyone or get fired. Don’t see it happening.

Academic Customer Service and Points of Sale

It is obvious that the initial point of sale for a college is admissions but that is just the first, not the only sale. Students need to be sold again and again if a school is to retain them through graduation and turn them into alumni donors which is clearly a goal of many if not all colleges and universities. The points of sale, of concern, follow from the efforts of the admissions process and people and then include most every class, process, interaction and show of hospitality of student and college or university personnel. The sale is not one to make more money except at the end of a semester, term or year when a bill becomes due again. The sale is to reinforce the engagement between college and student based on the students’ appreciation of the faith in the engagement and the academic customer services rendered. The sale does make it easier to increase tuition if the customer feels he or she is being well sold of course.

The final good of college is an intangible we know as education leading to hope for a job and thus a better life that becomes embodied in the only close to tangible thing college provides – a diploma. This good is thus both hard/durable because the tie between college and graduate cannot be broken as well as soft/consumables such as classes and direct services and hospitality like at a restaurant.

Higher education sells belief and hope in the experience called college that leads to retention and graduation. Schools do not provide any tangible service product as do other professional services that fill a tooth or mend a bone, cure an illness or prepare and serve food to be eaten during the sitting. Colleges make promises and then grade their customers as opposed to how most every other business does. They have the customers grade the product and/or service. Academic institutions have evaluations such as in-class evaluations of professors but they are only responded to in the extreme when a faculty members scores are so very low that someone needs to do something. Schools do not produce products based on what customers want or need but based on what they think they want to give them and what we feel they need. Sometimes that means just what a school needs to deliver to give someone something to do and save budget and positions or because a professor wants to teach a course whether the customer wants or needs it.

Colleges can do this because their products are intangibles that have been pre-sold and pre-paid for as required necessary credentialing to be able to succeed in a career and society. Colleges have also situated their business into the position of expertise that is not to be questioned. In fact, question it too much and they can even find ways to fail the customer.

But because they sell a goal – graduation and a job – that takes a long period of time to achieve, colleges are exposed to many more points of sale and points of customer service than other businesses. In fact, the sale is not completed at admissions or the first day of classes. Students make “buying decisions” every day, every class, every hour, every contact with the school. In the morning or evening when homework or a set of classes looms ahead, the student must decide whether or not to spend time and effort to buy the classes and their learning. Buying in this point of sale is not with money at this moment, that’ll come at the beginning of the semester and has already been paid in most cases but to purchase with effort and time. The decision to go to class, to buy the class must also be made for every single class.

Attendance is thus a good indicator of the strength of the desire to continue buying and staying at the school. In fact, it should be argued that attendance is one of the strongest indicators that the sale is being made or the customer lost. Moreover, if a school really does care about retention it should have an institutional attendance policy that says attendance is required. That is how strong an indicator attendance is for a school.

Education is an emotional sale with some pragmatism blended in about it as the pathway to a better life and job. This is a sale that is based on engagement, trust and faith that “if I give myself over to the college it will get me to my goal of graduation and a job”. These two primary points of service are each very important since they are all points of reselling the school and its ability to deliver.

The sales are based then on trust and faith. The currency is not dollars but buy-in. These are emotional investments that require constant, continuous and consistent selling to the customer through service and through and then after the sale. This is to provide students the belief that there is and will be strong emotional and affective return on the investment of trust if they but buy us one more day, one more class, one more semester.

Thus it is extremely important to recognize that every person, every contact, every interaction with the school from the parking lot through people, policies and procedures creates a point of sale and a point of sale customer service situation. Every person from the president on up needs to realize his or her role as a salesperson of the school. All offices must accept that they are also points of sale and service. Faculty must understand that the ways they sell their subjects, their information and training through lectures, seminars, demonstrations, interactions and so on are all points of sale and service. Theirs are the most important services of all. People who answer the phone, the website, cafeteria, housing, maintenance, security, everyone and everything are points of sale. The campus itself needs to sell the school after all the lack of a place to park might very well mean "no sale" for the day as the commuter student drives away in a huff. Or poor lighting in the halls can make a student feel unwelcome or even a dirty bathroom can cancel the sale that because it can say that the school does not care about its students. It is extremely important that all of these PSCS go well to increase sales of the school leading to increased retention and graduation rates.

A longitudinal study of six-year graduation and attrition rates of over 1400 US four-year colleges and universities of all sectors indicates an average of only that PSCS is not going well. The study shows that American higher education is losing an average of 48% of every cohort it starts. This is an average with some schools losing much larger percentages of their enrollment to the point that it is a wonder they can stay in business. Moreover since this is the average over six years of six year graduation cohorts, an average his means that on an average year 48% of all students are leaving higher education. If any other business lost that many customers, that many sales, it would likely be out of business a long time ago. Very few businesses, even one that represents 2.6% of GDP can normally exist with such a high level of lost sales and revenue.

Higher education needs to embrace academic customer service and train at every point of sale to retain students through graduation and its own revenue stream. It also needs to realize that enrollment is not a point in time but an ongoing, continuous process as shown in the diagram below.

A major error that most colleges and universities make is that they envision enrollment as a process that starts at recruiting and an application and ends upon acceptance of an offer to enter the school. This is simply wrong. Enrollment is an on-going process that starts with the first contact of the school with the potential student and does not end even at graduation. It continues with enrollment into the alumni organization and onto a donor’s list.

There are four major enrollment events in a student’s life.

1. the decision to attend

2. the show on day 1

3. staying in school and

4. graduation.

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Neal is a pleasure to work with – his depth of knowledge and engaging, approachable style creates a strong connection with attendees. He goes beyond the typical, “show up, talk, and leave” experience that some professional speakers use. He “walks the talk” with his passion for customer service. We exchanged multiple emails prior to the event, with his focus being on meeting our needs, understanding our organization and creating a customized presentation. Neal also attended and actively participated in our evening-before team-building event, forging positive relationships with attendees – truly getting to know them. Personable, knowledgeable, down-to-earth and inspiring…. " Jean Wolfe, Training Manager, Davenport University

“We had hoped we’d improve our retention and with the help of Dr. Raisman, we increased it by 5%.” Rachel Albert, Provost, University of Maine-Farmington

“Thank you so much for the wonderful workshop at Lincoln Technical Institute. It served to re-center ideas in a great way. I perceived it to be a morale booster, breath of fresh air, and a burst of passion.” Shelly S, Faculty Member, Lincoln Technical Institute

“Neal led a retreat that initiated customer service and retention as a real focus for us and gave us a clear plan. Then he followed up with presentations and workshops that kicked us all into high gear. We recommend with no reservations; just success.” Susan Mesheau, Executive Director U First: Integrated Recruitment & Retention University of New Brunswick, Canada

The Customer is Always Wrong - Passive Bad Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 14:02:00 +0000

Charles Cezar who owned the Ritz Hotel in Paris back in 1898 became famous for saying "le client n'a jamais tort" (the client is never wrong). Granted he may well have said this because his Parisian employees treated the hotel’s clients poorly because they were not Parisians and thus in the staff's minds wrong all the time, but the motto became the standard by which he ran the hotel. Harry Gordon Selfridge remade the phrase to make it more emphatically positive with the better known “the customer is always right”.

Now considering the state of customer service in the country today’s phrase might well combine the two mottos to become “the customer is always wrong”. This seems to be the operative concept of most companies if they even think of the customer at all.

This was obviously the operative belief of United Airlines when it dragged a paying and seated passenger down the aisle on his back injuring him enough to put him in the hospital. This action was taken because United wanted to get some of its employees on board to another destination. The employees could have taken another flight on another airline to get to their destination but it was United’s belief that this would cost them money and inconvenience the flight crew they wanted to board so the passenger had to go.

This is an egregious example but there are many instances of “the customer is always wrong” or what I think is the most common belief “the customer does not matter” that we all run into everyday life. The waiter who ignored us at the restaurant; the bagger at our local grocery store who complained about working there and snarled at us, the person who answered the phone with “what”? But those are all examples of actively bad customer service.

It is the passive bad customer service that has enabled the negative attitudes toward customers and encouraged active disparaging service. Passive bad service does not have another individual included but you are provided bad service just the same.

Airlines are among the worst offenders with passive terrible customer service even if they do not drag all customers off of planes. They have taken an attitude that the customer does not matter at all. Just this morning I received an email from American Airlines telling me they had changed my times and flights for a trip I was to make. The new flight times puts me to my destination late for a meeting I was going for. No reason given. No concern at all for the customer.

Passive poor customer service is the result of changes in business models and technology. The new business model takes customer service completely out of the equation and has the customer supply his or her own service.

For example, there once was a time when if you went to get gas for your car, an attendant would come out, fill the tank, wash the windshield and check your oil. When the business model changed to self-attending gas stations where you did all the work yourself at no cost savings, this was a step to passive bad service.

The same change in business model affects the way we shop too. Companies have replaced customer service with either “do it yourself” or technology. When stores started to lay off sales people and having the customer do all the shopping work him or herself such as at a TJ Maxx, Macy’s or most any retail outlet, this is passively poor, or actually non-existent service. Amazon is testing stores that do not have any service at all. The customer finds the item, takes it to the check-out counter and checks himself out just like many big box and supermarket self-checkout-out lines.

McDonalds has taught us how to be our own waiters and bus our own tables and many food chains have caught onto having the customers do the work. Panera has taken this one step further by removing the counter server who might say hello and thank you out of the equation completely. Now they have computer stations at which customers enter their order and wait for a bag of food to be brought out or taken to the eating area.

When you try to contact a company with a problem but are not given a customer service number to call but are told to “open a ticket online”. This passive bad service again. Or when you get a phone number, call it and get lost in the labyrinth of technology not allowing you to talk to a person just an android voice who never quite understands what you are saying, again passive poor customer service.

Or now it is not considered rude or bad service to not return letters our phone calls from customers. Three weeks ago, I wrote two letters to two different companies about bad service and false advertising I received at two stores. No one has written back. I left three voice mail messages at another company but no one has called me back.

What companies have realized is that we will put up with passive bad service and not say anything about it primarily because there is no one to say it to. Companies claim that they are replacing people with technology to “enhance the buyer’s experience and speed up the interaction” but in so doing they have taken customer service out of the interaction. Kiosks for instance have replaced sales attendants in airports supposedly for our convenience but really for the airline company’s fiscal gain.

In replacing service with self-serve they have been training us to not expect customer service at all and we have been much too acquiescent. We accept the lack of service and have been taught to feel as if we are being independent serving ourselves. This is a false belief. By serving ourselves, we are encouraging passive bad service and hurrying customer service to the point at which when we go into a fast food restaurant we will make our own burgers and pull ourselves of a United flight.

People Make Success

noreply@blogger.com (Neal Raisman - NRaisman & Associates) — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 21:07:00 +0000

The following is from an abstract of a paper Twenty Years of First-Year Student Success: An Inventory of Strategies and Programs That Work by DeLaine Priest, Stephanie Gisler and Maribeth Ebasz of the University of Central Florida's Student Development & Enrollment Services. In it they recount and explain what UCF has dome of the last twenty years to increase their retention from 70% in 1994 to 87.5% in 2014 as the school grew from 25,000 t0 61,000. The authors write:

This paper describes strategies and programs that have been crucial drivers for the increase in retention as well as contributors to overall academic achievement in first-year students. Tutoring, academic advising, coaching, career readiness, and student engagement are among the strategies and programs that will be examined in this paper. Additionally, specific programs offered through offices such as the Office of Student Involvement, the Recreation and Wellness Center, and Housing and Residence Life will be described

The paper goes on to describe the particulars of what the University did to achieve that success. What it did in an nutshell l was provide excellent academic customer service to its students.They focused on delivering excellent services to students to keep them in the University and make others want to enroll in it.

Re-reading the section above and the rest of the paper makes one point absolutely clear. What works is engagement and specifically, engagement with people; not technology but people delivering great customer service in areas such as advising.In every activity described in the section from the abstract and in the full paper, a human being is involved in the interaction with the student. People make or break a retention and enrollment program's success.

Much of the enrollment growth at UCF comes from their strength in providing the academic customer service that keeps students at the University. ,They are adding more students each year rather than making up for attrition losses with the incoming freshman and transfer classes as was
discussed in the piece called Zeno's Paradox, I Love Lucy and Admissions. They have built a solid base of retention to build upon and that has led to a significant part iof their stellar population, and thus revenue, growth.

And yet, when colleges run into financial difficulty what do they cut? People. This is especially so in the areas that provide the very services that keep students enrolled in college and attract them in the first place. People in student services are often cut before say faculty, generally because the president does not have the intestinal fortitude to cut dead or dying programs and save student service programs that lead to retention and population growth.

The success of UCF shows that people are needed to succeed in retention so the last people who should be cut are they who create population growth.