There are several reasons why students leave a college and while conventional wisdom would believe that most are tied to finances and grades, most of them are actually related more to the lack of feeling like they belong. In the past, many institutions felt this was an area out of their control; not so. Retention and graduation rates are affected by the level of service to the student. One of the top reasons is the feeling of indifference that students get from the staff and faculty who work at the school. The recruitment process wooed the students to “choose us – we are the best school for you”! Yet, once the student had made the choice to attend the school, the indifference began.

Boring form letters identifying orientation dates, lack of easily available information regarding registration and advising, use of campus jargon yet known to new students, curt response to questions, parking tickets given without clear guidance of where parking is allowed – all little things, but they add up. The message the student feels is “how come they don’t seem to be as excited about my coming now that I’ve made my commitment to them?”

Many colleges have started retention programs, but these seem to focus on retaining the freshman student. That’s great, but most of them stop after the student makes the commitment to come back for their sophomore year. They should keep the focus throughout all four years. The key to successful students and a successful college is to see the student through graduation and have them receive that diploma with their name and college name proudly and prominently displayed in their office or home.

Developing personal connections with students at every point of contact takes away the feeling of indifference and starts to build the relationships that may last a lifetime. A Service Map is wonderful tool to help each department and area look at their processes and identify how they can enhance each of their specific touchpoints.

Philip Crosby, the leader in quality management, once said, “You have to lead people gently toward what they already know is right.” Most everyone knows that giving good customer service is the right thing to do, so why doesn’t it happen more often?

There are many reasons I can think of:
• Everyone brings with them their prior learning of what customer service is – some are good, some are bad
• Lack of knowledge, materials, information, and other obstacles get in the way
• Customer service has not been defined clearly within the organization; therefore, each employee makes up their own definition
• No one is held accountable for the lack of delivering good customer service
• It is not perceived as important to management

A great customer experience has to be felt by employees internally in order to be delivered by them externally. This involves letting employees know what is the higher purpose to their jobs and management treating employees as customers. There is a domino effect.

Day-to-day coaching and counseling also gently leads people towards what they already know is right. It means management is paying attention to them and that they care whether it is done right or not.

“Intolerable service exists when intolerable service is tolerated.”

Recently, they surveyed over 10,000 recent guests and the results are now steering their capital spending decisions at Walt Disney Company hotels around the world. More refrigerators, more beds and free wi-fi were the top desires among those polled. Disney doesn’t just listen, they implement. Recognizing the busy summer season is rapidly approaching, they have already begun installation of these requests.

Surveys, comment cards, focus groups, listening posts are all means to hear when your customer needs and wants are changing. Scott Cook, the former CEO of Intuit, would invite his top 60 loyal customers to share with him what they desired to be done to keep them using his Quicken products. Through their sharing and his listening, he was able to quickly adapt when changes needed to happen.

Listen and learn. Nothing remains static in this world, what made customers delighted with you yesterday, will not necessarily be what keeps them happy tomorrow. Your job is to stay on top of what they want and decide what you must do to meet the changing needs and wants.

In all work organizations, a basic tenet of understanding is that all work is a process. The educational process of teaching-learning is no less a process, built upon a supplier-customer relationship. Students have many options in today’s competitive environment and in order for a college to compete successfully, they must create an atmosphere that attracts and maintains students. A high-level faculty is part of this atmosphere; the way students are treated is also key to their experience.

Students are not customers in the retail customer sense, but are customers in an academic customer sense. How the college staff and faculty treat them may determine whether they stay or leave. With graduation rates as low as they are today, it would behoove many colleges to start looking at the “student experience” and how they can improve it.

CUS is an acronym that stands for:
I’m concerned….
I feel uncomfortable…
I feel scared….

CUS* originated as a technique for staff to use with physicians as a way to express their level of disagreement or discomfort with an action or inaction affecting patient safety. For example, “I’m concerned about the safety of this procedure in this situation…”, “I feel uncomfortable about the way this is being carried out…” to the highest alert of saying, “I feel scared this will result in….”

Wendy suggests using this technique for nurses to engage in a more emotional connection with their patients by creating a two way dialogue of asking the patient to give more than a Yes or No response. “Tell me, what concerns do you have?” “Tell me are you uncomfortable about anything?” “Please tell me, are you anxious about anything?”

I believe this is a wonderful technique that can be used outside of healthcare too!  Think of the last time you went to purchase a vehicle? Were you concerned, uncomfortable, a little scared of the process? How about the last time you bought a new home, computer, phone, etc.? Most of us will listen to the salesperson discuss the features and benefits they hope will meet our physical needs.  But it is the rare salesperson who will take the time to listen to their customer to meet their emotional needs.

Would you feel better about the experience as the customer if the interaction between you and the salesperson went something like this:

“Tell me what concerns do you have about this new phone?
“I want you to be comfortable as possible, tell me is there anything about the phone that makes you uncomfortable?”“I want to do all I can to ease your mind. Is there anything that is making you feel anxious about this purchase or decision – please tell me.

Teach your employees how to use CUS with their customers. It is a technique that can be used by most all businesses and organizations to help their customers feel better about their experience and purchase decision.

*Quality Safe Healthcare 2004, 13 suppl, i-85 – i-90

Does this ever happen to you? How does it make you feel? I can hear the scripted call as soon as they begin. Doesn’t matter what it is for – political vote, renew a subscription, clean my attic ducts, etc. As soon as I hear the robotic voice, I tune out.

The same automated performance happens in person too. I suppose the post office clerks have to ask the specific questions, but some do it much better than others. When I tell him upfront, I am mailing a book and then in the very next line he asks me if I am mailing anything liquid or perishable, I want to scream.

Animated people use voice tone to vary their questions, animated people pause and listen, animated people respond appropriately, and animated people treat customers like human beings, not just “next” in line.

Try calling into your business without telling the employee who answers the call who you are. Ask the typical routine, mundane questions your customers would ask and rate how she responds. If automated, do some training and coaching, if animated, congratulate and express appreciation.

1. Look through their lens. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What are they wanting, desiring, expecting? Identify with their emotions, then meet their needs. This will make them feel as if they are not just “next” in line and another transaction, but that they are special to you.

2. Everything Speaks. Everything your customers see, hear, smell or touch in your environment is making an impact on your customer’s experience, so take a look around and see what your physical location is speaking. What kind of message is it sending: professional or casual, organized or cluttered, clean or dirty, innovative or mundane, etc.? Is it the message you want it to be sending?

3. Exceed expectations. If you just meet your customer’s expectations that is all well and good, but that is what they are paying for. If you really want to add value, do something a little bit more than what they expect. Doesn’t have to be huge, but something unexpected. Pay attention to the details, it’s the little things that count.

4. Make easy to do business. Take a walk through your processes as though you were a customer. Is it easy to do business with you or is it difficult? Did you have to go through 10 voice mail prompts to find the person who could help you? Did you have to go from one department to another department to get what you needed. How can you streamline and make it more pleasant to meet customer needs in the way you set up your processes and procedures?

Two weeks ago my husband had a total knee replacement at  Orlando Regional Medical Center. A tough surgery to begin with, but then he had complications. I spent five days and a couple nights in the hospital with him. The people were amazing! They were so nice, sincerely nice – not fake, not just there for a paycheck. Everyone from the transporters to the cafeteria to the techs to the nurses – all seemed to care and took great care with both of us.

Great service is all about the touch points with the customer and in all the touch points in those five days, I never once experienced a rude or indifferent employee. Team members (as the employees are called) treated each other well too, I noticed. Many times I heard a “please” and a “thank you” to one another. And that goes far in a stressful situation to know that the employees are working together for the customer/patient benefit.

Many of the moments could not have been scripted like when the tech actually gave me a hug and knew it was okay and what I needed at the moment…. when the nurse started trading some of her best recipes with my husband…. when I asked the transporter why he was so caring and he said, “I don’t want to be the one to tear down our image and reputation”.

Service excellence is a culture, a way of life. It must become a part of the fabric of the organization. There were obvious signs that ORMC works at it. Recognition of team members everywhere, reminders to be nice posted, telephone answering skill sheets next to phones. It doesn’t happen by magic, but a lot of hard work. ORMC orthopedic department has earned my kudos!

One secret he shares is that the average man is more interested in his own name than he is in all the other names on earth put together. Remember that name and call it easily and you have paid him a subtle and very effective compliment.

Forget it or misspell it – and you have placed yourself at a sharp disadvantage.

This is great advice that has not changed over time. In fact, in today’s fast technological world, people who remember someone’s name, are cherished. Excellent customer service doesn’t have to be complex.

Reason given for the huge drop in percentage for recommendations: customers think companies who aren’t showing up on time is because they “don’t care about my time.” Customer referrals are as good as it gets. You are losing a huge opportunity for not showing up when promised.