Student retention is one of the major issues in higher education with the undergraduate graduation rate hovering around 60% (NCES). Freshmen arrive on campus excited and ready for a great experience. Once the welcome week is over and classes begin reality sets in. Communication is the key to success in any relationship including the relationship between a university and its students. With class schedules in full swing, communicating students can be more challenging. When students start to struggle, support resources available to them are forgotten and difficult to find. A strong communication strategy that keeps students engaged will have a positive...
Musician Dave Carroll watched as his expensive Taylor guitar was carelessly tossed by baggage handlers at O’Hare airport. His complaints to United Airlines flight attendants and ground crew were ignored so he was not surprised when he arrived at his destination to discover the guitar was damaged beyond repair. Over the next few months he sent countless emails and letters and spent hours on hold and in conversations with United employees spouting company policy. A songwriter, he channeled his frustration into a song and a light-hearted music video. He never imagined what would happen as the song entitled “United Breaks...
As a kid, I knew the best houses to stop at while trick or treating. The ones with friendly people, houses that were fun and welcoming, and especially the ones who gave full-size candy bars! When we ran into our friends while we were trick or treating, we told them what houses to be sure to go to and what ones to skip. We even remembered our experiences the following year! Customers are looking for full-size service. Customers act much the same way as trick or treaters. They look for friendly, welcoming businesses that provide a full-size equivalent of products...
We all love getting the VIP treatment from businesses, especially if we are loyal customers. It makes us feel like we’re valued customers. Businesses treat us like VIPs when they are trying to win our business. Unfortunately, that treatment fades pretty quickly once we become a customer. I’ve been a long-time customer of my cable company and recently contacted them three times over the course of a couple of months to talk about ways to reduce my monthly bill. I even told them I had a better offer from a competitor and if we couldn’t get close to that offer,...
When you want to ask a friend or family member a question, how do you contact them? Most people’s preferred channel of communication looks something like this: Answering concerns as efficiently as possible is the goal for most customer service departments. Making sure you’re communicating on a channel comfortable for customers is equally important. When should you call vs message your customers? Read on to find out. If you’re interested in learning about where email should fall in your communication strategy, read this article. Quick Comparison (Peoplocity vs Phone Calls): Unique Phone Features Phone calls are free. Sort of… Unlimited minutes...
Alumni Travelers tend to range from 50-85 years old. These travelers remember when cell phones were bigger than their heads. An iPhone was merely science fiction when they were born. Now the majority of people have smartphones, and they use them to message friends and family while traveling. Percentage of Smart Phone Users (Aged 50+) Pew Research cites that 96% of Americans currently own some kind of cell phone. 81% of those Americans are using smartphones. 8 years ago, this was unheard of. In 2011 only 35% of people had smartphones. But what about your clients? If your travelers fall between...
Email will never die. Despite attempts to dethrone it; email has survived for decades. Email’s popularity has led businesses to use it for every message they send out. All messages land in the same inbox; spam requests from a Nigerian Prince along side order information and important event reminders. “People try to make email do everything when it’s not particularly good at anything.” Don Norman (author of The Design of Everyday Things) In a world that’s increasingly mobile, 2-way personalized messaging might be a better fit for you and your customers. On the other hand, email has done its job...
Students are notorious for asking the same graduation questions over and over again. We work with students from 42 universities across the United States and we’d like to bet that we know three of the five questions they’re asking Commencement offices most often. What if you could eliminate these repetitive questions by understanding the root cause? Question 1: Do I need tickets/Can I get more tickets? This is on the mind of both students and their parents. But didn’t you already tell them? It’s on the website, social media, and in their email inbox. Here’s the thing, students don’t read...
Companies are competing based on customer experience (CX)! CX drives decisions about whether or not customers will continue to do business with a company. Engaging with customers throughout their experience is critical to ensuring a great experience. This infographic provides an overview of the impact of customer engagement on customer experience.
Communicating with college students and their parents can be challenging. There is a lot of information to convey and a variety of ways the information can be delivered. In an effort to save time, all the information a student or parent needs to know about an event, such as graduation or student orientation, is often packed into a single email or sent in a big information packet through the mail. The amount of information is overwhelming and is barely read. If it is, readers will typically get a few high-level points, missing many of the important details. As a result,...
