I have had the pleasure and responsibility of mentoring staff, managers and leaders from a variety of industries. One of the survival tools I share with them is "The Feel Good File". I have to thank my teaching mentor, Mary Pirrung, for this legacy of giving. She taught me that even on our worst days, we will have people to be thankful for. She encouraged me to keep every positive note received from a parent, student, or colleague. Mary said that I would have days, when I just wouldn't seem to be able to make things right for the people around me. She said when those days come, simly open up that special file, and read each and every note and card, starting with the first one I would receive, to the last one I had gotten. Beginning with my first official, full-time teaching position in 1983, I began my own "Feel Good File" - it's the best advice I have ever had and have had the vision to take.
I can clearly remember the first card I received that went into my feel good file. It was from the parent of a 7th grade student whom I had supported throughout her daughter's hospitialization and treatment for leukemia. I drove to the hospital on a weekly basis to bring homework, help her where I could in all of her subjects, and bring news of her classmates. When the girl was able to go home, I continued bringing her work and cheer, until she could finally return to school. She had lost her hair from the radiation treatment and her leg to the cancer. But she never lost her spirit. Her mom told me that although her daughter had received cards and flowers at the beginning of her illness, everyone except me and the girl's best friend had ceased corresponding and visiting.
I knew all this, because of conversations I'd had with the mom after her daughter returned to school. She thanked me in person, but it was her simple, personalized card that really made the difference in my perspective. The card read, "You have been more than a teacher - you have been our friend. For that we are forever grateful." I have kept in touch with this family throughout the years and just last year received photos of my former student's child. While our correspondence has tended toward the electronic, it was the original card and subsequent letters, photos and cards I received in the mail over time that I've kept. My "Feel Good File" is very fat! It has been suggested that I get a new file, as the old one is getting tattered. Or that I "organize the cards" in a scrabbook. My file, just the way it is, will go with me to every position I hold, whether at a school. company, or a home office. It is one of the first items I unpack when going to a new job, and the last thing I take with me, always sure to add to it the cards and notes I recieve from well-wishers upon leaving.
Focus on Giving and you will create a Legacy of a Lifetime!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Successful Colleges Understand Student Retention
Get customers and keep customers so that you don't have to worry about getting customers to come back!
It's as simple as that for any business, but more so for colleges. Unfortunately, college administrators tend to avoid using the "C" word (customer) when refering to their students, because it some how seems demeaning. Face the facts: whether you are at a private or public college, non-profit or for profit, your students spend money to be there. They pay you for a service - they are customers. Accept that fact, then move on to driving your administrative team to success.
And how do you know a college is successful? Return on investment - same as with any company. You must demonstrate to accreditors, the Department of Education, and in the case of for-profit institutions to your shareholders, that your students complete the programs they started, and that they are getting every service outlined in your catalog. The more graduates you have, the more points you get in the game. And if you have more students completing programs, you'll have more graduates. And if you have more students enrolling and staying in school, you have a better chance of guiding those students toward graduation. If they leave, they don't graduate. No points.
Student retention is the second most important activity on a college campus outside of enrolling students in the first place. Retention can be positively or negatively affected by everything from student activities, such as clubs and seasonal events, to career fairs, to referal campaigns. In this age of electronic communication, you would think that enrolling students, staying in contact with them, and finding them via the Internet (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) would make student retention efforts a breeze! It's true - finding students, new and old, has become simplified through electronic automation.
However, engaging them through this virtual world has become more problematic. Not because colleges don't have the technical capacity to create and manage websites and virtual worlds. Rather it's because people have become so used to electronic communication, that it's much easier to ignore emails and instant messages. Those formats have become less about communication than about advertising. So what's the solution? Personalization - and that can only be accomplished the old-fashioned way. The U.S. Postal Service! Yes, you read that right. Letters, cards, hand-written notes are keys to success in the communication game.
Imagine this: one day you go to your mail box, reach in and take out a stack of mass-mailed fliers from local merchants, complete with the typical 2-for-1 dinner coupons and 10% off your next car wash. Of course, you also receive a stack of bills - those are easily recognized by their #10 window envelopes. But then you notice an odd-sized envelope addressed to you. It reminds you of the holiday cards your parents used to get in November and December each year. You dump the adds in the recycling bin, tuck the bills under your arm, and open up the mysterious envelope. It's a card. It's not your birthday, and Thanksgiving is months away. When you read it, you realize it's a message from an old friend. Someone you haven't spoken to in a while, but think about often. This person writes that they miss you and hope you can reconnect. Suddenly, you feel a smile come across your face. Your worries don't seem that big anymore. There's a skip in your step as you walk back to the house. You place the card on the counter where you and others will see it as a constant reminder that someone out there cares.
Big deal, you say? Emails can do that, you say? I ask you: can you set an email upright on a counter where everyone can see it? No, but you can forward it to thousands. And those thousands can delete it without reading it. Imagine you're a student who's fallen on hard times. You haven't attended classes for a week, because you don't think you can afford to keep going. You're embarassed to tell anyone at the school - your admissions counselor was so exited when you enrolled, and your instructor has been working so hard with you to help you with your assignments. You don't want to disappoint anyone. You've ignored the phone calls and don't know if anyone has emailed you, since you can't afford the Internet right now anyway. You get a sick feeling everytime you go to the mail box, because you can't deal with the bills you can't pay. One day you find an odd-shaped envelope among those bills. You open it and see a personal message from your college telling you, "We miss you and hope everything's ok. We are here to help, whatever it is. Give us a call and let's talk." Maybe they do understand, you think to yourself. You pick up the phone and call.
After years of working with college students, I have had this scenario play over and over. It really happens and I do get students to return when I use the personal touch. Of course, I do send emails and use the phone, but sending a card has, by far, been the most successful. Why? Because in this day and age it's unexpected. It takes people by surprise, in a positive way. It's an invitation to connect and be connected to someone who cares. I invite you to try it. I guarantee you will get the same joyous feeling in giving as the recipient will get in receiving. That's the beauty of it.
Focus on giving!
Shelly
It's as simple as that for any business, but more so for colleges. Unfortunately, college administrators tend to avoid using the "C" word (customer) when refering to their students, because it some how seems demeaning. Face the facts: whether you are at a private or public college, non-profit or for profit, your students spend money to be there. They pay you for a service - they are customers. Accept that fact, then move on to driving your administrative team to success.
And how do you know a college is successful? Return on investment - same as with any company. You must demonstrate to accreditors, the Department of Education, and in the case of for-profit institutions to your shareholders, that your students complete the programs they started, and that they are getting every service outlined in your catalog. The more graduates you have, the more points you get in the game. And if you have more students completing programs, you'll have more graduates. And if you have more students enrolling and staying in school, you have a better chance of guiding those students toward graduation. If they leave, they don't graduate. No points.
Student retention is the second most important activity on a college campus outside of enrolling students in the first place. Retention can be positively or negatively affected by everything from student activities, such as clubs and seasonal events, to career fairs, to referal campaigns. In this age of electronic communication, you would think that enrolling students, staying in contact with them, and finding them via the Internet (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) would make student retention efforts a breeze! It's true - finding students, new and old, has become simplified through electronic automation.
However, engaging them through this virtual world has become more problematic. Not because colleges don't have the technical capacity to create and manage websites and virtual worlds. Rather it's because people have become so used to electronic communication, that it's much easier to ignore emails and instant messages. Those formats have become less about communication than about advertising. So what's the solution? Personalization - and that can only be accomplished the old-fashioned way. The U.S. Postal Service! Yes, you read that right. Letters, cards, hand-written notes are keys to success in the communication game.
Imagine this: one day you go to your mail box, reach in and take out a stack of mass-mailed fliers from local merchants, complete with the typical 2-for-1 dinner coupons and 10% off your next car wash. Of course, you also receive a stack of bills - those are easily recognized by their #10 window envelopes. But then you notice an odd-sized envelope addressed to you. It reminds you of the holiday cards your parents used to get in November and December each year. You dump the adds in the recycling bin, tuck the bills under your arm, and open up the mysterious envelope. It's a card. It's not your birthday, and Thanksgiving is months away. When you read it, you realize it's a message from an old friend. Someone you haven't spoken to in a while, but think about often. This person writes that they miss you and hope you can reconnect. Suddenly, you feel a smile come across your face. Your worries don't seem that big anymore. There's a skip in your step as you walk back to the house. You place the card on the counter where you and others will see it as a constant reminder that someone out there cares.
Big deal, you say? Emails can do that, you say? I ask you: can you set an email upright on a counter where everyone can see it? No, but you can forward it to thousands. And those thousands can delete it without reading it. Imagine you're a student who's fallen on hard times. You haven't attended classes for a week, because you don't think you can afford to keep going. You're embarassed to tell anyone at the school - your admissions counselor was so exited when you enrolled, and your instructor has been working so hard with you to help you with your assignments. You don't want to disappoint anyone. You've ignored the phone calls and don't know if anyone has emailed you, since you can't afford the Internet right now anyway. You get a sick feeling everytime you go to the mail box, because you can't deal with the bills you can't pay. One day you find an odd-shaped envelope among those bills. You open it and see a personal message from your college telling you, "We miss you and hope everything's ok. We are here to help, whatever it is. Give us a call and let's talk." Maybe they do understand, you think to yourself. You pick up the phone and call.
After years of working with college students, I have had this scenario play over and over. It really happens and I do get students to return when I use the personal touch. Of course, I do send emails and use the phone, but sending a card has, by far, been the most successful. Why? Because in this day and age it's unexpected. It takes people by surprise, in a positive way. It's an invitation to connect and be connected to someone who cares. I invite you to try it. I guarantee you will get the same joyous feeling in giving as the recipient will get in receiving. That's the beauty of it.
Focus on giving!
Shelly
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