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