Customer Satisfaction is Worthless; Customer Loyalty is Priceless

There are a number of consultants today who recommend conductive a “Parent Satisfaction Survey” to help your school gain some metrics about the most important things happening in your school, how satisfied those parents are, and what other elements need to be improved.

But in the world of sales, there’s marketing, sales, and customer service – three elements that have a parallel at your school:

Marketing is education. You’re reaching out to parents of prospective students in order to make a connection so they visit your school and see if it’s a “good” fit for their children.

Enrollment is sales. Once you have them see your school, now the process of developing and deepening the relationship takes place until they make the decision to enroll their children.

The one thing that many schools miss is Retention, since Retention is customer service.

Think of your own experience. You may have a favorite restaurant – and then you may discover that it’s under new management, and prices increase, and your favorite menu items are no longer offered. Are you going back there?

Or you’ve used a product for a number of years, and keep buying it when you run out. Then, when you replenish your supply, you find that something has changed. A recent example is paint.

Remember when you used to go to a paint or hardware store and buy a gallon of paint? Today, the packaging is the same, but it doesn’t contain 128 ounces. It’s now anywhere from 116 to 128, depending upon the color, finish, and brand you buy.

Bottom line – customers are usually satisfied – until they’re not. I have a relative who purchased a Jaguar because of their performance, comfort and reliability…until the engine blew with under 50,000 miles. Think they’re buying another Jaguar?

Sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer has written a book titled Customer Satisfaction is Worthless; Customer Loyalty is Priceless. If you’re looking for some “out of the box” reading material, think about ordering a copy at https://www.amazon.com/dp/188516730X.

It’s not about curriculum, or improving classroom behavior and engagement. But it is about keeping your parents to keep their children in your school. In the K-8 setting, the usual assumption is that the Kindergarten cohort will continue all the way through 8th grade. The correct equation is that about 50% of the Kindergarten cohort will be there by the 8th grade. Focusing on Retention strategies, which are different from enrollment strategies, will help to make your enrollment work easier.