Let’s make 2021 the ‘Year of the Customer.’

Let’s make 2021 the ‘Year of the Customer.’

by Margo Bastow GAICD, F.EdPlus. Director of Community Relations, Santa Maria College, WA

This year I focussed heavily on improving my customer’s experience, and I spent a considerable time reviewing my school’s customer’s journey in relation to an enrolment.

It was such a great process to undertake, and it really was eye-opening. If there is one thing, I would recommend it would be for the marketing department to work with your enrolments team to do this, if you haven’t already. What you need to do is walk in your customer’s shoes. Look at every bit of correspondence/information a customer receives, where they get it from, and every action they need to take to enrol at your institution.

A key finding for me was that we needed to re-write some of our correspondence to reflect our brand’s tone.  It also highlighted the need for us to streamline the communication and improve the online user experience by moving our enrolment application process online.

In relation to the online enrolment process, I came across a  product called EnrolHQ that serves my purposes with regard to online enrolments and email automation however if you are going down this path make sure you also check out Digistorm and EnquiryTracker.  

 

So what does my Customer Journey look like?

My Customer Journey is on one A3 page, and I have divided into the following sections, bearing in mind my school is full and has strong waitlists in all grades.

  • Awareness
  • Consideration
  • Commitment
  • Waiting (Some of our customers wait 1 – 13 years until they get to the interview stage)
  • Onboard
  • Waiting
  • Advocacy

At each stage I documented

  • what they would be thinking,
  • how the school connects with the customer and through which channels at each stage
  • how they would be feeling
  • what are the business goals, and
  • how do we measure, what are the KPI’s

Here is my template to get you started.

Putting your customer journey together will take some time, but the outcome will be worth it.  Please remember the customer experience needs to be continuously reviewed and refined; it is not a stagnant document. You should always be thinking about how you can improve your customer’s experience, whether it is what you send them or how they interact with your technology.  Make it easy for them to do business with you!!!!!!!

Good luck with your customer journey and thank you again for supporting Educate Plus.