In my six years at Tennessee Online Public School, we never had one student who had to attend the school. Every student chose to go there, and we were responsible for not only making sure students were able to find us, but we also had to keep them there since they could always return back to the school who sends a bus by their house free of charge.
Just like every school, there is only a reason to have a school if you have students. And since no students were zoned to go there, we had to find our students online. We relied on Facebook, media attention, relationships with other schools, and word of mouth to get our students. Getting students was only half the battle; keeping them was also important.
Types of Students
Even though virtual learning is commonplace now since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it was not that common in 2012. Students who were looking for a virtual option in 2012 could be placed in one of four broad categories:
Students who need time flexibility for other pursuits: these students were often athletes such as golfers, tennis players, motocross drivers, business owners, and even some hockey players. Because their prime practice time was during the day or other logistical reasons, they needed a virtual option for school to keep from missing out on a great opportunity available to them right now that wouldn’t be available later.
Students who were incapable or had major difficulty attending traditional school: whether it’s something like a medical issue or specific psychological condition, these students were just unable to be successful in traditional school and were at-risk for failure. Choosing a virtual option was typically done rather than choosing to drop out.
Students who just really liked technology: some students just loved technology and thought this was “a cool way to do school.” These students usually sought us out rather than their parents doing it.
Anti-establishment families: these students came from families who were generally against traditional public education and were typically the type of students who had been homeschooled or who had attended parochial schools previously, and for whatever reason, they needed us to do the high school piece of their education.
Because of this, like any other school, we were dealing with different groups of people who have different expectations for the level of service they receive. The difference is that if you treat any of these people rudely, they can just go elsewhere. In a traditional school setting, they can also go elsewhere, but they are doing that from in the system rather than from outside of it like it was in a virtual setting.
Elements of Customer Service
Appearances
The enrollment process starts with your website or Facebook page or whatever the person first engages with. Does it look professional? Is the information on it easy to find? Is there a way to collect someone’s information who is interested in your school?
In our first year, we didn’t have anything very professional, but in our second year, we used a combination of Squarespace for our website and MailChimp for our inbound marketing tool. Both were lifesavers, and they integrated very well. We also went from having a paper application to an online application because it was more efficient, and it was more convenient for parents.
When you’re a virtual school, your website is essentially your school building. It’s how you present yourself to the world. At the Pal’s Business Institute, they talk about how much time they expect owner-operators (the manager of the Pal’s location) to put into the outside of their stores. They not only clean their parking lot, but they are expected to clean as much of the adjacent properties that they can. They had several stories of owner-operators convincing neighboring businesses to let them pay to landscape or pressure wash a business next door. This is all about perceptions; the better a building looks, the better customers will automatically feel about it.
Pal’s sells hamburgers, but what do schools do? If someone selling hamburgers is that worried about the appearance of their building, how concerned should schools be about theirs? We serve lunch. We provide medical care. We house many students who spend 6+ hours with us a day. We provide a child’s education. What confidence will students and parents have in us if our building looks like a dump? And if someone who is trying to sell a hamburger will put that much effort and energy into the cleanliness of a building, why won’t we? It’s easier for a virtual school who can just throw money, effort, and time into a website, but cleanliness and neatness is one of the few problems a principal will encounter that isn’t complex and difficult to solve.
Responsiveness
Even if you have the most informative website in the world, you’re going to get phone calls and emails, and you’re going to get questions. For us, this was a great opportunity to show people that we were responsive to them; we did what we said we’d do; and, we were kind and caring group of people in whom they could trust the education for their children. This means the following were important aspects of answering the phone or emails:
Don’t act like you know something if you don’t know it. Find out. It’s ok to say I don’t know and call someone back or transfer. Do your best to help the person right then, but if you can’t, get them to someone who can.
Don’t give people the run-around and send them to someone else if you can help them even if you’re not the right department. Helping the person is always your job, and there’s nothing that trumps that. So never say, “That isn’t my job,” because it is.
Don’t speak with poor grammar. We are trying to build confidence in the education we provide.
Be kind and upbeat (but not annoying).
Let frustrated people vent before interrupting them.
These rules were mostly for anyone who answered the phone, and this was the first time I’ve ever written them down, but they were things that I would always remind the person who answered the phone. For the principal, the following rules would apply:
Answer every email the day you get it even if it is to say you’ll get back to them later.
Do not avoid someone who is trying to call you unless you’ve already attempted to solve their problem and you’re sending them to someone else. Often, just taking your whipping from someone is all you need to resolve the problem and move forward together.
Do not let anyone disrespect your employees. They need to have the confidence that they can hang up on someone who is angry and that you have their back. If they think you’re going to hang them out to dry, then they’re not going to feel comfortable dealing with difficult people.
Do not be afraid to escalate a problem to your superiors. If you have done the right thing, and you feel confident about it, tell someone with whom you’re having a conflict that you aren’t going to change their mind, and if they want to go to the next level, here is how to reach that person.
How often to principals monitor the communication in the front office? I know there are a million other things to do, but it’s something to check every now and then. Personally, because we were so different, I had to personally train the front-office secretary. I would sit with them basically their entire first week and let them listen to me answer calls. During a change in the year, (Spring enrollment, Fall enrollment, etc), I would repeat this again until the secretary was comfortable enough answering things the right way. This also provided me with an opportunity to lay out my expectations for how to talk to people on the phone.
What about teachers?
Teachers also need to be responsive, professional, helpful, and kind. Imagine if a teacher were responsible for a number of students wanting to transfer schools. What if that put the school in a terrible financial bind? It just hits a bit differently when someone’s bad behavior affects a school existentially rather than just having some annoyed parents call the principal to complain about the teacher. In an online environment, they have more flexibility to just leave.
No matter what kind of school you attend, parents do not like finding out at the end of the year or semester that their child is failing. Being proactive and communicating early and often can keep that from happening, but it can also establish an early intervention into poor habits or other issues that are causing the student to fail.
When it comes to help, teachers have to strike a balance between appropriate help and over helping. Teachers have to protect their time by not answering emails after hours. Teachers need to be intentional about the time they’re available. No parent can complain when a teacher says they will only be available during certain hours and then honor that. Sometimes you will have issues where a parent or student will point out that certain teachers answer emails outside of their announced availability, but that’s easy enough to handle as an administrator.
The other balance to strike is with the integrity of the rigor of the course. When I was a young teacher, this grizzled old veteran who was definitely not someone who gave good advice told me that if he had parent complaints, he would just give the student an A. He said that it made them shut up, and he generally tried to make sure that any students who had parents he knew to be problems made an A so he wouldn’t have to deal with them. Obviously, if you can guarantee an A in your class, then it’s probably not very rigorous. However, many teachers fall prey to parents who bully them into this type of behavior even if it isn’t as intentional as the teacher’s behavior above. You have to balance providing students opportunities to improve their learning (and grade) with protecting the integrity of your class.
Traditional Schools Must Adopt Good Customer Service
This is not to say that traditional schools don’t already provide good customer service. Many do, and I am very proud of the schools with which I work, but we aren’t perfect, and everyone has room to grow. In the near future, it is going to be absolutely crucial that they do. The world has changed, and in the wake of COVID-19, there will be many more options for students. Virtual schools that might have been seen as a fringe option before could be seen as a viable option now. Since most students have been thrust into virtual learning by mandate, many who didn’t think they would like it before may have fallen in love with it. Many who felt like it was a cheap substitute for traditional school might have discovered they learned more that way. Schools will be competing for these students.
Many of the more affluent districts will be able to create their own virtual schools, and they won’t have to worry about losing students to others, but most districts are not affluent. If nobody has to attend your school, how are you going to keep them there? The advantages that traditional schools have are things like proximity, tradition, history, sports, and familiarity. Eventually, virtual schools will start encroaching on that territory. That’s why it is important to start instituting customer service values right away. Make the decision to transfer very difficult for them.
Traditional schools need to start worrying about customer service now. Here are some basic guidelines:
Keep your building and grounds spotless.
Communicate early and often about any issues going on at your school.
Have multiple communications platforms for disseminating information.
All persons answering the phone need to be kind and polite to every caller and visitor.
All emails received during business hours need to receive a reply that day (within reason).
Teachers need to reach out weekly to the parents of any student who is struggling.
A spirt of helpfulness from anyone who interacts with the public. “I am not sure, but let me see what I can find out.”
Administrators need to protect those who answer the phone from mistreatment. "If anyone is extremely disrespectful to you, end the call and tell them they’ll need to contact an administrator. I won’t let you be mistreated.”
Administrators need to reinforce their expectations for customer service regularly. Make sitting in on parent phone calls part of your evaluation. Put out surveys to stakeholders to gauge what the community thinks about the customer service at the school. Sit with secretaries and listen to their phone calls. Get a feel for what they need to know.
Build capacity in employees to participate in the communication plan. Secretaries and teachers can often tell administrators what needs to communicated more clearly to parents and students. Build mechanisms where they can suggest these things regularly so that the school is addressing points of confusion quickly and clearly.
But what about…
Secretaries also serve as gatekeepers; they can’t make everybody happy. Customer service isn’t about giving away the store. Customer service is about helping people all one can and doing it with kindness. Every school should have written procedures for when and how parents can get an audience with the principal. If it is posted in the office, the secretary can be helpful by pointing it out and helping the parent schedule an appointment. If it is an emergency, they can call the administrator immediately.
People will lie and will say teachers or secretaries are being hateful when they aren’t. First of all, they already do this. Second of all, if an employee is known to always be nice and helpful, everyone will wonder what that parent did to get their ugly side (if they even believe they have an ugly side).
How does this help with teaching and learning? It is easier to communicate more often with parents and get parents involved if you do it from the beginning of the year. This will help with classroom management, holding students accountable, and parents giving you the benefit of the doubt in conflicts.
They don’t mean to be hateful; it’s just how they are. They’ve been doing this since the school was here. What am I supposed to do? Tell them the job has changed over the years. Everyone can be coached. Most people can listen to a 20 minute speech about this and know exactly how you want the job done. If it doesn’t stick, sit with them for an afternoon and model how you want the phone answered. It is a good investment of your time.