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Date: March 17th, 2008
Author: Dr. Neal Raisman
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The recent horrible events at Northern Illinois have led to many people asking for a reprint of my 2006 article on campus safety, Making Your Campus Safer Starting Today: Objective Correlatives, Broken Windows and Customer Service: 10 Steps to Increase the Feeling and Reality of Security on Campus. I am disheartened have to respond and reprint it here. The horror at NIU is too vivid to think about. The ideas in my piece may help but the reality is we need to look at something much more basic. We can do all we can to respond to these incidents on campus. We can do all we can to make the campuses more secure as I discuss in the article. But until we address the core issue, we will not stop these slaughters or the daily killings on our streets that will lead to our campuses.
In my forthcoming book The Power of Retention I discuss how the same students and people who live off campus come to our campuses everyday. The same issues that are reported in the metro section of our thinning newspapers walk onto our campuses, through our halls and into our classrooms everyday. We cannot escape the issues of society. So we need to face them head on and demand that we do something about these issues. We have to be there showing students and others the way to create greater civility and safety on our campuses and society.
The first issue that needs to be addressed is at the core of all shootings – guns and us. It used to be that we would read about people on campus shooting their mouths off at one another. And we would sort of look the other way and keep shuffling along. Then we shot our academic mouths off over guns but well we had other things to do like get a job so we let the mouths fall silent. And now, we don’t talk about the core issues of guns and our indifference to them and the people they kill because, well, they are not us.
Let’s realize that the people who died at NIU, Virginia Tech, Columbine and elsewhere died because people shot their GUNS off, not their mouths. Guns killed the people. Without the guns, people would still be alive.
We do have an opportunity now to get people to focus on the core issues of guns and us. We are in an election year. Candidates want our votes. The college age vote is central to any candidate getting elected this year. I ask every one of us to challenge the candidates of ALL and ANY office on their stance of at least handguns and automatic weapons. The ones that kill people not animals. If the candidate hedges or says he is in favor of individuals other than law enforcement officials having handguns or automatic weapons – shoot your mouth off and do not vote for them.
You like to go hunting. Well, that’s your thing and do it safely. But handguns and automatic weapons? Only for hunting people. And the current laws? The NIU killer got guns legally.
And about ourselves. Caring, respecting and valuing others is a basic customer service and the central issue to civility. If you do not feel upset when someone shoots another on or off campus, then don’t claim to care please. People are dying on campus yes and that is horrible. But there are people who are being killed daily in parts of our cities, suburban and rural areas everyday too. They are just as important as those on campus. Their deaths are as real as those of our colleagues. Their families mourn with as deep a grief as anyone on campus. Their bodies are as dead as any shot in a classroom. They are as important as any one on campus is and we should care.
We need to realize that being in college does not allow you or any of us to just be concerned about what happens on our campus but on all the campuses of life. Shoot your mouth off about the value of all people and then treat every one even people you may not yet know with dignity and value.
Here’s a simple start. I know some will say it is dumb and will not stop slaughters in the classroom. They are right. My 10 suggestions below will do a better job on that. But it will help make life better for an important person - you. You will actually have a chance to make the world better even if it is just one small, one miniscule piece at a time.
1 Shoot your mouth off over guns. Make gun control an issue for candidates
2. Smile at every person you walk by and say”hello”. Just a simple “hello”. You’ll be surprised and pleased at the result. Some people will smile and say hello back. Nice feeling to have your value recognized even by stranger. The stranger is you by the way; not the other person. You take the action. More of the value of saying hello is in the article below and how it can help keep a campus safer. But here I want to simply stress the value of recognizing another. Many people kill others because they do not believe any one cares or values them so they reciprocate by not valuing others. Peoples’ murders become just a means of making a statement. We can replace that statement with another through hello.
Just because someone else did a dis-service or harm does not relieve you of correcting the injury.
Hey, I don’t even go to NIU. Right. You did not pull the trigger of a gun but that does not relieve you of the responsibility to heal the wounds to civility, social and personal well being the actual bullets caused.
3. Start today and DO SOMETHING Most people who read this blog are faculty, administrators and staff in higher education. We are in a position to do something. We can influence students and others. We can be the leaders on building greater civility on our campuses and in our societies. Recall why you became involved in higher education. Part of that was likely to be involved in building a better world and culture. Here is an opportunity to do that. Start by smiling and greeting your students in class and the halls. Engage students with a smile and shoot your mouth off about guns and civility with them. Maybe not in class because that is not what the classroom is supposed to be about perhaps but perhaps in the cafeteria, the halls, everywhere students are. Go to them. Smile and say hello then engage them in discussion about the issues of guns and civility.
Be a change agent. And if I can help, let me know. I will do all I can to help out.
Dr. Raisman is the leading authority and consultant on customer service in higher education. Dr. Raisman's number one selling book - Embrace the Oxymoron: Customer Service in Higher Education - has been purchased by 52% of all colleges in the US. Neal is a highly sought after speaker, trainer, customer service auditor, researcher, marketer and general maven on customer service. He has a PhD from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in neurolinguistics; was a Fulbright Fellow in France; has published three books and over 80 articles, plus the blog www.academicmaps.blogspot.com.
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Date: March 3rd, 2008
Author: Dr. Neal Raisman
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A faculty member of a client college I had presented a workshop at last year emailed today. Seems he was confused. He is getting fed up with the way students behave in class. He said he is tired of competing with cell phones; upset by students who just walk into or out of class when they feel like it and certainly bored and even appalled at times by the language, tone and attitude some students use. He feels he should not allow these sorts of activities but is concern that would go against what the customer service attitudes being expressed by his department chair who fears a high drop out percentage. Fewer students could lead to a smaller budget? Those attitudes are expressed by supporting students who might complain the faculty member is being too hard or strict in class. The faculty member comes up for tenure soon and does not want any problems.
Okay, leaving the whole tenure process and results on teaching and student service aside because that is one of the largest problems in academia, what the faculty member described is a common misunderstanding. See, I can be quite temperate at times. But I must say that the faculty member and his chair just prove the Pogo cartoon once again.
If anyone believes that pandering to the worst instincts and behaviors of students is providing customer service they are not only wrong, but to quote Dr. House they are idiots. They are not providing good customer service anymore than a dentist who sees a bad tooth and leaves it in so as not to cause the patient pain from a root canal is.
Keep in kind that anyone who believes that the customer is always right is almost always wrong. QUIZES ANYONE? Students are not right. In fact it is because they are wrong -or maybe better word - flawed that they come to college. They attend higher education because they know they are not prepared to succeed in a career yet. They also realize they need to learn from books and from people if they are to get that job or grad school before a job to reach their goals in life. They pay money to be made stronger, smarter and less socially awkward. And due to false notions of customer service we fail them – sometimes in all three areas.
If we make courses easier because we believe they do not want to work that hard, that is not customer service. If we do not challenge them as much as we ought to create greater intellectual plasticity and ability preferring to hand out high grades that will reinforce their self-esteem, we have not served them well. And if we allow them to act in ways in our classes that will surely get them fired on a job we have failed. That is not customer service! That is in fact, major dis-service.
If anyone believes that letting students skip classes will be helpful to them in the world of work, it can only be an academic living in the tenured palace. There is not right to fail in life/ Faculty who allow students to walk in late or walk out when they want, talk on the phone, nap during class, be rude, use inappropriate language, be rude to the teacher, hand in homework when and if they please and so on are just preparing these students for failure in life. And they are preparing themselves to hate what they are doing as teachers.
“Uh Ms. Dennison, I came into the meeting late because I really needed a latte and I had to leave the meeting to talk to my bud who is having a rough time right now. Oh yuh, the analysis you need and told me to get to you today, well, I had stuff to do so I didn’t get it done yet but I may be able to get to after some things I need to do tonight. Okay?”
How long will that graduate of your college have that job I wonder?
By letting students act in inappropriate ways that will bite them in the future is so far from good customer service that it is appalling bad. College is not just to instruct on some facts, some processes. It is to teach some abilities to survive and thrive in the real world. Real customer service is telling students who walk in late “You just got fired from your job and class today. Arriving late and interrupting me and the class is unacceptable behavior which will not be tolerated here or in whatever field of work you wish to enter.”
“Cell phones are not permitted to be used in this class. It is disrespectful to me and your classmates when you go and talk during class and will not be accepted by your colleagues nor your bosses on a job. Shut them off. leave them off during this class.”
“Work is due when it is due. If it is not on time, there will be consequences here as there would be on the job you may eventually get.”
And so one. You get the idea. Taking positions such as these above is actually good customer/client service. Moreover, it is also providing good academic customer service to the other students who are trying to learn from you. They are as upset with interruptions, cell calls, talking, sleeping, etc as you are. Maybe even more so. They are not paying for you to let other students hinder their chances to learn and succeed.
Students are your clients who come to your school and your class to be made better and stronger just as any client with a problem, a challenge or a need comes to an expert. We expect the expert to tell us the truth and to tell us what needs to be done even if it is not necessarily what we ant to hear. Just as when I am a client of my doctor I expect the truth and courses of action with integrity even if I do not want to watch what I eat and exercise.
Would anyone feel he or she received good service if the doctor told us that we were engaged in unhealthy behaviors but just keep doing them. “Hey, I don’t want to upset you, you know bedside manner and all so yes keep drinking to excess, overeating fried and fatty foods topped with ice cream and candy, engaging in a sedentary lifestyle, sticking nickels in your nose, coming to class late unprepared and overtired, talking on the cell phone during meetings, cursing out your boss and just being a general pain in the butt is just fine. And oh yes, while your at it, you might consider smoking too. Keep it up”
Of course not. And we should not be doing anything even close to that in the name of customer service. We do not help students and we certainly do not help ourselves. Stop it and replace it with real service. Being a provider of good customer service does not mean doing what is harmful to the students now and for the future.
Dr. Raisman is the leading authority and consultant on customer service in higher education. Dr. Raisman's number one selling book - Embrace the Oxymoron: Customer Service in Higher Education - has been purchased by 52% of all colleges in the US. Neal is a highly sought after speaker, trainer, customer service auditor, researcher, marketer and general maven on customer service. He has a PhD from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in neurolinguistics; was a Fulbright Fellow in France; has published three books and over 80 articles, plus the blog www.academicmaps.blogspot.com.
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Date: February 25th, 2008
Author: David Ruggieri
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Most admissions people provide average performance. Yet they take enough leads to make them more productive every week, PDL’s, CDL’s, Internet, TV, etc – enough to let’s say complete one or two more enrollments every week. And that’s pretty meaningful. 50-100 more enrollments annually translate to a substantial increase in starts.
For example an ad rep taking 20 leads a week; CDL’s by the way, not PDL’s. The average ad rep will get in front of maybe 8 people. Figure a 70% appointment, a 70% show, give or take. Now if they are all internet leads, the number will be different.
Now, the trick is to get them to enroll to enroll 1-2 more a week – and that adds up to a lot every year since all it takes to get there is a bit of redirection.
Now there is no trick to it, but it won’t happen overnight. So start today and see the results sooner.
For a beginning – change the expectation the rep believes he/she is currently performing under. In other words, whatever they think is the safe number, just changed by 1-2.
The tactics are simple. It a simple “law of attraction” thing. What you give out you get back. So what you’re giving out is some new direction.
Sit down with your rep and say;
“Susan I’ve looked over your overall performance and although good I have to tell you with your talent, drive, and desire to be seen as a real superstar, I am setting a new level of performance expectation for you. Your new target is 4 enrollments, packaged, per week”.
Congratulate her on being the kind of person who has both talent and drive, shake her hand, stand-up, and let her go back to her office let it sink in.
Tomorrow, call her in the mid-afternoon and say; “Susan I just wanted to spend a bit of time talking to you about how you are going to go about reaching your new target expectation. How are you planning to do it”?
Let he tell you – don’t tell her, don’t offer opinion or advice, just let her tell you how she intends on getting there.
Now generally one of two things will happen. (1) She will tell you – and if that’s the case – you will; just listen and take notes. (2) She will tell you she doesn’t know.
If she tells you how, you tell her that it seems like a good plan. Have her give you the metrics; you know the breakdown of appointments, shows, enrollments. Take a bit of time to lay it out for the both of you to see on paper. Get her to say it looks good to her and send her on her way. She may ask you if it looks reasonable, or o.k., or whatever, just don’t answer but ask her “Is this something you really feel you can do?” If she tells you “yes”, then tell her you believe in her and have confidence in her ability, stand up and let her go back with her plan and your map of the objectives written out.
If she told you she didn’t know, then ask her what part of the process she feels she is “great at” at doing? The telephone, the appointments, the transition, the close, what? Then get out your paper again, and draw it out for her. But this time increase the standard a bit. If she is excellent at setting appointments, let’s say she set 16/20, move it to 18/20. If she excels at enrollments, 5 out of 210, move it to 6/10. Show rate, if it’s 90% make it 95%. You get the idea.
But here is a clue, don’t tell her what she’s good at. Just move the numbers. Give her ownership and then ask her to show you ‘How” she is going to get there.
Try it – it will actually work.
David Ruggieri is President of Talon Consulting Group. A former Senior Vice President to Corinthian Colleges, Inc., he is considered one of the foremost experts on admissions and admissions management.
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Date: February 4th, 2008
Author: Dr. Neal Raisman
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This is a quick one with a simple but very powerful message and a quiz. One you’ve heard from me before but is worth hearing again from Isadore Sharp, the founder and CEO of one of the top 100 companies to work for - the Four Seasons hotel and resort chain. Also one of the top hotel chains in the world.
The Four Seasons hotels are famous for thinking about how to make a customer’s stay more pleasant and worthy of return stays. For example, Sharp was the first to have free shampoo placed in his hotel rooms. He wanted to make it easier for people to feel like home at the hotel and that the four Seasons had thought of everything for their convenience and pleasure. He and all his people make certain that guests receive consistently excellent service so they are pleased to be able to spend more for a Four Seasons stay than most anywhere else and want to come back whenever they can.
Shampoo you and I can get most places. Even breakfast at Hampton Inn but alas even my first choice Hampton Inns do not match the service of a Four Seasons. Or so I have learned from others not yet having had the opportunity to stay at one. Hilton, Hampton and Marriott more my level I have to admit.
Sharp‘s secret? Here is what he said to Fortune Magazine.
Personal service is not something you can dictate as a policy. It comes from the culture…How you treat your employees is how you expect them to treat the customer.
Second Four Season’s secret – hiring people with the right service attitude followed by training and more training and then some more. Then they are treated as someone with value who contributes to the quality of the hotel and guest experience. Employees are paid fairly, promotions are heavily from within, and all employees get to stay in Four Season hotels anywhere in the world for free.
But what really makes employees feel valued is they are empowered to fix a situation when it arises. They do not have to get permission to help someone or check with a supervisor. The assumption is they will know the rules and culture so use your best judgment and help the guest. And if they have an idea, they are encouraged to bring it forward themselves.
Compare yourself to the Four Seasons and other Top Companies to work for. If you are an administrator or manage, you are the you. If you are not an administrator or manager, grade your senior administration.
These are yes or no questions.
- Would staff and students agree you have a CULTURE of service to students and others? yes___ no____
- Do you know peoples’ names? yes___ no____
- Do you now names of five staff outside of your office area? yes___ no____
- Do you know the names of at least two maintenance or service staff? yes___ no____
- Do you come back at night to talk with evening staff? yes___ no____
- Do you walk the halls and talk with employees and students daily? yes___ no____
- Do you treat all employees as you do faculty and oh yuh students assuming you treat them well to retain their support? yes___ no____
- When you hire, do you go from the resume or dig down to get the people with a service attitude to hire people who like students? yes___ no____
- Has there been customer service training held on campus yet this year? yes___ no____
- Has there been customer training for management this year? yes___ no____
- Was there customer service training on campus last year? yes___ no____
- Were your last five hires promotions from within or external hires? yes___ no____
- Do your folks get raises at least equal to yours? yes___ no____
- Do employees who have been at the school at least six months get free coursework? yes___ no____
- Are employees encouraged to use imitative in solving student issues? yes___ no____
- Do all employees have an opportunity to bring ideas to the president? yes___ no____
- Do students know your name or who you are? yes___ no____
- Do you say hello to every student or employee you pass in the halls, parking lot or anywhere on campus? yes___ no____
- Is your 5 year average annual employee turnover rate 12% or less? yes___ no____
How many yes responses here? Go back and check some of your yeses. Be as honest as you can with yourself. Sure the quiz is going to help determine your final grade but let’s use this as a practice exam so you know where to improve. Multiply each yes by 5 and determine your grade.
If you are willing, please send me a copy of your responses to the questions I’ll tally and post an average of all. Send your results to Nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com.
Dr. Raisman is the leading authority and consultant on customer service in higher education. Dr. Raisman's number one selling book - Embrace the Oxymoron: Customer Service in Higher Education - has been purchased by 52% of all colleges in the US. Neal is a highly sought after speaker, trainer, customer service auditor, researcher, marketer and general maven on customer service. He has a PhD from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in neurolinguistics; was a Fulbright Fellow in France; has published three books and over 80 articles, plus the blog www.academicmaps.blogspot.com.
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Date: January 21st, 2008
Author: Dr. Neal Raisman
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I was sure that the final exam for the American Drama course was set for 3:00 in room 244. It was not one I was looking forward to. Not because it would be hard or I hadn’t studied but the professor was a self-centered, failed thespian out to prove he knew it all and we – nothing. He not only knew theater; he felt it deeply so his opinion was truth while any truth that differed from his understanding was opinion.
He had us draw sets and costumes for every play we read. And if one did not draw well or divine what he thought the set should look like, well, you didn’t do well. Not an inspiring or flexible man.
When I got to room 244 five minutes early and it was empty, I figured I may have gotten the room number screwed up or the exam was moved. I decided to go to the prof’s office and check for any directions to the new room. When I arrived, there was no note. So I went to the department office where Prof. James Sweeney, asst department chair checked the list and informed me the exam had been at 10:00 that morning.
After I let the wave of panic and nausea wash over me, I sat down and wondered aloud “what the %$&* do I do now?” to an empty reception area. Dr. Sweeney had gone back into his office. As I sat and calculated what the negative effect on my grade would be, Dr. Sweeney came out of his office, told me to stay where I was and left the office. He returned in a few minutes carrying a manila folder.
“Come with me.” He led me to an empty office, handed me the folder and told me I had two hours to complete the exam. When I was done, bring it to him. “I told him I would proctor the exam so please don’t us anything but what’s in your head.”
Dr. Sweeney had called the drama professor and talked him into letting me take the test. Now that’s academic customer service.
Click here to read another example of academic customer service.
Do you have or know of an example of good customer service at your college or somewhere else? We are seeking examples of customer service so we can let other know of good people doing good things. Please send in examples so we can publish them in the blog so the person and you will be recognized and applauded.
Some of the examples will also be used in my new book The Power of Retention: Customer Service . If your contribution is used, I will send you a copy of the book.
Dr. Raisman is the leading authority and consultant on customer service in higher education. Dr. Raisman's number one selling book - Embrace the Oxymoron: Customer Service in Higher Education - has been purchased by 52% of all colleges in the US. Neal is a highly sought after speaker, trainer, customer service auditor, researcher, marketer and general maven on customer service. He has a PhD from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in neurolinguistics; was a Fulbright Fellow in France; has published three books and over 80 articles, plus the blog www.academicmaps.blogspot.com.
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