Standing Out in a Crowded School Market

Let’s face it the school market is very competitive. Parents have many choices when it comes to selecting a school for their child.

While it is essential to communicate and showcase your school’s strengths and unique benefits, it is also critical for your school to stand out.

Exceptional customer service can help your school stand out in a crowded marketplace.

When you serve your current and prospective parents in an exceptional way or do something that is memorable, this creates an experience that will be talked about and passed on to others. This is your best form of marketing—when you get your parents talking about your school based on what they actually experienced.

Take a moment and consider the overall experience and service that you give to your current and prospective parents. The following are some important questions:

• Is your service exceptional?
• Do you have service expectations for your faculty and staff?
• Do you have a customer service creed?
• Are you creating memorable moments for your parents and students?
• What is the first impression of your school that a parent receives?

Donna Cutting, in her book The Celebrity Experience, suggests that we need to treat our customers as celebrities. Cutting shows how to turn your customers into life-long relationships by delivering consistent, high quality, red-carpet customer service.

Applying this concept to your school, your parents and students are your celebrities—they are the reason why your school exists. You must do everything you can to serve your parents and students in an exceptional ways—so that your school’s total experience is outstanding.

As you consider this timely topic, I want to encourage you to read Cutting’s book. It’s one of the best that I have ever read on this subject. During my next couple of blog posts, I will highlight some of the ideas she discusses and how this can be applied to your school—including the WOW experience and rolling out the red carpet.

So, go ahead and treat your parents, students and visitors like celebrities. Your school might stand out in the crowded school market!