Much has been written about how quickly the education landscape is changing, and that pace of change has accelerated significantly during the past few years. Regardless of where you may stand with current enrollment, as schools seek to evolve and adapt to what the market demands, an intentional commitment to student and parent experience will be critical in the years to come. And inspiration can come from unexpected places.
Whether or not you’re a baseball fan, the Savannah Bananas are a name you should know. Why? Because day in and day out, the team is providing a real-time masterclass in delivering remarkable customer experiences. Their players aren’t well-known, they don’t have any sponsors, and they play in an old, no-frills ballpark. But they sell out every game, have an enormous following, and launched their own show on ESPN+ in the summer of 2022. Their success comes down to a single idea: Fans First. Every meeting, idea, and decision is driven by those two words and a relentless commitment to putting fans at the forefront of everything the team does.
According to the 2022 Niche State of Enrollment & Marketing Survey, attrition among private and independent schools increased by 9% from 2021, and 61% of schools reported that retention was their top enrollment-related priority for the 2022-23 school year. For private and independent schools to continue to survive and thrive, a “Bananas-style” commitment to the student and parent experience is essential—from the early awareness stage of a family discovering your school, to the admissions process, through commencement. As tuition rates continue to increase, more options proliferate in the market, and a possible recession looms, families will only continue to demand more. And at a time when many schools can struggle to stand out, the student and parent experience can be significant differentiators.
Start Internally Before You Think Externally
Everything starts with your faculty and staff. This can feel a little counterintuitive in our industry—we’re supposed to put the students first, right? That’s true to a certain degree, but “putting students first” without addressing the needs of the faculty and staff who serve them is like building a house on top of sand instead of concrete. The foundation just isn’t there.
While the job market is showing signs of cooling, our industry has not been immune from the impact of the Great Resignation. After two years of firefighting, constant pivoting, and escalating parent expectations, school faculty and administrators need some love. According to Cole, your employees are your “first fans” and they need to be taken care of before you can create a stellar experience for your families.
The pandemic has shown us that independent schools have an ability to adapt to change to a degree that is unrivaled in many other segments of K-12 education. The same zeal and creativity that independent school leaders used to reimagine how they would deliver on their mission statements during a time of school closures, hybrid instruction, and rolling quarantines can also be applied to helping educators and administrators remember not just why they’ve chosen this work, but why they’ve chosen to do it at your institution. Beyond competitive salaries, benefits, PD, and snacks, how are you showing your appreciation for your teachers and administrators? How are you rewarding the best and brightest while mentoring and coaching professionals who need more support? And, importantly, are you as committed to preserving mental health and preventing burnout for your staff as you are for your students? These are only a few questions for senior leaders to consider as they work to recruit and retain the passionate, high-caliber professionals that are necessary to deliver remarkable student and parent experiences.
“Secret Shop” Your Current Processes
In Bananaland, every night a Bananas staff member goes undercover to literally walk in a fan’s footsteps. They park in the parking lot, enter the stadium, eat amongst the crowd, stand in lines, and report back on what they see, hear, and experience. This “Undercover Fan” program has resulted in dozens of improvements for the Savannah Bananas fan experience that wouldn’t have happened otherwise because the team’s leadership believes in the importance of walking in their fans’ shoes to ensure that they’re delivering on what they’re promising to customers.
From admissions to parent and student onboarding, and beyond, decisions are made every day about the many processes that exist in private and independent schools by people who either haven’t experienced them first-hand or don’t understand what they look like today. When was the last time a member of your administrative team Googled your school, completed an inquiry form on your website, or reviewed your course registration process?
Periodically taking time to walk in the shoes of your parents and students will ensure that you proactively identify opportunities for improvement before they become major issues. It also ensures that there isn’t a disconnect between what your institution claims to offer and what your families are actually experiencing.
Eliminate Friction
In addition to deficiencies, the “secret shopping” concept can help you identify points of friction in your processes and policies. From the very beginning, Cole wanted to eliminate the high-level point of friction that “baseball is boring.” As a result, Bananas fans are entertained from the moment they enter the parking lot to a dance party with the players at the end of a game. On a more granular level, working as Undercover Fans and developing an intimate understanding of the fan experience helped the Bananas to make meaningful changes to everything from the language they use on their tickets to paying invoices (yes, they managed to make that enjoyable too).
In private and independent schools, there are countless points of interaction that can create unnecessary barriers to engagement and action. If you think about the student journey from a parent’s school research process through graduation, it can feel overwhelming and daunting to work through the many touchpoints that a family has with your school, so you’ll want to evaluate one process at a time. The goal is to put yourself in your “customer’s” shoes and look at every pain point, cause of frustration, and policy that creates inefficiencies and unnecessary hurdles for your families. Some of the sacred cows your institution may be holding onto because of the “way you’ve always done things” can be standing in the way or providing a remarkable experience for your students and families.
Never Stop “Plussing”
Borrowed from Walt Disney, the concept of “plussing” refers to the continuous process of taking ideas to another level. Instead of criticizing ideas, Disney believed in finding the good in an idea and making it even better.
This approach to ideation became a cornerstone of Disney’s culture and has been enthusiastically adopted by the Bananas and many other consumer brands. Private and independent schools are also living, breathing entities, as we’ve seen throughout the pandemic. However, in the absence of a global health crisis, schools can also easily fall into deeply entrenched patterns and traditions that keep them from evolving with the ever-changing demands of their consumers and education as a whole.
The concept of plussing is about never being satisfied with the status quo—there is no end game for visionary institutions. Plussing is about giving your students and parents more than they expect from school, from first impressions to last impressions, and constantly asking “What if?” Like eliminating friction, plussing isn’t something that can happen all at once; schools are too complex. Start with the areas that need your attention the most, and work from there.
Angela Brown
Senior Enrollment Insights Leader for PK-12 Schools
Niche