written by George Zack:
I’d like to share with you a story comparing some of the experiences our daughter had in her college search. I think the different experiences with some of her “top choice” universities provide possible learning opportunities for business organizations.
Our daughter had done well in high school and determined she wanted to continue her education after graduating. Like millions of kids each year, she started the search for a school that would be a good fit for her academically, culturally, and financially. She applied to several schools, and after securing admission to many of them she narrowed her search to a few that she wanted to tour. The purpose of these tours was typical: get a feel for the campus, talk to some students and professors, and visit some departments that would be potentially be areas of study for her. By seeing different schools, she’d learn a bit more about what she was getting into, and be better equipped to consider her next steps.
One of the schools we would tour was a nearby in-state university. Another was an out of state school, but also a state university. I noted the significant difference in tuition costs. For those who may be reading this that don’t know this – a student receives a significantly lower tuition cost for their in-state university versus out of state schools. Interestingly however, her academic performance had landed her some scholarship money so the costs were nearly the same as the in-state school. In other words, while an out of state school cost several thousands of dollars more, the difference was absolved by scholarship received (as a side note, this raised all sorts of questions in my mind as to why the same level of scholarship was not provided by the in-state school or if all universities had already performed some calculation as to what they thought we could bear financially, but that is a separate conversation for another time).
The take away at this point is the cost of the schools were essentially the same and so we were down to considering the “feel” or fit of the university from an academic and lifestyle perspective.
We coordinated the tour for the in-state school. They told us where we could park, meet school representatives, and where we’d be able to visit various departments on that day. Similarly, we coordinated on the same details for the out of state school. This was several hundreds of miles away so we planned visits with other schools and family along the way to make the trip more worthwhile.
The broad approach schools take to these tours is similar but there are differences – and they aren’t subtle ones. There is a basic visitation “script” and the students that are “hosting” the tour are all articulate, intelligent sales people and cheerleaders for their school, but the content provided varies in its delivery. It varies in what is emphasized: athletic facilities versus athletic departments, dorms and housing versus Greek life, professor conversations and academic departments versus school clubs and what it takes to get a degree. These provide a feel for the student that is going to either resonate with them or turn them off.
A theme we “felt” in our visit to the nearby state school started to become clear to us as we navigated our visit. It was, this is what you get for your tuition. Questions such as “what if I have not declared a major?” were met with mechanical answers like, “well, you can go find your advisor and see what they have to say about it” or “declare a major anyway and then change if you want.” So, while there were strong academic offerings, you had to find a way to fit into this program if you wanted it to work.
And when we got back to our car at the end of the visit, despite parking where we had been advised to park as part of the tour, we had received a parking ticket. When we queried if this could be waived as we visiting as a prospective student, we were given, “sorry, that is not my area” sort of answers.
As you might guess, our visit to the out of state school was significantly different. We did not receive a parking ticket. In fact, when we got home not only did our daughter get the typical follow up letters from the university encouraging her enrollment there, we as parents received a letter from the Dean of Students expressing why that school was a good choice. And then we received a letter from that city’s Chief of Police affirming his commitment to student safety and good relations with the university community. We even received a letter from the community’s mayor that outlined how the community and the university partnered together to create an environment for the growth of all of its citizens, including the students.
Parking ticket versus follow up letters. Hmmm.
And of course, the on-site portion of the visit felt different as well. “We have an undeclared major program where you will be assigned an advisor to meet with regularly to help explore where you are, where you are going and how to get there so that you can graduate with a degree that you are able to immediately leverage.” Rather than have a program that pushed you to certain paths, like the in-state school, we felt a “how can we serve you so that we can meet your academic and professional growth goals?” as a theme from out of state school.
As a professional that works with teams and organizations to help them improve, I saw the obvious difference in the customer experiences. The in-state school is likely to get students anyway, and they were going to provide some level of service for some cost. They had sub-optimized their departments (the group that managed visiting students and parking control) without consideration of the whole system. It felt like a fast food chain to me: for this number of dollars you get this prepackaged burger. Don’t ask for a different type of burger because that is not what we do here. You get what you get.
But the out of state school had aligned differently – how can we serve our customers make this a positive experience for them? How can we make a burger that is the best burger for them?
Of course, my analogy fails in this regard: both schools cost the same. Typically, fast food restaurants are cheaper than a place that makes your food specifically to order. What does that say about the value proposition of the two schools?
I recognize that there are markets that allow organizations to act like the in-state school. If you have a business that is “good enough” and people are willing to pay for that, then you are likely to act in a way that provides that level of service. In this case, the power of being local might be enough of a factor that you don’t have to compete on customer satisfaction issues with schools that provide superior services when they are 500 miles away. We see this all the time. Are a large enough number of people going to change their airline choices because of the inappropriate removal of a passenger that it will drive a change of behavior in the airline? I am guessing not.
But in the case of a kid picking a college, it is likely to make a difference.
Consider this for your business:
- What products or services are you providing at what cost and how does that compare to your competition?
- If you are charging equivalent to your competitor, are you providing the same level of service or product? Or do you provide a product or service that is a differentiator?
- Does your organization consider its entire system when interacting with your customers? Or do you act in separate departments that may not have visibility into the whole?
- What are the key messages you want your customers to feel, see, and hear? What will they say about you to others?
Post script: while the in-state school in question her was eliminated from her final set of schools our daughter considered, she delayed her college decision a year as she ended up as a participant a vocational internship through the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange in Germany. Her final decision as to where she will be after this year long program is still pending.
