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.I

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 mem

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�

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 consi

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

The DIY movement is making it into customer service. I have recently been receiving a large and increasing number of requests from colleges for information on how they could plan and conduct their own customer service workshops and training. So far today, during break time for many schools, I received six such requests.This is both heartening and from a selfish point of view, discouraging on two counts. The heartening aspect is that after years of promoting customer service and retention as key issues, having a best selling book on the topic, sending out articles, writing my blog and talking at numerous conferences a year, it seems that people are getting the message. That is wonderful. It is also great that people feel they can turn to me for help and guidance.The somewhat disheartening a

Right now, as I write and you read, one of your students is considering whether or not to return to your school. Away from the place and noisy dorm or daily commute. With old friends from high school who go to other schools. In an extremely familiar bedroom. The bed that welcomed her every night. The mattress broken in to accept body shape just perfectly. Breakfast on the table. No assignments to do or skip. No quizzes other than old friends with only one question “what to do tonight?” The only test is “Do I want to go back to that place?”And right now you have an opportunity to help provide an answer to that question and retain some students who might answer that question with a quiet “no”.Stop for a second and think about images and feelings that unite the statements above. F

This question came up after a 11/12/07 Magna video seminar on Boosting Enrollment and Retention through Customer Service. The question also came up during the seminar but time did not permit for a longer response. So here is a more complete consideration of the question. The response and the full seminar can be obtained through Magna if you wish.The situation can be a tricky one considering interpretations (usually by weak teachers) that academic freedom can mean that some faculty can be insufferable bastards to students, colleagues and certainly administrators. Moreover, faculty too often will take an approach that they may really dislike a colleague, they must

Orwell’s proposition ten in Animal Farm with Snowball’s amendment, “All animals are created equal – but some are more equal than others” is alive and well today. Probably right at your campus! As a customer service consultant, I have found the following to be rules of behavior at most every college and university. The people who do the most primary customer service contact work

• get the least amount of training at the school
• get the lowest pay although great responsibility
• need the most resources to do their work often get the fewest resources
• as well as the least adequate, often oldest equipment.
• are key to the institution’s success get the least recognition for their work,
• are the ones who also receive the smallest amount o
  

The Real Cost of Class SectionsImagine for a moment that you were in charge of an affair for hundreds of people. You made arrangements with the caterers months ago. They had given you a list of food you could choose from. You chose it. Put down a deposit. Sent out invitations so people could attend. Chose all the necessary accouterments and all the arrangements. Took off a few days from work to be able to attend. Bought the guest books. Prepared fully. Then a few days before the affair, the caterer called and said that it was canceled because there were not enough guests to make it worthwhile. Sorry! Would you be upset? Likely so. Mad enough to spit and quit! Never use that caterer again.Your school is that caterer most every semester, quarter and/or term when we cancel cl