Read on to find out how they use Let’s Talk for: Superintendent listening, district communications, enrollment support, curriculum resources, and more.
197,000+ students
249 school campuses
School districts have several entry points for communications, hundreds of staff members responsible for answering questions, and even more stakeholders asking them.
Ensuring consistency, responding quickly, and handling concerns before they escalate are all critical tasks for school district leaders.
It can feel impossible to cut through the tangled web of inbound communications and understand what’s really important to families. Not to mention how much this overwhelming volume of inquiries burdens staff with already high workloads.
With nearly 200,000 students, the eighth-largest school district in the nation is changing this narrative. The School District of Philadelphia has launched a comprehensive customer service platform ensuring families know where to go to get accurate and timely information and feel confident their questions are sent to the right person in the right department.
“Let's Talk has totally changed how we respond to incoming questions. We're so excited about Let's Talk!"
The School District of Philadelphia has brought group emails, department-level communications, and email help lines into the Let’s Talk platform. Their goal is to remove all public emails from their website so everything comes through one portal of entry — Let’s Talk!
Now, they’re able to track trending topics so they always know what’s top-of-mind for their community, and they can see how often the same customers are reaching out to them, helping them identify new ways to get information out to families.
Let’s Talk has been a game-changer for families, but it’s also saved time and created efficiencies for staff who no longer need to rely on multiple platforms of communications to answer questions. Every dialogue is logged in a unified location. Plus, the visibility ensures no question goes unanswered and work isn’t duplicated.
Today, the School District of Philadelphia leverages the Let’s Talk dashboard to get daily updates on:
Response times and unanswered inquiries, which ensure every question gets an answer
Districtwide “hot topics”, which are used to build board meeting agendas
Campus-specific trending topics, which are used to update school site landing pages with relevant information
The dashboard, coupled with the average Customer Experience (Cx) score and response times provided through Let’s Talk, has empowered the district to identify issues and improve customer service in real time.
In Year 1, they received over 10,500 inquiries, all of which they responded to quickly (average about 3 days), and to the satisfaction of their stakeholders. They’ve maintained a nearly 8/10 Customer Experience score!
The School District of Philadelphia (and the 500+ other districts nationwide that work with K12 Insight) have experienced the benefits of implementing an intentional customer service plan.
Develop positive, data-supported board-admin relationships that focus on the right things
Increase community support for major initiatives, including tax referendums
Increase internal and external customer satisfaction and connectivity to the district
Increase the number of people that would recommend the school district
Control the narrative and stay in front of brewing issues — then respond and clarify before an eruption breaks out
But to match the success of these districts, K-12 leaders need to understand the four critical requirements of a full customer service transformation:
Realistic, expertise-driven systemic thinking
True prioritization
Comprehensive, districtwide culture change management
Metrics and data to drive decision-making
Not sure if you’re ready to launch the journey to superior customer service? Test the waters by bringing these questions to your next cabinet meeting. How many can you accurately answer? Do you all have the same response? Are these themes part of your strategic plan?
Do we have a definition of what superior customer service means to us?
How many calls/emails do we receive about every initiative, department, or situation?
How are we ensuring customer inquiries are answered in a timely manner?
How are we ensuring data drives our decisions?
Are we responding to perceived customer sentiment? Or data-supported feedback?
Are we doing everything we can to build trust within our community?
