How to Become a Customer Experience Superstar

Creating positive customer experiences can help your district build trust, retain families, and increase engagement across your school community. K12 Insight developed professional development and training opportunities to help staff members assess the service they provide and turn them into true customer experience superheroes who provide SUPER service with every interaction.

Service-driven

Understanding

Positive, patient, & professional

Exceeding expectations

Reflective

How can I provide SUPER service and improve the customer experience at my district?

• Respond within 48 hours. Technology allows us to receive an answer practically as fast as we can type a
  question, and districts should operate that way too.
• Be positive, patient, and professional. More than 70 percent of parents rely on personal observations and conversations to gather information about their schools (National School Public Relations Association, 2005). That means every interaction with receptionists, administrators, bus drivers, and staff matters. Focus on the three Ps — positive, patient, and professional — to ensure you’re using the right body language, words, and tone.
• Ask for service feedback and use it to improve customer experience performance. Ask your customers for feedback to show them that you care about what they have to say and that their thoughts are valued and can effect change.
• Work smarter, not harder, for you and your customer. Consider your customers’ perspectives and how to make their interactions with you exceptional. Don’t frustrate customers with redundancies or by passing the buck (e.g., “I don’t handle that, so you’ll have to go down the hall” or “You’ll have to come back Thursday when Ms. ____ is in the office”).

Test yourself: What is the customer experience like? For example, try using your own website as a customer. Is it easy to use or a pain? Enter the front of your building. Does the door swing open easily or whack you on the shoulder?

• Learn to apologize. Things will go wrong. Prepare for this emotionally as well as operationally. You’re often simply apologizing for the situation — not for something you did wrong. Regardless, an apology is still valuable and shows your customer that you care.
• Get the “hello before the hello” right. Hellos are critical, and schools often neglect “the hello before the hello.” If parking is hard to find, disabled access is poor, or office hours are posted incorrectly online, then you’re making a poor impression before even greeting your customer.
• Stop playing tag. It’s common for an employee to promise something to a customer—and then tag another to follow through on it. Oftentimes that leaves customers exhausted and frustrated. Follow-through and follow up are often best accomplished by the person who took the request.