First impressions... how does your campus measure up?
One of my goals for this year is to connect with as many of our member institutions on their campus as possible. While I am not able to promote/recommend specific institutions or institution types, I still represent you as the program coordinator for the Enrolment Marketing Facilitation Team (EMFT) of Christian Higher Education Canada (CHEC).
Thank you to those of you who have already hosted me and toured me around your amazing facilities! I have seen Vanguard, Concordia, The Kings, Taylor, Columbia, Pacific Life, Summit Pacific, Heritage, Emmanuel, Tyndale, Redeemer, Providence... and was already quite familiar with Trinity Western, Christ for the Nations, Rocky Mountain, and Alliance/Nazarene. I look forward to being at Booth, Steinbach, and Canadian Mennonite University this coming week.
So, without naming any names... I did gather a few first impressions at some of the campuses I was on... especially when taking on the perspective of a prospective student/parent. Have you wandered around your campus lately, looking with "fresh eyes?" Maybe it's time for another walk-about... or bring a friend or relative along that is not familiar with your campus and ask for their feedback. Here are 5 things to watch for:
- Tidiness: Do you have a student council member that is responsible for general clean up of the lounge areas? How are they kept accountable to the effectiveness of their job?
- Signage: How difficult is it to get to the admissions/recruitment area? You may not be able to have your office moved to the front corner window office... but you should have effective directional signage.
- Property maintenance and outer signage: Believe it or not, 3 campuses that I was on had some version of signage (as the FIRST thing you see) stating, "Private Property," "Private Parking, Violators will be towed," or "Violators will be Prosecuted"... that's not the grande welcome that you may be going for. Are there other ways you can enforce parking expectations? Offer parking passes? Email a printable visitors pass for those that have appointments? Have a custom chloroplast sign with a velcro attachable custom visitor name sign? Regarding property maintenance, a few of the sites I was at had beautifully sculptured gardens and landscapes upon entry... an amazing first impression! A few were PILED with snow, charged a substantial amount for parking, and/or had a dozen or more of the closest parking places reserved for staff and faculty (no visitor spots).
- Umbrella/mittens: Okay, this is likely going above and beyond the call of duty... but if you have several buildings on your campus with no covered walks between them, consider having several small umbrellas available, or a large golf umbrella, for visitors that come unprepared for inclement weather. If the cold is more of an issue, how about "guest mittens?" If you have some spare change in the promo/give away budget, have them customized with your logo. Give them to the guest to keep. If you don't have spare change, you can literally do this for $1/umbrella and $1/pair of mittens from Dollarama... then reuse!
- Lastly, what can you send your visitor home with? Find something you can spare to give them as a good gesture. This will vary drastically from budget to budget, but here are a few ideas:
- essential: have an info package from your institution prepared for them, and at the end of their visit, have them complete some form of questionnaire for you regarding how they know about you, their impressions, their level of interest, etc.
- low cost gift: cafe coupon, a city info magazine (free from your local tourism branch)
- medium cost gift: branded mug, t-shirt, calendar
- high cost gift (very strong prospect): branded merchandise/campus book store gift certificate, travel/accommodation reimbursement, local "tourist attraction" passes
- follow up: Have some institutionally branded postcards ready to send them shortly after their visit. Hand-write a quick personal note thanking them for their visit, and be sure to include your contact information again. If you don't have the means to have branded postcards printed, pick up some cityscape postcards from your local dollar store (be sure to add your logo to your return address)
You may feel like you are helpless with a lack of resources for impressing your prospects, but all you really need is a little time and creativity to take every opportunity to make your guests' first impression a positive and lasting one.
Share your ideas with us! How you do make a great impression on your guests?
2 comments:
This is excellent Dayna!. I've forwarded it to the rest of my team to carefully consider.
Thanks!
It was neat to go for a tour at Canadian Mennonite University (Winnipeg) and see that they had taken some of my advice to heart already... I was offered a pair of mittens for the trek across to the other building! Sweet! Thanks for passing on the link Stephen, and thanks for acting on it Julie :) Your future visitors will thank you too (-40*C?! How do you recruit *any* students in the winter?!) ;o)
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