1000 visits...

Congratulations,
"CHEC on this" blog...
on your 1000th visitor!

Helicoptor Idol...

Did anybody see American Idol tonight? It's the second time I've ever watched... but now I want to buy this one, just because of the clear example of helicopter parenting... this girl auditions in LA, and decides to sing a song that her mom and aunt "pressured her" into singing. She doesn't make it through. The mom gets up on stage and explains to the judges that it's her fault, and wants them to give her daughter another chance. Simon loses it and freaks out...

What does "helicopter parenting" come down for us as recruiters? How do you find the balance between "beat 'em" and "join 'em"? How do your actions then filter down to the student life department (if you decide to "join 'em")... would resisting the helicopter parents be the encouragement that sends them elsewhere?

I'd love to hear your solutions, thoughts, and feelings on this issue. Let me know if you're interested in resources for further pro D on this topic (helicopter parenting people, not American Idol :) )...

Strategy...

Does your recruitment strategy depend too heavily on prospects driving to your institution and begging for an application?

Enrolment Trends in Canada

Check out this article on enrolment trends in Canadian elementary and secondary schools... for more specific stats, scroll down to the footnotes in the article for references cited from Stats Canada.

Violators Will Be Prosecuted...

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:

1. 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?
2. 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.
3. 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).
4. 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!
5. 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:
1. 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.
2. low cost gift: cafe coupon, a city info magazine (free from your local tourism branch)
   
3. medium cost gift: branded mug, t-shirt, calendar
   
4. high cost gift (very strong prospect): branded merchandise/campus book store gift certificate, travel/accommodation reimbursement, local "tourist attraction" passes
5. 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?

Do the Never

contributor: Dayna Chu

"Do the Never" by Seth Godin

Here’s a neat way to invent a new Purple Cow.
Figure out what the always is. Then do something else...
Toothpaste always comes in a squeezable tube.
Business travelers always use a travel agent.
Politicians always have their staff screen their calls.
Figure out what the always is, then do exactly the opposite.
Do the never.

Seat Sale

FYI,

WESTJET has a big seat sale on today...

NACCAP: Melanie Olfert to represent Canada Region

"As we enter a new era of NACCAP leadership, we are thrilled to have the participation of so many willing to serve as a representative of our membership. You have chosen a fine group of Enrollment Management, Recruitment & Counseling professionals from across the US & Canada to serve you. The newly elected officers will be meeting with the current NACCAP Board of Directors at the end of January to talk about transition and priorities as we endeavor to meet the needs of all of our constituents. Thank you for the confidence you have placed in all of us through this important affirmation and election process..." (more: click here...)

Melanie's Bio

"Melanie graduated from Columbia Bible College with a diploma in Caregiving and Counselling in 1997, and then received her B.A. in Social Sciences from Providence College in 1999. She was involved in many of the music programs during her time at Columbia, and was also a Resident Assistant in the dorms. Since graduation, she has been a Crisis Counsellor, Music Teacher, and Admissions Counsellor. She is now the Director of Admissions at Columbia, and also works with new applicants and inquiries from outside of Canada."

Please join me in congratulating Melanie on her new position.

Merry Christmas...

Contibutor: Dayna

Call me small town, but I don't think I've ever seen a real live true-blue science experiment with green gooey guck bubbling in a beaker, traveling through a tube to another ampule (the scientific word for the other bottle thingy...). Anyway, I got a fabulous tour from Mary N of The Kings University College campus on Monday, thanks Mary!

Thanks too to Tim B at Vanguard (wish I would have taken a picture of the 270* skyline view from that prayer room!), Karen Marshall from Concordia (after a busy morning with the counseller info brunch!) and Karen Manzer from Taylor.

I hope you all make it through exam week without catching any germs... I know the students' lack of proper sleeping and eating always makes for lower immunity around now... get out the antibacterial gel :) I hear Mary has a yummy concoction brewing at TKUC, maybe she'll share some...

Joy and I are doing some evaluation and planning over the next couple of days here at my office in Calgary, but I will be available if you'd like to contact me (email is the best way)... dchu@checanada.ca. If you have any additional thoughts or evaluation forms from the fairs, please email me or fax to 403-313-2488.

I will likely post a bit over the holidays, but just in case I don't, have a great Christmas!

Blessings,
Dayna

Code of Conduct?

Contributor: Dayna Chu

Does your institution have a code of conduct that applies to your students regardless of whether they are on campus or off? Have you had any backlash (or shall I say, "feedback") on the code of conduct requirements?

A recent news headline caught my attention due to the application of a "code of conduct" expectation in public Universities...

"The dean of the University of Alberta’s School of Business says he will be investigating to see if any students who participated in rowdy drunken event at Chateau Lake Louise this weekend violated the school’s student code of conduct...

..."But I tell you, this is something I find appalling, and I will be talking to the students involved. I will continue to reinforce the point that when they are out there, they are our ambassadors and what they do reflects on us, and this reflects very badly on us -- whether it was a sanctioned event or not,” he said.

..."If he finds out any of the U of A business students who attended the event did anything to violated the school’s student code of conduct, they will face the consequences, Percy vowed. “As you can see, I am not happy.”

..."In future, I'm going to tell our students that this is not the sort of event we want them attending."

Dr. Vern Jones, the acting dean of the University of Calgary business school, said he will also look into what his students did at the weekend event. "We're very concerned about this.... It's something that reflects badly on the school and the university," he said.

"[But] we had no connection to it -- this was something that students did on their own."

University of Calgary officials moved quickly to condemn the behaviour.

"We're very upset," said Vern Jones, interim dean of the business school. "We certainly don't condone this kind of event. It reflects badly upon the university and the school."

RCMP estimate 230 students and alumni from U of C's Haskayne School of Business, UBC, University of Lethbridge, University of Alberta, University of Regina and the University of Northern British Columbia gathered for the event, which was not sanctioned by the institutions.

Event organizers in Calgary told the Herald it was a private function, paid for by students who attended.

"We were not there representing our school in any way, shape or form," said Kevin Collins, a 22-year-old business student from the U of C. "There was no team U of C. This was a private event, like a snowboard party."

So this makes me wonder if your institutions address this to any degree.

This situation provides you with an example to provide students and prospects of a "code of conduct" being a part of public institutions as well as private... though likely on a different scale of expectations!

Best Recruiters...

Posted By: Dan Donkers (Summit Pacific)
Here's an unrelated question for my CHEC friends. The Christmas season is fast approaching, and many students will be returning to their homes, which these days are spread out all over the country. I've always believed (and been told many times) that students are our best recruitment tools. What are some ways/incentives to involve them in recruitment over the Christmas season?

Watch Your Language

Some of the posts recently about marketing masks and customer service have gotten me thinking about our language we use as admissions/recruiting workers in Christian Higher Ed and what the connection might be between using proper terms for what we do and communicating what we do to those around us in our schools.

My guess is for most of us we don't have an issue in using sales-related terms as we understand that we are not sacrificing the personal touch or the relational element of what we do when we talk this way. We obviously don't talk to our students using this language but my question is how do we communicate this to others in our schools who may not have the understanding of the language we use? How do we let our non-admissions colleagues know that when we talk about prospects, customers, and marketing; these terms can actually increase our effectiveness by sharpening our focus as opposed to turning us into telemarketers?

For me I start with trying to be clear what I mean by defining my terms in my own mind so I can communicate them if asked.

Prospect - A student in grade 11 or 12 who is considering my school.

Sales Process - The process I follow from my first contact with a prospect right to the time where they tell me they're either not interested or they apply.

Closing - The process of working with a prospect to make a final decision on whether to apply and then working with them to get their application and confirmation finished.

Account Managing - For me this is the maintenance that takes place with a student between the time he/she has confirmed they're coming to the time they walk in the door in September. It's easy to loose a "sale" still during that period if you're not careful.

Low Probability/High Probability - These are terms I use in thinking about the potential of closing a prospect. It goes without saying that you want to spend the majority of your time trying to find and close the high probability sales.

For me it was helpful to take these terms from my experience in the business world and find definitions for what I'm now doing in Admissions. It helped me clarify and focus on my tasks at hand and gave me some effective language for communicating what I do to others in my school and elsewhere.

So what do you think? What language do you use when talking about the sales aspect of admissions? Share your thoughts and experiences with trying to communicate with your non-admissions colleagues.

IS THE CUSTOMER (SERVICE) ALWAYS RIGHT?

by: Chris Rutledge
Emmanuel Bible College

After reading Dayna’s post on the Marketing Mask (great blog if you haven’t read it make sure that you do) It really started me thinking about customer service and how we as Christian Institutions are doing with our own customer service. As I think back on the Ontario Tour there were many examples of good and bad customer service. The Four Points Sheridan in London had amazing customer service. They treated us to something that we had never had before nor were we expecting it. (I'll definetly stay there again) The Crowne Plaze in Ottawa (as Dayna mentioned) had terrible customer service (it would be nice to have rooms when you check into a hotel). The East Side Mario’s in Stouffville had TERRIBLE customer service (if you don’t believe me ask Joy, Dennis, Tim, or Wib, I don’t want to be picky but most Chicken Teterazzini dishes that I have had COMES WITH CHICKEN). Wib the amazing bus driver had Mad Customer Service Skills (that is a good thing in case you didn’t understand the “mad” part) He always went above and beyond what we expect of him.

But what does customer service mean to us as we look at out institutions. I always find myself trending in dangerous waters as I address our students as customers. First off let me explain my thinking I believe that since a student pays a fee and expects a service in return, this makes them a customer. (Check it out in the Big Webster’s Dictionary) I have been confronted on this ideology a few times and hear the same response over and over and over (and over) again. (The follow needs to be said in a whining type of voice to make it more effective) “Referring to the students as a customer, removes the personal relationship aspect of the institution, the students are not our customers they are our friends” Well it’s time to hear the radio in the morning, if this is how you treat your friends then please call me a customer!

Somewhere along the line we decided that it was OK to not give our students stellar service. We somehow feel that since the student is a Christian (you can not always assume this) that they will give us grace and understanding in return for our lack of service. Friends, this can not be, we must try harder to make our students feel valuable to us. We must stop thinking that the students are there for us, when if it wasn’t for the students we would be out supersizing a lot of meal deals (I am joking of course) The students are the most important aspect of any Christian institution, so we must start making them feel that way. We can not continue to give the students the bare minimum in service. People want to feel like they are important and that they have value.

I am currently publishing a customer service manual for our institution and hopefully will have it done by the new year. I will be posting different sections on this blog to get your feedback and hopefully start making you and your institution think about the service that you provide for your customers (I dare you to go around and use the word customer in front of other staff and faculty and get their reaction)

Here are some questions to get you started in your thinking. 1. Where does your institution lack when it comes to customer service? 2. Are you giving your students great service or only what it takes to get by? 3. What does you institution do well in regard to customer service? (Feel free to share some ideas and experiences on this blog)

Stay Tuned for the Following Blogs

Inexpensive Ways To Provide Amazing Customer Service

Outstanding Customer Service In One Minute

Top Five Customer Service Errors (and their solutions) in Christian Education

Pictures are Posted!

You can find this photo and all of the rest of our fun photos from the Eastern fairs up on shutterfly.

You can view them at www.spareparts.shutterfly.com.

marketing masks...

Is your product true to what you're promoting?

Many of you were with me for our stay at the Crowne Plaza in Ottawa for the end of the Ontario fairs. We got a really great rate, but I was disappointed with our stay for several reasons, most of which I won't go into here, but including not having our rooms ready when we arrived (after having called within the past 24 hours to confirm our already-contractually-stated arrival time), not having the internet included in the rate of some of the rooms as agreed, the front desk staff being extremely inefficient (not to mention all in blue jeans; even on a Friday this is way below my expectations of the Crowne Plaza), and... did anybody else have to practically stand on their toilet to get the bathroom door closed? While nicely furnished, this hotel had the smallest bathroom I have ever seen, and no additional outer sink/counter.

Okay, so maybe I'm getting to be a bit of a hotel snob... but there's a lot to be said for meeting expectations, especially if you're in the business of setting them. The Crowne Plaza calls themselves "The Place to Meet..." and yet two large meetings booked on the same weekend seemed to throw them all into chaos. They call themselves "the best that Ottawa has to offer," but I beg to differ (Westin here we come in 2007?!).

I was greeted with truffles and a hand signed welcome card (when, in fact, my room became available...)

"...Please do not hesitate to contact me..."

I felt like saying, "Well, if you would please not hesitate for over 15 minutes from answering the phone at the front desk, I would not hesitate to contact you..."

ANYWAY, enough ranting... my main point is this: Does your institution wear marketing masks? Do you overstate your alumni satisfaction levels, or pad your "employment rate" by not mentioning that grads may not be employed in their area of study? Do you have unrealistic depictions of your campus, residence, classrooms, or resource areas... on your display, online, in written descriptions, or otherwise?

What are some ways that you may be setting expectations too high; or worse yet, falsely? Is your "One-Year-Certificate" really that adventurous? Are your credits really that transferable? Is your discipleship program ultimately focused on discipleship?

Remember: your satisfied students are the best recruiters you will ever have for your institution. Think retention and be sure that all levels of marketing, recruitment, and alumni relations are on a realistic level of expectation management.

Dayna

the look you're looking for...

Hate to say "I told you so..." well, okay, I don't hate it that much; the new Starbucks look supports my past prediction that the 'silhouette' look is the marketing look of the future... and now that makes it the marketing look of now... Think iPod, Coke BLAK, and... Starbucks.

Do you remember the Belfast Bible College display? Go for it... it's the look that will get the looks you're looking for at fairs, events, exhibitions, etc... disclaimer: you'll have to be ready to get a new one within a couple of years!

Dayna

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday

MARY & JULIE!When's your birthday? comment below...

Five Alive

Do you ever come out of a tour or even a meeting thinking, "what did we accomplish there?" well, I am 15 minutes into my first day back from the Ontario fairs and already assessing that... I know we connected and networked and accomplished a LOT... so in case some of you are heading straight back onto the road again (bless your souls), or simply may forget some of what we did, I have a list of resources here for you that you can create your own action item list out of:

1. Pro D hand-outs: Resource List; enrolment process SOS
2. BLOGS (right nav bar)... click "comment" below and give us your blog address to have it posted on our list
3. Stats from each event (I will email you)
4. Please consider using our sponsor for your next order of promotional give-aways. Rob Penner of Talbot Marketing worked with his suppliers to provide us with the freebies that you received on the fairs (duffle bag, water bottle, portfolio, alarm clock, business card holder). I also purchased our lanyards and pens through him.
5. Past Posts: "Some Resources" ; "Tuition Increases and Google Alerts" ; "Sweet Freebies" ; Noel Levitz & Stamats ; and a Travel Tip.

There you have it... my first of what will become a spontaneous series of "Five Alive" lists... bite sized lists that you can create your own action items, ideas, plans or proposals out of.

DC

Ever tried to sift through the statcan website? It can get kind of crazy, and just when you think you found something good, you need to order it and/or pay... argh. Anyway, here's one place to start poking around if you are looking to do some population planning...

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/060927/d060927a.htm

Also note; I have added a new blog to the list
http://stopfiverecords.blogspot.com (Dan Donkers; Summit Pacific)

See some of you in Ontario Friday (I leave tomorrow)...

Dayna

lou review

There were many good things on the CCUfairs west, but this wins hands down in it's category:
Best Ladies' Bathroom
...The envelope please...
and the winner is:
Calgary: First Alliance Church!

[actual photo]