Customer Engagement Basics in ECE
While I do not formally work in Customer Success, I work in a highly customer-facing industry where customer success is a non-negotiable priority in many facets…
Early Education.
I have 20+ years invested in developing relationships and building bridges with families based primarily on trust and the delivery of quality educational services.
Not simply delivering a quality education, but teaching, sharing and utilizing all the means to customer success.
That list is long and broad...
To oversimplify: Education, research, digital applications, books, experiences, learning management systems, SaaS, CRMs, websites, and communities help the aforementioned achievement.
Long-story short, I understand what people need and how to discover those needs as well as learning gaps that were not anticipated.
Being an educator is much like surveying.
(Bear with me…do you like metaphors and analogies?…)
TEACHERS LOVE THEM!
As a surveyor, one would (as noted by the Oxford Dictionary), “examine and record the area and features of land so as to construct a map, plan, or description.”
In working with customers in any field, you loosely follow a similar process as to understand the foundations and then help develop the map to achievement that delivers their success with a service or product so you can build that relationship on the foundation.
There is also customer discovery that happens prior to meeting customers based on knowing what is high quality in your industry and discovery that happens from the support we provide in uncovering customer needs.
Where do we begin?
Before you build you must survey, and excavate.
What are the specific hurdles or roadblocks in each journey?
What is causing them and how do you solve for each individualized learning need?
To answer these questions you need a customer map and some key tools.
A few key items to remember:
Know your business well.
Knowledge is power in understanding how to individualize your approach. As an educator, you learn your students and then teach to their needs. The same is true for other industries as well; you learn your customer base and then support to their needs.
Be authentic and marry this with a little charisma.
Be your best self, be kind, and truly WANT to help people. Sprinkle some likeability in there! You do not have to be like someone else, but there are qualities such as a helpful, solution-oriented attitude that could cultivate your best self. This is a soft skill that has informed my growth in so may impactful ways and in developing partnerships…it works!
Listen to understand.
Understand and research their needs and solve problems they actually have and some that could arise from your current observations. Take organized notes and maintain a portfolio for each student or customer.
Ask tailored questions.
You listened, now map the solution with questions that fill your tool box.
Find real solutions.
That’s it. Fix their issue so they can know success. This involves troubleshooting, methods and techniques on their map to correct their hurdles and roadblocks. This part is a definite bucket-filler in a customer relationship as it builds trust and credibility.
Measure the efficacy and impact.
Have the tools solved the issues? Do we need to re-evaluate and use different measures? In this phase you will re-visit the map and continue to solve for the issues or learning gaps. While we expect success, this phase can also be anticipated as we support varying styles of learners or customers.
Care.
Check-ins go a long way in your customer base to improving their experience. Nurturing the relationship ALSO builds trust and improves communication. Remember the computer desktop game The SIMS? When their needs were not met their little beacon would dim. Do not let your customer beacons dim if you can help it! Make sure THEY feel empowered in utilizing your services.
Improve the experience.
The bare minimum of a service can work, but why would you stop at that point when there are endless possibilities to improve the quality of someone else’s experience? I’m not saying throw everything you know at them! Based on their map, what opportunities are useful for them in this next phase? Thinking in these terms will build your toolbox and theirs.
This is not an all-encompassing list, but it wIll help you build a strong foundation in not just education, but any industry.
~FIN~
Customer Success from the Lens of Early Education
When most people of Customer Success (CS), they do not readily think of Early Childhood Education (ECE).
Having worked within the industry in varying roles, I find this incredibly interesting and wanted to dive a little deeper into the subject.
One may think from a “daycare” mentality with Winne the Pooh posters plastered everywhere, poopy diapers, and dedicated/underpaid teachers…even this has its roots in customer service at the core, which effects customer success.
I have experienced all of the above at some earlier points in my journey as a teacher, curriculum coordinator and school leader and we regard ourselves as professionals as any other educator. After all, we lay the foundations.
For the purposes of this work, I beg the question why no one considers Customer Success as synonymous with ECE?
In nature, while these program serve the purpose of providing care and education to young children and their families; they are typically for profit and even the non-profits are highly and centrally customer-facing.
To elaborate, there are many types of ECE programs:
For-Profit
(Corporately-owned, franchises, family childcare home centers, privately-owned, church programs, offshoots of public school programs).
Non-profit
(State-regulated, church programs, work funded programs for employees, off-shoots of public school programs).
This is not an all-encompassing list, but you get the idea of the diverse opportunities for families to choose educational programs that also offer care.
There are Types/ Schools of Thought/ Teaching Methodologies/Pedagogies (again, not an all-encomapassing list):
Traditional Preschool
Montessori
Special-Education
Reggio-Emilia
Bank Street
Waldorf
Head Start
Co-ops
HighScope
Religious-Based
Why is this important to Customer Success?
Because, with the diverse forms of ECE, families take a journey of weeks, months and years to research programs that they feel will be the best fit for their child. Many times, that involves the administration and teachers educating/selling families on these pedagogies and schools of thought…which is a process of it’s own.
The customer’s perspective in the customer lifecycle:
Searching for an ECE Program-referrals, online searches, word-of-mouth, social media, community connections.
Scheduling Tours-calling/emailing admissions or the school, walk-ins, open houses, school events.
Touring-learning more detail about the school, the enrollment process, speaking with school leadership, observing the classrooms/environments, observing teacher and administrative interactions, reviewing tuition plans, the curriculum, schedules, staff and family retention, classroom sizes, family events, parent participation, assessment through the year, meal plans, therapies and supports, and program offerings.
Decision-Making- which school upholds their values, what is most important to the family, care, safety, communication, nutrition, cost, curriculum, community reputation, location, social-emotional learning/supports, enrollment timeline and process.
Enrollment- Fees, meeting the teachers, classroom visit days for the child(ren) prior to their start date, what to bring, communication, applications set-up, start date.
Customer Satisfaction- program quality, care of children, communication, promised deliverables, family involvement.
Annual Re-Enrollment- Retention or churn and determining factors.
Upsell-Tuition packages.
Cross-sell-Enrichment opportunities.
Referral-Customer loyalty.
Dis-enrollment-Customers/families come to the realization that your school is no longer a fit for their child for a plethora of reasons. If you nurture the customer lifecycle, typically we can avoid losing families/ customers. However, there are times when it does not have anything to do with the school, but extenuating factors. Still, nurture the customer through their lifecyle.
As you can see from this brief (yes this is considered brief!), synopsis from the customer perspective, there is much thought that goes into to this process. The same is true from the business side. For us this is Business as a Service or BaaS.
From our perspective it looks very similar:
Marketing Efforts- Advertising your services and drawing customers to your product. This can be events, grassroots, online, and more.
Leads Generation-Typically created from your marketing efforts, your leads are potential customers.
Tours-A personalized experience for customers to learn more about your schools and what sets you apart from the competition. Remember, they can choose anyone, but they may choose you…and why wouldn't they?!
Lead Nurturing-Follow-up is very important and remembering key details about your customers makes it personal for them. Check-in to see if they have further questions about your program or the process. Ask them about that interesting detail you learned on the tour. Send a Canva postcard via email, even mail a postcard.
Customer Discovery-Some may argue that there is a specific time in the customer lifecycle to explore Customer Discovery, but the truth is that it is an ongoing process and is equally organic, planned and measurable. What does that even mean? It means that we are constantly exploring customer need, pain points, and archetypes of the customers in our business. Once we gather that information, we use it to improve and offer higher quality educational experiences.
Enrollment-All of your above efforts were successful and we are now supporting the customer in joining our programs. Meeting the teachers, visiting the school for an “experience”/free-trial day, setting up tuition, what to expect, orientations, and more.
Onboarding-As an off-shoot of the enrollment process, customers need to be onboarded to the various communication applications and technology used in Education settings. This allows them to experience the best quality and get the most use out of it as well.
Upsell-Depending on the school, there may be various levels or tiers of tuition packages to choose from and this allows you to speak tot he value proposition of your school and upsell the higher packages (because your program is worth it!).
Cross-sell- In ECE at the school level, this typically involves enrichment programs that add value to your program, and allow students to enhance skillsets while at school. Usually sports, arts, technology or support services geared to young children.
Retention-This happens during the entire life of your customer and their journey. How have you nurtured the quality of their experience and their child’s education. Something that holds true in our field is that families are often willing to pay and travel for ECE schools as long as they feel their child is receiving the best value and education. That happens from the very start of their customer lifecycle. Every interaction, thorough information, caring and trained educators, and added value that differs your school from any other.
Churn- Many things cause churn in Early Childhood schools. Lack of quality, teacher turnover, cost, location, the ability to stay home with your children, children graduate, school culture, and more. There will always be churn in ECE due to any circumstances, but our job is to make the customer experience as wonderful as it can be…because why wouldn’t you want to do that?! But that involves doing all of the above well and sometimes more.
I have found success in nurturing customers through various forms of engagement and maintaining the mindset to continually nurture the customer experience. Again, it starts at their initial point of contact. Being trustworthy, solution-oriented, thoughtful, and kind has proven successful for me. The best part is that it is not a gimmick, but the truth and customers appreciate authenticity. Even if everything is not perfect, I have found that as long as you possess those qualities and can de-escalate their frustrations or fears with kindness, calm and solutions, they will listen, and remain loyal customers. Great service, knowledge, heart, and integrity.
~Fin~
early educator.
I was going to be an actress.
I still might one day…who knows?
Actually, I was going to be a singer-turned-actress, because for some reason you seem to have less credibility if you’re an actor-turned singer.
I digress.
I started my higher education journey taking fine arts/humanities courses at a local community college.
I was going to transfer my credits to a four-year institution, graduate, then move to New York, get discovered and be an amazing singer-turned actress for you to adore.
This is what I thought my entire adolescence and teenage years.
You can still adore me, but not for the above qualities!
I actually had an off/on pattern of going to college.
…changed my mind a few times on the major.
Eventually focused on being great and fueling my energy into my work. That was the mindset.
My mother was a teacher my whole life and a couple of my friends took jobs at local preschools.
I decided to try the preschool teacher route for awhile.
I worked at family child care home, child care centers, church preschools (all were different quality levels from high to low, various star ratings from 1-5 for the state of North Carolina).
At the start, I was not particularly good at being a preschool teacher assistant.
I feel asleep in an infant room one day when I was 18.
I was not alone, but WHY?
Probably a wild weekend or night before.
Awful.
It’s hard to believe that person is now giving advice on how to be a stellar educator.
I know what both bad and good likes like for sure.
As I progressed, I honed my skills and became better.
Later on, I had the opportunity to work for a company from a referral by someone at my church.
I knew the director as well from church, but I interviewed with the assistant director so that I could get the job on my own merit.
The director became my mentor over the years and helped me understand the true professionalism, value, and impact in our field.
I loved crafting lessons and the excitement of children’s discovery in learning.
This feeling (teaching) became like a drug.
I wanted to learn more and find new ways to meet children where they were in their educational journey.
I have an arts background, so I started utilizing my dramatic side in the classroom and bringing lessons, literature and the learning experience to LIFE!
I was nominated and won TEACHER OF THE YEAR for my company in 2010.
This led to the ability to mentor other teachers, become an Administrative Assistant, an Assistant Principal, a Curriculum Coordinator, and a Principal.
Who knew I would do this?
Love this?
Feel so passionate about this?
I did not know that a little Summer gig would turn into something I love so dearly, and that is the joy of educating young children.
~FIN~
AUTHENTIC Ambivert.
I revel in my alone time to work like a mad scientist on my artistic endeavours and recharge my spirituality and creativity, but I also LOVE forming authentic connections and relationships with people.
I am a Gemini, so perhaps that speaks to the duality I have to harness both sides of my personality and meet people where they are to connect on any level.
Meaningful interactions provide me with a refreshing jolt of consciousness. Let me explain…
As someone who formally struggled with social anxieties, I have had to learn the formulas to navigate social situations with ease, grace, endearing awkwardness, and finesse. When I did so successfully, I felt as if I conquered a new level in some mental and emotional game.
All that work I put in to be more relatable and rest in the confidence and comfort of my own skin, helped me to develop a person who has learned how to connect with other people while understanding and welcoming their idiosyncrasies. Of course, we are all trying to figure it out and want acceptance in some form.
Whether I’m working with colleagues or just standing in line at Old Navy, I have this innate need to meet any other human’s gaze with a friendly smile to let them know I am a decent person and that they probably are, too. Hopefully we can start up a warm conversation about how adorable their child is, the wonderful purchase they are about to invest, the joys of parenthood, or how I like their outfit.
These simple conversations lighten each of us, hopefully creating a joyful ripple that will travel from person to person. That’s always my subconscious goal… this indelible, but organic impact in the world, and to leave a moment any increment better than I entered it.
Book it…
Book it…
I have dabbled with the idea of writing children’s books for years!
The work I have had the opportunity to perform as an educator has definitely informed some of my thoughts on this subject.
Such as…
Guiding and learning beside little learners, sharing the wonder of books with fellow educators and life-long learners (some of the best things I learned while teaching!), and the time spent worlds away in local libraries…hoping to share the adventure with my students.
My life & experiences, musings, family, and my imaginative daughter remain/have become my inspirations.
I have my journals, “Writing Children’s Books for Dummies” By Lisa Rojany Buccieri and Peter Economy, and my “epiphany-swirl” of ideas.
As a long-time writer of poems and prose, I love the idea of putting pen/pencil to paper to scribble, erase, rethink/rewrite, and place energy into the instrument of choice.
The thoughts/ideas leap out, dancing on the paper, bonding and creating something new.
It’s rebirth each…and…every…time.
It feels very intimate and personal. It feels like I imparted soul into the words on the pages.
Am I more excited about the journey or the outcome?!
Truly…
the journey is so necessary and magical…
All that I will learn during the process…
All that I will share at the completion of each work.
~Fin~
