Negative vs. Positive Parent Experiences & How It Affects School Retention

Jul 28, 2022

"Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner claims that it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for ONE unresolved negative experience. ๐Ÿค”

Now, you may be thinking, "well, I'll just make sure there are no negative experiences for my school families." But let's be realistic. Your school is going to make a mistake. ๐Ÿ™„


Even if you try to deliver excellent customer service, someone will make a mistake.
It could be that one day carpool takes too long and a parent misses an important meeting. ๐Ÿ™„
Or a child misplaces an expensive pair of shoes/outfit. ๐Ÿ™„


Or the only time you call a parent is when the child is in trouble and/or is sick and needs to be picked up ASAP. ๐Ÿ™„


And these are just minor frustrations.
What about when a child tells a parent that school is awful and the teacher is mean? ๐Ÿ˜ฌ
What if the parent doesn't see the amazing things happening at a school and questions the value? ๐Ÿ˜ฌ
Or a parent is frustrated with the administration and teachers and the way they handled a situation. ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

There are a million possible ways that your parents will have a negative experience. So we have to assume that your school will definitely (unintentionally) do just that.

What's the solution?
First, it's obviously reducing the likelihood of a negative experience. ๐Ÿคจ
Next, it's training people on how to respond to negative experiences. ๐Ÿ‘
And finally, it's stacking the deck against negative experiences by creating built-in "positive experiences." ๐Ÿ˜Ž

This ensures that you have positive experiences—like photo cards, a phone call from the teachers/staff/HOS, email updates about the child's experience, conversations in carpool, a kind note in the mail, and more—to outweigh the negative ones. ๐Ÿ™Œ

What are you doing to combat negative experiences at your school?

#privateschool #schoolmarketing #easyschoolmarketing
#independentschools #experiences #negativeexperiences