Best Practices
3 Ways to Improve the Student Experience in Arts and Community Ed
It’s easy to assume people are happy if you get few or no complaints. But when it comes to your class registration system, a lack of complaints isn’t always a good thing. Research shows a huge majority of people won’t complain when an experience doesn’t meet their standards—they’ll just leave.
A great student experience separates thriving education programs from the rest. The student experience is the overall interaction between the learner and your organization. Your classes are just one tiny piece of that. The rest of the experience, including ease of registration, communication, and issue resolution, is more important from a customer service standpoint.
Make no mistake, your students are customers. That’s why customer service matters in education.
And make no mistake, your students are customers. You may not usually think about them in that way, but most bring a shopper’s mindset to the experience of signing up for a class. If their needs aren’t met, they’ll go elsewhere, leaving you wondering where all your students have gone.
Customer Service in the Education Industry: Why It Matters
When a potential student is looking for a block printing class so they can impress everyone with handmade Christmas cards this year, they want the process of finding and signing up for a class to be as easy as possible.
If they run into an issue, they expect quick and helpful service that gets everything sorted out without burning through their entire lunch break. That may be why the Qualtrics Consumer Trends Report found that customers are much more likely to do business with organizations that have a great reputation for customer experience, even in a down economy.
Obviously, the class itself should deliver on student expectations. The material should match the course description and students should walk away feeling more skilled, more informed, or at least entertained.
A good student experience can turn one-time customers into lifelong learners and brand ambassadors.
But, the student experience doesn’t end when the class is complete. Ideally, you’ll keep communicating with those students. Your social media, email, and SMS messaging will offer them personalized class recommendations they can get excited about. That’s how one-time customers turn into lifelong learners and brand ambassadors.
If an organization can’t meet student expectations for customer service, they’ll look for one that does. Often, they’ll do so without stopping to tell you about it first.
Most Unsatisfied Customers Never Complain
CourseStorm customers find that about 35% of arts students return to take another class. Those students were clearly satisfied with both their first class and the student experience. But at least some of the remaining 65% probably felt less than satisfied and didn’t explain why.
You might think that students will complain if they are unhappy, but often that is not the case. Overall, people are giving less feedback to the organizations they buy from. According to Qualtrics, about 66% of customers won’t complain when they’ve had a bad experience. They’ll just take their business elsewhere.
Data show 66% of customers won’t complain when they’ve had a bad experience. They’ll just take their business elsewhere.
This happens for a couple of reasons. Some students are just busy and unwilling to invest time in complaining when they can just find another class. Others may believe that their complaints won’t make a difference, so they don’t bother voicing them.
They may not be talking to you, but they’re almost certainly telling friends and family about the experience. People may end up avoiding your program without ever experiencing it for themselves.
That leaves education directors and administrators with the challenge of how to provide a better student experience without much feedback. Fortunately, there are a few areas we know can improve the student experience.
For more insights on what’s working in arts education and how to improve the student experience, download our State of the Arts Report 2024.
How to Improve the Student Experience
Consumers in general, and students in particular, prefer to do business with organizations that deliver these three things:
1. Self-service on-demand
Learners expect to be able to sign up, change registrations, and handle payments online and without direct interaction with a staff member. In fact, about 67% of survey respondents said they preferred self-service over speaking to a representative.
Online registration and payment systems with carts and friends and family registration tools can help customers help themselves.
2. Quick and helpful communication
When registrants do run into an issue they can’t solve on their own, they expect quick and helpful service. Research by author Jay Baer found that customers “hate” having to contact a business more than once and about 66% of customers think speed to respond is as important as price.
Arts nonprofits probably don’t have someone standing by to answer customer questions at any moment of the day. That makes it all the more important that whoever is assisting customers is trained in customer service and empowered to provide real solutions to issues, for example, tech support, discounts, refunds, or transfers.
When someone does reach out, let them know how quickly they can expect a response. Feed the need for self-service by offering an FAQ sheet or a knowledge base they can read while they wait.
3. Personalized marketing and communications
According to HubSpot’s Marketing Trends Report, 75% of marketers say offering a personalized experience increases sales and repeat business. Personalized messaging can lead to 50% better customer re-engagement.
Customized class recommendations, SMS-based text reminders, and centralized customer data management can help you personalize communications so each student feels valued.
Offer returning students exclusive early-bird registration or special promotions to make them feel valued.
Acknowledge a preexisting relationship with students who have enrolled before by offering them exclusive early-bird registration or special promotions for returning students. When you personalize marketing and communications, you make every student feel valued.
Listen and Take Action to Improve the Student Experience
Although customers may not seek you out to complain about a sub-par experience, some will answer candidly when asked. Asking for feedback from students can help you catch and fix common issues. It can also strengthen your relationships with learners. After all, everyone likes feeling like they’ve been heard.
For more advice on listening to learners to improve the student experience, read our article on How to Collect and Use Student Feedback to Build Better Programs.
Natasha Wahid
Natasha is a seasoned marketing leader with a curious mind and a passion for storytelling and community. A mission-driven person, Natasha has spent the majority of her career in industries that impact people, including HR and education technology. A firm believer in lifelong learning, Natasha is currently sharpening her roller skating skills and dusting off her Italian.