Pub. 5 2015-2016 Issue 1

27 paraprofessionals, office staff, board members) focusing on developing loyal education customers. Our customers are basically anyone who comes in contact with our services: children, parents, community members, business leaders and beyond. But how do we really change a school culture to be- come truly customer focused? Kevin points out a quote by Stephen R. Covey, “Organizations don’t behave. People behave.” By changing people’s behaviors, organizations transform and the school culture can change. We surveyed hundreds of teachers, administrators, and support staff. We researched best practices in developing customer loyalty in a variety of settings including theme parks, restaurants, hospitals, and schools and applied them to education, while adding those unique to schools. De- veloping the education version of the materials was very rewarding because those working in education settings rec- ognized the important key concepts and wanted to develop skills in this area. Besides an interactive workbook, we developed a highly engaging experience that involves role plays and application exercises. Best of all is the tool-set that includes a deck of 35 “Hot Tip” cards, each having one tip or practice someone can use to create extraordinary experiences for our customers. The program was beta tested several times with teachers, school secretaries, principals, and other education support personnel. To say it has been well received is an understate- ment. One participant recently wrote, “I’m not trying to just be nice by giving a 10. I’m seriously appreciative of the information I learned. I know I will be more effective in my “calling”. I look forward to using this daily.” Another commented, “Very much worth my time! So many things to do right now-I didn’t want to take half the day for more training (day 3 this week) so glad I came. I have specifics I can do today to make sure I am better serv- ing my customers. The “to do” list doesn’t seem so daunt- ing because I have more tools (specific things) I can use to make a positive difference and improve my day to day be- haviors.” During the month of September I have presented this program to the charters leaders throughout the state of Utah and the results continue to build the momentum. Prin- cipals, teachers, board members, and support staff person- nel have been excited to add skills that support their educa- tion customers. The second prong in Kevin’s approach is to continue the momentum by creating truly extraordinary school leaders through VisionBound’s “Extraordinary Ed- ucator Leadership Academy.” Nothing good is ever sus- tained without great leaders at the helm. In conclusion, I will present one key concept from the course…a simple way to measure customer loyalty. It is an adaptation of the “Ultimate Question” created by Fred Reichheld in his book by that name and is called the “Net Promoter Score.” You simply ask each customer the ul- timate question: “How likely is it you would recommend this school to a friend, colleague or family member?” Answers range from zero (highly unlikely) to ten (highly likely). Computing a single loyalty number, the Net Pro- moter Score, is easy: you subtract the percentage of six and below (unhappy detractors) from the nines and tens (loyal promoters) and the result is your NPS. You omit the pas- sives (sevens and eights) because they are neutral. It then becomes the challenge of every staff member, in every inter- action, to leave people feeling “ten.” The concrete tools we present in the course provide a way to do that. And a final story. One junior high school principal this past summer participated in the training and embraced the idea of solving the problems of his students and their par- ents while helping them feel great about the experience. He worked with his administrative and teaching staff to iden- tify the most important challenges for incoming 7th grade students and they decided that the apprehension involved in moving from an elementary setting was the biggest ob- stacle. He and his assistant principal scheduled a day a week over the summer to systematically visit each incoming 7th grader’s home, welcome them to their school, and give them a school shirt. When I first heard about the task, it seemed a bit daunting because there were 392 incoming 7th graders. But, they did it! As you can imagine, the response was very positive. Recently I visited this school and noticed that as students saw their principal, they smiled and greeted him like an old friend. Also, a number of parents elected to transfer their children into his school after hearing about such caring leadership. So, what is your school brand and how does it measure up in the minds and hearts of your students and all your customers? The answer may be particularly critical for charter schools, whose mission is to provide students with a customized and extraordinary experience. I’m not trying to just be nice by giving a 10. I’m seriously appreciative of the information I learned. I know I will be more effective in my “calling”. I look forward to using this daily.