Get Your Students Hired
Elizabeth,
Excellent thoughts. You are so right on the importance of the enrollment management triad and the importance each component of the overall team brings to the student experience. It takes a village to see a student from enrollment to graduation and all interactions should be based on timely, accurate and excellent service.
I am looking forward to seeing other post from your point of view.
Sincerely, Chyrl
Chyrl Ayers
A campus culture that embraces all three elements we are discussing is the foundation for success.
I am of the belief that each of us are made better by our colleagues. Departments, especially the enrollment management triad of financial aid, office of the registrar and admission must work together efficiently and effectively in order to ensure a quality student experience. The Financial Aid team should be encouraged to seek out opportunities to develop partnerships across campus. Collaboration on behalf of student success is paramount and makes the delivery of timely, accurate and excellent service possible.
Elizabeth,
I agree with your assessment. Delivering timely and accurate service is always perceived as excellent service. All three characteristics are important to the overall success of the student and their experience when dealing with financial aid office.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
My institution has five 10-week terms each year. With this accelerated pace, both timeliness and accuracy are equally important. If both are a priority, then the student is more likely to perceive they have received excellent service.
Latoya,
You have a very valid point on the importance of accuracy and how that translates to the student experience. It has been my experience that all three of these characteristics go hand in hand for a successful student process and experience. If you are accurately handling students then this should translate to good service and timely processing.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
Accuracy is the most important. Students/customers will always appreciate you more when you do things right the first time.
Todd, Agree totally with you as most participants to this course do also. all three characteristics are important and go hand in hand to the overall success of the student.
Regards,
David McGuffee
I would think Service would be the best answer and encompass the other two choices. I believe that it is counter-intuitive to think that being timely and inaccurate or accurate and slow is good customer service.
Susan,
An individual's preference on the most important characteristic may vary; however, most of the participants tend to agree with your point. If one is focused on delivering outstanding Customer Service then the accuracy and timeliness must be present and in the forefront. I am in agreement with you that good customer service with a positive and supportive attitude is necessary for students' success.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
I think service is the most item in the process because if you have good service, you will strive for timeliness and accuracy. It all goes together with a positive attitude. You will want to do things right for the student. Even in tough situations, good customer service and attitude can always get you through and help you to meet the needs of the student.
LORLA,
Each participant has their own personal feelings about what makes a successful financial aid office. Each of these characteristics are important and offer equal value to the process and go hand in hand. It is difficult to offer excellent Customer Service without providing accurate and timely processing of the students. If you are giving excellent Customer Service you and your team are striving for timely and accurate processing.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
I believe you always have to put your emphasis on Excellent Customer Service, then
accuracy and timeliness.
Michael,
Most participants in this forum felt the same as you - all three are important to the overal success of the student. If you are accurately processing the student's financial aid paperwork then you should be doing this timely and with great customer service. All three of these characteristics go hand in hand to a successful experience by student and parents.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
Of course all three are important and a good financial aid office will stress all three characteristics. In my opinion, I put the most emphasis on accuracy with my staff. Great customer service helps students truly understand and feel like they are part of the entire process. Timeliness ensures that the FA office runs smoothly and no student falls through the cracks. Accuracy ensures that you are correctly awarding students and in compliance with Department of Education. Accuracy makes sure that taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly. I would like to reiterate that if i could choose all three, I certainly would.
Gabrielle,
Most of the participants have had similar comments on the importance of all characteristics but each has a focus point. Accurate processing normally leads to timely and good customer service.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
All three of these Items are very important in the Financial aid process. However I feel that Accuracy is the most important of the three. It is very essential to be accurate in student information and income reporting to see that the student is awarded the correct amounts and is processed correctly.
Lisa,
Your closing is a great point - service that is excellent, timely and accurately delivered goes beyond enrollment, attendance and graduation. The staisfied student that received an excellent experience and education will be your best advertisement out in the public. Also, all of the characteristics work together to leave a lasting impression on the applicant and ultimately the graduate.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
I would rate these three items equally as each are important components to ensuring a student's enrollment and completion of the program. If you value one item more than another, you encourage the following:
(1) no enrollment
(2) withdrawal
(3) drop
And each of those has their own subsets of negatives. In order to keep a student, we must enthusiastically encourage them, deal with them honestly and provide excellent customer service during the length of their interactions with the college. Just because they have finished the program does not mean that they should no longer be offered service.
Sparky,
I agree with your comments. Customer Service is more than handling a complaint. It is about providing service in a timely and accurate manner to insure the student is satisfied with the handling of his/her financial aid process. If you provide quality customer service throughout the process you should reduce the number of students with complaints or issues. Also, when you do have a student complaint address it with the same level of timely and accurate processing and this should satisify your student.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
To the customer, customer service is always #1 regardless of the product. When we think of customer service, we often picture a person with a complaint, but doing a consistently good job of timely, accurate processing will pre-empt many such complaints.