Ah spring! The sun is shining, flowers are blooming, and the phones in your office are ringing off the hook! It’s also a good time to remember that we’re not alone in having to navigate ever-changing regulations and new processes — our students and their families are in the same boat. Read on for tips about how your excellent customer service skills can make this season a walk in the park.
- Unlike our students, we have many resources for learning about changes and process glitches. Having a vehicle to share this information as we get it can help to reduce the number of students contacting your office for such information. Short emails, text messages, or an information page on your website will do the trick.
- In today’s world, we expect instant gratification, particularly when we’re trying to solve a problem. There are a lot of new technologies that allow students to receive real-time, 24/7 assistance without dedicating personnel. However, if your office isn’t there yet there are some less cutting-edge solutions. Although you may not have sufficient staff to answer every call as it comes in, you can prioritize returning phone messages. The same can be said for responding to email. Prompt replies will ensure you won’t get repeated calls from the same student about the same thing because they are eager to get an answer. This is also a great way to let your students know that you prioritize solving their problems.
- Require your staff, including students, to get trained on the technical aspects of administering financial aid. Sometimes, we operate in silos where everyone receives only the training needed to do their own job. The most successful teams feature members that understand the big picture and have at least a fundamental understanding of everyone’s role. Take advantage of the free training offered by Federal Student Aid.
- Require your staff, including students, to refresh their customer service skills. Not every staff member will have a natural affinity for customer service, so a little refresher may be in order, particularly for team members who only seasonally work with external customers. If you don’t have your own training program, you can easily find one online. If you’re in charge of providing the training and don’t have an existing relationship with the online provider, complete the session yourself first to ensure it meets your institution’s standards.
- Have an escalation procedure in place, particularly if you serve a lot of students in person. Chances are you have your entry level staff or maybe even student staff at your front desk and answering the phone. Their focus is to get students quick answers to their questions and triage the more complicated cases by referring them to the subject matter experts. This works well until you get that difficult student at the front desk or parent on the telephone — they are angry, probably loud, and demanding an answer RIGHT NOW. The last thing you want is a loud argument in front of other visitors to your office or an employee stuck on a call with someone who won’t wait for a call back. We suggest, if you can, have a staff member available and space for in-person visitors to meet away from the front office. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a senior staff member. Perception is everything and quite often a staff member sitting in an office is perceived to be senior to one at the front desk. Transferring a call to another staff member achieves the same effect. This is helpful to defuse the situation and get the customer around to talking about solutions.
- Give yourself and your team a break. When you’re tired and stressed, it’s hard to remember the customer service skills you’ve gained. You’re also more likely to make a mistake. If possible, divvy up the work such that team members can work from home one or two days each week and concentrate on the non-external facing work that needs to be done (like awarding financial aid!) Give your frontline staff some downtime every day, even if it’s only an hour or two off the front desk and phone. If you don’t have enough full-time staff to cover such a schedule, use your students to greet visitors and callers then triage.
For more tips about offering excellent customer service to your students and their families, see our blog Surviving and Thriving During Financial Aid’s ‘Cruelest Month.’ And, if you’re having staffing challenges at this critical time of year, check out the Higher Education Assistance Group’s interim staffing resources.
