Transcript
Speaker: Hey, Rick. Yeah, Andy? wasn't feeling well the other day, so I went to the doctor and she said it looks like I have a bad case of onomatopoeia. Oh, wow.
Speaker: Onomatopoeia. What is that? I'm afraid it's exactly what it sounds like.
Speaker: Welcome to the Enrollment Marketing Geeks podcast for school leaders, a conversation designed to help your team pursue wildly important enrollment goals and ridiculously practical seasonal priorities. Hosted by Rick Newberry with Enrollment Catalyst and Andy Lynch with Tassel.
Speaker: Enjoy the show.
Speaker: Welcome to the Enrollment Marketing Geeks podcast for school leaders. Great to have you here. I'm Rick Newberry along with Andy Lynch, president and CEO of Tassel. Great to be with you folks.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, hopefully you've been joining us for this series. And as you know, hopefully yeah every episode drops on either the 1st or the 15th of every month. So a great opportunity for you to be able to engage in some professional development and learning along the way. So, you know, Andy and I have been covering this series on the unique contributions from school leaders in the pursuit of healthy enrollment.
Speaker: We started by talking about the head of school, and the admissions director then was followed. Secondly, then the marketing director, faculty and staff. and We just had an engaging conversation with Dr. Bill Mott talking about the role of the board.
Speaker: And today we have this bonus episode. That's right. so We're going focus in on the unique role of current enrolled families, your parents in pursuit of healthy enrollment. Yeah, that's good. And and we're having this bonus episode because after we wrapped up, we were thinking, you know, that was good. But it occurred to both of us, you know, there's one other stakeholder group here that's really important that we need to talk about, currently enrolled families, because when you think about it, they play a tremendous role in enrollment health.
Speaker: ah They're your customers. And every year they evaluate if they want to keep going. Sometimes on a semester by semester basis is the school's value proposition worth what we're paying.
Speaker: They're also tremendously influential in word of mouth. Parents have ah their their social networks, their friends, their neighbors, their coworkers, and they get asked questions about your school.
Speaker: And they have influence and credibility that that you don't. ah Many would like to be positive ambassadors. They've got what what I like to call the unbridled goodwill, but they just don't know how to channel it, where to plug in, what to say.
Speaker: And then the reality is some of your current currently enrolled families are not promoters. They're actually detractors. Those are ah NPS, net promoter score terms, Rick, that you know well, but they're they're detractors and they're a drain on the culture.
Speaker: they're not contributing to healthy enrollment. i think we need to talk about that too in this bonus episode. So so let's jump in. And as we as we frame this conversation, um you know, Rick, most most families come to schools through some form of word of mouth.
Speaker: So you could conclude that it makes sense for us to figure out how to ah spin up more positive word of mouth. And you might reach the conclusion and And we've talked to folks in these seats, heads of school admissions folks, well-intentioned, and they think, okay, we're going to design a referral program where we pay some sort of fee or we give some sort of tuition discount.
Speaker: to families who refer other families within their network. And, and you know, that that idea might sound good at first. And we've even met, I can remember at one of our workshops, we had a head of school who was really bullish on this program. But I know you and I take a ah ah different approach to paying for referrals.
Speaker: So get us started talking about that topic. Yeah, I get that question a lot. In fact, when I go in and do an assessment in a school, I'll often find that that they've been attempting to have this referral program in place. You know, the idea behind it is that we can offer this financial incentive that'll motivate and inspire current families to talk to their friends.
Speaker: Well, it it rarely works. You would think that that financial incentive would actually be a motivator, but it's actually not. And that's where I think we have to be very cautious about trying to buy buy parent referrals.
Speaker: I don't think they can be bought because word mouth should come from the heart. It should be a natural expression of your love for your school. And so it's not something that you know can be purchased directly you know, are motivated um for parents to do by this financial exchange. In fact, I think that cheapens word of mouth um because it's not something you have to pay for. It's something that should be motivated from the authentic experience. So, you know, when a parent tells a friend, you know, you really need to look at our school, that's been transformational for my child. It's really,
Speaker: rooted in that story, that experience. we're going to talk about that a little bit later. So um whereas when they receive potentially ah a $500 tuition credit, and that feels suddenly more transactional.
Speaker: um So it kind of breaks down that trust. yeah You know, you don't have to pay for this referral. um I might find a school that has a handful of parents taking advantage of this. That's not to me a very great strategy that a school would have in place. And so there's other ways to inspire word of mouth. And so we don't need to pay people to talk about our school.
Speaker: It should happen naturally. Well, let's keep going. So so if we don't. see paying for referrals as the right strategy? How do we encourage more positive word of mouth from our current families? Yeah, i think, you know, the key is you know, we don't want to buy advocacy. We want to earn it. And so that earned opportunity comes from, you know, really three ideas.
Speaker: I look at the experience and that's the everyday interaction that a parent is involved in in your school. I mean, that's connecting with teachers. It's the communication they receive. It's the conversations with the front office staff, the connections with leadership,
Speaker: It's that interaction when they first arrive at your school in the morning in car line, how they're greeted. you know it's It's everything from events and billing and problem solving. you know you You think about every type of interaction. That's the all-encompassing experience that a parent has within your school. and so Hopefully those are good experiences because that's going to drive more positive word of mouth in the community.
Speaker: In fact, this is all rooted in my nine drivers of word of mouth webinar that I did recently. And these are ah three key ideas I wanted to talk about during this segment.
Speaker: Trust is another one. And that's where you are connecting with um the leadership and you have a belief in what they're providing. you know, where they're promising a great education.
Speaker: And the question is, are they delivering on it? Hopefully, as a parent, you're entrusting your child to the school community to be able to provide that excellent education. So there's a relationship. um There's credibility.
Speaker: There's a delivering on the promises You know, the leaders are accessible and, um you know, the problems that you may be facing as a parent are handled well by the leadership. So that trust relationship is key.
Speaker: And then the other key aspect is passion. And so that's really related to the parent and how they experience the school um with their child. You know, what is a parent passionate about? i mean, Andy, you and I are parents, so...
Speaker: one of the greatest passions in our life are kids. yeah And so the same is very true in a school context. You know, when they see their child thriving, belonging, gaining confidence, being known, overcoming a challenge, really engaging in that aha moment and learning where they're growing academically, socially, spiritually,
Speaker: artistically, athletically, whatever it is, that's where the passion of the parent is really instilled because they're seeing that difference that your school is making every day in the life of their child. So they're passionate about the outcome, the difference that your school is making. And that's something that they'll talk about when a parent is seeing the difference made in their child within their school.
Speaker: they're going to talk about that to a friend. So these are, these are key areas. Um, and if you want to dive deeper, you know, check out my webinar through my YouTube channel. Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, giving parents something positive to talk about their, their kids are having wins and they want to share those wins. with family and friends. This is good stuff. When talk about word of mouth, we aren't just asking families to share a bunch of stats and figures and talking points and a memorized elevator pitch here. They're sharing their experiences and and their' their stories.
Speaker: And that word story is particularly powerful in ah in promoting our schools and positioning our schools ah to be perceived positively. and How can we harness the power of of story and word of mouth, Rick?
Speaker: Yeah, I think it it comes from those experiences that parents and students have. I mean, as you think about what a parent would share, they're going to talk from the heart. They're not going to share your mission statement. That will never be something they'll memorize. They won't know your tagline. and rattle that off to a a friend that they're communicating with. They're not going talk about the bullet points that you want them to share. They're going talk from the heart. They're going to talk from their own experience base, and they're going to tell their stories.
Speaker: you know They're going to talk about the great things that happen in the school experience with their child. like you know They may say something like, you wouldn't believe what my daughter's teacher did.
Speaker: or am i In a good way. yeah Yeah, that's right. When my son was struggling, here's what the school did. Or the head of school called this personally. Or here's my experience. So again, it's going to be a story that they're going to share.
Speaker: As they're sitting across the table from a friend in Starbucks, which is my favorite place to go when I need that caffeine fix. um you know The parent's going to embrace in the conversation the story that they've experienced at your school. That's where they're going to create that connection.
Speaker: um So, you know, everything that you do in your school is going to create those moments, moments become stories, stories become word of mouth. And that's really how um parents are sharing to their friends in the community. So,
Speaker: That's good. and And let's make this practical. ah i love these concepts that make a lot of sense, but how how do you practically encourage them to share? Because with word of mouth, we can...
Speaker: ah hope that people get around to saying something positive. How do we encourage families to share their experiences, their stories without making it feel forced or contrived?
Speaker: Yeah, I think word of mouth has to be natural. um It's not like you're, you know, you're intentionally planning that I'm going to go out and have this conversation with my friend And I'm going to try to sell them on ah my school. It's where you're in the course of a natural conversation with a friend and you bring up, you know, the experience that you're having at a school and you share your perspective. You talk to your friend about their perspective of where they're sending their kids to school or what they're thinking about for school. And so it becomes this natural conversation um where you're exchanging stories and experiences.
Speaker: And based upon a parent's positive experience within a school, that's going to potentially lead and their friend to be able to want to check it out. And so that natural connection that's taking place in a real conversation shared by real stories, friend to friend, is going to encourage that friend because it's a trusted, that parent is a trusted friend and they're going to want to take that next step and check things out.
Speaker: So there are some some structured ways, there are some more formal ways that schools can activate the listening for these stories to know what to encourage and where.
Speaker: um and there are several methodologies for this. give Give us some ways that we can listen for when these stories are surfacing within our school communities. Yeah, I mean, yeah everything from surveys, and I encourage you to conduct the net promoter score survey, and because then you're going to be able to understand what your promoters are saying. and That's especially important, as well as understand On the other side of word of mouth, the detractors, you know you're going to listen for it in conversations, your retention data, um you know feedback from satisfied, enthusiastic families, you know hearing what they have to say. i mean, I spend a lot of time on school sites, site visits, conducting focus group meetings, and I hear parents talk.
Speaker: about their experiences. I always ask them to to share what stands out about the school and they talk from the heart. They share those experiences. So I think you need to be purposely engaged in those conversations, whether it's in a formal survey or a focus group meeting or just a one-on-one conversation that's casual and car line or as they come in the front door of your school.
Speaker: And so, and then you could collect it maybe through testimonials. You can encourage them to post online reviews. You need to be aware of what's online as well. You know, what are people saying about your school?
Speaker: And so, you know a great way to do that is go to ChadGBT and ask ChadGBT to summarize the pros and cons from the reviews that are out there. online. So, um you know, lots lots of variety ways, you know, that we're going to talk later about potentially participating in a parent ambassador program. And so that's another option um for parents to get involved. So you can activate their storytelling in a specific way to get involved in reaching the community with more word of mouth.
Speaker: And then last but not least, I think it's important to to collect that story. We talked about that earlier on in this series, and you can share those stories on your website and social media. So that's a way of passing it on to be able to reach your community.
Speaker: You're listening to the Enrollment Marketing Geeks podcast for school leaders, hosted by Andy Lynch with Tassel and Rick Newbery with Enrollment Catalyst. Visit EnrollmentMarketingGeeks.com to access free resources and learn about upcoming events.
Speaker: That's EnrollmentMarketingGeeks.com. You know, Andy, this has been a great conversation thinking about how parents and families can be involved in this whole process of growing a school with healthy enrollment. But I think it's important, too, that we look at this issue of what are families signing up for? yeah and so talk to us a little bit about that need for them to know what they're signing up for.
Speaker: you know, when I think about currently enrolled families' unique contributions to healthy enrollment, um they have an influence on the culture um and that the the culture of the school um is a moving target. You think about every time you add a new family, you change the flavor of the culture. And that's that's not a bad thing. It's it's just a reality. the The soup is going to taste like the sum of its ingredients. Therefore, it's really important that we think about ah enrolling right fit families. And when I i use that term, right fit families, as we talk about that a lot at Tassel, and developing a right fit family rubric. It's a framework for predicting how likely a family is to thrive in your culture and in your educational model. I use that language of right fit thoughtfully and intentionally. And when I say right fit,
Speaker: I don't want you to hear ah good families versus bad families because we want every child to succeed, every every kid to get a great education, whether it's at our school or somewhere else. But the reality is um your school is not designed to fit the needs of every family or be what every family wants. So therefore, in the admissions process, it's important that we have a clear understanding of what a right fit family is.
Speaker: um who who is likely to thrive in our culture and educational model. And we think about how the enrollment process design, the admissions process, you're asking a lot of questions because you want to understand who is on the other side of this conversation, not just what's driving them, what they're looking for, but you're trying to discern, are we going to be a good long-term fit here? Because no one wants a false start.
Speaker: And when you, when you think about this concept of right fit families and, the Currently Enrolled Families contribution to healthy enrollment, it doesn't take many poor fit families. Misaligned families do have an outsized impact on the culture and we all know what happens then.
Speaker: Does the word of mouth tend trend positive or does it trend negative? ah and And therefore, I think it's important that on the front end, we're really clear with families about what they're signing up for, what they're agreeing to.
Speaker: And to be clear about who your school is and isn't for, and that may be hard for some people to hear, but is a is the short-term pain in admissions conversation, hey i don't I don't think we're we're aligned. don't think we're going in the same direction here. You might be served better serve somewhere else.
Speaker: Which is which is ah tougher, that short-term pain or the long protracted pain pain of like, ooh, this was a miss.
Speaker: We all know it was a miss. And now we have to to work through deeper issues with a family who probably shouldn't be here in the first place. or Rick, what' what's your knee-jerk reaction to that? Yeah, I actually had a question for you. um You know, you deal with a lot of schools just like I do. Are you surprised that school leaders haven't taken the time to think about how they would define a right fit family?
Speaker: Yeah, you know, I think that those are those are questions that um the leadership team, that the admissions team, that key stakeholders, division division leads need to have a collaborative conversation about early and be clear internally about what a right fit family is, what the attributes of right fit family are.
Speaker: and And from that internal understanding, you you build a working definition, a collaborative de definition around how the school defines partnership. I mean, Rick, you've worked with millions of schools and you've probably seen nearly all of them. You've probably seen, okay, we'll just say thousands. There you go. ah you You've seen the majority of them use the word partnership.
Speaker: I'm willing to bet nearly yeah yeah every school leader listening to this podcast uses the word partnership. Go go to your website and and look for the word partnership. You're probably going to find it. But how many schools have you seen have actually defined that? So therefore, I think it's tremendously important that we get really clear about how we define that term at Tassel. We call that the portrait of a partnership where you articulate ah the aspects of a healthy partnership and what is the school committing to and what are families committing to.
Speaker: Because it's it's it's this coming together and this partnership. You know, partnership's not all one way. Like, hey, family, here's what we need, need, need from you. But, you know, we're going to be kind of opaque about what our contributions are. No, I think you got to be really clear and transparent about what we mean when we say partnership. So it sets the bar for both key stakeholders, the family and the school, in pursuit of student success. We have a common goal here, student success. by whatever However the school defines that,
Speaker: this is what we're inviting you into, not this sort of nebulous or haven't you read our policy manual or our handbook? that that's there's There's too much, and there's too heavy a lift to say infer what we're about by reading reams and reams of paper or or you know scrolling for 10 minutes on a website to wrap your head around what it's going what we're asking of you.
Speaker: so You gotta be really clear internally about who you're for and how you define partnership, because it's really painful to to wait too late to get real about what's expected of each side. So that contribution from ah enrolled families, i mean i think it's who you're asking to contribute.
Speaker: Because every for every family who raised a hand is not necessarily the right fit for your school and will have an outsized impact on your culture. Yeah, that's right. Talk to us about the boundaries that should be in place for families as you think about this partnership.
Speaker: Yep. So... I think being clear about partnership, what's expected of the school, what's expected of the family in pursuit of student success. I think on the other side of that clarity, they also need to know that you that this is more than just marketing wallpaper or an admissions brochure or a page on the website. They need to see that this is real.
Speaker: um So if they move through your admissions process and you agree that we have a mutual fit, right fit for the school, right fit for the family. and On the other side of that, they have to know that that was more than just um you know part of a part of the onboarding process. They have to understand that this is how we actually live. we We have ah ah a clearly defined understanding of our of of our partnership model.
Speaker: reinforced through a clear set of core values and they need to know that, uh, you take that seriously. So, and that, I don't mean just in terms of carrots and sticks, it's like, Hey, things go wrong. We're going hit you over the head with our policy manual and him. They have to know that, that you take, uh, your guidelines seriously. and and it's a positive when affirming, when families, family partnerships are going well.
Speaker: You all have been wonderful partners with us and here are ways that we see your family thriving and we appreciate the partnership. But they they also need to see consistent follow through when a family may be out of alignment in a certain aspect of partnership.
Speaker: Like, do you take do you take this seriously? Do you take protecting your culture seriously? Because the health of your culture, I think, is directly proportional to the the positivity of the word of mouth in the marketplace and the inverse is true as well.
Speaker: And where does that negative word of mouth comes from? mean, it can come from unrealistic expectations from from families, but I think in many cases, it comes from a lack of follow through or what they perceive to be as we were told this, but in reality, the practice is very different.
Speaker: And you know who else this impacts is, ah it's it's not just your currently enrolled families, if if you don't take your commitment seriously and follow through.
Speaker: Your faculty and staff, I've seen this in the Right Fit Family Rubric workshops that I've led, where in that survey data, it becomes clear that faculty and staff don't perceive that leadership have their backs.
Speaker: Like, hey, I've told you we've been struggling with this particular family. um i can't seem to get into alignment with them. And it's, ah you know, the the posture of leadership is, well, we we' we're going to work really, really hard to help them succeed and and you're just going to have to deal with it.
Speaker: ah Well, you're right, fit faculty and staff are only going to take so much of that before they say, you know what, I don't feel like leadership has my back. I'm out of here. And that that is a ah negative spiral that you can that can lead to a tailspin, unfortunately. So, yeah I think families need to know you mean business.
Speaker: Teachers have to believe that you have their backs. I can think of one school that had not dismissed a family in a period of nearly three years, you know wanting to help every family succeed. We can make this work, but wow, the toll it was taking on faculty and staff was significant. so You want right fit families to be affirmed in their choice and know that you're serious about protecting the culture.
Speaker: Yeah, that is that's so true, Andy. I appreciate you bringing this up because, um you know, it you need to think about protecting your community and establishing those boundaries. But also families need an opportunity to to do something. Maybe it's joining a parent ambassador network.
Speaker: um Open up this conversation for us. Yeah, you know, i think this is a this is an important opportunity and it this concept of the Parent Ambassador Network or the FAN program by whatever name, within within most school communities, there is a significant um quantity of unbridled goodwill where you have families who've had a great experience.
Speaker: um They want the school for what it does, not a version of what they hope it will do. They're they're bought in um They are ah strong fits. They're contributing to the culture.
Speaker: And they would love to be advocates for the school and and may do this here and there organically as they have an opportunity. But if you were to implement a more formal structured approach to harnessing that unbridled goodwill at every level,
Speaker: ah you would see a stronger return on word of mouth. So give families ah a formal and structured way to spread that positivity through some sort of parent ambassador network, a fan program. um And you know you've you've done a lot of work in this area, Rick, and you you could, so someone could could hear this part of our conversation and say, i don't need One more thing. I'm so busy already.
Speaker: Make a case for why I should do this. It sounds like I'm asking them to attend a bunch of meetings and do a bunch of uncomfortable stuff and go ask them to give money for the school. and stuff and That's not what we're talking about here. So framing this concept of the parent ambassador network, or the fan do do you have a ah preference for what the name of this thing could be, should be? Well, if you use parent ambassador network, it's short for PAN. I don't actually like PAN. i had one school use that acronym and that is really doesn't work for me. So I like FAN, um your FAN program. It could stand for your Family Ambassador Network. And so the concept of a FAN is someone who loves your school. They tell positive stories. They wear spirit wear. They brag about their experiences. And so you want to harness that energy. And so inspiring your families, your parents, your
Speaker: with a network of ambassadors is the direction that I recommend because word of mouth is the number one referral source. So you need to activate strategies in that direction. And an ambassador program is one way to do that. And I like to keep it very simple. No parent wants to be overwhelmed with a bunch of meetings or a long list of tasks and possibilities.
Speaker: I always encourage schools to do to ask parents for three things. Number one is to and nudge a friend, to talk to a friend intentionally about their school experience. Secondly, share their story with us, the marketing team, the admissions team, so we can take that story and we can share that online. And third, to write a review on one of the review sites.
Speaker: Those three ways are actually intentional ways to be able to share your story, your family's story um to others in the community. So that's what a network is all about. And so i encourage schools to think big.
Speaker: It's not a small group. It's ah actually a large group of fans who are helping share intentional word of mouth to the community. And that's really what this is all about. Giving them um direction, inspiring in them and motivating them to take that next step. So it's been a great discussion, Andy.
Speaker: Yeah. Important topic. Great bonus round here. So give give us a quick recap of our conversation today, Rick. Yeah, we talked about a lot of areas within the half an hour together. We started with the idea of don't buy referrals, and no financial incentives.
Speaker: And then we talked about how word of mouth comes from the experiences, the trust and the passion. And that's really shared in the form of stories. And then we spent some time talking about the partnership and defining that and making sure that the school is putting that out in their marketing messaging. We communicated and the importance of boundaries and then we wrapped it all up with the important part of putting this in motion with some type of network, an ambassador network,
Speaker: that we need to have in place. So, um, great discussion, Andy. and we have an event coming up. Yeah. Yeah, we do. Uh, still time to register for the enrollment marketing AI summit at the first Academy in Orlando. It's November 11 and 12, 2026. Uh, this is going to be a, a hands-on workshop for marketing admissions, professional school leaders who want to understand AI better and its applications.
Speaker: In the enrollment effort, we're going to start on that November 10 in the afternoon with an optional tour of the first Academy. So if you can get in early and join that tour, it's an amazing experience there at tfa Great team, great leadership, and certainly worth coming in the day before for that tour. But we're going to go all day on the 11th.
Speaker: going to be hands-on, bring your laptop. So we're going to be not just um teaching, but also doing, and we'll wrap up at noon on the 12th. So you can learn more and register at enrollmentmarketinggeeks.com. It's enrollmentmarketinggeeks.com. And of course, we would love to have you follow and share this this podcast.
Speaker: Hope it's been a great resource for you. And as always, Rick, let's go out with the dad joke. Andy, yeah you know, I dated a girl in high school who broke up with me because yeah as she found out I had nine toes. Huh, really? Why would she break up with you for having nine toes?
Speaker: Well, she liked me, but it turns out she was just lactose intolerant. All right. Good be with you, ri Rick. Thanks so much.
Speaker: Thanks for listening to the Enrollment Marketing Geeks podcast for school leaders. If you found today's conversation helpful, be sure to follow the podcast, leave us a rating or review, and share this episode with a colleague.
Speaker: For more free resources and information on upcoming events, visit enrollmentmarketinggeeks.com.
