Ask AISAP #13: What's the best retention strategy in the face of a media crisis?

Chuck English answers this audience question: A parent of a student is caught up in a media crisis that is causing a great deal of concern among other parents at the school. What should the school say to address these concerns?

Transcript

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Have an enrollment question, just Ask AISAP! This week's Ask AISAP comes from someone who said, Please don't say my name, but here goes. We're readying ourselves for re enrollment. And I'm panicking because our sixth grade class will have a mass exodus, primarily because a particular parent has had something in the media that is causing a great deal of concern. How do I help the school understand what they should and shouldn't say? How can the school and what should the school do to proactively address this issue? So, Chuck, that's our Ask AISAP for this week. What are some of your thoughts and recommendations for Anonymous? I think that there's two choices, to be honest, and maybe you do both of them. One is and by the way, this has nothing to do with marketing and nothing to do with messaging. So so I don't think.

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You may need to ask, ask them and have that parent leave the school if what they have done is as if what they've done is so notorious that, you know, all the other parents in the grade or most of the other parents in the grade are are reconsidering the re enrollment of their kids. Then, you know, maybe you need to talk to that parent about being the one that leaves. So that's the first thing that I think about. The second thing that I think about is that if the school's relationship with all of these parents is so thin that something like this can cause a reenrollment in crisis, then there's another problem going on. And and I think that, you know, my sense would be that the head of school or somebody in the admin team, depending on how big the school is, needs to get on the phone and speak to every single parent in that grade and reassure those parents that, you know what this this bad apple parent has done, does not reflect the school's values, doesn't reflect its mission that that it's that that that is something that is totally separate and and to talk to those families about all the reasons that they've been at this and this is sixth grade right so all the reasons that they've been at the school for in some cases seven years or eight years, either there's something else going on that Anonymous isn't talking about. That's impacting the relationship that the school has with these families. Or like I said, you know, somebody in the admin team just needs to get on the phone and to reaffirm that relationship and to assure those people that whatever this bad actor is doing will not impact, you know, their their child's education in seventh grade on. Mm hmm. You know, I think what's interesting that we're unpacking here and that's the joy of Ask AISAP! is that in the absence of knowing all these other elements and aspects, we're only able to answer and respond predicated on what's been written. However, there's a lot more here, as we just said. And then interestingly enough, Anonymous is asking for what are recommendations to market message to the outside community when in actuality that's not the issue at hand. It's an internal marketing communication messaging issue. Yup. And therein lies again, the understanding of it's not all about this, it's about let's go internal and really have a discussion. And sometimes it's, you know, it's just a simple I don't know the, you know, the name Rheua Stakely Okay, No, I don't. So she was an enrollment at that well was many years ago, but really an admissions and enrollment specialist. And she did a lot of work in the Jewish Day school work, but she wasn't Jewish. She just got sort of seconded into that world and a lot of work on retention. Unfortunately, she's she is she's passed away. But one of the things that she often talke about that sticks with me all the time is that in in the in the best of schools and in the schools that are really set up in the best way, you do not need retention efforts because the essence of retention is the relationship, the 1 to 1 relationship between the head of school or I suppose you to an admin team and each individual parent. And if you have a relationship with every parent. So you know what's on their mind, you know what's in their heart, you know what they want, you know what's going on. And it's and then, you know, you don't need all of the retention strategies that people even me, the retention strategies that people want to sell and that people want to talk to you about because it's really easy. It's just one on one. It's just somebody talking to somebody. And that's that's that's really the heart, the crux of retention. So, you know, I think about that in relation to this question because like you said, somebody wants to immediately jump to marketing and messaging when in fact the solution might be much simpler than that. And really just a function of the relation Ask at AISAP.org, send your questions. This discussion is intended for general education purposes and not intended as specific advice. The tips and strategies provided in today's discussion are suggestions based on our experience. Keep in mind that every situation has unique facts and circumstances which could alter our recommendations in any given situation.