Blogs, websites, Facebook pages, printed and digital newsletters (anything more than a page does not get read), calendars, twitter updates and personal reminders…the school’s communication arsenal continues to increase …and school resources and front desks are stretched thin, … if they continue to keep doing what they have been doing, they will keep getting what they have been getting…. the disengaged parent and an increasing cost overhead to maintain an inefficient communications infrastructure.
While parental expectations are growing by the day, small schools are challenged with keeping up with the pace of technology growth to reach out to parents. Enrollment, engagement and loyalty are the three metrics that are critical for a school’s success. However, at what cost? It would behoove small schools to consider measuring the true cost of what they spend on communications using all the above mentioned mediums including the cost of paper, resources, website updates, sending newsletters and the time it takes to do all of this.
If every parent had their way, there would be not one solution but an infinite number of solutions that would still fail to meet the needs of all parents. It is important for schools to use the 80/20 rule to engage the parent… What 20 % of engagement methods will solve 80% of the parental needs? There will always the 12-20% of parents in every school who will either choose not to be engaged with their school simply because they are too busy or they come up with excuses on why their school’s communication methods are not working.
Addressing the needs of these 12-20% ers is prohibitively more expensive than addressing the needs of the remaining 80%. Because its these 80%ers who play a vital role in genuinely engaging with their school to make it a better place for their child.
Did you know that …today’s parent audiences are predominantly mobile – tech savvy – on the go, and expect clear, concise, compelling, timely, relevant and actionable communication at their fingertips and not on paper or websites? Does your school have the 20% of parents who make it more challenging for you to enage with than the remaining 80%?