Customer service in your school or district may not be as strong as you might hope. A majority of parents—just over 60%—said that “helpfulness, timeliness, and courteousness” in their interactions with school district personnel could improve, a new analysis has found.
Those feelings can, in turn, erode parents’ trust in schools, according to the latest survey of 450 parents by K12 Insight, which provides communications solutions to districts.
“Our nation’s public schools have a lot to lose and it is absolutely critical that districts improve customer service to increase family, student, and staff satisfaction,” said Krista Coleman, chief customer officer at K12 Insight. “Every interaction is an opportunity to build trust with stakeholders.”
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Some 87% of the parents surveyed said they reached out to their schools more than once during the 2021-22 school year, and a little less than half reported contacting the district at least six times. This could amount to more than 26,000 inbound inquiries in a 10,000-student district.
The upshot is that trust grows when families are satisfied with the customer service provided by their districts, K12 Insight’s analysis says. This can lead to parents giving a district positive word-of-mouth and online recommendations at a time when public schools face growing competition from choice programs, online, charter and private schools, and homeschooling.
The survey also found:
- 74% of survey participants were very satisfied or satisfied with the communication they receive from their district
- 26% of parents said they received either “not enough” or “too much” communication from schools
- Nearly 70% of parents reach out to their child’s district or school by phone or email
- 70% of parents expect a response within a day
But a 24-hour news cycle churning on multiple channels—with some spreading misinformation—can also chip away at parents’ trust in schools. “What families want in 2022 and the years ahead is a dialogue, not a broadcast, from their school district,” Coleman said. “They want to be seen, heard and served.”
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