10 Steps NSCEC Orlando

10 Steps to Better
Campus Visits
National Small College Enrollment Conference

Jeff Kallay, The Experience Evangelist @targetx.com

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Let’s Manage Expectations
- Much to cover in short time - I strive to overwhelm
- “Big Picture” thinking - it’s about change
- Experience Economy 101
- Recap Ten Steps that make the difference between
a tour and an experience
- The Lows (let’s hope your school isn’t featured)
- The Highs (featuring a near perfect experience)
- Questions along the way and at close of session
- Give-a-ways (did you submit your business card?)
- PDF available online

“I Love My Clients!”
- I’ve got the greatest job thanks to them and TargetX
- I couldn’t do what I do without them
- They are the ones with courage and vision to bring
me to their campus and listen to my consultation
- The Lows - they know already and are correcting
- The Highs - more often than not
- All have highs and lows
- Did I say, how much “I love my clients!?”


The Experience Economy 101

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Experiences
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Text
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Service
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Industrial

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Experiences = Memories


Experience marketing
is about:
1. Repelling commodization
2. Charging a premium price
3. Persuading consumers to pay
when they never did before
4. Selling “Memories”

Remember,
“The experience is the marketing.”

Arts & Science Group Student Poll 2004
Arts and Science Group


The experience is higher
education marketing
- 84% use the web most heavily in
researching colleges
- 71% say the campus visit is the
most trusted source of information
Eduventures 2007 Survey of 7,867 High school junior and seniors.
Reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education “Prospective Students Rely on Campus Visits and Web Sites to Learn About Colleges, Report Says”

Arts and Science Group


10
Ten Steps that make
the difference between
a tour and an
experience

1. Integrate the four E’s
Higher Education is the experience economy: 4 E’s

Absorption

Entertainment Education
Passive Participation Active Participation

Esthetic Escape

Immersion
Strategic Horizons, LLP


2. Craft a mini campus experience
- Customize the Experience
We all want what we want - accommodate the various
levels of interest of guests to your campus

- Eliminate negative cues
- Accent positive cues
- Look for missed cues
Elon University


- Engage ALL the senses
“83% of marketing appeals to sight, leaving a paltry 17%
to the other senses. Surprisingly, smell is the second most
important sense after sight, and not sound. In fact, 75% of
all emotional connections are based on smell.” Adweek review of Brand Sense

Centre College The Ohio State University


- Mix in the memorabilia - “ticket stub”

California Lutheran University

3. Set the expectation
- Before guests arrive (online, email, & mail)
- Explain route (will and won’t be seen)

Map courtesy of
Lenoir-Rhyne College and Sketches


4. Spend no money
- Engage the “sense of the butt”

Millsaps College Albright College

Hampshire College Saint Joseph’s University

5. Tell stories not statistics
- Stories render authenticity

Hendrix College

Lenoir-Rhyne College
Albright College

6. Reveal your school’s nomenclature
7. Keep it real - do what’s authentic to
your campus and experience

Millsaps College California Lutheran University


8. Do you have a signature moment?
Cerritos Public Library Albright College Westmont College

Millsaps College

Hampshire College

Ursuline College


9. Mystery shop your tour
(and your competitors)

The Ohio State University


10. Top Ten Tidbits for Tour Guides
1. Interact as if you’re giving your sibling a tour
2. Answer questions honestly and directly, but remind them it’s your perspective
3. Watch your pronouns - “We” is exclusive, “You’ll “is inclusive
4. Tell stories - yours and your friends’
5. When you walk backwards they look at you, not the campus
6. If you feel negatively about any other school - don’t name names
7. “Tour guides” is boring - you’re bright, come up with a memorable name
8. Find connections with your audience and ask open-ended questions
9. Is asking “Do you have any more questions?” the best way to end a tour?
10. Have Fun!


The Lows


Expectations Not Managed
- Difficult to find “Visit” information on
websites “How many clicks?”
- No email, phone, or mail confirmation
- Not fully explaining how long to be on
campus and what all a visit entails
- Just kind of sit and wait in office or
visitor’s center

There’s better parking in Hell
- No visitor parking
- Not enough visitor parking
- No wayfinding signage
- Country Mile from Admissions


Am I in a Doctor’s office?
- Or a funeral parlor?
- Dark, depressing Admissions Offices or
Visitor’s Centers
- Harsh fluorescent lighting
- Chairs around the walls or crowded
- No music, computers, or refreshments
- Nothing you want to read or look at

Am I in a Doctor’s office?


Negative Cues


Model Rooms That Aren’t


Tours That Are Too Large


Disengaged Tour Guides

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS1P5LleRDk


Disengaged Tour Guides

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avYUL1A-WUM


The Highs


Expectations Managed
- Easy to find “Visit” information on
websites “1-2 clicks?”
- Email, phone, or mail confirmation
- Explaining how long to be on
campus and what all a visit entails
- Engaging pre-tour experience in office


It’s like parking in Heaven
- Easy to find visitor parking
- Tons of visitor parking
- Wayfinding signage Southern
New
Hampshire

- Close to Admissions
Occidental Occidental


I’m not at the Doctor’s office!
- Authentic look and feel
- Bright, comfortable Admissions Offices
or Visitor’s Centers
- Indirect and pendant lighting
- Furniture clustered in groups
- Music, computers, refreshments
- Stuff you want to read or look at

Not a Doctor’s office!

Albright College


Philadelphia University


Troy University

Eckerd


Eckerd

Birmingham-Southern College


Hobart and William Smith Colleges


Hobart and William Smith



See more at: and William Smith
Hobart

http://picasaweb.google.com/ExperienceEvangelistCollegeAdmissionAndVisitorCenterImages


Aesthetic/Esthetic


Transylvania University

Aesthetic/Esthetic


Assumption College

Stories & Storytelling

Sain. Edward’s University



Engaging Tour Guides,
Memories and Memorabilia
Albright

Albright College American University

Occidental

UArts

Louisville



Lenoir-Rhyne College Northern Kentucky University
St. Peter’s



Centre College


A Near Perfect Visit
Experience


Hendrix College
- SACAC school in Conway, Arkansas and member of
Associated Colleges of the South
- United Methodist
- 1100 students, 11-1 faculty ratio, 100% Ph.D
- Top Tier National Liberal Arts college
- $192 million endowment
- $33,198 annual estimate (Princeton Review Best Buy)
- 0 Fraternities and Sororities
- Loren Pope’s CTCL, “...most beautiful campus...”

Welcome to Ellis Hall
1,500 Individual Day and 15 Hendrix Experience Days

Text


Managed the Expectations


Customized
parking
and welcome


Interaction with Campus
First greeting at Ellis Hall Lobby Desk

Text


No bulky folder:
simple trifold
customized brochure


A Customized Experience


The “Helicopter” Lands

Parents stay in Admission Visitor Center while
prospective student is “walked” to and attends class

Attend a class - good chance it will be outdoors

Text


Student “Walkers” tell stories (vs. stats)


Birthday Tradition - visitors encouraged to feel water

Text


Sensory Engagement

Crunching pecan shells, like crunching snow
unique “leg shake” to remove them from shoes

Mailbox and Memorabilia


“National” Signature Moment


What Makes the Experience?
- VP “who gets it” not afraid to challenge status quo
- Rethought people and positions
- Re-appropriated funds and budget
- Director of Campus Visits, no travel, 24/7
- It didn’t happen overnight
- Tweak, refine, and refresh the experience
- Took a perceived negative cue (geography) and
made it work in their favor - longer time on campus
- Keep it real and authentic

The Hendrix HEAT
- Six Admission Interns (Sheriffs)
- 70 member Hendrix Heat
(Hendrix Experience Admission Team)
based on personality and schedule
not all give tours:
airport transport walkers
overnight hosts visitor center sitters
residential walk lunchers
- “Gatekeeper Mentality”
- Prospective students interact with several students

The Experience IS
the Marketing!
After one year (currently in third year):
- Largest and brightest freshmen class
- First time out-of-state went over 50% (55%)
- Significant cross-app with out of region schools
- Lower discount rate
- Freshmen herald “The Hendrix Experience”
- 70 freshmen applied to be members of HEAT


The Experience IS
the Marketing!
Individual Visit increases 48.8%
App. Visits
Yield Total Visits Yield
574
1008 28.7%
2003
674
1157 33.6%
2004
614
1229 30.6%
2005
718
1408 35.8%
2006
754
1500 37.6%
2007

Challenges You Face:
- That’s how we’ve always done it! Status Quo.
- There’s no budget available
- Fear of change
- What will happen if we reduce travel or publications?
- We don’t have the staff available
- Our tour guides won’t cooperate
- We can’t get support from rest of campus
- Is this just another admissions fad or trend?


Overcoming Challenges:
- Like branding initiatives, publications, and website,
creating an experience doesn’t happen overnight
- Revisit staff responsibilities and budget
- Draft a strategy and timeline
- Develop phases to implement experiential ideas
- Educate and get buy-in campus wide
- Start with easy to implement ideas and add gradually
- If something “fails,” drop it and move on
- Keep it real and authentic to your school

It takes an entire campus:
“Whatever we accomplish belongs
to our entire group. A tribute to
our combined effort”
- Walt Disney

“People may not remember what
you did or said, but they will
always remember how you made
them feel.”
- Jeff Kallay

Recommended reading
TargetX Knowledge Center
targetx.com “click knowledge center”

The Experience Economy & Authenticity
Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore

Brand Sense
Martin Lindstrom

The Experience Evangelist Blog


targetx.com “click Knowledge Center”
to find all recommended reading


To download presentation PDF: 1. Visit www.targetx.com
2. click “The Knowledge” 3. then “Groups” 4. and “NSCEC 2008”


NACAC TargetX iThink
Thursday, Sept 25 9-11am
Seattle Central Public Library


NACAC TargetX iDrink 5.0
Thursday, Sept 25 7:30-10:30pm
Chapel (Capitol Hill)


“People won’t always
remember what you said,
but they will remember how
you made them feel!”


10 Steps NSCEC Orlando

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