By Vince Norton
After 30 years in the industry I’m still amazed at what I learn.
While conducting a series of Mystery Shops recently we were impressed by a practice of calling the prospect if they were late by 10 minutes for their appointment. The purpose of the call was simple and straight-forward: to see if the prospective student needed help with directions. (And let me tell you how nice that is for shoppers who may be struggling to find a location!)
But beyond the pragmatic reason for the call think about the other benefits. First of all, instead of your rep sitting around for a half an hour wondering if their appointment is going to show – they’ll know – and can go on to help other students. Secondly, you’re sending a message that this meeting is important and that you care about the student. And finally you can reassure the prospect that it’s still ok to come in – even if they are late, or you can schedule another interview that works better for them.
So instead of waiting and wondering – just make the call. |
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By Dr. Jean Norris
Funny thing happened to me recently. I was in Australia trying to explain the concept of career colleges to my friends and training partners, David and Jill. The first thing I learned is the term “colleges” in Australia are equivalent to our high schools; their term for higher education is “university.” In addition, the idea of privately held, for-profit educational institutions is not the norm. So Jill was not being judgmental at all when she asked, “Why would someone pay that much to go to a career college when there are cheaper options?”
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With the national unemployment rate averaging around 10%, there is a new challenge for Career Service representatives around the country. In the last 6 months, more schools have taken a closer look through mystery shopping, at their career service team to discover what’s working and where the opportunities for improvement lie.
What have we seen? Well, first of all, we’ve seen the resumes of many well-trained and professional graduates! Along with those resumes, we’ve met quite a few talented career service representatives who know how to ask the right questions to find the perfect candidates for their employers.
Simultaneously, we’ve noticed some opportunities for all Career Service reps to take notice. Here is a sampling:
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