I’m privileged to meet many company owners, managers, and directors every week. But recently, I had the privilege to meet the management team of a certain school somewhere in Africa.
We were discussing customer service, and I said something that shocked them:
“Customer service is not only measured by how your staff behave it’s also measured by how your students behave.”
They all looked at me like I had just said “school fees must be optional.”
I explained, “When parents walk into your school, they don’t just look at the buildings or your mission statement on the wall they watch how your students behave. When a child walks past an adult and says, ‘Good morning, Sir!’, that simple greeting can market your school better than a billboard.”
One of them quickly jumped in, “No, no, no, the children shouldn’t greet strangers.”
I smiled and asked, “Okay, let’s bring it home. In your house, when visitors come and your child walks past them without greeting how do you feel?”
They proudly said, “We’re okay with it. Our children only greet people we’ve introduced to them.”
I laughed and said, “Ahh, my brother, imagine a school full of silent children walking past visitors like security guards at the Reserve Bank! You’ll lose half your enrollments before term two. Parents want to feel warmth not coldness.”
You see, customer service is culture. It’s not what you rehearse when the inspector is coming. It’s what people see in your smallest daily habits. In a school, even a student’s “Good morning, Sir!” is a marketing tool. It tells a story about what kind of values that institution teaches.
So, my question to every parent and school leader is simple:
Will you send your child to a school where kids greet strangers with a smile…
or to a school where they walk past like FBI agents on a mission?
Because sometimes, the difference between full enrollment and empty classrooms is just two words:
“Good morning”
By The Chartered Vendor
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