Follow-Up

image from http://www.disneyclips.com

Correction: ASA says that the “student activity fee” cannot count as a tax credit. It is not required and not used for extracurriculars and therefore cannot be used as a tax credit donation. The blog has been edited to reflect this.

An article in the business section about a conference held recently at Arizona State University could be summed up simply as “Customer Service Matters.” A keynote speaker from the Disney corporation presented his company’s practice of carefully screening employees to find those who have the right attributes. They have found that customer service is something that needs to be part of the person, even when no one is watching.

The importance of customer service comes to mind in my interactions with my daughters’ school, Arizona School for the Arts. This year, I have been impressed with how thoughtful many of the teachers have been and the funny stories I hear about the small but important ways that teachers make connections with the students: remembering names (many of Willa’s teachers have taken the time to learn Thea’s name, and vice versa), spending out-of-school time to attend the school play or taking time to share something humorous from their own lives. I am struck by how the signs of respect from teachers go such a long way in helping kids to make a connection with the school. I appreciate the thank you notes from the teachers when I donate some food for student meetings and the more personalized emails about my daughters’ progress in their classes.

A shout out to the lead arts administrator too, who came to the fall play and took the time afterwards to say congratulations to me and Tim (as parents with a child in the play) and to congratulate the students for their work in the show. The interaction was less than a minute, but it meant a lot that Ms. ___ looked for us after the show to say a few words.

But in other customer service follow-up the school still has a ways to go. A form letter after our “welcome to ASA” meeting with the head of school simply reinforced the sense that we were not part of a community, but rather a potential source of money:

“I enjoyed meeting with you recently and appreciate you taking time to come to campus.  I am pleased that you are now part of our ASA family and I am glad that we had the opportunity to talk about the school’s unique educational experience and the financial support that it requires.  Thank you for your willingness to help sustain the ASA culture of giving and for your interest in being involved in school activities. I have included links below to both the Parent Volunteer Corps and to the online donation page for your convenience.  If you have any questions regarding the donation process or how to set up your funding options, please contact . . .”

No greeting me by my name, or personalization in the note. It might have been better not to send the note, rather than sending a clearly impersonal one.

One follow-up I expected but failed to receive was an apology note from the school related to the school choir concert. The concert (which was quite lovely) was preceded by a very specific email to parents stating where they should park (3 blocks away from the church where the concert was held) and that after the concert parents of the children in Mixed Choir 1 & 2 should NOT pick up their children at the church but should instead walk 3 blocks back to the parking lot and wait at the SW corner of the lot for a teacher to bring the children to the parents. For those parents who read the email and followed the directions, they waited and waited and no children ever came. Apparently no one took responsibility for actually walking the children to the parking lot. Kids eventually called their parents to return to the church and get them there. The customer service was sorely lacking and detracted from the overall concert (much like delicious food can’t overcome bad service at a restaurant).

Finally, with the end of the year also comes requests for a tax credit donation to the school. (Parents at ASA already give a non-required $150 “student activity fee” at the start of the year but this cannot be used as a tax credit donation. ) I appreciate what many of the teachers are doing and the theatre program has made a remarkable transformation in a short time and would like to donate for those reasons. But I think the administration should think a lot more carefully about the customer service “culture” that they (fail to) cultivate. From sending kids home for minor ID violations (Does it make any sense to send a kid home for simply forgetting to put on his ID? Why not allow him to take it out of his pocket and put it on?) to the policy not to allow parents to drop items off in the office to the poor communication from the administration (e.g., I’ve sent a few emails to the attendance clerk with specific questions and have yet to receive any acknowledgement), it seems the school’s leadership does not value “customer service.” It won’t ever be “The Happiest Place on Earth” but I wouldn’t mind a bit of Disney-like customer service at school.