PlusOne – Marketing Musings

The children’s school is hardly the place were one would go looking for customer service case studies, so when such a case study presents itself, it is an opportunity too good to pass up.

Some time ago we wrote about how Wayne McMurtrie, Principal of Emu Park State School in Queensland, kept parents informed about a class’s return trip from a camp. This camp was on an island off the Queensland coast and while they had travelled out in a relatively small boat, deteriorating weather conditions saw their return to shore brought forward.

Not only did Wayne use SMS to inform parents of the intention to leave earlier, but he also sent further messages explaining that due to sea conditions a bigger boat was going to be used for the return journey, but also asking if parents wanted to collect their child from the dock or taken back to school.

This set of SMS messages achieved three great outcomes.

First parents were instantly appraised on developments, regardless of where they were.

Second was that any concerns parents may have had about their child’s safety on a boat in choppy seas was ally by keeping them informed about the upgrade in boat size.

Third parents were offered choice in collection arrangements.

In all cases parents responded to the headmaster is glowing responses in his approach to communication. For Wayne, SMS provided a cheap and effective communication method.

Next instance of SMS use was on the return from a land-based camp. On this occasion, a text message was sent when the bus was a known distance away from school. This allowed parents plenty of time to go to the school ready for pick-up. No more sitting around for a bus that would potentially be late. They knew how long it would take till the bus arrived.

Again, grateful responses were sent thanking the headmaster for his message.

And just this week – after school sports was being held for a specific sport. Knowing how communication can break down, a message was sent letting the parent (using the parents name in the message) know that their child (including the child’s name in the message) had that after school sport activity that afternoon.

Again, grateful responses were sent thanking Wayne for his message.

This sort of communication and what is essentially ‘customer service’ is outstanding, but even more so from this progressive-thinking headmaster.

Was it hard? No. By using SMS Central’s service, Wayne can easily create lists and send messages coast effectively from his computer.

This is a win-win situation. The headmaster can easily keep parents informed for less than the cost of the connection fee to ring a mobile phone and parents know they are being up to date simply and easily.

No comments »