Customer Service in Student Financial Aid

| November 8, 2011

Customer Service in Student Financial Aid

Presenters

Sara Blackburn, Financial Aid Advisor

Terri LeGrand, Associate Director

Customer Service

How do you feel about your school’s financial aid office

customer service?

The second strongest factor in an attendance decision is, “Can I afford it?” If customer-oriented service in financial aid does not help answer that question while making the potential student feel good about how he or she was treated, your school has lost a new student.

Dr. Neal Raisman, The Power of Retention: More Customer Service in Higher Education

Definition

Customer Service is an organization’s ability to supply their customer’s wants and needs.

Excellent Customer Service is the ability of an organization to constantly and consistently exceed the customer’s expectations.

Sbinfocanada.about.com

Meeting Basic Needs

• Friendliness • Understanding and empathy • Fairness• Control• Options and alternatives • Information

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6 Keys of Customer Service

1. Attitude 4. Information2. Listening 5. Follow Through3. Personalization 6. Extra Mile Efforts

Tools for Effective Listening

• Concentrate on what they are saying.

• Avoid multi-tasking while in conversation.

• Take notes.

• Listen without interrupting.

• Restate the issues.

Test FAFSA

Fafsademo.test.ed.gov

User name: eddemoPassword: fafsatest

Going the Extra Mile

• Offer additional help.• Check students’ records.• Learn other departments.• Be pro-active.• Provide community service.

Walk-ins

• Assist walk-ins before phone callers.• Acknowledge people ASAP.• Consider privacy.• Arrange furniture.• Be prepared.

Preparation for Walk-ins

• Appropriate forms (plenty of copies)• Pens, clipboards• Campus maps• Sign-in sheet for busy days• Business cards• Brochures and cards• Information slips

Email Etiquette: The Do’s and Don’ts of Email

Do• Use greetings and closings.• Check spelling and

grammar.• Place yourself in the

reader’s position.• Be patient for replies.• Make the subject line

specific.• Use please and thank you.

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Don’t• DON’T include confidential information. • DON’T label a message urgent unless it really is. • DON’T use all capital letters. • DON’T send a message when you are angry. • DON’T forward a message unless necessary.• DON’T say anything negative about another person.

CONCLUSION

Questions

Comments

Discussion and tips

Contact Information

Student Financial Aid OfficeP.O. Box 7246

Winston-Salem, NC [email protected]

p 336-758-5154f 336-758-4924

Sara Blackburn Terri [email protected] [email protected]