Customer Service and the Tuition Crisis

Rabbi Baruch Noy

An inescapable contemporary feature of the yeshiva and Jewish day school ecosystem is the cost of tuition. Parents are investing in their children’s educational experience more than ever before. With that increase in investment comes an increase in scrutiny and oversight. The more that parents feel stretched by the cost of tuition, the more they justifiably feel entitled to stepping into their child’s educational experience more deeply. How can schools manage this expectation of oversight without descending into the chaos of hundreds of “principals” needing to approve every decision? This is the delicate balance that faces school leaders of yeshivos and Jewish day schools in terms of parent stewardship: charting a path for parent participation and understanding, while upholding the mandate of the school to all of its customers, stakeholders, and employees. 

In essence, a school leader of a yeshiva or Jewish day school now needs to be a customer service manager.

The challenges of managing a business, whether public or private, are much the same. There are multiple parties to consider: the customers, the shareholders, and the employees. It is the role of the chief executive to balance the needs of all of these parties and make the hard choices for the future success and viability of the company. In this sense, the school leader is no different. While the age-old adage claims that “the customer is always right”, this is certainly not the case in all situations. If the customer has demands of the company’s employees in excess of their actual job description, the chief executive needs to manage the customer and their demands. If the customer’s demands are unreasonable, the company’s chief executive will have to manage the tightrope by increasing the demands on the employee, covering the difference himself, or sending the customer elsewhere for their business needs.

Transparency Beyond the Budget

In some cases, parents have become more interested in transparency regarding school finances, arguing that they’re entitled to know where their tuition dollars go. While this seems to go against the grain for our schools, some have complied. However, it is important to point out that increased transparency does not focus solely on how the school manages the budget (or, more accurately, the ongoing deficit). There are other opaque areas of school management that can hide from parents the rationale behind many school decisions, and increased transparency can help build understanding and increase levels of parent satisfaction. 

For example, many parents do not understand the full scope of what the demands are on the classroom teacher. When a parent complains about a classroom teacher’s performance, it is often helpful to step back and take a holistic and transparent view of what the expectations and demands are of a classroom teacher together with the parent. Another example would be the arduous planning and implementation of school events. Well-run school events can have multiple staff members working around the clock for days and sometimes weeks. Sharing some behind-the-scenes photos and information, including how the setup is done at the late hours of the evening, shows parents the tremendous dedication of school staff members.

Customer Satisfaction

There is a distinction between customer service, when a customer has experienced a perceived problem, and customer satisfaction, proactively keeping the customer a happy customer. The benefit of customer satisfaction is that when they need customer service, their attitude is generally a positive one. There is no question that most of us school leaders were not formally trained in modern techniques of customer satisfaction. However, not every yeshiva and Jewish day school requires a director of communications, marketing, or admissions to create and foster stronger positive relationships with parents. Let us suggest a few strategies taken from the business world, as well as the larger world of private educational institutions, that help chief executives proactively manage customers while balancing the needs of other stakeholders and employees.

1. Effective Communication

Maintain open lines of communication with parents and students through newsletters, emails, and regular updates. Host regular meetings or forums to address concerns and share school developments. If your school does not have a customer-friendly parent-facing positivity-exuding consistent newsletter, start on this immediately. (Canva is your best friend here. See the sidebar for more resources.) Don’t expect parents to intuitively know about your new SEL program, new STEM lab, or your staff professional development; show them regularly how you are making the school better and a more valuable investment for their tuition dollars.

2. Feedback Mechanisms

Communication needs to go both ways, so in addition to effective outgoing messaging, schools must establish effective ways to take in feedback from parents. Sending out school-wide parent surveys is good, but make sure to elicit direct feedback from parents through multiple channels. Phone calls, direct emails, and even text messages are all options for direct feedback. When parents feel the school is listening, they are more invested, positive customers. All this feedback should be logged in a central place and reviewed periodically or before certain key school events.

3. Community Building

Foster a strong school community through events, workshops, and impactful gatherings that encourage parent and student involvement. Beyond education-focused events, such as the classic intergenerational learning event, it is the more socially-minded events that create community. Create impactful volunteer opportunities for parents to engage with the school, especially in a group setting where energy can be transmitted, and community can be built.

4. Recognize Achievements

Celebrate the achievements of students, staff, and the school through awards, recognitions, and showcases. This should appear not only in school communications but in local or national publications as well. Create platforms and events for students to share their successes with the community beyond the parents (think the student newspaper or video blog) and make those visiting from outside the school your greatest ambassadors for telling parents how amazing their school is.

5. Financial Victories

When the school earns a grant or discovers a new cost-saving method, share it with parents. Show your customers that you are trying your best to keep costs down and create more value in your budget.

Teachers and other School Staff

Beyond school leaders, classroom teachers and office staff have also experienced this increased demand for a customer service approach. Every school must have professional development for all staff that includes specific training in how to communicate effectively and efficiently with parents. This training should be facilitated by an industry professional, and not just the school leader alone. At the same time, the school leader must function as a coach and supervisor for other staff as well. Teachers and office staff should feel comfortable discussing with the school leader how to reach out to or react to parents effectively and compassionately. 

Parents

It would be worthwhile to approach this endeavor utilizing existing mechanisms within the school ecosystem, such as the PTA or parent volunteers. Instead of focusing exclusively on events, sales, and volunteering of one’s own hands, the school can mobilize the PTA or parent volunteers to achieve their goals through many of the suggested mechanisms listed above. A trusted parent who is part of a communication committee can very well be the feedback mechanism, with the correct guidance, eliciting other parents for feedback. Legacy parent volunteers can selectively invite new parents to participate in communal volunteering based on feedback from the school administration, targeting parents who might benefit from a positive experience within the school community.

Child at the Center

Ultimately, the customer service analogy falls short. While the parent is the paying customer, the person that the yeshiva and Jewish day school is servicing is not the parent at all, but rather the child. This necessitates two brief points: First, what the parent perceives as good for the child might not ultimately be what is good for the child, so the goal should not be exclusively defined by the parent’s satisfaction. Second, the interaction with the parent, however feisty or unreasonable, must not affect the attitude towards the child of those charged with the education of the child. As obvious as these two points are, they cannot be understated. 

Rabbi Baruch Noy has more than a decade of classroom experience in both Judaic and General Studies, has served multiple schools in administrative positions, and most recently served as a principal at a boys’ high school in the Five Towns. He holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and is currently working on his dissertation toward a doctorate in education, focusing on school leadership. Rabbi Noy directs JEDIT for CoJDS and delivers professional development on an ongoing basis.

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