12. Never Letting the client Down

Do not promise what you cannot deliver and make sure that you deliver what you promise! Parents do not expect miracles but they do expect consistent, good quality education and, above all. That the school should honor its promises.  If it promises to respond to parent’s letters within two days' than it should honor that obligation. If a primary school promises to listen to children reading individually at least every day or if a secondary school promises homework on a Tuesday night, then the school has failed a performance indicator which it set it if these activities do not take place. Performance indicators which a school sets for itself are the ones that, if broken, do the most damage to its reputation. Similarly, pupils who are promised visits that do not take place or hand in work for marking which is not returned on time (or even not marked at all) will have a broken promise and may develop negative attitudes. There have been instances in witch parents have attended parents' meetings and been told that teacher does not like any children to get too far ahead in their work. This implies that the teacher is unable to cater for the needs of the individuals in a class. Parents will soon pass such messages on to their friends and acquaintances and the school will develop a poor reputation.

All these activities emphasize two points:

*         the important of clients in the eyes of the providers- if they have low priority or esteem they will be let down because it is not felt to be important to keep promises.

*         The need to develop a strong consensus in the clients' collective opinion of the effectiveness of the school.

One impression of the school or many ? 

It is often said that 'first impressions count' and that the first impression which a client has of a school- for example the entrance hall or a friendly greeting from the school secretary- it critical. This is undoubtedly true but, from another perspective, clients make up their view of a school through a series of factors which, although individually insignificant, aggregate to give a very powerful message about the school. Such factors could be the quality of the newsletter, the telephone manner of the staff, the length of time it takes to respond to a letter or the quality of the organization of the parents' meeting. All are contact points which either portray competence and care or incompetence and indifference. It is sometimes hard to convince staff that an activity such as offering a parent a cup of tea at a meeting can be critical in developing an opinion about the school. Such factors are very trivial in themselves but, when aggregated, they can form a chain of impressions about an individual member of staff or the school. The massage for schools is that all staff should be aware that every exchange with clients, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time, may be critical in the chain of events which forms a client's opinion of an institution.