Customer Service as Your Source of Advantage
A select few independent schools, like elite universities, have a sustainable competitive advantage in terms of brand identification and the customer captivity that comes with admission. But most schools struggle to maintain distinctiveness and we keep hearing from parents in focus groups that more and more of them are "shopping" for better value every year. A growing gap seems to be between how "outsiders" perceive the independent school market (e.g., those parents whose students is either not yet admitted or who do not feel an emotional bond with their school) and the "insiders" that populate administrations and governing boards. To outsiders, independent schools are mostly commodity-like, with a few exceptions for single-gender and religiously-affiliated brands.
Commoditization is not a good thing! When products and services commoditize, it pretty much becomes a race to occupy the cheapest spot in the market, and this will have disastrous implications for independent education. The alternative is to differentiate--though this can take years--and/or to excel at customer service. As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos put it, "When people ask me if our customers are loyal, I say, 'Absolutely, right up to the second that somebody else offers them a better service.'"
Your teachers and board may not see the parallel between Bezos's comment and schools, but what we hear from parents makes us think that the average independent school has much in common with Amazon. Here's an activity worthy of a half-day conversation when your teachers return in August: pose the queston "What does excellent customer service look like in our school? What do we need to do differently in order to be the market leader at service?" The real trick is to be able to answer those questions as parents would, not just as teachers or administrators.