Customer Engagement Tips for Coaching Institutes



Customer Engagement is a valuable communication to your customers (in our case Student and Parent).  The objective of customer engagement is to add more value to your customer instead of encouraging them to buy services/products again and again. Remember! customer is a first priority. This helps companies to set a brand by managing great relationship with customer.

This communication can take place in many ways -  
Social Media(Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp etc), Blogs, SMS, Email, Ask for Comments and Opinion, PTM(Parent Teacher Meeting), Student Mobile App, Customer Feedback etc.

1. Social Media Page/Profile For Coaching Institute

Coaching Institutes should manage an active profile on social media. Be active and post useful contents(text, images, links, videos etc...) on regular basis. You can also post promotional contents time to time but not always. 
For Facebook you can manage a PAGE, not a user account. And invite people to join it(Like Page). You can also create a Facebook group for queries and discussion. This can help you to engage with other members.  Again you can post promotional contents here time to time.

You can manage a Google My Business (verified local business account) and invite people, ask them to write review and give rating to your business page. Its a great impact on customer when they see 4.8 rating.  

Twitter is another option but less popular among student community.

Coaching Institutes can also go for paid promotion (sponsored) for some specific posts. This increases your social media presence. The promotion can be customized  geographically, age wise, demographically etc. Try this,  its low cost yet effective  customer engagement technique. Facebook has many feature for paid promotion like promote page, promote website, promote post, promote local business and build great audience. 

Check the insights of your pages. Its analysis time to identify how effective your contents/posts are. This can tell you many insights like – reach count, likes, dislikes, age-group, user-location and many more.  Also reply to queries asked by people promptly. 

2. WhatsApp Group Batch/Class Wise

Its another most popular social as well as private communication platform.  You can manage a WhatsApp group for each batch/class. This is very useful for student and teacher to discuss doubts and other relevant matters. It has quick media content sharing capabilities(audio, video, images) which makes it unique. In many cases student share images or screenshots of error in group which is resolved by trainer and other group members. 

3. Get a Website  and Student Android/iOS App for Coaching

Your website and Mobile App will be the main interaction source. Its your digital asset. The website/mobile app should be simple, user-friendly, mobile-browser-friendly(responsive) and should contain all necessary features. Also include blog module in the same website. 

Student Mobile App is another useful asset for modern coaching institutes where student/parent can see results, progress reports, transaction reports, news/event, assignments(PDF/Excel), reference links, notification messages and more. 

4. Coaching Blog For Content Marketing and Engagement

Managing blog and posting article related to your course offering  works great on Google search. Google search gives great value to contents. After all its a content marketing. Remember content/article must be valuable for your targeted audience. The blog post should have discussion section.

5. SMS and Email Communication System for Coaching

SMS is quick and direct communication to student/parent for various things like schedule notification(batch time, batch cancel message etc), acknowledge messages(inquiry ack, registration ack, payment ack, due-payment ack etc), greeting messages(birthday, festivals etc..). SMS offers great value in customer engagement yet cost effective.

Email is another effective way of communication. Its now accessible on  mobile device and stored for long term, this makes it best communication platform for many users. Great part is mobile shows notification when message is received. 

More preferably you can use Coaching Management Software for effective and seamless handing of SMS/Email communication along with other necessary features required to for smooth handling of day to day coaching activities. Such software simplify this communication because everything is integrated under single software(student, parent, contact, message-templates, sms and email). You need not go to different software for SMS and different for Email. Don't get puzzled in managing things manually, it's all old style, time consuming and error-prone techniques. Save more time and utilize it for business improvement.

6. Ask for Feedback and Suggestion

Ask student/parent for feedback, its useful to understand the service quality and area of improvement. Don't hesitate to adopt the customer opinion. Also announce in classroom to invite Feedback, Suggestion(Review) and Rating on Public Social Platform(dare it) like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus etc.

7. PTM(Parent Teacher Meet)  Engagement Technique

PTM  is a effective technique where parent and teacher can communicate face to face to understand many insights related to our service delivery, student behavior and how deliverable our programs are. Use some graphical models and charts(pie, bar, line) to discuss student performance with parent in PTM instead of basic text based results. Be frank and dare to listen all negative points too. Gather all feedback, analyze and put on paddle for improvement. 

8. YouTube Video Channel for Coaching

Internet users have been increasing continuously because of mobile usage. As the users are growing rapidly with faster and cheaper cost, video works drastically. Anything which is live and running is more effective than a text content. The same difference as Watching Movie vs Reading Book. 
Coaching Institute should have a YouTube Channel and publish videos regularly (2 videos weekly is enough).  The videos must be related to your course offering. It is your digital asset and useful for promotion too.  Also great value addition in your service for student/customer. Video is a great marketing technique nowadays. Share videos directly from YouTube channel via Playlist to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc for effective results. Ask people to subscribe channel and notification to get more videos and reply all comments personally. 

I hope these tips will be useful in your coaching success. In this high-tech generation your business must on trends. That's why we recommend you to use training management software to ease your day to day activities and smoother coaching management. Such software comes with inbuilt modules for Social Media, Student Mobile App, SMS/Email Content Sharing and even more. The software can save time, reduce operational cost and open up great opportunities for business success.