A customer journey highlights every point at which a potential or existing customer finds out about your company, services or products. It also focuses on every stage at which a customer interacts with a business. This customer journey applies to students too, and in this article we will be looking at the moment they first hear about your school/college right up until they leave and return home.

Initial awareness

At this stage the student would have become familiar with your brand through various possible channels. These include adverts, social media, online search or word of mouth. It is important to provide various ways in which potential students can experience your brand online via engaging content and strong visible placement.

Consideration

This stage can be the longest of all and is the one where your brand can have the most immediate impact. Students begin researching online or by visiting language travel agents. This research could also take place while students are on holiday and walk in to your school. So in this case, first impressions can have a huge impact.

Price can be a very important factor as students are comparing school offers. The overall importance here is that you provide all the necessary information as quickly and easily as possible and that the service is viewed as good value for money.

Purchase

This goal here is for a student to choose your school/college and pay for the service you offer. It is good practice at a later stage, to try to find out what made the student choose you over other schools/colleges.

Retention

If the student has already paid, it’s important not to take him/her for granted. Students may have lots of questions in preparation for their trip and you should provide all necessary answers. If they haven’t paid yet, keeping the customer interested is very vital and the moment you leave a student waiting too long, is the moment you lose them to a competitor.

Advocacy

This is the final stage of the journey and it’s the one that can have the most long-lasting effect on your school. Students will naturally share feedback through word of mouth and also through online reviews, which you can find out more about in our previous blog post: Getting More Online Reviews from Students

The student journey is one that can be prepared in advance and tracked/amended, according to the needs and enquires that come up along the way. One thing that you should always keep in mind is that personalisation is the key to winning customers over.