Can you communications stand up to the Beast from the East?

How well did your communications stand up to the Beast from the East?

We have seen record school closures across the UK in the last week, thanks to the adverse weather conditions or the ‘Beast from the East’. No doubt school messaging services will have had a hammering, whether they took the decision to close or not. But how well did your communications stand up to the test?

We’ve surveyed over 180,000 independent school parents and one thing that always comes up in parental surveys is communication. It seems, in the view of parents, schools rarely get this right.

Balance is key. Busy working parents do not wish to be interrupted throughout their day with messages such as:

‘Film night tickets go on sale on Monday…’

‘Reminder cake sale today – everyone welcome…’

‘Please can we have donations of sweets/ bottles/ toys…’

Text messages should be used for urgent, last minute information or changes such as school closures. Email is generally checked on a regular basis for information such as that above and of course weekly newsletters provide a great, central location for communicating similar information.

Generally weekly newsletters are sent at the end of the week and are not only a wonderful marketing opportunity to inform parents about marvellous things that have been happening at school that week, they also tell them everything they need to know about the week ahead, as well as important dates for the diary for the rest of the term. Parents know that they can look back and reference this information, as and when it’s convenient.

So ask yourself ‘Is this urgent?’ and then you can decide on the most appropriate form of communication. Too much information is just as big a complaint as too little!