Clear and effective communication is the first of many challenges facing campuses across the nation as they gear up for a highly unpredictable fall semester. To get an inside perspective at what hurdles are presenting themselves, I touched base with two universities to see how they are building their communication strategies to reach students, their parents, and other concerned parties.
A Unified Front
To help prevent conflicting reports and informational overload, some campuses are requesting that dining programs defer departmental communications and fully align themselves with the greater campus community to present a unified front. Communications and marketing teams – in consultation with auxiliary and dining services – gather all the relevant information and apply a consistent tone, voice and brand that can serve as a single, consistent source of information for students and their parents.
At one university, departments have been instructed to cease posting about COVID-19 on social media altogether, in favor of university-level communications. Auxiliary services have still been tasked with making content, after which they send it along to the university communications team for review, revision and distribution.
A Campaign for a Self-Sufficient Community
Another university has put together a campus-wide campaign for the return to campus. The emphasis is on a communal responsibility for a safe campus environment. Branded materials include shirts, masks and hand sanitizer. The university’s dining services contract provider offered to design and produce signage, floor markers, etc., but the school opted to use the university’s branding and signage to produce a visually consistent message across campus.
The university is also putting out a series of short videos using student organizations. These videos will visually demonstrate procedures like how to enter and exit a building and how to receive products and services, including changes to how service will be handled. They will also showcase and educate students on the types of preparations and safety measures currently in place.
Setting Expectations: Frequency and Consistency
With such an important topic as COVID-19, universities are weighing the ideal frequency of communications and how best to set expectations, internally and externally, for consistency.
At one university I spoke to, they have instituted a daily live Q&A Zoom call between students and the senior director of dining. While not all institutions have the bandwidth or skillset to handle daily live updates, each operation needs to find the level that they can consistently inform their customers as to what to expect or what changes are happening.
During my conversation with a Director of Marketing for Auxiliary Services, I was told that it feels as if the campus community is perpetually interested in the business stance of the institution, that it is “impossible to communicate too much.” Consistency might be the limiting factor here, then, as it appears that the frequency of communication doesn’t have an upward-limit during the time of COVID-19.
Broader Communication Challenges
There are a number of challenges that operations are facing concerning the increased need for consistent communication with students and their parents.
Staying Up-to-Date
With information constantly shifting, it can be a huge challenge to stay on top of which changes are being rolled out to deal with new situations. Spreading out the responsibility of information tracking to multiple team members can often lead to confusion, so finding a single point of contact to track changes in information and policy can help to lessen frustrations.
Easing Apprehension
While it’s easy to get consumed with the internal-side of the equation, it’s important to take a moment to directly address the apprehensions surrounding returning to campus in-person this fall. Not only is it a significant financial investment, but for many it’s a significant emotional investment as well. The unknown is often much more frightening than the actual situation, so having the patience to step your wards (and their parents) through the numerous changes can go a long way toward easing fears and gaining additional trust.
Tracking
With increased communications, it can be a challenge to track what information was sent to which groups and when. As similar messaging is being sent to sub-groups at different times, intentional organization around tracking is crucial for consistent success.
How can Dining and Auxiliary Services Help to Support the University’s Messaging?
While it’s all too easy to view COVID-19 as a frustrating obstacle, perhaps consider the new opportunities presenting themselves: not only opportunities to demonstrate the competence and authority of your operations to your customers, but also the unique support and insight that you can provide your institution as a whole. Strength shines brightest in adversity, so here’s your chance to show off.
What are some ways that you can support your institution’s messaging?
Keep a finger on the pulse of campus social media groups. Quickly react, engage and share any concerns and comments with appropriate departments.
Amplify your university’s messaging through retweeting, sharing, liking, and commenting on everything they take the time and effort to put out to students and parents.
Take ownership of the new normal and demonstrate the seriousness of the virus. Make sure that each staff member has buy-in; the students will only take it seriously if staff members do.
Spell out the ways that campus dining is the best, safest option. Juxtapose the safety efforts of campus dining versus restaurant dining. Be honest about the challenges that campus dining deals with. Outline the processes and procedures being integrated into the program. Transparency of operations is only as valuable as the information you generate and provide.
Recognize the difference between hearing and listening. You can hear the concerns of your customers, but they won’t believe they’ve been heard unless they see some sort of response. Listening requires change on the part of the hearer, so it’s critically important to acknowledge and empathize with concerns that are shared by those you serve.
Your Turn to Share!
So how about your program? Are there ways you are overcoming challenges to campus communication that we haven’t listed here? Please add your strategies and tactics below so that we can all best serve our customers and grow our operations together.