Walking on to a college campus to enroll in a class may seem like a simple act. Yet, for a young student fresh out of high school, the admissions process can feel like a daunting task. The same experience can be equally challenging for an older adult who hasn’t been in an academic setting for many years.
One way to make this first step an easy one is by offering a welcoming tour. We can ensure greater success in our recruitment efforts, by reaching out to prospective students through a strong marketing and public relations effort. This type of introduction is well-received by all ages, because, as we’ve seen, our diverse student population displays just as much diversity in their varying degrees of confidence as they prepare for their next stage of learning.
One high school student bounces on to campus with youthful exuberance and exclaims, "I'm going to love this place, because there are no bells making me go to class and I can eat whenever I want!"
Compare this with a hesitant, but quietly eager applicant who is returning to school after a 10 or 20 year absence. With designs on a new career, this individual's intrigue centers on the average size of a class and a counselor's caring words of reassurance.
At-risk teenagers, enrolled in a juvenile hall program, are encouraged by their counselors and teachers as they make their way along on a campus tour. Most have never considered that a college education could be a part of their lives. Yet, once they step onto campus, questions roll forth as some in the group are intrigued by the possibility of working on an airplane, when they view our airframe and power plant facility.
Illuminating details are given to every visitor at points along the way. For example, those interested in working on aircraft learn that the pay is excellent, Baby Boomers are retiring and making job openings plentiful and there are generous travel benefits.
Entering our film and video departments, tour guides share that out of 900 USC film school applicants, 15 were accepted and, of those selected, four were OCC graduates/transfers during a recent application process.
A genuine concern for people and a flexible nature that runs along this customer service continuum helps our tour guides move between the diverse backgrounds of these students.
Reaching out to visitors to make them feel welcome on a college campus is essential and can have a long-lasting impact on the reputation of the institution. A friendly, sincere introduction will be remembered and shared within and beyond the community.
One creative and resourceful approach is to offer a tour program utilizing the rich resources of the students who are currently enrolled, as well as returning alumni. A friendly greeting to first-time visitors is remembered long after the initial visit.
For example, the Collegiate Information and Visitor Services Association, known as CiVSA, a nationally-recognized professional organization consisting of four-year universities, colleges and community colleges, devotes itself to meeting the professional needs of individuals who direct visitor and information centers on college and university campuses. CiVSA, which can be accessed on the web at: http://www.civsa.org/ recommends the following advice on how to give the best tour to campus visitors:
- Greet each visitor as if they are the first and most important. When you are with someone, be with that person and not focused on someone or something else.
- Help each visitor meet the goals they had in mind when planning their visit to our campus.
- Keep our excellent customer service from becoming mediocre customer service.
Gateway services at Orange Coast College were conceived and designed by a campus committee in the spring of 2000 with the creation of the “Coast Navigators." This specially-selected and trained team of students were hired and began serving as tour guides in the spring of 2001. Now in its second full year of operation, the program is moving smoothly as current students, who are ready to graduate and move on, train incoming students interested in working as tour guides.
The Coast Navigators are one of the strongest and most visible assets we have in promoting a friendly customer service approach on campus. These personable individuals -- with eclectic interests and majors -- offer tours to individuals and groups to familiarize them with OCC’s very large and picturesque 164-acre campus in Costa Mesa, Calif.
The program offers benefits to both visitors and tours guides in many ways:
- Campus tours are one of the most effective ways to recruit students.
- Student-to-student tours establish a “comfort level” with prospective and new students and parents -- and is a welcoming “internal relations” plan to ensure campus awareness and support.
- Campus visits familiarize prospective students with the college campus early.
- Elementary, middle and high school-age students prefer to learn about the college from someone closer to their age.
- Young students look at college students as role models.
- The Coast Navigator Campus Tour Program creates job opportunities for OCC students.
- The program offers experience in leadership and helps students gain expertise in job related skills, that include: public speaking, customer service, time management, public relations and enhanced interpersonal communication skills.
- Prospective students have an opportunity to make an early faculty connection. This builds respect into the campus visit and is a way of building a strategic relationship when seeking and recruiting new students.
Recruitment for student tour guides is done through our Job Placement office as well as word-of mouth among our students. After a personal interview, tour guides are hired as hourly employees and paid $9.70 an hour. Some students elect to “volunteer” in order to accumulate service-and-leadership hours toward scholarships and awards. Students are required to conduct tours in working attire that consists of a navy blue polo shirt which is embroidered with the college logo and the Coast Navigator name to identify them when they're working on campus. Students are also provided with business cards.
New tour guides receive a sample tour script and are given two separate training tours with different tour guides who have worked in the program for at least one semester. OCC’s tours last approximately one to two hours. A group meeting for Coast Navigators is held at the beginning of each semester to introduce new and seasoned tour guides to one another, since many of them will work with each other on group tours throughout the semester.
The opening semester meeting is a nice way to bring the team together, allowing the students to make introductions among themselves and learn about upcoming assignments. It is also a way for us to take a group tour together, seeing some of the newer buildings and displays that will be incorporated into the ever-improving tour.
Our student tour guides are instructed to communicate in ways that are helpful, friendly and professional. They are happy to answer questions about OCC's academic and career programs and talk about our outstanding student services. The college’s tour guides have immediate and direct experiences as students and they love to tell the “OCC Story” and what it has meant to them.
Since the program's inception, we have incorporated the following procedures:
• The implementation of a Coast Navigator Web page describing our program to visitors at orangecoastcollege.com, has been very successful. With one “click” to “Campus Tours,” our Web visitors are greeted with a friendly, welcoming photograph of our tour guides with a message that includes general information, a telephone number and a drop-in tour schedule. See: http://www.occ.cccd.edu/info/navigators/
• We also utilize our Coast Navigator team to represent our college at major campus functions, in both an outreach and recruitment capacity and as part of our evolving gateway services to the campus. These include: OCC’s Science Night for elementary school children, OCC’s annual Senior Day, Commencement exercises, Campus-wide Open House and outreach panels, to name a few.
• Visible signage promoting our tour service was employed when we placed “Coast Navigator Tour” banners with arrows in prominent campus locations. See photo at:
• We established a Drop-in Tour counter and schedule for unplanned visits by students. The tour counter is located in OCC’s Counseling and Admissions Building.
• Student video clips were produced so a Web visitor can “see and hear” what our students have to say about their Orange Coast College experience. See: http://www.occ.cccd.edu/movies/
• We created a “Tour Request Form” to be used for all tour appointments. The form is given to the assigned tour guide(s) with information about the visitor (interest in specific programs, observation of special classes, etc). Link directly to document that is attached or use: See document at: http://www.occ.cccd.edu/photos/navigator02/TOURREQUESTFORM.pdf
• A “Visitor Information Card,” to be completed by our visitors after the tour, was designed for tracking purposes and follow-up. Link to document or see document at: http://www.occ.cccd.edu/photos/navigator02/visitorartnew.pdf
OCC's Coast Navigators enjoy helping potential students navigate the exciting world of Orange Coast College and this mutual relationship continues to provide plentiful rewards for each member that lasts long into the future.
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