The 80/20 rule has never been more apt.
In most school districts, there are two distinct groups of patrons. There are raving fans who support everything the district does and the “citizens against virtually everything” (or CAVE dwellers) who rain on everyone’s parade.
Collectively, these groups generally make up about 20% of the patron population. The other 80% are people who simply aren’t engaged often enough with the district to be noticed, including most parents and grandparents and virtually every patron who doesn’t have a child in the district.
The thing to remember about this group (and woe to the superintendent or Board of Education member who forgets this) is not hearing from them doesn’t equate to them not having an opinion about what’s going on with the district.
While these folks are likely not paying attention to everything the district does, they will certainly perk up when things look like they are headed off the rails. And they can get motivated to disrupt district happenings in a heartbeat.
There are a few ways you can monitor and manage these patrons.
- Form a Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) that acts as an early warning system for trouble brewing. To be successful, a CAC should include as many CAVE dwellers as you can get to commit. It does no good to just hear from raving fans, as you already hear from them in the normal course of work.
- Conduct an annual or semi-annual satisfaction survey. We have worked with several districts who survey their patrons annually and others who go every other year. A good rule of thumb for most districts is to survey your patrons every two to three years.
- Monitor social media to keep your finger on the pulse of your patrons. We have a service called sentiment analysis that regularly sweeps social media sites and provides analysis back to our clients in the form of a digital dashboard.
Whichever method you choose, listening to your patrons – all your patrons – has never been more critical.
