Q: I just had an Advisory meeting yesterday and our thoughts are to send out a community survey to see what they would like for us to offer as classes. Do you have such a survey?
Can you tell me if you have heard from other organizations if their numbers were down in the fall term? And if any particular reason for this?
A: Jo, Thanks for your questions. There are several ways to find out what your customers want:
1. Survey--If you are going to send out a survey, you should survey your best customers. Many programs gather information from their existing customer base to get information about other classes to offer. It will not be helpful to send out a survey to the entire community. Those people who don't take your classes now are much less likely to respond to the survey than those who do enroll. Also, just because they might suggest a course or class you should offer does not mean they are likely to enroll in it.
Keep in mind that a survey does not always give you information you can use. If you ask something like "What three new courses should we offer," or "What three new courses would you like to see offered," people will often tell you things that they "think" would be good to offer, but these might not be courses they would attend.
Phrase your question to ask, "Please tell us 1-3 courses you would sign up for if we offered them." That will give you much better information about what your customers want.
1. Small groups of existing customers. One of the most effective ways to get good programming ideas is to have meetings with small groups of your existing customers. The agenda should focus on your most recent brochure and your current offerings. Ask people what they like about what you're offering. Ask them what courses they would like to take that you are not offering. Ask them if their friends and colleagues have interests that you could serve with your programs. These brainstorming groups are very dynamic and often generate some of the best ideas. Just remember to keep the groups small enough so that everyone can contribute, and make sure the participants are strong supporters of your organization.
2. Look at what is going well now. By analyzing your current successes, you can tell exactly what people want from you. If courses are popular and successful, you should offer more of them, and offer courses that build on your successful current offerings. If people are signing up in larger numbers for the classes you are offering in art, then increase the number of art classes. If your music or dance or cooking classes are the most popular, add courses in those areas. You know that people are coming to you to learn about those topics, so increase the options they have to choose from. This will increase your repeat business and help build your program.
We have just sent out our fall enrollment survey, and overall, about 29 percent of programs have seen lower enrollments while 71 have seen stable to increasing enrollments.