Your school should conduct exit interviews and attrition surveys throughout the school year. It’s vital to hear from families about their experiences at your school so you can understand what’s working and what you need to improve.
When a family chooses to leave your school, you should understand the motivations behind their decision. What wasn’t meeting their expectations? What could have been done to change their mind? What deciding factor caused them to choose another school?
But you should also make it a point to hear from families that matriculate from your school. What did they like most? What served their needs? Was there anything they would change, if given the option?
To collect useful information that you can use, you must structure your approach effectively. Here are some tips for conducting successful exit interviews and attrition surveys.
Exit Interviews
Exit interviews are preferably conducted in-person, or by phone if the family cannot come to campus. Ideally, the interviewer knows the student well and is perceived to have the power to make changes based on their feedback. This can be a member of the Admission Office, a Division Head, Athletic Director, or even the School Head.
Exit interviews with students on the verge of graduation are an excellent way to get a view of your school from the student perspective. What were their most valuable experiences? What did they feel their experience lacked?
Attrition interviews with families who have chosen to leave will have a different purpose. You want to better understand why they chose not to re-enroll, what they perceive to be the strengths and weaknesses of your school, and what factored into the family’s decision when choosing their new school.
The tone of these conversations should be friendly and neutral. Families should understand that you’re not trying to convince them to stay, but instead better understand their motivations so you can improve your school.
However, because these interviews are face-to-face, families usually don’t disclose their real issues with the school out of a desire to be polite. So while exit interviews are a helpful exercise in maintaining relationships, your school might also consider anonymous surveys to get more in-depth insight.
Attrition Surveys
Attrition surveys, conducted electronically by a third party, assure the family’s anonymity, so they’re more likely to provide honest feedback.
The design of your survey is critical. A poorly designed survey can result in ambiguous, irrelevant, or unreliable data. A third party that has experience designing surveys will understand how to craft questions to produce useful information.
Here are some things to keep in mind when working with an organization to create your survey. Attrition surveys must be short—a family should be able to complete it in five to seven minutes, with any additional time a parent may choose to spend answering an open-ended question.
Furthermore, every question must be relevant. Sometimes we’re tempted to ask questions out of curiosity or interest without any real purpose. Make sure your survey only includes questions that will result in usable data.
You can include open-ended questions, but keep it to no more than two. Statistics are great, but, because of the relatively low number of responses typically obtained in an attrition survey (it is unlikely that 350 families left your school this year!), the raw numbers are less meaningful. Open-ended questions can provide additional details that support the numerical data.
What you learn from exit interviews and attrition surveys will provide a valuable planning tool. Trends illustrated over time can suggest data-based actions to take when marketing your strengths, improving on your weaknesses, and setting your strategic plan.
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Advancement Vol. 16 No. 7 Three Crucial Truths to Uncover During Exit Interviews
Additional ISM resources for Gold members:
I&P Vol. 41 No. 9 Exit Interviews and Attrition Surveys: Getting at the Truth Behind Why Families Leave
