 I came from Malvern House Oscars International where I moved up from experience officer to student support manager then to center manager and then I left to go to eBay and the reason why I made such a dramatic move was because I really felt that I wasn't getting what I wanted being in the English language industry. I felt that there was a lack of procedures, there was a lack of career development for staff and accountability and then as well talking about the agents and some of the expectations and having me there delivering bad news on a constant basis was quite challenging. So the move to eBay has now and back obviously in English language and what I did was I came back with much more insight and from a corporate and climate. So I work for eBay concierge and there you have 14 weeks training and customer service before you can go on to the floor and this is somebody looking at every conversation you have every email and every chat looking at that in so much depth that the next time they come back and they know your name they know that you helped them that you've resolved the situation and that you don't break that promise whether it's one call two calls three calls it doesn't matter if you were in contact with them on a regular basis and so then going from Oscars and Malvern then to eBay now going into the English studio this is a new venture for me and what I wanted to do was really to create a culture and they needed it when I arrived so I didn't put too much text I didn't put any really I just put photographs because customer service is what I believe in and I'm extremely passionate about it and I think I'm really good at it as well and there's not many situations I can't get out of and it's not because I'm a liar it's not because I'm giving false information it's because if something has really bothered the student I'm genuinely sorry I don't know how to it you know it's something has gone wrong but as we all know they and these types of students that we're getting have you know saved up a lot of money this could be their dream this could be career university so to be in the way of that it doesn't rest well with me so and the first one meet in Greek so this I take very very serious and day one so this student arrives we meet with them and we obviously we know they're coming because we don't report on Thursday at the booking meeting we know they're arriving there's no surprises there should never be a surprise student arriving so when that happens there's a problem and something has gone wrong so that's also an area that you don't show to the student because I've seen that in so many cases where the reception is like what's your name sorry oh we're not expecting you today it never happens we're expecting them and if we're not we have a child in the back and then we come out and we say no problem test this you don't show the student that so that's an area in reception that we need to always like work around so students coming in when I started at the English studio I could see that there was no friendly culture they didn't have that go-to person the Elvis that we discussed earlier on so the first thing I did was I stood there Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and I opened the door for every student staff member that came to the school I had to meet everybody I was going to be taking over a student service department and without knowing everybody in the school it's impossible you need to gain trust it doesn't happen in a day it doesn't happen in a month it happens constantly I still do it every day you know and even looking at the type of this leadership and management there's a huge difference between the two I could manage the school every day but am I a leader am I doing anything for the staff how I know I'm better at leadership than a manager is because staff will do things for me that they wouldn't normally do they go out of their way they'll stay late because I understand that they're doing that in order for the the department to strive so that somebody's experience has changed for the better so over the years the meet and greet it has to be done correctly we expect them we know their name we stand up we greet them we shake their hands we show them to the student room we sit them down and we talk to them about their arrival how did the flight go how is the weather when you got here you're with an Irish host family what's your host mom's name they would surely know that much and how is the food did you like it small questions just to build up a rapport with the student because we know things can go wrong and at the end of the day I have some sort of relation with them so I can try and recover or come to a resolution and first impressions so first impressions as well is key because you know we discussed it before Lee mentioned it or I mentioned it that if you give a negative first impression it is really hard to bounce back and change that and even if you are trying you might be trying too hard and even if you do something really well the students still going to turn around well you know my transfer wasn't there you know the host mom isn't nice I can't have a shower at 11 p.m. so there's all different things that that make the first impression really important and first of all it's the staff making sure that they all have been trained in customer service we've mentioned it numerous times today that if there's one person the market that's doing everything and everybody else is then undermining that slightly not not on purpose but if they don't show the same enthusiasm or even if we don't have a common understanding of what we want to deliver then it's pointless it's just going to someone else is going to stop the hard work that you put in and a problem that I faced in the last couple of months four years in my house Oscars and now in the English studio two different styles of first day the English studio when you arrive there only short-term students arrive on a Monday only short-term students they get placed and eat to class for 9 a.m. long-term students come in on a Wednesday and they do not take lessons until the following Monday so automatically I said so we have students roaming around the streets of Dublin with no connection to the school for over five days you know it just can't work you know and so this is something I don't I'm not I don't like you know and I'm used to having everybody in at 8 a.m. in the morning short-term long-term I don't understand why anybody would want to separate students the whole idea is that you meet different nationalities different walks of life it's about getting everybody together you're not going to have this you know this great atmosphere if you're not mixing them all together how will they even know that they're in the same school you're stopping communication you're stopping a connection between two people so ideally at 8 a.m. on a Monday morning everybody arrives also the testing you know I've experienced this quite often that you know we have one academic member testing students on a Monday morning or two realistically we have a number of teachers that are all teaching from 9 a.m. so if we really really wanted to we could test everybody between 8 and 9 it just depends on staffing you know realistically no one's working from you know everyone's working from 9 but before that they're not so if we wanted we could achieve that I've worked in schools where the main goal was not to have all students in at 9 a.m. taking lessons because the syllabus won't work otherwise it will it definitely will and so the first impression obviously is extremely important to me I like to bring the students on a tour of the school just pointing out you know the names of the classes the exits the emergency exits and also just to each department and when you pass by Myara in reception Myara stands up and gives everyone away you introduce them to the social activities and make sure they know that it's happening when it's happening and make sure you send somebody that has an idea of a bit of commercial savviness you know somebody that will take a photograph at the right location somebody that knows how to use Facebook somebody that can see an opportunity go after it and then use it to our advantage so that's first impressions these are just pictures of me throughout the years in Melbourne and the English studio of opportunities to show everybody else throughout the world what we do this is for me feedback as well which I'll talk about in a minute feedback is important we all want it we want positive feedback we also need the negative feedback to be able to understand where we're going wrong and what we can change and but if the first impression isn't great it's gonna lead on these here I've noticed over the couple of the last couple years with big language groups they all want to visit Google or Facebook or LinkedIn and Airbnb so I brought you know I got a big tour of a group for Google and that was the only tour I ever got in Google because the kids all stole from the kitchen and so it was wonderful yeah so these are these are things that I have to incorporate with the student services department that they are not sitting at a desk all day the idea is that they're going out with the student that they're communicating with them personally and nothing got to do with the academic side students in the school are students to teachers absolutely they are not students to me in any way they're customers paying customers high paying customers that demand customer service so positive feedback I didn't mention negative because who wants negative feedback no one but now feedback is something that I noticed in many places coming from eBay and having that constant person looking at everything you do and then once you achieve it and then maintaining it and keeping it consistent that's when you start to enjoy it that's when you start to see change that's when your boss comes over and says oh you've got a bonus great well done because 10 10 10 10 10 so this it's a great feeling when you know you're doing something right and you have the evidence there to prove it so likewise with social activities and also your social media I think feedback is in the photograph it's in the faces of the students it's in the social program it's the daily updates that you're putting into the student experience is that it was sorry guys and then lastly was the returning business because sometimes it's really hard to measure how you return get return business when dealing with short-term students and really long-term students language groups as well and it is all based on the facts that you know the customer service the meet and greet the first impression I have been a witness to returning business and the perfect example are the language groups working with large agents if you understand the nationality understand what they want we know the difference between Italian students and Spanish they like to enjoy themselves and go a little bit wilder than the Austrians and the Germans they like organization they like nothing to go wrong when you start to understand what the groups want and when you start to achieve that and you get the feedback saying 10 10 10 10 10 that's when they'll send you another group that's when the teacher back in Austria tells the other school that the school is fantastic you need to go here that's when they'll start to know your stuff by name and that's when you build the culture