mtmconsulting research services

Research GuideSupporting your school’s every step

We understand that these are challenging times for many schools.

Recession, falling affordability and a highly competitivemarketplace have made it more important than ever forschools to engage in sound and appropriate marketing.

For parents, independent school is likely to be the secondbiggest – but the most important – purchase of their lives. This means that every phone call, every enquiry, every visit isan opportunity to engage and attract new parents.

Equally, for parents already in your school, it is essential thatthey are happy, enthusiastic supporters.

mtm’s research team can help. We have a unique range oftools to help you understand your market and its potential, yourpositioning, perceptions of your school, your competitors, andhow to ensure a full and satisfied body of parents and pupils.

Our work allows you to enhance your school’s positioning atevery stage of parental decision-making, from awareness andperceptions within your marketplace, to researching andvisiting schools, to the levels of satisfaction that parents, pupilsand staff experience within your school – right through to theirdeparture and beyond.

mtmconsulting limited Portland House 43 High Street Southwold Suffolk IP18 6ABT +44 (0) 1502 722787 T +44 (0) 1502 722305 [email protected] www.mtmconsulting.co.uk

‘MANDARIN’ MARKET AND AREA INTELLIGENCE

What we doMandarin is our unique catchment area analysis tool, designed to give you clear insight intoyour school’s potential market now and in the future.We analyse your parents – where they live, their lifestyle, household income and how far they travel to school. We profile them using two sets of data: Acorn and Paycheck and maptheir locations.We apply this understanding of your parents to our own data in order to assess:• Your pupils’ characteristics compared with nationwide, ISC and local family profiles• The number of pupils available in your catchment in families that can afford your fees• Population projections over the next ten years• The location and density of families you should recruit from• Well-penetrated areas and areas you should focus on• Competitor schools and their influence over families in your areaWe also offer a range of bolt-ons to understand key aspects of your school. These includecompetitor, transport, alumni and bursary analyses.

Why do it?• Scientifically understand the real potential for pupil recruitment• Inform strategic decisions on your school’s development and growth• Use your marketing budget more effectively to target the best areas

Related servicesMandarin is an excellent means to inform door-to-door research. We can use Mandarin toidentify areas where there are large numbers of potential pupils, but where you are notrecruiting effectively. Door-to-door interviews in this area can help to understand awarenessand perceptions amongst these parents.

Examples of useA successful senior school was interested in opening its own prep school nearby. We carriedout Mandarin research to look at how many target children there were within a 30 minutedrive of the proposed site, and the provision offered by competitors. We also used Mandarinto assess areas in which to market the new school and how population trends might affectthe market size over the coming 5 and 10 years.

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DOOR-TO-DOOR RESEARCH

What is it?We carry out door-to-door research to understand awareness in your target households inkey areas. This might be, for example, amongst families with schoolage children and ahousehold income likely to support independent education. We work with you to identify keystreets to research, interview criteria, and to establish a questionnaire. Our professional research team then goes to carry out short interviews within these areas.Households where key criteria are not met are disregarded, or interviewed using analternative questionnaire. We then analyse overall trends and geographic differences andreport all of our findings and recommendations back to you.

Why do it?• Door-to-door research helps you to understand your positioning amongst parents who

have not shown an interest in your school. • Our findings can help you to use your marketing budget more effectively, ensuring the

messages are correct and targeted at the right groups • You can see the reasons your school is not effectively penetrating key areas.

Related servicesDoor-to-door research should be informed by a Mandarin study into your areas to identifystreets to target for research. Door-to-door research findings can also be compared with parental survey and non-buyeroutcomes to understand how perceptions of your school are consistent amongst differentgroups of parents.

Examples of useA school was very successful at recruiting from the East of its town, but had very fewenquiries from the West, even though this area was geographically closer. We carried outMandarin research and found a strong number of potential pupils in key streets to the Westof the town. We then carried out door-to-door research within these areas and found that a large numberof parents were unaware of our client. Compounding this, a competitor’s branded busespassed through this area twice daily, promoting them over our client. We used thisinformation to inform marketing: setting up leaflet drops into key areas and amending twoexisting bus routes to pass through these areas.

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OPINION SHAPER INTERVIEWS

What is it?A series of qualitative telephone interviews with key figures in and around your area who arelikely to impact on parents’ and pupils’ choice of school are carried out by our professionalin-house interviewers.Target groups for interviews include feeder and nursery school heads, estate and relocationagents, and leaders of parent, social and church groups, all of whom are likely to understandand inform prospective parents on the schools such as yours.We identify and contact opinion shapers and carry out interviews to understand theirawareness and perceptions of your school and your competitors.

Why do it?• Opinion shaper interviews allow you to understand the general perception of your school in

the local community.• Allows you to refine your marketing messages to ensure they are consistent and appropriate.• Forms the basis of communications activities in your area with a view to engaging and

attracting larger numbers of parents through advocacy and affiliates.

Related servicesOpinion shaper interviews work very well carried out in conjunction with other forms oftelephone research such as non-buyer and future-joiner interviews. This gives you anexcellent understanding of perceptions of your school amongst parents who have joined,parents who visited but did not join, and the wider community.

Examples of useA girls’ day school found that it was getting fewer referrals from feeder schools than it haddone in the past, and wanted to understand why this was. mtm contacted a combination ofheads from feeder schools as well as heads of schools that should have fed into our clientbut did not.We found that many feeder school heads had misconceptions about our client school andhad not received adequate communication.As a result we advised the school to commence a series of networking events with feederschool heads and other opinion shapers in order to enhance their profile.

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MYSTERY SHOPPING

What is it?We objectively rate each element of your recruitment process, from the first answer of thephone to the handshake at the end of the school tour. We will also comment on yourprospectus and your website from the point of view of a prospective parent.The objectivity stems from using a tried and tested checklist. For example, on the tour wemake an assessment of the guide’s control of the interview and visit, friendliness, relationshipbuilding, empathy, personalisation, answering of concerns, selling of the school’s features,articulation of its benefits, enthusiasm and inspirational qualities.Your school gets an overall score, but more importantly a detailed write-up of both whathappened and what could be done differently.We can conduct similar evaluations of your competitors – both independent and state.

Why do it?• See your school as prospective parents see you.• Provides an evaluation of what you do well and therefore what you should avoid changing

(and indeed build upon).• Gives you insight into what you should improve in order to better appeal to parents.• Offer praise to staff who are doing a good job; feedback and training for others when

improvement is possible.

Related servicesMystery shopping works well with visitor interviews. You can understand the extent to whichour evaluation is shared by prospective parents, as well as finding out about very localfactors that our mystery shop would not necessarily pick up on.

Examples of useA prep school wanted to find out why it was losing prospective parents to local rivals. The mystery shopping exercise provided insights into how it handled its tours. It ascertainedthat the head of every competitor school met parents, in contrast to its own policy. Theschool was also able to emulate the best local practice and send a tailored follow-up letterwithin 24 hours of every visit.

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FUTURE-JOINER INTERVIEWS

What is it?A number of interviews carried out by our expert research team with parents who haveenrolled and accepted places at your school for their child but have not yet arrived.Parents are offered a chance to opt-out of being contacted and then informal telephoneinterviews are carried out.These allow us to research how parents found out about your school, their experiences ofvisiting the school, their expectations and hopes, and the areas that they consider to bemost important.We can also use these interviews to ask parents for feedback on other schools that theyvisited and their views of your school’s strengths and selling points.

Why do it?• Allows you to understand how parents see your school before they have arrived.• You can amend and enhance your offering and communications in order to closely meet

parents’ expectations.• Shows parents coming to your school that you are attentive to their needs.• Allows you to better understand your schools’ selling points and areas that can be improved.

Related servicesFuture joiner interviews should be coupled with leaver interviews in order to build a clearpicture of the different views between those coming into your school and those leaving yourschool. This will help you to understand how closely you have met parental expectation andwhat you might be able to enhance.

Examples of useIn a parental survey one school received a number of indicators that it consideredconcerning: some parents rated value for money below our benchmarked average, andsome parents felt that they were not fully satisfied with aspects of provision that theyconsidered important.By conducting future-joiner interviews we were able to understand why parents had chosenthe school, what their expectations were, and how they wanted the school to communicatewith them. By acting on this and ensuring it met these needs, the school performedconsiderably better in a follow up survey two years later.

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NON-BUYER INTERVIEWS

What is it?We liaise with you to identify parents who have either requested information, or visited yourschool, but have not gone on to enrol. Our professional and discreet in-house research teamthen carries out telephone interviews with these families to assess their perceptions of yourschool, experiences of contact with you, the reasons they did not enrol, and where theyselected instead.Prior to contacting parents we provide template text for your school to send them, outliningthe research and providing them an opportunity to opt-out of being contacted.Using a professional and experienced third-party encourages parents to be candid andopen. We find that parents are often receptive and appreciate the positive reasons for thisresearch.

Why do it?• Understand the reasons parents do not enrol children at your school, and what they think

of you. • Improve the quality of your tours, open days and follow up. • Better understand your competitor schools and their activities. • Increase pupil recruitment.

Related servicesNon-buyer interviews are a great compliment to our other parental research services: onlinesurveys, future joiner interviews, and focus groups.A combination of these activities will mean that you can fully understand and compareperceptions of your school, its strengths and its weaknesses.

Examples of useA large school was struggling to understand why it ran so many tours but struggled tomaintain a good number of registrations and enrolments, particularly amongst boardingpupils.We carried out non-buyer interviews and found that parents wanted to meet house-masterswhen considering boarding places, and that often parents did not get an opportunity to seemany pupils during school tours. The school amended its tour structure and also introducedfollow-up calls with visitors to address any questions they had.

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PARENTAL SURVEYS

What is it?Working closely with you, we put together a bespoke survey questionnaire for all of yourschool’s current parents to complete. These are generally hosted via a secure online weblink,using our dedicated survey software, though we can also carry out postal surveys. Weprovide template text for you to communicate with your parents and invite them toparticipate.Our surveys are an excellent way to explore a broad number of areas, including:• Reasons parents chose your school and the importance of a range of factors• How satisfied they are with your provision• How parents heard about your school, and the other schools they considered• Satisfaction with your communications• Overall perceptions of your school and whether parents would recommend itWe analyse and feedback our findings in a full report, benchmarked against other schools. We can also assess differences in feedback at various ages, amongst boys and girls; andday / boarding pupils.We can also undertake surveys of staff, pupils and alumni in your school.

Why do it?• Understand how your parents really feel about your school, and how you meet their

expectations.• Gain insight into your school’s unique strengths and areas you should seek to improve.• Identify areas of priority using our ‘anxiety coefficient’ which compares parents’ satisfaction

against their ranking of an aspect’s importance.• Be seen by your parents to be actively listening and responding to them.• Establish a benchmark against which to monitor future progress.

Related servicesParent surveys are a great way of gaining a broad understanding of satisfaction across yourwhole school. Any identified areas of concern or confusion can be further explored in focusgroups with small groups of parents in order to fully understand the issue.

Examples of useThe head of a client school had heard from a couple of parents that there was a degree ofdissatisfaction with bus routes and communications.We carried out a survey and found that the vast majority of parents were happy with existingbus routes, and those who were not happy all lived in the same area, meaning the schoolcould add an additional route.The survey also found that parents wanted the school to switch from letters sent home withchildren to weekly e-mail communication, which was promptly implemented.

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FOCUS GROUPS

What is it?We carry out in depth, open-forum focus groups with your key stakeholders: parents, staff,pupils and alumni.These focus groups can be tailored to cover any areas and are an ideal means to cover keyaspects of your school in more depth than telephone or online surveys allow.Focus groups tend to be informal and open discussions following a defined structure andled in a ‘dual moderator’ format – with two consultants present to ensure notes are well-recorded and the forum is driven forward.Groups typically last 1.5 hours, with an ideal group size of 10-12. Two or more focus groupsshould be undertaken in order to provide a rigorous approach.

Why do it?• Focus groups are an excellent means to really explore sentiment and perceptions of your

school with key groups.• The informal and face-to-face nature of the groups means that participants are likely to be

open and honest.• Allows you to gain comprehensive feedback on aspects of your school.• Focus groups show your parents that you are listening to their feedback and acting on it.

Related servicesFocus groups are a great means to follow up any areas of interest or concern that are foundin a parental, staff or pupil survey. We can use the focus groups as an in-depth andqualitative method to explore the quantitative findings of the survey. The two items togetherprovide an excellent guide to levels of satisfaction in your school.

Examples of useIn a parental survey, there was mixed feedback from parents relating to a school’s Saturdayoffering. A number of parents felt it was very important, and were very satisfied, while otherparents felt it was very important but were not satisfied with current provision.We carried out several focus groups with a cross-section of the school’s parents in order tobetter understand this feedback.The focus groups enabled us to identify several ways in which our client could amend itsSaturday school offering in order to better suit all of its parents’ needs.

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LEAVER INTERVIEWS

What is it?Qualitative telephone interviews carried out with parents who are leaving your school, eitherbecause they have reached a natural exit point (such as year 11), or to attend an alternativeschool.We identify and contact these parents with a view to understanding their reasons for leavingyour school, their experiences of your school during their tenure, and their overallperceptions and satisfaction.

Why do it?• Allows you to understand levels of satisfaction amongst groups who are no longer at the

school and can therefore be completely candid about their experience.• Participants have strong experience of your school from enquiry through to leaving, and

are therefore well placed to give feedback.• Leavers can be interviewed year after year in order to see how parental experiences at

your school change over time.• Increase pupil retention from year to year by continually reacting to feedback.

Related servicesLeaver interviews work extremely well alongside side other forms of satisfaction survey workto build a full picture of parental sentiment at your school.They can be undertaken alongside future-joiner interviews to compare experienced parents’satisfaction levels with the expectations of those who have not yet entered the school.

Examples of useA co-educational school had some concerns about a significant number of parents leavingbefore their children reached year 11, which was the top of the school. We carried outtelephone interviews with a number of these families, having first assured them that nothingthey said would be attributed to them.We found that parents required more consistent communication with the school, and thatsome parents also were unable to continue driving their children into the school. Anotherfactor cited was need for stronger advice on 6th form options.As a result of our research, the school was able to enhance communications, amend its busroutes and invite parents of year 10 and 11 children to attend options evenings to look at6th form choices.

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mtmconsulting limitedPortland House43 High StreetSouthwoldSuffolkIP18 6AB

T +44 (0) 1502 722787T +44 (0) 1502 722305

[email protected]

MTMCONSULTING LIMITED is registered in England and WalesCompany number 5464490

mtmconsulting research services

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