Complaints in the Financial Aid Office

Angry and Angrier.One of the challenges for a college financial aid adviser is being on the receiving end of a screaming and cursing student. Or worse, students’ parents.

When attempting to explain the what and why, the conversation sometimes goes south...quickly.

They’re Frustrated.Often student or parent frustration comes from a lack of understanding regarding complex financial aid policies.Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re not. Whichever is the case, you can always handle the situation with tact and diplomacy.

What happens when a student takes to social media to vent their frustrations?

“Hey guys...!”With the advent of social media, every American citizen is able to make known any feedback to the public – positive or negative. This means, every complaint can be seen by hundreds of people in a

split-second.

Remember, you also have the same advantage if you decide to maximize social media!

TwitterFor example, run a search in Twitter for “financial aid office” and you will get a number of Tweets.

These will typically fall under 3 categories: announcements, complaints, and compliments.

Some are actually funny...

Dissecting 3 Common Complaints

Learning from ComplaintsTrue, a number of student tweets are little more than complaints. But the real question is, what can you do about it?

How you can turn these students’ negative feedback into improvements around the financial aid office?

#1: Process complexity, length & difficulty.

Admit it,The aid process IS confusing.

More so for students who aren’t familiar with the lingo and the processes. Without clear, simplified explanations, there are many things your students do not understand about financial aid.

However, this does not meant the burden of explaining every detail should fall on financial aid counselors.

Create a comprehensive financial aid website.

Include important definitions and

explanations in the award letters students

receive

Incorporate text messaging to remind students of important

deadlines and give helpful tips

Here’s what you can do to help:

Click on each box to learn more.

#2 Phone Systems

With live chat, contact forms and the almight Google at their fingertips, Millennial and Generation X students are not accustomed to waiting for information.

If you funnel all the communication through the phone system, you’re going to end up with irate students.

The Financial Aid Office should give students several access points to information and financial aid processes.

This could actually mean less work for your staff.

For example, the FAFSA verification process could actually be conducted much faster with the use of automated software platform, StudentVerification.

StudentVerification handles communications

between students and staff, communicating

when each party needs to complete the next

verification step.

Students love it, because they can complete the verification process

conveniently from their phones.

Staff members love it, because it is proven to save time and money.

#3: Better paperwork options

One of the biggest gripes on Twitter was the amount of time students spent waiting in the financial aid office, often just to turn in a piece of required documentation.

Other students complained about lost documents.

What both types of complaints boil down to is a need for a better document intake system.

Human beings occasionally err, especially when they are organizing and indexing documents coming from up to thousands of students via fax, email, snail mail and in-person intake.

Having a singular point of document submission and form completion that is run by software means no more lost docs, no more incomplete forms (smart forms ensure students don’t miss a box) and no more waiting an hour to submit a document.

StudentVerification delivers this to college and university financial aid offices.

Managing Complaints

You WILL Encounter Angry FolksThere will be days when you have angry students, and even parents, knocking at your door. You will have them posting on social media.

What can you do?

Document

Listen

Respond

Keepcalm

ConsiderBe

firm

Educate

Discussprivatel

y

More importantly: PREVENT.Reduce the incidence of complaints by sending out financial aid award letters that are easy to understand, timely and thoroughly explained.

This has been brought to you by

For tips on managing angry parents, click here to read it at www.campuslogic.com.

Click here to read the full entry about managing Financial Aid Office complaints.

Verification. Simplified.Let us show you how we’re helping

institutions like yours reduce processing time by up to 95%.

Click here to learn more.