8 Ways to Support Staff with Essential Infrastructure

Across industries, research shows that a positive employee experience leads to a stronger customer experience. This holds true for arts organizations: When your staff are well supported, they are more equipped to provide an exceptional patron and student experience.

Some of that support is cultural and leadership-driven, norms that make employees feel that their work is seen and valued. But good vibes aren't enough; great organizations maintain culture with the right infrastructure. Process, SOPs, intuitive technology—these concrete supports can optimize day-to-day activities and free staff up to focus on higher impact activities. In the context of your arts education program, this might mean freeing up time for student and parent relationships, curriculum development, teacher relationships, marketing and promotion, and more.

Leading organizations maintain culture and customer experience with the right infrastructure including process, standard operating procedures and intuitive technology.

In this post, we'll highlight eight essential pieces of infrastructure arts education programs can put in place to improve efficiency and help staff feel supported. 

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1. Standard Operating Procedures for Common Tasks

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are a foundational, yet often overlooked, piece of program infrastructure. They save time and minimize frustration by creating clear, repeatable guidelines for how to do common tasks. Every member of your team becomes more independent when they can turn to functional SOPs rather than relying on their memory or coworkers to walk them through processes.

Any process that happens repeatedly could benefit from an SOP. The following is a basic list of processes that every program should consider standardizing: 

• Posting classes to your course catalog
• Registering students over the phone
• Canceling a class
• Rescheduling a class
• Issuing a refund
• Administering waiting lists
• Creating a new student profile
• Responding to emergencies

Starting with these procedures can quickly improve efficiency and give your staff a boost of confidence. Once you have these in place, you can create SOPs for other tasks or actions unique to your organization. Learn how to write standard operating procedures for ed programs.

Note: There is such a thing as too much process. When it comes to SOPs, prioritize the common tasks that tend to cause the most confusion and take up the most time.

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2. Automation of Repeated Tasks

Every program has a number of repeated, rote tasks that eat up up time if they need to be done manually. Automating these tasks can free your team to focus on more creative work and student support goals. The following are a few tasks that most arts ed programs can automate with the right software.

• Adding students to your mailing list
• Notifying students of class changes
• Keeping instructors informed of changes to their classes
• Class registration and payment processing
• Wait list administration
• Social media and email marketing
• Class reminder emails

Start by considering the tools you already use and how they might be used to automate tasks. If certain tasks are costing a lot of manual hours and/or negatively impacting your student experience, it may be time to re-evaluate your technology systems entirely.

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3. Integrated Systems to Minimize Rework

Automation and integration go together like stage crews and actors. Each enhances and supports the other and a great show is only possible if you have both. In the same way, automation only reaches its full potential if your core systems are integrated. 

Software integration allows you to 1) purchase best-in-class tools that solve the specific problems you're trying to solve and 2) connect those tools to keep information centralized and actionable. This type of integration cuts down on data entry and reduces errors. It also allows you to automate more tasks because data can flow smoothly between technologies. 

For example, if your student registration and payment system integrates with your email marketing tool, new students can automatically be added to relevant mailing lists and start getting messages immediately. There’s no need to wait for someone to manually re-enter their data from one system to another. 

Some software tools have built-in integrations. CourseStorm’s student registration and payment system integrates with Little Green Light, Spektrix and Leap Patron Management, among others. And tools like Zapier open up even more possibilities for connections between software for integration and automation.

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4. Centralized Information Database

When your tools are properly integrated, you can centralize customer and program information. This gives you a complete view of your customer: what they've purchased, their membership status, recent donations, family members, etc. This view makes your marketing more effective, it makes automation simpler, and it improves efficiency. At the most basic level, a centralized database helps your team find what they’re looking for when they need it. Changes can be made in one place and reflected across the organization. 

So when a long-time student notifies you that their mailing address has changed, staff can change the address in one place, and everyone who needs to can see it.

Depending on the size and complexity of your program, a centralized database may take the form of a patron management system, donor management software, or shared drive with integrations. Check out this blog post for more on how to centralize client data.

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5. Clear Division of Responsibilities

When it comes to setting staff up for success, it's critical to clarify roles and responsibilities. While folks on your team may be cross-trained or have overlapping skills, everyone should have a strong sense of the primary tasks and goals that they manage. Consider:

• Assigning tasks and goals to specific team members
• Creating priority lists detailing what is most important
• Investigating individual workloads to make sure no one is too overloaded
• Considering how volunteers or interns might support full-time staff

On teams with lean staffing and tight budgets, individuals often play multiple roles and pick up the slack for each other. This can be okay in the short term, but may become a risk factor for burnout if it goes on for too long. Role confusion can also result in tasks being missed because no one knows who is responsible for them. Clearly identifying roles and responsibilities keeps teams happy and productive over the long term.

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6. Scripts for Common Questions

Some questions from parents and students come up again and again. Prospective students may want to know if you offer any discounts or what your cancellation policy is. Registered students may wonder if they can transfer to another session. Someone needs help recovering the password to their student profile and someone else wants to know if your program is taking volunteers. 

Program staff shouldn’t have to scramble for answers to these common questions. They don’t necessarily have to read the script word for word on the phone or when a student visits reception. But having all the details written down can keep them from getting frazzled. Scripts also ensure that your messaging is consistent day-to-day and between staff members.

Ask your team about the questions they hear most often, and work with them to create answer scripts. But don’t stop there. You can use these questions and answers for a frequently asked questions section on your website, or even create a social media or email series answering them one-by-one. Sharing information in this way potentially cuts down on the number of calls your staff has to manage.

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7. Power to Offer Discounts or Other Solutions

No matter how well-run your program is, sooner or later, a student or parent will approach staff with a problem that needs solving. No one likes dealing with an unhappy customer, but empowering your staff to offer solutions can make the experience a more pleasant for everyone. 

From navigating class cancellations due to weather or instructor illness, to misunderstandings about costs or schedules, to personality conflicts between students and instructors, giving your team the power to offer solutions can help them turn a negative experience into a relationship building experience. Consider tools such as:

• Discounts on a future class
• Full or partial refunds
• Rebooking to a different class session
• Credits towards a future class
• Cancellation promos such as the opportunity to bring a friend to class

Most people could benefit from some training on how to calmly manage conversations with customers that are angry or upset. Giving staff some conflict resolution tools can support a more positive experience for them and the customer. Staff feel empowered, and the customer feels heard.

8. Supervision and Support for Employee Success

Good supervision is so much more than making sure tasks get done. It’s making yourself available to staff and letting them know they can come to you with questions and concerns. It’s removing barriers that could hold them back and praising employee success. It's zeroing in on a staff member's unique skills and giving them opportunities to grow and stretch. Here are a few tips:

• Schedule weekly or monthly check-in meetings with each staff member
• Host group staff meetings where people can share ideas
• Offer open-office hours when staff know you will be available to talk to
• Publicly praise team members for their contributions
• Share information and dispel rumors, especially when it comes to funding!
• Listen to team member concerns and let them know what you’ve done in response
• Be aware of staff dynamics and step in to mediate issues promptly
• Encourage restful time off by not contacting staff outside of their work hours
• Ask for staff input when implementing the infrastructure enhancements in this post

The right infrastructure leads to a better staff experience, a better customer experience, and sets your program up to grow and scale successfully. It creates a strong foundation that your program can build on to thrive now, and for many enrollment cycles to come.