Welcome to the first of a series of posts related to the Campus Visit! Each month the Experience Team from TargetX will share with you a Campus Visit Tip, Trend and Talk. All of the “three T’s” are designed to give you a bit of insight into the work we do, the people we work with, and the places we pull our inspiration from.

Recognizing that so many of us learn from the stories of others, we want to give you a glimpse inside the experiences of our clients. Each month we will profile one of our campus visit clients with the hopes that you can learn from them and their story of change.

This month’s featured Talk is with:
Jodi Bailey
Director of Marketing
Alfred University

Q: How did you work to create change within your campus visit?
When I began working with the campus visit program, I knew we needed a fresh perspective to help pull us out of the rut we were in. I had just heard of TargetX and the idea of a Campus Visit Audit. Jeff Kallay, VP of Consulting, visited campus and really helped me to look at things through the eyes of a new visitor. Fortunately, we had a great VP who understood the importance the visit plays in a student’s decision to attend a school which made my case for change much easier. We first improved the basics–the tour route, tossed the tour script, and spent a lot of time re-training the tour guides. We even determined that if the tour guides couldn’t get on board with our new way it was the highway!

Our conference bike that came to be with the help of our students continues to be the change/addition that I am most proud of because we incorporated an idea generated from our tour guides into something truly unique yet very representative of Alfred.

Q: What outcomes have those changes generated?
Our tours are so much more visitor-friendly both in logistics and in content. We have received a lot of praise for our improved tours in person, via email and through our tour evaluations. The yield from our campus visit has increased as well – especially for those who ride the bike. Our work with TargetX also provided me with the knowledge that constant evaluation is necessary to stay on top of potential tweaks we can/should make to our tours and visit to continue to improve.

In addition, our tour guides are really enjoying the job of sharing stories about themselves and their experiences!

Q: Tell us a story about an experience outside of higher education that you loved or that continues to inspire you.
Wegmans is a grocery store chain in the North East that is slowly spreading…it started out in Rochester, NY (where it’s headquarters remain) and has experienced continual growth even through the downturn in the economy.

Visiting Wegmans is truly an experience – they have a bakery, salad bar, made to order items, fresh foods, soups, standard grocery store items, and fun gifts/extras. It has been interesting watching Wegmans grow – and to listen to people who ‘experience’ some of their larger stores for the first time. They put a lot of thought into their layout and offerings – as any retail outlet does – to entice their customers. Thinking of their continued success and ongoing efforts to improve motivates me to do the same for our ‘customers’ (yes, I called them customers!).

TargetX Campus Visit Consultants have worked with hundreds of colleges and universities to make their campus visits memorable, authentic, and effective. They blog regularly about their experiences within the campus visit and the greater business community.

Read more about our authors.  Emily Welsh is the Director of Client Experience for the Consulting Division of TargetX. Emily’s experience in college admissions, hospitality, and retail has given her a keen eye for customer service and authenticity. With a passion for the experience, a confidence in the campus visit and time on many campuses, Emily brings strengths in observation, organization, writing and training to the Campus Visit Consulting team at TargetX.