When colleges and universities think about enhancing the ‘customer experience,’ a prime focus is on ways to create positive experiences across all aspects of the institution. Creating positive experiences will not only help retain existing students but can also make them loyal advocates and potentially future donors for their alma mater down the road. What you do today can have a lasting impact. Conversely, what you don’t do can also affect future enrollment, retention, and alumni engagement. Here are four ways to re-engage your students right now to increase their customer experience.

Prospective college students and their parents take many factors into consideration when they’re choosing between competing universities. They consider the university’s national rankings, its location, the level of prestige it holds, and how well the university fits into their career path. The list could go on and on, but one area that students and parents don’t typically consider is rapidly becoming a keystone of many universities’ financial health: auxiliary services. During difficult economic times, these can generate a great deal of revenue, even amid the stark reality of increasingly tight budgets.