This is going to sound very odd at first but bear with me. A goat-milk carton may actually be a good example of how to listen to your students. Ok, here's the deal: I saw this video on "Church of the Customer Blog" about Flying Goat Milk, and I just had to share it with you.  In the video, Jackie and Ben use a goat-milk carton (wait, don't click away yet) to illustrate why it's important to listen to your students. I told you this was odd, but here's what they say: "One thing you have to know about goat's milk is that the milk solids go to the bottom, and every time you drink it you've got to shake it up." But when Jackie shook the carton milk flew out all over her kitchen because the carton didn't have one of those fancy screw tops. When Jackie went back to supermarket, on one of her return visits, she noticed that carton now had a screw top, along with the words "Customer Requested" on the carton.

Jackie says, by adding these two words, "they are basically saying, hey we heard you." She also stressed the importance of not only providing ways for customers (or students) to contact your institution but to actively give them the tools to do so. The end result: we learn what students like and don't like--isn't that an important aspect of effective marketing?  As they said in the video, "Listening is a risk-free strategy overall...nothing can harm you by actively listening to what people are saying and feeding that back..."

-Jeff Papa