Student feedback is vital; it helps us improve our products and create a better service for our customers.
Back in 2017 we made several changes to the way we gather and act on student feedback.The changes allow us to gather feedback more frequently, with a quicker resolution of issues, and avoid over-surveying our students.
Did you know?
We have experts who work in every part of the business, to guarantee that our courses are designed with one thing in mind – making it easy for you to succeed in your exams.
Our approach was to split feedback into three different categories:
- End of course survey - to capture regular course specific feedback focusing on tutors, materials and marking, as well as a general measure of satisfaction by asking students about their willingness to recommend Kaplan.
- An annual student satisfaction survey - to gather general feedback on the student experience. This survey was redesigned in partnership with an external agency to focus on the areas most important to students.
- Ad Hoc surveys - allow us to focus on specific initiatives at appropriate times.
Around 6,100 students took part in our latest annual student satisfaction survey, conducted in Q4 2018, and as always it generated some interesting results.
What are we doing well?
Improved Net Promoter Score
We use Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure the willingness of our customers to recommend our products and services to others. The scale runs from -100 to +100 and Kaplan's latest score is +35.
This is a second year on year increase, up slightly from +33 in 2017. It’s a strong score when benchmarked against other industries and other education providers. However, we recognise there’s still room for improvement.
Satisfaction scores with our tutors’ expertise, knowledge, approachability and helpfulness remains high, as does satisfaction with their availability.
Confident, helpful & happy
Our ease of study score is 8 out of 10 (which is unchanged from 2018) and the three most common words used to describe studying with Kaplan are again ‘confident’, ‘helpful’ and ‘happy’, which suggests the student experience is generally a positive one.
What can we do better?
Focus on improving our mock exam feedback
Feedback indicates the changes we’ve made to the speed of marking mock exams is being recognised. However satisfaction scores suggested we needed to improve the quality of our feedback too.
To address this, our new quality assurance processes were introduced in September 2018, which include reviewing scripts from every marker, every sitting to ensure the amount and format of comments are in line with expectations. We expect to see a substantial increase in scores in the next annual survey.
User Experience design to improve navigation
During 2018 we made changes to our MyKaplan learning resource. This included the introduction the VideoBank, which is a collection of short informal videos covering a wide range of subject areas.
We also added subtitles to our video content for our hearing impaired students, and created a ‘Help & Support’ page on MyKaplan. This kept the necessary contact details in one place (including Live Online recordings) - for easy access.
To build on these changes we’ve recruited some user experience (UX) researchers who will work with students throughout 2019 to improve the usability of MyKaplan.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Kapan recognises the importance of NPS and the features of our service that we need to get right in order for our students to recommend us. In 2018 we introduced targets for a number of KPIs including: tutor quality, response to student queries, printed and online materials and marking.
These are reviewed by our senior managers every month and shared across the business, ensuring everyone at Kaplan is focused on delivering the best service to our students.
Win £250
The next annual satisfaction survey will take place in October 2019. If you complete the survey you'll be entered into a prize draw to win one of four £250 prizes. Keep an eye out for the survey in your inbox, complete it, and you’ll be automatically entered.
Don’t forget you can give feedback anytime using our end of course survey. The link can be found in MyKaplan.