Life's too short to waste time trying to convert your "committed negative" patrons
At the risk of sounding like some sort of whacked-out successories® poster or coffee mug, you should approach this school year with a clear sense of the following: Some people will never like, trust or support your school district, and nothing you can do will change that.
Not your typical motivational message, is it? As public education professionals who do know what’s best, do manage money effectively, do care about your students’ success and so on, it’s hard to accept you aren’t just missing that one fact, story or tidbit that will change the minds of the “committed negative” patrons. It’s natural to want to correct misinformation that paints an unfair picture of you or your district.
But if there is one thing we at Patron Insight have learned from 25 years of conducting research on behalf of school districts – large, small and in between – it’s that your district has three segments of patrons.
- Ten to 20 percent love everything you do, every program you start and every email you send out. They are like one giant smiling emoji.
- Ten to 20 percent criticize everything you do, every decision you make, and take the opportunity to do the same old song and dance at each Board meeting.
- The rest – somewhere between 60 and 80 percent – pay attention here and there. They may default to the positive or to the negative, but that default doesn’t have the same passion as it does in the other two groups. These are the ones who most need to know, “What does this mean to me?”
In the hundreds of studies we’ve completed, the one thing that stands out is the committed negative patrons. They are more likely to be negative (with an occasional non-committal response) to everything, no matter what the subject.
What’s the lesson from this data? Be respectful to these individuals, state the facts, don’t argue and don’t waste a lot of time thinking you can change their minds.
Will some negative folks become more positive over time? Of course. You’ll have an issue where they were impressed with how you handled it, and things will change. By the same token, the positive segment will have some folks who go negative over time, because a situation has surfaced that gets under their skin.
The issue is to stop making that be your goal. Focus, instead, on presenting benefit-driven information that makes those in the middle (the “situationally apathetic”) pay more attention. You do that by using research to pinpoint what they are most interested in hearing more about and then stepping up your messaging in that area.
This is human nature. Talk to me about something I’m interested in, and I’m much more likely to pay attention and to feel a stronger connection with your school district.
Ready to learn what you patrons are interested in? Contact Ken DeSieghardt to get Patron Insight started on a research project for your district.