How Training Institutions Can Segment Their Users
Time:2025-10-27
Source:Artstep
In educational institutions like ours—whether for music, dance, or sports—parents send their children to classes for a wide variety of reasons.
Some are focused on their child's future development, some simply want their child to explore more interests right now, while others are worried their child might fall behind others. Everyone's thoughts and needs are different. If we treat all parents as having the "same needs," communication can easily go wrong—parents may feel what we're saying doesn't resonate with them and doesn't offer anything worth paying for.
Therefore, segmenting parents is particularly important. Proper segmentation allows for more targeted communication, enabling us to say what parents want and like to hear, significantly enhancing their experience.
Segmentation Method for Parents of Existing Students
One method we often use is segmenting based on "needs"—it's simple and practical.
For instance, when it's time for fee renewals, we can pull up a list of parents whose fees are due but haven't been renewed yet from our system. Combining this with their previous communication records from when they first enrolled, we can roughly categorize them into three types:
Type 1
Parents who place great importance on their child's future competitiveness. They often say things like, "I hope my child can achieve something in music; it should help with future school admissions." These parents have clear goals and want their child to "go further" in a specific field.
Type 2
Parents who focus more on their child's current growth. They care more about whether their child is currently interested, making progress, enjoying the learning process, and gaining confidence or improved focus. For example, a parent of a student who has been learning dance with us for four years told us: "My child isn't learning dance to become a professional dancer; we just want her to be braver and able to perform confidently on stage."
Type 3
Parents who are more influenced by their surroundings. They see other children around them learning various skills and worry their own child might miss out or fall behind. But what they care most about is actually whether there are opportunities for stage performances, winning awards, getting on stage, and gaining honors. Previously, many parents contacted us asking if studying here would allow their child to participate in certain competitions or attend specific summer camps.
Once we understand the outcomes parents want their children to achieve through learning, it becomes much easier to plan the content of conversations or parent meetings.
For example: We had a parent who hoped that learning Latin dance would help their child gain extra points for middle school admission. When talking with this parent, we explained what level the child could achieve for those points and when they could expect to obtain the desired score. This left the parent very satisfied, feeling that we were genuinely considering their child's and their own interests.
How to Communicate with Different Parent Types
Teachers surely understand that the challenge in communicating with parents isn't about how much you say, but whether what you say resonates. Since quality education isn't like K12 where scores do the talking, parents often feel they "don't know what the purpose of learning this is" or even think they "don't see what the child is learning."
Therefore, in our communication with parents, we typically do several things:
- First, use videos and photos to showcase the child's achievements from the previous semester, letting parents see the changes
- Then, explain the plan for the new semester.
- Finally, tailor the focus differently for different types of parents.
For instance, parents focused on the future love hearing about the curriculum system, competition plans, and supporting resources. They find terms like "systematic" and "long-term cultivation" reassuring.
Parents who focus more on their child's current growth need us to address practical issues more. For example, if a child is timid or has a short attention span, we need to show them how the course helps the child improve. This makes them feel the money is well-spent.
As for parents who value honors and showcases, don't just talk about class content; emphasize opportunities like competitions, recitals, and certificates. Because that's precisely what they care about most. Last year, we encountered a parent hesitating about renewal, but upon hearing their child could represent the school in a city-level competition, they decided to renew on the spot.
How to Assign User Tags
Of course, relying on memory alone is unrealistic; it's easy to mix things up with many parents. So now we use our student management system to assign these tags. Tagging parents makes subsequent communication easier.
Tags can be assigned when parents first enroll. For example: "Focuses on future development," "Focuses on interest/growth," "Focuses on honors/showcase." This way, whether it's the homeroom teacher or administrative staff communicating later, they have a direction and avoid situations where "they talked a lot, but the parent didn't hear what they wanted."
A small tip for tagging: Avoid using emotional or derogatory terms. For example, don't write "picky parent," use "values sense of honor" instead. Don't write "utilitarian type," use "focuses on achievements" instead. This facilitates follow-up communication and prevents team members from having biases when they see the tags.
Daily Communication After Segmentation
For example:
- Updates on the child's progress in class should be promptly sent to parents via the management system. Sometimes a simple "Your child performed very well on stage today" makes parents genuinely feel the teacher's care.
- Class information and schedules should be synchronized to parents' phones immediately to avoid misunderstandings due to information asymmetry. Parents also don't need to worry about missing timely updates.
- Data on class hour consumption should be transparent, showing the same information to both parents and the institution. This prevents disputes like "My calculation of used hours is different from yours."
These small details are often more important than any compelling story you might tell on social media. Because in the parents' eyes, the "experience" is the direct reflection of whether the institution is professional and reliable. If the parent's experience is poor, they will inevitably perceive the institution as unprofessional.
Conclusion
User segmentation isn't about "labeling" parents; it's about helping us better understand their needs. Some want future prospects, some want interest-based growth, and others want honors and showcases.
By identifying these differences and then tailoring communication and services accordingly, parents will naturally find the institution reliable, and the renewal rate will be higher.