Building a Customer Journey

Collective Intelligence Conference

Interactive Online: February 2021

This conference brought together a variety of stakeholders and practitioners from different European Institutions to exchange and discuss the welcoming and onboarding processes for international master’s and doctoral students.

What is the Collective Intelligence Conference?

During the Collective Intelligence Conference we drafted the ideal customer journey for masters and PhD’s. We used the input of all participants, thus calling it “collective intelligence”. During the event, our moderators, supported by a team of students, collected ideas, best practices and presented them to the entire group. We divided each section of the customer journey by 3 phases: Attractiveness, Selection & Application, Formalities – First Days, and Onboarding – First 100 Days.

We therefore developed two Customer Journeys:

Master’s Track: The Ideal Welcome Process for Master’s Students
PhD Track: The Ideal Welcome Process for PhD’s

Expert Meeting Results

During the conference, an expert meeting was held on each of the following topics: Admissions, Intro Programs, the International Classroom, and Onboarding. Below you will find illustrated minutes from what was discussed in each of these meetings, as well as the text outlines of these illustrated minutes.

  Application Processes
Making the Perfect Intro Programs
Creating Welcoming Onboarding Activities

Text Outlines of Expert Meeting Results

Creating the Best Application & Interaction Processes

Shift to Personal Experience Mindset: from degree to lifelong journey
Communication is essential!
- Personalized Approach
  - Send relevant emails and check-in via call
  - Well-balanced
  - Establish connection between PhD's and their supervisors - before application!
- Clear & accessible website
  - Include videos, images & infographics
  - Multi-language
- Chatbots
- WhatsApp: Make social media accessible for all
- Have a welcome app
- Help with language barriers & local culture
- Weekly Newsletter
Coordinated admission offices
Focus on well-being and work-life balance
Attract talents by:
- Including spouses and family - happy spouse, happy employee!
- offer working opportunities for loved ones
- provide daycare, free language courses and visa
Buddy programs
- Mentoring, tandems
- Peer-to-peer communication (even before arrival!)
Expectation management
Tackle discrimination through mandatory intercultural awareness courses

Making the Perfect Intro Programs

Before arrival:
- Welcome app: admission letter, the welcome app should describe what the next steps are for the student, including the orientation day, introductory courses, and introduction to how to obtain housing
- Buddy Programme
- Webinars: to describe/guide students through first steps in detail
- Arrival (all students on the same day)
Foster cooperation between the administration and academic dpartments
Find a common language
Be flexible when communicating and be reachable
Funding is essential
Avoid information overload
- Students might be overwhelmed by academic freedom
- Provide an emotional support system as part of an academic culture

International Classroom

Create academic policies
- Code of Conduct
- Vision on Education
Focus on teachers, students and the institution
Foster inclusive communities
- Have a policy on a common language
- Having a buddy can help students include each other
- Celebrate cultural diversity: enrichment for all
The classroom should:
- be a social space
- have an atmosphere of respect
- allow people to contribute
- appreciate prior learnings
- be a space for meaningful questions and communication
- constantly evaluate and improve
Training and courses for teachers should include intercultural awareness and diversity.
Plan for internationalization at home
Have a community manager

Creating Welcoming Onboarding Activities

Provide a place to meet for students with free activities.
Teach cultural awareness during the welcome days.
Inclusion is a two-way street: give students opportunities to belong, but allow them to be themselves
Good HR is crucial: qualified, open, tolerant
Have a place for conflicts and complaints
Make administration more transparent: put everything together
Focus on Communication: find the sweet spot between too much and too little
Create a personal relationship: provide support, information and assistance
Well-being: dont' forget mental health issues
Organize small-scale activities throughout the semester for "I hate this shit" days.
Provide self-training interventions with weekly assignements

Customer Journey Results

After a week of conferring with the conference participants virtually, the following draft Customer Journeys were created from the discussions held in each expert meeting and collected in Jamboard form. Below you can find the results that came out of each of these meetings for each phase.