If your boss charged you a fee to attend the company Christmas party, would you go?

Or, perhaps a better question is, would you be offended by that?

Or, what if your doctor or mechanic sent you an invitation to a holiday party for all their clients, and then in the footnote the invitation said there was a $10 admission fee, "to cover costs."

If you think this is ridiculous, so do I. But lately, I've been getting the same question over and over again from school owners who are asking me if they should charge an admission fee for their Christmas party. 

*Sigh*

Now, if you've asked me this don't think I'm picking on you, because I'm not. In fact, I'm glad you're asking questions like this because I'm sure you got this idea from someone, somewhere, who has absolutely no clue what customer service is all about.

Folks, the idea of having a party for your customers is to have a party for your customers. It's about customer appreciation, not making a profit.

Moreover, to charge someone to attend a party that's being held to celebrate the most giving time of the year is, well, tacky. So, whoever gave you the idea is an idiot. Just sayin'.

See, the best thing you can do when it comes to spending money on special events for your students is to look at it as an investment in student retention. People will notice when you do nice things for them, and it will have an impact on their decision to stick around for one more year.

Folks tend to do business with people they like, and they also tend to like it when other people demonstrate how much they care.

So, if you want to keep your students around for longer than a few months, stop trying to think of every single way possible to squeeze another dime out of them, and start thinking about how you can show how much you appreciate their business...

...and then do exactly that.