CAO is digging a hole

I felt sorry for Joseph O Grady of the CAO on Morning Ireland last week. He was there because students have had huge problems trying to finalise their online CAO applications before the CAO deadline.
There's only about nine of them and they do provide one of the few public services in this country where "who you know" or how many phone calls you make, does not dictate how fast or if ever you get a service. They're actually pretty efficient and they allow students total freedom when choosing a course. For example in the UK you have to be very careful about how many colleges you put on your application form as all colleges see what you've put down. Makes the interview very difficult

"Mmmn so you say you really want to come here, but we're only your 19th choice".

However when your customers can't avail of your service when they expect to, don't come out fighting, quoting legal restrictions etc and blame the customers for leaving it till the last minute.

Best thing is to apologise for example
Yes we did look at our IT problems , we thought we had solved them, but we do have limited funds and this did not help.
We did warn every body to apply early but obviously this message did not get through and we'll have to look at this.

We're really sorry for the inconvenience it's caused but if we extend the deadline or waive the fee it will open a pathway for all kinds of legal challenges in the future which means students not getting their places on time.

We must learn from this but it will mean spending extra money on IT which means in turn we'll have to increase the application fees, which we did not want to do as it impacts poorer students adversely.

So now you've taken some of the heat out of the situation plus you've started preparing the ground for a fee increase. Most people will calm down if given a sincere acknowledgement that the frustration they're experiencing is appreciated and is being taken seriously. This is a useful tip for any walk of life, be it career or relationships

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