Bob Spatig, assistant vice president for admissions, recruitment & enrollment planning at the University of South Florida, organized a fascinating summit last week to revamp the campus visit experience. We invested a day in challenging the status quo and to think through the customer experience from a coherent point of view. Throughout the day, I kept thinking about a recent post from Seth Godin who suggests that customers want results, thrills and ego. His post related well to the campus visit experience—and to coherence.

RESULTS. Certainly prospective students and their families want to know that the investment in your school will pay lifetime dividends. They want what they believe they are paying for and more. But what do they want from your campus visit experience? What results are they expecting? One-on-one time with a counselor? A dazzling tour? Answers to questions? Why are they visiting campus? A great ah-ha moment? A bolt of lightning?

THRILLS. No question, students want to enjoy college life and the freedom it affords—at a level they’ve likely not yet experienced. And parents want their students to have exceptional learning experiences at all levels. How do they want to be thrilled on a campus visit? What can happen during those few hours on campus to give them a never-to-be-forgotten encounter with your school?

EGO. Students—and their parents—naturally want to be recognized and to feel important to you. What can you do to make the visit experience good for their egos? What interactions will make them feel good about themselves and simultaneously feel good about you?

Godin suggests that we don’t even need to have all three of these. Doing just one really well is sufficient. But what if we COULD do all three? How coherent would THAT be?

-Rick Bailey is the principal and founder of Richard Harrison Bailey/The Agency and author of Coherence: How Telling the Truth Will Advance Your Cause (and Save the World). Follow him on Twitter @RichardHBailey.