FGCU Measured 84% Student Satisfaction with Post-Ceremony Surveys
Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has been a proud Tassel customer since 2019, starting with our Core package, then Plus, and recently upgraded to the Expert package as they familiarized themselves with the enhanced tools and capabilities.
In fall 2022, April Cordonnier became Ceremony Coordinator at FGCU, taking charge of commencement and working to improve the experience for graduates. After adding fresh elements like a DJ, live music, and a group dance, the team wanted to understand how students felt and how to keep making things better.
April’s vice president had been asking for more data. When she discovered Tassel’s post‑ceremony survey tool, the timing was perfect. It offered an easy, familiar way for students to share feedback and for FGCU to gather insights that matter.
Implementation and Results
FGCU successfully deployed their first post‑ceremony survey, since 2016, focusing on five key areas including their ceremony enhancements, communication effectiveness, and overall satisfaction. The results exceeded expectations:
1. Strong validation of new features: Students overwhelmingly loved the DJ and group dance additions, with positive feedback that even encouraged faculty and platform party members to join in the celebration
2. Solid satisfaction baseline: FGCU achieved a 4.2 overall satisfaction score out of 5, providing a strong foundation for future improvements
3. Actionable administrative data: The survey results gave FGCU concrete evidence to present to administrators about ceremony length and capacity concerns
"Having the data to show our administrators, who love data, is invaluable," Cordonnier explained. "We can now say 'this is what students are saying, and we need to do something to change it.'"
What Worked Well
Seamless Setup Process: Working with their customer success manager, FGCU found the survey creation process straightforward and efficient.
Smart Communication Strategy: Understanding their graduates' communication preferences, FGCU chose to distribute the survey via text message rather than email, recognizing that students are more likely to engage with mobile communications post‑graduation.
Clear, Visual Reporting: The graphical representation of results and easy‑to‑understand statistics made it simple to share findings with committees and administrators who don't have direct Tassel access.
Feedback for the Future
FGCU's feedback highlighted several key opportunities for product improvement Tassel’s product team is exploring. Customers like April, who are data‑driven, early adopters, play an essential role in shaping Tassel’s ongoing development. Their real‑world insights help our team prioritize enhancements and refine our tools to better serve ceremonies of all sizes.
One of the key themes from FGCU’s experience was the desire for more actionable, streamlined feedback tools. April noted that while open‑ended survey questions surfaced helpful suggestions, they sometimes veered into areas beyond the university's control — like the weather and requests for free snacks at ceremonies. She emphasized the need to guide graduates toward feedback institutions can act on.
Similarly, her team expressed interest in tools that reduce the manual work involved in processing survey results, including AI‑generated summaries of open‑text responses and access to anonymized benchmarking data to help contextualize FGCU’s satisfaction scores. April also noted that SMS scheduling capabilities could maximize response rates.
This feedback is helping inform future updates to make the survey tool more flexible and effective. From targeted question sets to AI‑powered summaries, at Tassel, we know that engaged partners like FGCU are instrumental in shaping the next generation of ceremony technology.
The Partnership Advantage
FGCU plans to continue using the survey tool, with the data already informing decisions about adding an additional ceremony for Spring 2026 to address capacity concerns identified through student feedback.
At Tassel, we are committed to collaborative product development. By working closely with early adopters like FGCU, we're able to identify real‑world needs and continuously improve our offerings.
"I appreciate y'all working hard on creating something like this," April shared. "It's helping us shape things and bring the data that our administrators are looking for, while making it easier for us."
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Tassel values working directly with our customers to understand their unique challenges and develop solutions that make ceremony management easier and more effective. If you're interested in learning more about our post‑ceremony survey tool or sharing feedback on your own implementation, we'd love to hear from you. Together, we can continue building tools that help institutions create memorable graduation experiences while gathering the insights needed to make them even better.