The effect of public relations in private schools on school choice of parents in İstanbul

In the information age we are in, public relations becomes important both for the public and private institutions, organizations and enterprises. Public relations activities have an important role in ensuring customer satisfaction, especially in the service sector. In an increasingly competitive environment, conducting public relations management in a professional manner, is necessary for a private school to stand out from among other private schools, attract the attention of parents and gaining trust in order to survive and manage its reputation correctly. In this study, the goal is to examine the factors that affect parents' preferences for private schools and their perceptions of private school public relations activities. In this context, personal interviews were conducted with 20 parents of students studying in private schools in Istanbul. The data obtained was analyzed, leading themes were highlighted and comparisons were made with in-depth content analysis. The data obtained was analyzed, leading themes were highlighted and comparisons were made with in-depth content analysis. As a result of this study, private school public relations activities were found to have little effect on parental preferences for private schools. It was observed that information shared by reliable friends was effective in the preference of parents for private schools. Factors such as the quality of teaching staff, foreign language teaching and academic success have been shown to be effective in parental preferences for private schools.