Have you heard about Dankook’s partnership stores? They are local cafes, restaurants, movie theaters and hospitals that give discounts to Dankookians (Students of Dankook University).  The agreements are arranged by our Student Council. The Dankook Herald (DKH) took a closer look at these partnership agreements to help you learn more about what is on offer for our student body.

  To begin with, the DKH conducted an anonymous survey targeting Dankookians. We wanted to know how often students access the partnership businesses and how satisfied they were with the agreements. The first question we asked was “What is the most popular service offered amongst the partnership stores?” 61.8 percent of students were aware of the discounts offered at the Jukjeon and Ori CGV theaters.  Another 10% of respondents said they were familiar with the discounts offered at cafés in Bojeong-dong.  A shocking 25 percent of Dankookians weren’t aware of any discount agreements being offered. The survey also revealed that 60% of students take advantage of the Jukjeon and Ori CGV discounts and 7 percent use the agreements in Bojeong-dong.  However, 35.3 percent do not access any of the discount services that the Student Council arranged. In terms of frequency, 55 percent of respondents visit one of the partnership stores once a month and 36.8 percent of students have never visited any. When asked, “How can students get information about partnership stores?”, the answers varied. 44.1 percent of students said from the Student Council Facebook page, 22.1 percent said from Every-time, 1.5 percent said they read it on DKU bulletin boards, while the remaining respondents said they didn’t know. Furthermore, 73.5 percent of participants said they were satisfied with these partnership services while 20.6 percent of Dankookians were not. The major reason they reported not being satisfied with the services is the lack of publicity. Some students mentioned very little information has been posted regarding partnership stores. They know they exist, but they don’t know exactly what is on offer. The problem seems to be that the Student Council has not been actively promoting these partnership deals. Respondents suggested the Student Council list the information about partnership agreements on the Dankook University portal website and also put a sticker identifying partnership locations on the front door of participating establishments. Lastly, DKH asked for suggestions for possible partnership stores. Most of the students who participated in the survey said “I do not go to the stores near Bojeong-dong very often, so it would be better if the Student Council arranged a partnership agreements with Danbi (the campus bookstore) or any of the restaurants and Cafés around DKU.

  To look at the agreements from the perspective of participating store, the DKH interviewed a worker at Mr. Healing Cafe, located in Bojeong-dong. At first, our interviewee was unaware of the partnership agreement with DKU’s Student Council, but we later learned that owners decided it was a good opportunity to promote the location to students, since many get work done in cafes during the school semester. However, once the agreement was finalized, our Student Council did little to help promote the agreement. The café reported that once a year, when the student council changes, they call to see if there are any changes in the pricing structure for students. So does this partnership really benefit the store? The café said there was positive impact on the number of visitors when they promoted the agreement. However, according to our survey, many Dankookians said that most of the student body were unaware of the discounts on offer and therefore do not take advantage of the benefits. Therefore, many participating companies hoped the Student Council would do more to promote their partnership agreements. For example, one respondent said it would be nice to make a bulletin board for partnership companies in the dormitory or school buildings or on the school homepage, so that partner businesses could put up posters advertising their discounts for a longer time. And at every annual festival, the school should also allow its partners to distribute discounts or event coupons to students.

▲ The photo of Mr. Healing the interviwed cafe. (Photo from Dankook herald)

  We asked the President of the Student Council about these partnership stores. He said that while partnership businesses have existed for a long time, the Student Council wanted to diversify the business partners and secure more useful benefits for Dankookians. Therefore the Student Council chose partners located all over because they wanted to give benefits to students even when they were not at school. They chose partnership stores based on Student Council member recommendations or by researching the benefits of various companies. When they thought a store matched our needs, they visited them directly or called to see if an agreement could be reached. In order to access discount services from the partnership stores, students have only have to present their student ID card or registration information on the DKU portal. However, with the exception of some stores, graduates cannot take advantage of these partnership benefits. The Student Council maintains regular contact with partnership stores and said they will make any adjustments necessary that improves access to the benefits for students. While they believed the 1^st semester partnerships were a success, especially the Bojeong-dong café street partnerships, they felt that even though they promoted the partnership stores through Every-time and Facebook, the promotion of these discounts may have been insufficient and intend to do more in the future. For the 2^nd semester, the Student Council is evaluating what stores would offer students the most benefits and services and are now preparing agreements with even more businesses than before.

▲ The promotion page of partnership stores. (Photo from Student Council Facebook)

  Partnership businesses are useful for Dankookians and according to the interviews we conducted, students taken advantage of what’s on offer and love the benefits they receive. Stores also mentioned the positive return they receive on their agreement with more students visiting their locations than in the past. With a promise of more promotions and an expanded list of partnership agreements, more and more needs of our students will be met. The future of discounted products and service for Dankookians is definitely promising.