This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

When I checked-in to the East coast hotel late at night recently, I could tell that it was going to be a rough stay...

The girl at the front desk looked ticked-off that I was making her give me my room key card. She told me that the outside door entrance closest to my room was locked, and she couldn't open it, which meant I had to go get my suitcases and walk back in the front door even though it was pouring rain. When I got to the room, none of the available outlets worked, nor did the main lamp on the desk. And to top it off, there were some questionable stains I noticed on the bathroom door.

After this less-than-stellar stay, what do you suppose my response to the front desk clerk when she asked me the next morning, "So how was your stay?"
You guessed it. "It was fine."

Later in the day, I began wondering why I had given such an obviously dishonest answer to the young lady who asked me the question. The answers I came up would probably be some of the same reasons you would come up if you had been in the same situation. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, nor did I want to point out things that I no longer cared about (since I was on my out). In addition, I was afraid that the clerk would become defensive, and I might risk getting my feelings hurt or, at the very least, be forced to have an uncomfortable conversation.

My apprehension about having that kind of conversation with the hotel clerk has direct applications to college coaches. Why? Because many of you are replaying that same scenario with your prospects during their campus visits on a very regular basis.
They are very polite, even if they just had a bad experience.

They are noticing the little things while they are on campus - both good and bad.
They will notice when you or your current athletes are rude, or fail to meet their expectations.

Sound scary? It is. In our work with college athletic departments around the country, it is safe to say that mistakes made during the campus visit are the top reason their prospects walk away - politely - from you and your program.

Want to prevent that from happening? Here are some strong recommendations for ensuring that your upcoming campus visits end on a high note:

HOPE FOR THE BEST, PLAN FOR THE WORST. I recommend that coaches take what I call a "defensive posture" when it comes to hosting campus visits. This means that you should look for things on your campus - your "non-working plugs and lamps" - that need to be fixed. Plan, plan, plan. Come up with an organized plan to make sure visiting athletes have an incredible experience while they are on your home turf.

TRAIN YOUR STUDENT-ATHLETES. We ask them what they would recommend changing about their school's campus visit when we conduct training and research for athletic directors and college coaches, and you can too. Get their input, and then train them to execute an effective, friendly, professional campus visit for your guests.

ASK THEM HOW THEIR STAY WAS. However, go one step further than the girl at the front desk did with me: When those teenage prospects inevitably say, "oh, it was fine" make sure you dig a little deeper. Ask them things like, "If you had to give me one part that we could make better for you the next time, what would it be?" Or, try asking "What would you say the best part of the visit was?" In either case, you'll get two important pieces of recruiting information: How to improve your campus visit the next time around, and also how they are feeling about their visit to your school.

Be bold, and ask questions that give you real information. Your prospects want to talk about their visit, but won't do it on their own. Just like me when I walked out saying "fine" after a miserable stay in a mediocre hotel...a hotel that isn't going to get my business in the future, and won't get the valuable customer feedback that would have helped them fix the problems in the future.

Don't be a coach that puts yourself in that position.