Parents are not customers?

[Avocadostone]

I have come from a corporate environment into a support role leading other support staff in a new school with a growing positive reputation. Since I started, we as a team we have always focused on ensuring that we deal with parents in a very professional way, I also keep an eye on social media, and when parents are grumbling about something (in number) and we could have done better I follow it up at school. Head has told me that basically he doesn't want me to pander to social media and that parents are not customers, and to paraphrase, it's our school so they can like it or lump it. Unless they email us, I'm to ignore it (unless it's a burning issue). I feel like the rug has been pulled out from beneath me. Is this how most schools see things? I tried to explore with the head how social media is useful and how many people communicate this way, but the Head has a very traditional /fixed view on this. It has really upset me, and I will of course do as instructed, but I've spend most of the weekend wondering if this is right job for me. We never even got to discuss the impact on students through poor /inaccurate comms etc...another example is school events? I asked if we could collate a plan for the year of key school events and was told, no, a couple of months notice is sufficient. It's driving me up the wall. I'm offloading as I guess I either do the same as parents - lump it or like it! I am very near to lumping it!!!

We work in partnership with parents, not for them. We can't please them all the time because often their demands or wishes are unreasonable, along with the timescales. We try to be accommodating but also set boundaries - regular parent drop ins with SLT where any issues can be raised, but insist parents aren't seen without an appointment except in the case of an emergency/serious issue and this works really well. We used to have a culture of parents turning up, shouting and swearing in the reception area but this just doesn't happen anymore! That allows us to prioritise and deal with issues more effectively. I imagine some parents don't like this system but as others have said, whilst their views are important, it's ultimately not about them it's about the kids.
We do use social media but make it clear that it's for sharing information/photos/news only and any enquiries need to go directly via the school. It's a good balance.