Friday, May 31, 2013

What is Collegiate Customer Service and Hospitality?

I have just about finished editing a new book on academic customer service excellence to be entitled Collegiate Customer Service from A to G: Admissions to Graduation.  It should be ready to go to the printers in about a month. But I decided to do something perhaps unheard of. I am going to release the book chapter by chapter on this blog. Each chapter will be a blog posting until the entire book is up for you. It may cut into sales but I hope it shows a commitment here to provide great service to my readers.  
Here is Chapter 1.
Oh yes, comments and edits are more than welcome at Nealr@GreatServiceMatters.com.



The educational world has certainly changed. There are more women than men in higher education. Students of color and ethnicity are the fastest growing demographic segment. Adults in college represent more than 40% of the total college population. There are many more schools now. Community colleges and career colleges enroll 50% and more of all students in higher education. The proprietary sector has gone from cosmetology and truck driving to PhD’s.  Correspondence schools on match books have become omnipresent, study anywhere, anytime on-line, enrolling machines. MOOCs are changing the entire landscape of higher education. Competition for students is intense and admission departments are feeling the stress. As are the budgets of colleges, universities and career schools that have had to make difficult decisions to try and balance the budget when they do not “make their numbers”.

And yet, not enough of higher education has really adapted to the changes. It is still “admissions, admissions and again admissions”. Not retention and completion. Bring them in. Enroll more and more new bodies.  Or as one overly pragmatic administrator is alleged to have said at University of Phoenix “Get asses in the classes.  That’s the goal”. And it is certain that though this person may have been caught saying this hundreds of others simply were not reported when they also made that or a similar statement. Recruitment and admissions are still seen as the key to the major aspect of operating revenue.

 I recall quite well the proclamation of the CEO of one of the large career college groups. “There isn’t a problem that exists that can’t be fixed by enrolling more students.” He was speaking not just for his proprietary group but for most every not-for-profit, for-profits, public and private college and university in the country.

The on-going and most frequent discussions in campus business meetings and with trustees still focus on “What’s our budget target? How many did we admit? How many have committed to the next freshman class? How many have put down their deposits? How many do we figure will actually show?” Strategic enrollment and revenue planning tend to be summed up with “we may have a budget problem for next year.” Increase tuition and enroll more students! has become the normative approach at most colleges and universities.

And when schools lose students during the school year the question starts with the wrong question. Too often the issue raised is “what did we budget for attrition?” Not “why did we lose these students?”

The question on how many losses we budgeted is followed by the response “It’s okay. We planned for 34% drops in the budget. As long as we don’t lose more than we budgeted for we’ll be okay.”

That is a dumb business model. Of course any business, including higher education, has to figure in customer/client defection and loss of market share. But planning to lose upwards of a third of all the customers and all the costs associated with acquiring them each and every year is a confident way of making sure the institution is always running a tight budget. A self-fulfilling profligacy if you will.

A key factor to retaining population from first day of classes through graduation to grow revenue and operating success is not in admitting students, but in keeping them.  It can be understood that in the days of “look to your left and look to your right” retaining too many students might have been considered a sign of a weak academic program. Being tough and flunking out students was a show of rigor after all as well as not having chosen the right students to begin with.

It was also a time of much smaller operating costs and budgets.  Presidential salaries were not in the up-to a million dollars and more level. Faculty lived on the love of learning and free summers. Research was something that a professional just did not what drove costs and schools. Health costs were affordable and so on. Who talked about retention through to graduation as an important aspect of a college?  But today, in the world of ever-increasing salaries, health care costs, debt service, fixed costs, technology and equipment acquisition alongside decreasing public support, and an extremely competitive enrollment market, how can people not think of retention? Yet, they manage not to.

Retention through graduation is where the real revenue is created.  Admissions costs money – significant amounts of money. Retaining students/clients costs from nothing to very little. Retaining students through graduation is also how colleges and universities meet their higher calling, their missions, their purpose and reason to exist and to be supported. Students and learning are still the key publicly conceived rationale for higher education. Granted the old saying “this would be a great place to work if it weren’t for the students” is still out there unfortunately. But without the students, undergraduates primarily, there would be no place for those who actually say or believe the students are the problem to work. The general population supports higher education because it believes college prepares students for the economy, for society, and for life.

A college, university or career college will retain students providing it receives the revenue and loyalty it needs to be able to perform and meet its mission through a similar customer service focus. And the most important customer service is meeting student expectations that they will be prepared to graduate, get a good job and meet the goals they have set. If a school does that, it will succeed.

It is important for schools to make the shift now from an admissions-concentration to an admissions, retention and graduation focus; from churn and burn to learn and earn. From keep them coming in and if they leave replace them to admit and work with students so they succeed in their endeavors and stay in school.  A more balanced learn and earn approach will also allow the college to retain the revenues it needs to succeed, meet the mission and grow. But these are not the surface or commercial issues that one might read about in any of the business books that discuss one or another “way” or method that will help a store sell more widgets or market more business services.  What is under discussion is customer service that is appropriate to the unique enclaves we know as colleges, universities. A customer service that recognizes that our clients/customers are not at the school for a unitary single purchase event such as buying a pair of shoes, but to learn and grow so they can obtain the career and future they seek for themselves.  It is a customer service that is not expressed in a set phrase such as “Hi, I’m Dr. Brown.  I will be your professor today. Can I start you off with an intellectual appetizer?” 

It is a customer service more akin to the relationship of a doctor and patient. The patient realizes that he or she needs assistance to get healthier and stronger. The patient thus recognizes weaknesses that will need attention and even correction. He must also be willing to follow the directions and course of action the doctor prescribes.  The patient is also to take the prescribed actions at the time the doctor says to and complete any and all additional assigned prescriptions or therapy conscientiously. The patient is also expected to make it to all appointments and be prepared to review the time between meetings when requested so the doctor can understand progress or lack of it. This is so the patient can pass all the medical tests and receive a good report.

On the other hand, the patient places very important items in the keeping of the doctor – body, soul and a healthy future.  The doctor is required to let the patient know what is needed even if the remedy calls for discipline, hard effort and following instructions until the full course of treatment is completed. The doctor must be honest and conscientious in all she does but that does not exclude the patient’s demand that she do so while using a personal, polite and respectful approach (no matter how popular House, MD was on TV).  The doctor is also called upon to provide the most up-to-date remedies available; old, outdated prescriptions, treatments and approaches won’t do. And the doctor is expected to be available for extra care, consultation and appointments if the patient has questions, having trouble or simply needs assurance or additional discussion of the remedy.

Further, the patient does expect that his or her needs will be met and that includes a friendly acknowledgement from the receptionist, nurses, and the doctor herself. Patients all want to believe they are important enough for the doctor to smile at and remember their name and medical chart without having to read through the chart each time. And he does not want to have to wait too long to be able to see the doctor.  He believes his time is as important as the doctor’s and just because insurance is covering some of the cost does not mean he is any less important.  After all, the doctor is making what appears to be a good living from the money received from the patient.

Finally, the patient really believes he is coming to the doctor to get better and stronger so he can achieve his goals in life.  If at any time the patient believes that the doctor is not focused enough on his goals, does not really care about him or does not see that he is getting better, he will look for a second opinion and a new doctor.

A doctor builds a solid practice with a long list of loyal patients that provides her a very good income if she fulfills all the customer service expectations above. And most importantly if she makes patients better so they live the healthy productive lives they seek her practice grows.

A college is like a very large medical practice or a hospital in that students expect the same from the professors, the staff and administrators that a patient at a hospital does. Good service, professional treatment and the appropriate course of services to strengthen them in body and mind. Students are our patients. 



The University of Toledo was able to really get its customer excellence focused after Dr. Raisman and his team performed a full campus service excellence audit of the University. Dr. Raisman’s team came on campus for a week and identified every area we could improve and where we are doing well. The extensive and detailed report will form a blueprint for greater customer service excellence at the University that will make us an even better place for students to attend, study and succeed. Thank you, Dr. Raisman, for doing a great job. We unreservedly recommend his customer service audits to any school looking to improve customer service, retention and graduation rates.    
Iaon Duca, University of Toledo

The report generated from the full campus customer service audit that N.Raisman & Associates did for our college provided information from an external reviewer that raised awareness toward customer service and front end processes.  From this audit and report, Broward College has included in its strategic plan strategies that include process mapping.  Since financial aid was designed as the department with the most customer service challenges that department has undergone process mapping related to how these process serve or do not serve students optimally.  It has been transformational and has prompted a process remap of how aid is processed for new and continuing students.                            
Angelia Millender, Broward College (FL)


If this piece had value for you, you will want to get a copy of The Power of Retention by clicking here NOW while reading this new book here at the blog.

IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SUBSCRIBED, SUBSCRIBE NOW AT NO FEE TO YOU. TELL OTHERS WHO CARE ABOUT ACADEMIC CUSTOMER SERVICE, RETENTION AND STUDENTS TO SUBSCRIBE TOO.




Monday, May 27, 2013

A Tale of Bad and Good Academic Customer Service



A student was having a bad day. Nothing seemed to be going right. He had not done well on a quiz even though he had read the material. He had not understood the work in algebra and the teacher said she was too busy to help him right now.  His roommate had kept him up all night by playing cds too loud as he pulled an all nighter. His girlfriend back home had not written in a few days. He found out that a course he thought he had dropped by not attending the class was still on his bill because he had not really dropped it. So he had to finds out what to do now about the course because he was still being billed for it and today was the last day to pay before he would get hit with a late payment fee.

He went to the billing office to drop the course but was told that this was the wrong spot to start the process. He needed to go to the registrar’s office to drop a course he was told.

So off he went across campus to the registrar’s office in a different building. There they told him they could not help him. He had to get a sheet signed by his advisor before he could do anything else. So he went to see his advisor.

When he got there he was told he needed to make an appointment to see his advisor. The advisor would not see anyone without an appointment. He could see into the advisor’s office and noticed that the advisor was there and no one was with him. When he pointed this out to the receptionist he was told that the advisor had someone coming in in ten minutes and could not see him now. Make an appointment. And go online or back to the registrar’s office to get the form he would need to get signed. And by the way, before the advisor could sign off he needed to get the signature of the professor in the class first.
So he went back to the library where he could print off the form after paying ten cents for printing the page. He found the form after searching the school’s web for five frustrating minutes and printed it off after swiping his student card to pay the ten cents for the copy.

Then he went to the building where he thought the professor for the course might be found. He kept searching the halls for a list of people and the office numbers of their offices but could not find any. He did find the departmental office and went in. The receptionist was doing something at her desk so he stood in front of the counter for about two minutes before she finally said “yes. What can I do for you?”

He asked where professor’s office was and he was told the office number. He climbed the stairs to the office two floors up because the elevator was reserved for staff and faculty. When he finally came to the professor’s office. The door was locked. Apparently no one was there even though the time was listed as being an office hour.

He was devastated.  And he skunk down the stairs and out the door. He was shaking his head in total frustration and feeling like he would want to cry if he weren’t a guy when a woman was walking up the stairs to the building he had just left.

“Hi. How are you?” she said. (She had learned to say hello to all students and inquire as to how they are at a customer service workshop we gave...)

“Miserable” he replied. And she stopped and asked him why. He told her of the run around he got as he was shuffled from office to office and how people just weren’t welcoming to him and his problem. H told her also how he was having trouble in algebra and maybe he should just drop out of the school.

“That’s not good” she said. “Come with me and let me see if I can help.” And she took him to the departmental office where she walked into the assistant dean’s office and offered him a chair.

“Okay, so what are you trying to accomplish?” she asked. When he told her he was trying to drop a course she nodded.

“I’m sorry you have had so much trouble. Let me see what I can do to help you. Do you have the add/drop form?”
He handed it to her. “And the name of the professor who has to sign it?” He told her. She picked up the phone and dialed a number. “Hi Fred. This is Marylin. I am sitting her with a young man who said he came to your office but the door was locked. Are you available? Uhuh. The paper has to be emailed in to them by four o’clock today. I see. Well, he needs your signature on an add drop form… Yes I know that is ridiculous but that is the system…Tell you what. Do I have your permission to sign the form for you? Great. Thanks. Good luck with the article.”

She then signed the form. “Now who is your advisor?”  He told her and she picked up the phone again.  “Hi this is the assistant dean calling with a student who needs to see his advisor today since he needs to drop a course today so he won’t get hit with a late payment fee. Uhuh. Yes I am sure he is busy but I would think that he would have thirty seconds to sign a form. Right. Great. I’ll send him right over.”

“Go back to your advisor and he will sign the form right now. When you get that done, come back here and we will take care of the rest of the situation.”

He went to the advisor who “squeezed him in” and signed the form in about five seconds flat.  Then he went back to the assistant dean’s office.

“While you were gone I took the liberty of looking up your records. I see that when you drop this course you will still have enough credits to stay a full time student. That is important because if you dropped below a certain credit level you would not be a full time student and that would have some financial aid implications. As it is you will be at the same level so don’t have to see financial aid about adjusting your grant. You might have had to give some money back if you ended up a part-time student.

I also called over to the registrar’s office spoke to a lovely woman named Julie. She is waiting for you to come back to the office and will take care of you. So just go to the registrar’s office, introduce yourself and ask for Julie. I hope that helps out. She will take it from there.”

So he left the office and went to the registrar’s office where he introduced himself to the person behind the counter who went and got Julie for him. Julie came and took the form and entered the information into the computer

“Okay, now that is done. I’m going to take you to the billing office now so you can have your bill adjusted and made right for you.” And with that she came out from behind the counter and lead him out of the building to the next one over and up to the cashier’s window where she introduced herself. ”Hi I’m Julie from the registrar’s office. I just called a little while ago about a student who needed to get his bill adjusted after dropping a class.”

“Oh yes. I spoke to you. Is this the young man?”

“Yes it is.” And he stepped up to the window where he gave his student number. The cashier’ typed some information into the computer and told him his bill was adjusted. He could not now pay it on line right there in the office art the row of computers for student billing use.

He finally walked away happy.

Now this is a fable. It did not happen this way though it could have. The assistant dean did the right thing as did Julie. Yes they spent some time helping the student which is the right thing to do. And Julie actually left her office to help him. That was the right thing to do also.

But the student never should have had to go through this at all.  The process of dropping a course should be a student initiated and completed one. In all the campus audits and reviews of advising that we have done, we have found that at best advisors just sign the document where it is required and really do not advise the students at all.  What the teacher has to sign is anyone’s guess but I am sure it once had a good reason.

The student does need some counseling on the effect the change might have on his or her financial aid if it causes a drop to part-time status but that can be accomplished in part by a warning that comes up on the computer when the student goes to drop a course. A pop-up could warn the student that he should see financial aid to assess the effect the drop has on the full time status. If the student decides not to bother to get financial aid counseling then that is his choice and consequence.

But the most important part of this tale is the help that is finally given. That is the way things should be done


If this article has value for you, you'll want to get a copy of the best-selling book The Power of Retention by clicking here.

N.Raisman & Associates has been providing customer service, retention, enrollment and research training and solutions to colleges, universities and career colleges in the US, Canada, and Europe as well as to businesses that seek to work with them since 1999. Clients range from small rural schools to major urban universities and corporations. Its services range from campus customer service audits, workshops, training, presentations, institutional studies and surveys to research on customer service and retention. N.Raisman & Associates prides itself on its record of success for its clients and students who are aided through the firm’s services. www.GreatServiceMatters.com
info@GreatServiceMatters.com 
413.219.6939






Monday, May 20, 2013

Websites Hide Presidents from Customers



Websites hide presidents. 

We have gone to 100 college and university websites
chosen at random and only eleven of them let the viewer find the president’s email address. Why is that? Why can’t a web visitor get in touch with the president of the college?

Answer is easy. Because the president does not want them to.


He or she does not want to hear from students and parents. The presidents just must think they are too busy to be bothered by students – by their primary customers. This is simply wrong.

People actually believe presidents are important. Here I am talking about students and the parents who think presidents are important. We already know that too many college presidents think they are very important. Too important to deal with students and their issues?

The president is the person that many people think they need to contact when they are having a problem. A problem getting something solved at a college or university? Hard to believe! Shuffle anyone?

The customers want to be able to take their issue to where they believe it can get taken care of so the websites make sure they cannot get to the president but not providing information on how to contact him or her.

The websites may have a president’s page but there is not link there to be able to email to the president and tell her how inspiring her message was. Only two of the presidents’ pages had a live email link to the president. Interestingly enough when we tried the two links, one bounced saying the email address did not exist.

When we went to the college and university directories the president’s name and address were not there. (Campus directories are another issue. Finding the directories and the difficulty of using many of them when located made the almost useless at times.) When we put the word president in the search boxes, we got all sorts of listings about the president but not one brought up how to contact him or her.

Customers often want to be able to talk to the person in charge when there is a problem and we make sure they cannot do that unless they go to the president’s office in person. And when they finally do get there, they are more upset than they would have been if they could have emailed. This finally takes more of the president’s time if she sees the student. If she does not it really creates and angry student and bad customer service.

There are two ways to solve this problem. One is to list the email address on the site. Realizing that many presidents are actually busy we recommend that a separate mailbox be set up for students and parents to email the president. That way the emails can be isolated when the hundreds of pointless emails the president gets every day from people on campus who want him or her to know they are doing their job.  If the mailbox is separated from the daily work box, it would be possible to assign an assistant to answer the emails that come in. This would be a good use of an assistant. The students and parents would be served and the president would still not have to deal with the emails. Of course it would be better if the president answered her own emails but I do realize that there are definitely days when that cannot be done.

The second way to take care of emails from students and parents would be to actually have people take care of issues so they don’t rise up to the presidential level. This is the better idea. Make sure people are trained in good academic customer service, know their area of work and are empowered to take care of issues. Give people the training they need to deal with students successfully so their problems are resolved at the lowest level possible. Then have them to do their jobs. Trust them to do what is right once they have been trained in what and how to do what is right. This would cut down very drastically on the need for students or parents to want to contact the president other to say that his or her web page is great.


The University of Toledo was able to really get its customer excellence focused after Dr. Raisman and his team performed a full campus service excellence audit of the University. Dr. Raisman’s team came on campus for a week and identified every area we could improve and where we are doing well. The extensive and detailed report will form a blueprint for greater customer service excellence at the University that will make us an even better place for students to attend, study and succeed. Thank you, Dr. Raisman, for doing a great job. We unreservedly recommend his customer service audits to any school looking to improve customer service, retention and graduation rates.    
Iaon Duca, University of Toledo

The report generated from the full campus customer service audit that N.Raisman & Associates did for our college provided information from an external reviewer that raised awareness toward customer service and front end processes.  From this audit and report, Broward College has included in its strategic plan strategies that include process mapping.  Since financial aid was designed as the department with the most customer service challenges that department has undergone process mapping related to how these process serve or do not serve students optimally.  It has been transformational and has prompted a process remap of how aid is processed for new and continuing students.                            
Angelia Millender, Broward College (FL)


If this piece had value for you, you will want to get a copy of The Power of Retention by clicking here NOW 

IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SUBSCRIBED, SUBSCRIBE NOW AT NO FEE TO YOU. TELL OTHERS WHO CARE ABOUT ACADEMIC CUSTOMER SERVICE, RETENTION AND STUDENTS TO SUBSCRIBE TOO.