There is a direct correlation between cost and expectations
of service. This can be seen in the purchase of a new luxury car versus a used
car for example. Simply put it is expected that the new car will perform better
than the used car. When one spends a lot of money on something it is not just
expected that the product will work well, it is also anticipated that the
services associated with the purchase will be prompt, productive and done well.
The higher the perceived cost of the product the higher the demand for services
and performance on demand.
As college costs have been rising, the expectations of service
have risen with the costs. Now that students are paying much more for an education,
training and preparation for the future, they expect that the “product” will be
good and they believe it is. Only
1% said they left a college due to poor or weak educational quality.
They also expect increased service with increased cost. To
them they are buying that new luxury automobile and expect that when there is a
service issue it will be taken care of immediately. They
are innately impatient and that has increased with tuition and fees as
well. They have little patience now and will not accept the slow processes that
we still cling to. Moreover they live in the golden
age of rudeness. They expect what they want when they want it and can get
quite outspoken if the service is not provided when asked for.
For example, they do not (nor do I for that matter)
understand how an expedited transcript request can still take days to complete.
As one student said to me recently, “why can’t they just print the damn thing
out right there and then and give it to me? I’m paying a lot of money and need
that transcript now.”
And you know the student is right. He is paying a lot of
money especially to him because he has had to take out loans to go to school
which just increases the demand for service by the way and we should be able to
print out a transcript right then and there. I mean how much work is it to look
up a transcript by student number and print it out for the student. It would only
take an extra few seconds to stamp it too. Or better yet, why not just let the
students print out a PDF of a transcript which is watermarked “unofficial
transcript” from his or her dorm room or home.
They are paying for the service and should get it. This is just
one example of how we could match their demands and there are more but what we
need to realize is that the correlation between cost and demand for immediacy is
not one that we seem to understand. The cost may not seem that high to us but
we are talking about discretionary funds of students who are using them to pay
for school. The cost is a proportion of their available funds as perceived by
the individual student. Cost is in proportion to the individual student and his
or her personal fiscal condition.
That is why we still find that there are high levels of
service demand in lower cost community colleges as well as private schools with
large tuition bills.
The students who attend community colleges are coming from demographic
groups with less money to spend. The
lower tuition at a community college is still a stretch for many of the
students and thus is seen as a high cost. Yes, they know it is cheaper than a
four year school but it is all a matter of proportion of income and available discretionary
funds. It should also be known that as we talk to community college students
even those who are on a free ride from Pell grants and scholarships feel the
cost is high because the expense is not just money but time, effort and hopes.
Time is an expense especially when that time means having to
find someone to take care of the family while the students attends classes.
These lead to an expense of effort which can be high and can actually lead to
added costs not covered by tuition or fees in the school. If a p[aren’t has to
afford the cost of a child cares situation, that is considered by the student to
be a cost of going to school and can lead to their feeling that the school is expensive
so they want what they want when they want it. The costs develop a customer
mindset as one should expect.
We need to find more ways to service students when they
want. They see themselves as customers and they are right about that. We need
to do all we can to make our services equal to the felt cost of attending
college. If we do not they are going to continue to demands more service and
get even more frustrated when we do not provide them in what they see as a
timely manner.
Start by changing your transcript policy and procedure as
discussed above. That will be one giant step forward and will begin to please
student demands that the immediacy of service equal their perceived and actual investment.
If this article made sense to you, you may want to contact N.Raisman & Associates to see how you can improve academic customer service and hospitality to increase student satisfaction and retention.
UMass
Dartmouth invited Dr. Neal Raisman to campus to present on "Service
Excellence in Higher Ed" as a catalyst event used to kick off a service
excellence program. Dr. Neal Raisman presents a very powerful but
simple message about the impact that customer service can have on
retention and the overall success of the university. Participants
embraced his philosophy as was noted with heads nods and hallway
conversations after the session. Not only did he have data to back up
what he was saying, but Dr. Raisman spoke of specific examples based on
his own personal experience working at a college as Dean and
President. Our Leadership Team welcomed the "8 Rules of Customer
Service", showing their eagerness to go to the next step in rolling
Raisman's message out. We could not have been more pleased with his
eye-opening presentation. Sheila Whitaker UMass-Dartmouth
If you want more information on NRaisman& Associates
or to learn more about what you can do to improve academic customer
service excellence on campus, get in touch with us or get a copy of our
best selling book The Power of Retention.
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