Websites hide presidents.
We have gone to 100 college and
university websites
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)
Angelia Millender, Broward College (FL)
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