In basketball, two common defense setups are
the man-on-man and the zone. In the man on man, each defensive player has a
specific opponent to guard. And the defender stays with that man no matter
where on the court he goes. In the zone defense, the defender works on whatever
player comes into the zone he or she is assigned to.
In customer service, these approaches also
come into play. The man-on-man or woman calls for a service provider to stay
with the customer no matter where he or she roams to. If it is a clothing store
for example, the service provider would go with the customer from say dresses
to blouses to shoes to socks back to shoes to sweaters and back to shoes again.
The provider is usually in a commission situation and does not want to take a
chance of losing out on some commission or credit for the sale.
In schools this is seen most clearly in
admissions. If an admission’s rep starts with a student, he or she will want to
stay with the student to get the credit for the enrollment. The rep may allow
others to assist him or her in closing the sale but will certainly stay on top
of the process. This is because each rep is usually “goaled” with an enrollment
target to hit. Though there is no allowable commission (federal rules) a
person’s position and salary can be influenced by hitting goals or not.
The strength of this approach is that the
student has a face to get to know. That can provide a personal tie to the
school as well as a clear point of service when it is needed. The weakness is
that if the rep is busy or not there, the student ends up as an orphan that no
one else will really accept ownership of. I have seen too many instances when a
student in a man on man service situation ends up sitting around in a lobby
waiting for “his or her” rep to become available. Or worse, the student wanders
about without really getting the help needed.
The zone defense comes into play when a
student goes to an area and whoever is there waits on him or her. To follow our
admissions example, the student sees whoever is there at the time to get the
service he or she needs. Say the student needs to drop off a form. He would be
able to leave it with whoever is there as opposed to having to track down a
specific person who takes that form. This can occur when the admissions
department works as a team toward whatever the goal is and everyone helps one
another because all succeed when an enrollment comes in.
The strength here is that the student will
never be without a rep to help out. That could be good. But the weakness is
that a student may not get to have a single individual that she believes cares
about her personally. That could weaken the personal connection that can be so
important to a student bonding with the school. The zone approach would only
work if an entire admissions department had a common goal and thus saw the
value as a team. Sort of like profit sharing.
But wait what about another approach? Double
teaming. Like in basketball when the other team has a really important player,
the defense often throws two people up against him. Well, every potential
student is a very important player in the school’s success so assign two reps
to each. Each of the two reps shares in the success or failure of that
potential student. That way there is incentive to share the responsibilities.
Further, if one has to cover something else or out of the game then, the other
is there to help the student so he or she is never “open” to non-service.
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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
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