Mark
Huddleston, President of the University of New Hampshire gave a
speech to the University recently. In it he said “The first thing we
should not do is
It seems to
be a common sentiment on too many campuses that we cannot treat students as customers.
This belief is probably due to a basic misunderstanding of student as customer or
for that matter what an academic customer is anyhow. Academics somehow think
that a student being a customer is somehow a negative consideration when it is
not. They somehow mix up that old canard about the customer is always right
with the reality of what an academic customer is. They somehow believe that if
they think of a student as a customer they will lower their standards, or have
to give out higher grades or coddle students. That if they accept student as customer
they will somehow be involved in a business which education is not. It isn’t?
None of
this is correct. Except the business part because colleges and universities are
businesses after all so they cannot become what they already are. Use any of
the terms we do employ to obfuscate the truth but we are businesses. Professional
service businesses. What we call recruiting is actually sales. Bursar, billing
and collections and so on. We have budgets, revenue streams, employees,
payrolls, benefits, some even have unions, all parts of business functioning. What
we do in the classroom is providing professional services to a group of clients,
just another word for customers which is also what the term students is for our
business.
We are
professional service providers similar to other professional service providers
like doctors, surgeons, lawyers, CPAs and so on. They all provide a service to
a patient, a client, a customer by any other name. And they all recognize that
they are involved in a business as well as a practice for example. They know
they must bring in revenue to pay bills so they can continue providing that
service. Just as we have to bring in tuition revenue so we can provide educational
service sot our clients.
We expect
good customer service from other professionals as well as skill from a doctor
or lawyer. We wouldn’t go to a lawyer who gave great welcome and service but
did not win cases. Nor do we continue to go to a doctor who might be good technically
but is a miserable person to patients. We may go to them once but will find
someone else to take care of our professional medical needs if they do not
combine good service with good practice. When we go to a professional for assistance we are their clients, their customers
and we are very aware we are paying for the services we receive. Paying does
not alter the professional relationship. It does not make the doctor or lawyer less
valuable. It does not diminish their professionalism or have them coddle you.
What it does
do is create a relationship in which the professional is required to be very knowledgeable,
thorough, extremely capable, and honest as well as provide the services for
which you paid. The exchange of money just solidifies the customer-professional
relationship. It is a payment in recognition of the professional skills and
ability of the service provider. It does not degrade it. It makes it clear that
the service provider is a professional whom you need to respect and listen to
or you will not do well. If for example a doctor tells you to lower your cholesterol
counts by exercise and eating less fatty foods and you don’t do that, it is you
who fail the next physical exam; not the doctor. If the blood tests show the
wrong levels of cholesterol, the doctor cannot change the test results and give
the patient a better result. All she can
do is tell the patient that he failed in the nicest way possible and try to
help him do better next time. If the patient does not listen, it is the patient’s
fault just as when my doctor tells me to exercise and lose weight. I know when
I don’t I was the one who was wrong, not the doctor and she cannot change the
reading on the scale.
A patient can
tell a doctor that “I pay your salary” all he or she wants but it will not
change the blood test or the diagnosis. All the patient/customer relationship
requires is that the doctor be fully professional, technically and personally
skilled to give the best diagnosis possible. Next tell the patient the results
using the best bedside manner she can and then tell him what he has to do to
get a better report in the future.
This is the
same as when a professor tells a student to study what was presented in class
and the student chooses not to do so. The test scores are the results and they
cannot simply be changed to make the student feel better though some think that
student as customer means they will have to change grades to keep students
happy. What the professor owes to the
student is honest grading of the work and a willing ness to discuss what went
wrong as well as what to do to do better next time .
A doctor,
lawyer or other professional service provider is judged on two things. First,
how well she knows her area and can practice with that knowledge. Second, how
well she treats her patient/client. The patient evaluates the doctor on three
meaningful points, Did she diagnosis the problem well and cure me? And was I treated
with respect as well as kindness. If one of them is lacking, the customer will
go looking for another doctor. The first condition is obvious. If a doctor does
not know her area well, she will not keep patients. But if she treats people
poorly she will not keep patients and actually open herself up to a malpractice
suit as found in the
research of Alice Burkin. Burkin found that patients who felt they were
not treated well are more likely to sue the doctor for malpractice. Moreover,
the doctor who does not have a good “bedside manner” is more likely to lose a
malpractice suit. So good client/customer service is important in this and
other professional service provider areas.
The third parameter
of the doctor patient relationship is trust. If the doctor is able to develop a
association in which the patient believes the doctor is both competent and
caring the trust in the professional is established. But if the doctor seems
competent but not caring trust is not developed,. This is similar to the relationship
in a classroom. If students believe the
professor knows his stuff but is not empathetic to their needs, the bonds of
trust are not developed. As we know from the
research into what students use to judge a good professor in the classroom,
empathy is an important factor in their judgment.
A professor
way must be fully knowledgeable in her field and be able to present that in a
manner that conveys the information to students. She must be skillful in her teaching
style and manner. A teacher is no more responsible for a poor grade of she
meets the two above professional requirements than doctor is responsible for an
unhappy diagnosis. What both are called on to do to treat the patient/student
as a customer is to provide the best professional assistance to help make the
patient healthier, the student more knowledgeable and do so in a professional
and humane manner.
Students
report that when they do not do well but feel they have been treated with
respect they are more likely to accept the lower grade and place blame on themselves.
But in a class they did not do well in and the professor taught like Dr. Kingfield
from the 1973 movie The
Paper Chase, they placed almost all the blame for a poor grade on the professor.
This situation is reflected in student evaluations also.
And student
as customer? Well they fit the basic definition of a customer; a person who
exchanges money or something of value for goods or services. Our customers exchange tuition and fees money
to obtain the services of the university that range from parking to
teaching. They pay to go to school. They
pay for what goes on in the classroom as well as out of it. They are customers even
if we do not want to recognize it.
Treating students
as customers is not the same at all as how a customer may be treated in a
retail or hospitality setting for
example. There the customer is to have his or her wishes served so he will buy
something or leave a good tip and come back. The customer pays at the end of the
service. But in a professional association, the customer usually pays up front
thereby changing the relationship. The service provider is not working to
please the customer to make a sale or get a bigger tip because the money has
already passed hands. The service provider is trying to meet the expectations
and needs the customer paid to have met. Ina medical relationship, the expectation
is an accurate diagnosis or operation. For a lawyer it is to win in a case. For
an accountant, balancing the books. For a teacher, providing the learning and
skill development the course promised.
So treating
students as customers does not really alter the basic relationship of professor
to student. What it does is require that the professor knows his stuff, can
deliver the information and skill development promised in an effective
professional manner. It also calls on the professor to do so in a manner that
engages and makes the student feel she is important. And finally it is all done
in a professional manner that treats the student as a valued individual. It does require also that the student be assisted
and helped to learn just as a doctor/patient relationship calls on the doctor
to explain the diagnosis and treatment prescribed. And just like doctors, lawyers
and all other professionals, it means that office hours are kept and extra
consultation be provided when needed.
Seeing
students as customers does not mean coddling them or inflating grades. Not at all.
Just as a doctor cannot exercise for me or change the results of that blood
test neither can a professor remove the rigors of meeting assignments or change
grades to make students happy. If a doctor tells me to do something and I don’t
that is my fault; note hers. By the way, if a professor feels the
administration is pushing her to make the course easy or give higher grades
that is not because of seeing the student as a customer. It is because the
administration is not doing its job properly or perhaps doing it unethically.
Seeing students
as customer just means that we have to meet their expectations in the classroom
and at the college. That we teach at the highest level possible with a
professional demeanor and skills. It means that we treat students with courtesy
and dignity. It also means that we do all we can to help them gain the
education and skills that they paid for. Treating students as customer means
that we have to provide them with a full
return on their investment with them working as partners in their
education. It means treating them as you would want your son, your daughter,
your mother or father to be treated. Nothing more or less.
Treating
students as customer says we should deliver a superior educational, social and
personal experience for every student. So I ask, what is so wrong with seeing students
as customers? I should think that actually we should think of them as our
professional customers or clients. it seems to me that would elevate what we
do, not lessen it.
NRaisman & Associates has been providing customer service,retention/enrollment training, research and solutions to colleges and universities 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 on customer service and
retention. NRaisman & 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
info@GreatServiceMatters.com
413.29.6939
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