I did not write
an article last week because my mind was not on customer service as much as
another issue. I was thinking of kidney donations because…well, I need one. I
have end stage kidney failure and will either need to find a person willing to
be a donor or go on dialysis. If I have to go on dialysis I will have to stop
working because I will not be able to travel easily to help colleges and universities.
I am actively seeking a donor and that has been taking my time. But back to customer
service as I hope for someone to step forward and offer the gift of life.
Communication and Breaking Down Silos
Many of the
causes for poor customer service at an institution can be resolved in part
through better communication. This is an issue for all academic institutions.
As colleges and universities have grown and become more complex, we tend to
know less of what others do, are doing and plan to do. We also have fewer
chances to interact and learn since our jobs become busier and more demanding
just as the need to integrate and share information becomes greater.
Moreover,
technology, especially email, makes us all believe we are communicating when we
send a message through technology. We generally are not communicating since we
end up with a flood of emails and discriminating which we should read becomes
difficult. Most people do not read most emails and eliminate or ignore many
they should read. But since we believe that by sending an email we have
completed a communication, we do not get up from our desks and actually
interact. No need to. I just mailed it.
Additionally,
as the work becomes more demanding, we focus on what we need to get done and
may lose sight of the flow of functions across offices, Our focus is on my area
and its work. So we end up making decisions to assure they affect our area best
without regard, or at least enough regard, for other areas.
Liege Lords of Higher Education
It is
often the case that as long as things appear to be going okay and there are no
obvious problems or calamities, those in the chain of command are busy enough
themselves to not rock the boat. They leave things and people to do their work
in isolation since that is easier. This leads to what are called “silos” in the
business literature. In higher education, offices and people in some schools
have been left alone to follow their own initiative enough that they don’t live
in silos but in a castle. Many even have metaphorical or institutionalized
moats made out of procedures, paperwork and technology they chose without
regard for integrating it with the rest of the MIS system. The directors or
managers of the area becomes like a liege lords with a show of loyalty to the
school or president but will rule their land as they wish.
Presidents
often have to manage and accommodate their lords and ladies so they don’t rebel
and lead a revolt. Presidents hate rebellions. Weakness on the part of the
president makes the office and division lords stronger yet. And worse for
customer service considerations, to keep the castle free from disturbances,
some offices take the meanest dog in the office and make it the receptionist to
scare of intruders, i.e. students and colleagues.
At
many colleges and universities there are some very strong liege lords. They
take care of their operation in a way that suits them best. They may make
decisions that will meet their own objectives without regard for the colleagues
and offices that their work is “handed off to”. They may also make decisions
that please their office more than the customers since castles are essentially
focused within the walls in which they exist. Customers, students in
particular, become seen as an interruption or a nuisance. Colleagues might have
to be tended to differently because one lord might need an alliance to defend
against a proclamation that might force changes or some loss of control.
The Castle and Their Keep(aways)
This an
administrator’s castle is MY home can often be seen in the physical layout
of offices. The offices are set up to accommodate the workers while the
customer is provided very little, and often inconvenient space for a proper
reception or interaction with staff. One of the best examples of the physical
castle with moat can be found in most bursar offices. There is a physical wall
between the staff and customer. This wall is made to look strong and heavy. The
wall is interrupted by thick, very thick solid sheets of glass that may be
broken only by small round holes or perhaps a slot at the bottom. Customers are
forced to speak through the holes or slots sort of like prisoners in a lock-up.
But this is really more of a lock-in and lock you out.
Bursars
will tell you that they need the protection in case someone tried to rob them.
There is money back there after all. The thick bulletproof glass would keep the
people in the office safe. Okay. But what about the customers in the hall? All
the situation does is place them in greater danger. What would stop a robber
from grabbing students or colleagues, holding the gun on them and demanding
money for their safety? Well, but we inside are safe!
Perhaps
I am wrong here but it seems that placing a student into a position in which he
or she can be held hostage or even harmed on campus may not be viewed as good
customer service.
The
fortified walls and all are really just to show the importance of the people
in- side and protect them from the customers who might want to actually get
better service. Even banks have done away with the thick glass and all because
it was getting in the way of being able to provide better customer service.
From being able to try to form a mini-momentary community of two with the
customer. From being able to engage the customer better. But offices that are
set up for the staff do not want to engage. They wish to disengage.
Customers
are often made to wait for a break in the staff’s activity to even be
recognized. Receptionists or people who may be positioned in a reception
location seldom look up to greet and welcome a customer or visitor to the
office. Greetings are peremptory, even curt at times as if purposely conveying
that the person is inconveniencing them. This makes students feel unwanted,
unappreciated and even angry. As one student stated, “they don’t seem to care
or give a @#$% that I am paying their salary.” A sure statement of someone who
has experienced staff indifference and poor service-two major factors in
attrition.
Furthermore,
some offices do not provide colleagues in other offices with what they need to
do their jobs well. Schedules for accomplishing tasks may not jive. Information
requested from students as part of the process may not be what is needed later
in another office so students are often asked for more or even the same
information if it is not shared. One office may not be able to complete
required paperwork if the previous functional area has not completed its work
so a student can enroll or pay a bill
Finally,
with people living in their own fiefdoms, not knowing what another office does
or who does it, students are forced to engage in a continuous shuffle from one
office to another as they try to accomplish a required or wanted task. The shuffle
or the run around seems to be a constant of student life at every college
and university. Students report at every school that they are almost always
sent to at least three offices when trying to get a simple task done. The
offices may also be in the academic areas it should be noted since there is an
apparent divide between the academic and non-academic silos.
Starting the Siege to Tear Castles Down
Begin
by setting consistent institutional customer service standards on simple things
such as proper telephone and personal greeting, time in which all emails and
voice mails should be responded to, time to recognizing a visitor to an office,
physical structures, reception areas, etc. Then create a functional workflow
process and diagram that integrates all offices around the needs of students
and one another.
For
example, one diagram should follow a student from application through to
showing up on first day of classes. Every step in the process should be charted
and a responsibility center indicated. Dates by which the work needs to be
accomplished for smooth integration with the next office should be noted. Any
paperwork needed should be indicated and by whom it needs to be received as
well as if information on it needs to go to another office. Review all forms to
make sure they integrate material and assist not only the originating office
but the next one. And be certain they are really needed or are we just making
students and families do extra work so we can have our personal form?
Finally,
students, the customers must always come first. Make sure that every step is
streamlined to require the least amount of time and effort for the student and
the family first. Second, that every step is needed and in compliance. Third,
that every step is understood and integrated by all other offices and people
involved. Fourth, whenever possible all material, forms, information and data
should be entered into a single, integrated MIS. This could also allow for
increased customer service by letting the system pre-fill all and any areas on
forms such as name, address, etc that a student might have to complete. Any
time we can remove additional repetitive work for a customer, the happier they
will be. This can also be accomplished for colleagues if the information is in
an integrative data base.
Workflow
diagrams can be made for any and all processes that need to be accomplished in
the administration of the school and students. Creating them will bring people
together into teams. Force them to work together. Help them learn what others
do. And perhaps, start taking chunks out of the walls of the silos so people
can start to gain a larger integrated vision of the college.
FAQ User Sheets and School User Manuals
Schools
may also wish to consider putting together FAQ sheets of the most frequent
student issues or questions in each office. Ask the people who work in each
office to compile a list of the most common student concerns or questions as
well as the common ones that are asked but do not apply to their office. Once
compiled, these can be turned into an indexed School User Manual (Our
University for Non-Dummies?) that students and employees could access to find
answers to their questions. These could be used also to find answers to issues
or needs students have but may not be specific to the office. In turn, the
manual would provide people in each office with information to know the answers
to many common student questions so they could direct students to the correct
location for an answer. A user manual could also be the basis for giving people
the information needed to end the shuffle.
Moreover,
all these efforts can start to tear down walls caused by lack of communication.
Interaction is the best way to get people to learn about and know who one
another is and what they do. As a result, this can and will improve
performance, satisfaction and service to one another and students.
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