TOWARDS A CUSTOMER DRIVEN
UNIVERSITY – NEW STRATEGIES,
NEW PARADIGM
BEING THE TEXT OF A PAPER PRESENTED
BY
E.A. AGBAJE, Ph.D
DEPUTY REGISTRAR,
ADMINISTRATIVE AND TECHNICAL
STAFF ESTABLISHMENT
OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY,
ILE- IFE, NIGERIA
AT THE MONTHLY SEMINAR FOR
SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE,
PROFESSIONAL AND
TECHNICAL STAFF
ON
TUESDAY, 24TH SEPTEMBER, 2013
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INTRODUCTION
The best and brightest leaders/managers in any organization share one common secret:
They put their customers first. They know that if you take care of your customer,
success will follow. Peter Drucker has succinctly stated that: “There is only one valid
definition of business purpose: to create a customer. He alone gives employment.”
Decades of customer satisfaction research and its more sophisticated successors
(customer relationship management, customer commitment or loyalty), have consistently
on the central rationale: that it pays to understand the needs and wants of customers.
Whoever disregards this important dictum does so at their peril. Thus, loyal customers,
(usually defined as those who have a positive behavioural predisposition towards an
organisation expressed, inter alia, by recommending a company to friends and families
or buying more products or services), are the strongest possible foundation for a
business.
A customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a
good, service, product, or idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier for a
monetary or other valuable consideration (Reizenstein, 2004, Kendall, 2007). Customer
service is series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction –
that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer’s expectation (Turban,
Lee, King, and Chung, 2002). Customer service is performed in most of our educational
institutions today and there are even departments dedicated to providing such services
(e.g. Division of Students Affairs). The fact that institutions of higher education need
students to survive and thrive cannot be overemphasized. Hence, Bejou (2005) has
argued that “the longer these ongoing transactions are satisfactory to both parties, the
longer the relationship will endure, to the benefit of everyone”. To better serve students,
Ewers (2010) has suggested that institutions should expose employees to customer
service training sessions to learn the basics of customer service.
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Customer driven concept is a paradigm shift in business assumptions that recognized
customers as the central figures in business successes and also enable the
organizations to implement important structural changes designed to meet the needs of
their customers – both external and internal. Although customer-driven is a business
concept, research has shown that it could be applied to any field or industry that has
internal or external customers. This paper would explores the need for customerfocused university and suggests practical strategies and tools necessary for building a
customer-driven university.
RATIONALE FOR CUSTOMER-DRIVEN UNIVERSITY
University world-over was set up for a purpose, namely, teaching, research
and services. For all the three major functions performed by the University
are distinct customers, which are however, mutually inclusive. The primary
customer for teaching function is students while customer for research
products and services include students and public - governments, business
and end-users consumers.
The world-class institution of today stands on the shoulders of those who
invests in the quality of its programmes, and could make difficult decisions,
take calculated risks to move institutions forward, even in a difficult time and
profound changes to almost every facet of its works. For our universities to
compare favourably with similar institutions worldwide, there is need for
innovation that would have positive impact on students and the world they
inherit.
Nigerian Universities were reputed for their high quality graduates between
1960 and mid-1980s. But, at present the standard of graduates have fallen
owing to some factors including poor funding, inadequate teaching facilities,
frequent disruption in school calendar leading to their deficiency in skills and
expertise. For our university system to succeed in weathering through the
storm of rapid and complex changes within the environment during the 21st
century, it is essential for its management to build an administrative
infrastructure that could be optimized for excellent service delivery, speed of
work processes, quality assurance, high level of productivity and customer
satisfaction.
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It is therefore important to take step on the ways to move universities to the
next level so that through adoption of international best practices that would
improve the service delivery of both the academia and the administrative and
technical staff in the institutions to their customers.
UNIVERSITY CUSTOMERS AND THEIR EXPECTATIONS
The primary customers of university education are students and their
parents/guardians. Other customers include the Government and their agencies, the
Business world and the public or larger society.
With the rapid growth in population, social problems and emerging knowledge-based
economy, government depends on higher education including universities to transmit
the shared values and knowledge that would shape capable individuals, organized
communities and the larger society. Thus, access to advanced education and
training is critical to the life prospects of citizenry and to the national economy.
Business relies on higher education institutions especially, universities as sources of
getting skilled employees. Business community depends more on a capable, welleducated work force. Hence, individuals preparing to enter that work-force and
workers already in it need higher, more relevant technical knowledge and intellectual
skills to perform excellently well and contribute to the business successes. However,
what business wants from higher education for its workers are the same things that
individuals want from higher education for themselves, their families and their
communities.
Achieving customer service excellence begins with an overview of the industry, and
developing a model for successfully communicating with customers while providing
outstanding service. Managing customer experience is central to success in
business. Through evaluation of the experiences with customers, it might be
necessary to review procedures and policies and transform them into customer
focused ones.
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In the business world, when it comes to excellence, the only opinion that really
matters is the customer’s opinion. This is because it is the customer who decides
where they would buy, how often and whether or not they would recommend you.
However, this may not be totally true for service and not-for-profit organisation like
the university. Nevertheless, all organisations that have customers, need to keep
customers, build market share and improve the performance of the entire workforce
so that they would develop a culture of delivering superior service.
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
There is a widely held concern whether higher education is adequately
meeting the demands for the workforce that comprise talented and wellrounded individuals with an understanding of human experience, a shared
sense of community, contructive values, intellectual curiosity, critical thinking
skills, and the ability to communicate and work with other people. The
employers want people who are hard working and dependable, who writes
and speaks well, who are skilled in mathematics and problem solving, who
are creative and flexible, eager to learn, and able to work in teams. These
individuals are also the hallmarks of employees who make businesses more
competitive and successful.
Universities in Nigeria are often perceived to be more out of touch with their
markets and are failing to meet important needs of their customers. Too
many students have little assurance that what they learn in school would
enable them to secure a good job or perform effectively once employed. Too
many employers have no confidence that a degree represents the skills,
knowledge, and work habits they expect from each employee in order to
remain competitive. Graduates have been found with fundamental
deficiencies in basic skills, social skills and work ethic. They also possesses
outdated or unrealistic knowledge in the specialties for which they were
trained in the University. Most continuing education programmes are also out
of touch with fields of knowledge or unwilling to accommodate the schedules
of working adults. University managers often forget that workplace is
changing across all business sectors and work force quality is the key to
competitive success in business. Access to higher education by those who
are qualified is low and carrying capacity of all universities is yet to be
expanded due to insufficient funding and inadequate infrastructure.
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While some employers seek very talented or specialized new graduates to hire for
responsible entry positions, most prefer experienced candidates which are hard to
get. The lack of graduates that meet high standards for field-specific knowledge
and high standards of proficiency in research, reasoning, problem solving,
mathematics, writing, oral communication and teamwork has led to many
employers placing graduates in low-wage entry jobs and promoting them only after
they have proven themselves.
Nevertheless, the growing demands for higher education, especially university
education should be viewed in a positive perspective as great opportunity to
expand and improve service delivery if government would allow each university to
source for fund without encumbrances and grant them full autonomy.
The overriding principle is for the university system to realize that it must be
market oriented if its efforts to serve job aspirants, businesses, and employees
would be successful. This imply that universities should reach out to the market,
take classes to the customer site, offer flexible hours, understand business
environment, keep up with real-world developments in the courses they do offer,
and engage in consultancy and as a resource industry figures who are
acknowledged experts in their field of study or centre of excellence.
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STRATEGIES FOR CUSTOMER DRIVEN
APPROACH
The need for enhancing and promoting a customer focused
culture are essential within the university sector because of the
nature of the various categories of their customers.
It is necessary to build a business based university that aims at
improving outstanding levels of customer service and satisfaction,
increase customer loyalty and retention through the integration of
many different parts of the university business, staff hierarchies in
academics, administrative and technical cadres and resources.
Customers should be treated appropriately with complete
satisfaction.
Ensuring buy-in to the concept and benefits of adopting a solid,
customer driven orientated approach to service delivery implies
that the university engage its staff in developing the necessary
fundamental skills required to understand, practice and deliver
service excellence in a manner that ensures positive customer
experiences and solidifies customer loyalty. Such efforts, on the
part
of
the
university
will
include
the
followings:
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a.
Become thoroughly customer driven – in both philosophy and
organisational behaviour by:
Establishing the key ingredients for implementing a strong service
culture;
 Identify and overcome existing service barriers;
 Identify both internal and external customer and adopt skills to
maximise relationships with both;
 Develop a customer-Centric Mindset;
 Knowing customers and their expectations;
 Develop customer friendly attitude;
 Calm upset customers and avoid upset situations as much as possible;
 Integrate all aspects of the university operation to manage and exceed
customer expectations;
 Identify best practice in managing different customer situation
including complaints;
 Develop, motivate and inspire customer-value staff to deliver high
quality consistently;
 Overcome internal communication barriers and strengthen internal
mechanisms for resolving grievances.
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b. Conduct an Analysis of the University’s ability to be customerdriven including:
i. Develop a list of core beliefs and corresponding behaviors or practices required
for a customer-driven university;
ii. Conduct an assessment to determine the alignment of the university’s beliefs and
practices with becoming a customer-driven organization;
iii. Apply key concepts and tools of process management and the customer-driven
organizations to analyzing systems and processes and making process
improvements;
iv. Align vision, mission, goals, strategies, and standards with customer needs and
expectations;
v. Assess the university’s current methods for developing employees and star
performers (if any), making recommendations for improvement;
vi. Design an organizational strategy for measuring customer service and
recognizing outstanding performance and setting benchmark;
vi. Plan strategies for better use of assessment as a way to reward and recognize
outstanding customer service.
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c). Adopt quality standards so that employers and graduates themselves have
assurance that a degree represents a high, competitive level of knowledge and
skills.
d). Improve greater access to and utilization of the university system by qualified
candidates.
e). Offer more practicum experience to students, and possibly faculty members,
too, to make course work more relevant to real work and to give more new
graduates the practical experience that employers prefer.
(f). Expand the availability of customized and schematized continuing education
and training needed to meet the large and growing demand for technical and highly
skilled personnel for the various industries, especially high technology industries.
In a nutshell, meeting these requirements
will call for changes in mind set,
operation, and curriculum content in
university education. It may also require
changes in institutional structure.
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0
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The adoption of customer-driven administrative style in the
Obafemi Awolowo University is overdue. Providing a true
service-centered environment is everyone’s job. Emphasis must
start at the top and the inspiration for delivering has to be more
than lip service. One way to accomplish this feat is to place a
renewed focus on meeting or exceeding the expectation and needs
of our customers, especially students. This is require to further
raise the status of the institution to world class African University.
The next generation of the university employees must possess the
requisite knowledge, skills, behaviour and attitude that will
improve service delivery to the customers of the University - both
national and international communities.
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THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
Discussion
Comments, etc.
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