Jackie R. Beede
Bruce R. Beede
2010 Baldrige Application Worksheets
Category 3 – Customer Focus
Note: The intent of this document is to guide my interviews with an applicant to gather information to help them develop
their application. Often, additional information is gathered based in response to the question itself. This tool is not
intended as an assessment guide, nor is it assured to address all required information.
Category 3 – Customer Focus
I. Customer Engagement
1. Briefly describe to me if you have any culture defining artifacts that focus your organization on customers/
students/ patients, such as your mission, vision, values. This is just to get an opening paragraph to focus the reader.
A. Educational Programs, Offerings and Services, and Student and Stakeholder Support
1. Identify and Innovate Educational Programs, Offerings, and Services
(Note to all you who have been in this a while, this section represents a pretty significant change from 2008
criteria. In the past you would have put your processes for designing your “product” – the programs and
offerings – in Category 6 Process Management. Now it goes here. The design process you describe in
Category 6 now is only to design the work processes and the processes of teaching.)
a. A bit later in this Category there are questions about how you get the requirements from students and other
stakeholders for your programs, offerings and services. However, here I want to know how you identify
programs, offerings and services that will meet those requirements of students and other stakeholders – that is,
how do you identify what particular program or offering or service is needed or needs to be modified? Usually
this is through an annual cycle of looking at forecasts for jobs in the area to identify the need for education to
meet those needs. Another way is by participating in community organizations like the Chamber of Commerce,
where you can identify the need for programs, offerings and services. Other ways might include asking
stakeholders, doing surveys, attending education-industry conferences, etc.
b. A similar question, but just slightly different here: How do you then identify programs, offerings and
services that will help you attract new students and stakeholders? This could be through the use of focus
groups in the desired target audience to identify what they are needing, or through a survey to them, or even
through the processes described in the previous question.
c. So – how do you go about designing, developing or innovating programs, offerings and services? (Notethose of you who know the old criteria, this is a question about how you design your “products” that you
deliver but in Category 6 you are asked how you design your key work processes. You can design a product
without designing a process for delivery. So just address how you design the product (program, offering,
service) here) You would want to describe your curriculum design process here – the process you use to design
new, or highly modify existing, courses and offerings. A picture is worth a thousand words – if you have
diagrammed it, show the diagram here to save space. You will also want to describe your service design
process here – the process you use to design the services you offer to students.
d. Similar to the previous question – how do you go about designing, developing or innovating programs,
offerings and services for those new students and stakeholders that you might target? Again, you would want to
describe your curriculum design process here – the process you use to design new, or highly modify existing,
This tool and all information contained within this document is the sole property of Accelerated Improvement Mentoring,
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courses and offerings, but this time just for potential new groups of students or stakeholders. It can be
challenging to design a process for a group that you don’t have a lot of experience with, so you would probably
have some sort of pilot approach in this design and an evaluation approach that not only determines learning,
but also determines if you are able to satisfy their requirements. Again – this is for programs as well as
services.
2. Mechanisms to Support Use
a. How do you figure out the best way to provide access to you? That is – how do you find out the type of
mechanisms that are the most comfortable/useful for your students and stakeholders to use to gain access to
your programs and services, and also to do business with you? For the most part – the first part of the answer
is how you decide what kind of teaching approach to use with your specific audience to ensure learning (like
distance, hybrid, learning communities, cooperative education, active learning, etc.). The second part of the
answer would be how you decide what approach to use to ensure they can take advantage of your services (like
in-person vs. phone vs. group advising). Then, finally, how do you decide the best approaches to let them
contact you to do business (like register, complain, pay, ask questions, etc.). This might include in-person,
phone, fax, electronically, etc.
b. Can you outline the key segments of your students and stakeholders that need different forms of access and
communication? Such as, lower-income often do not have access to computers thus need lower-tech, highertouch approaches.
c. How do you find out the types and levels of support that your students and stakeholders need? Do you ask
them?
d. Once you determine their requirements, how do you ensure that all of the people who serve them understand
and react to those requirements? This could include documenting the requirements in terms of service
standards and training all employees on those service standards.
3. Keep Approaches Current
a. For the approaches that you described above for identifying and designing products and services for your
students and stakeholders – how do you look at those approaches (not the products and services) to determine
if they can be improved? When you find a deficiency in those approaches, how do you fix it and incorporate the
change permanently?
b. For the approaches that you described above for determining and creating the approaches for your students
and stakeholders to access you and your programs and services, how do you look at those approaches to
determine if they can be improved? When you find a deficiency in those approaches, how do you fix it and
incorporate the change permanently?
B. Building as Student and Stakeholder Culture
1. Create a Student and Stakeholder Culture
a. What things do you do that helps to create a culture where employees are focused on providing a
consistently positive student and stakeholder experience? What things do you do that helps to create a culture
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where employees are focused on ensuring student and stakeholder engagement? Examples might include
training people in customer service, development of standards of performance that are focused on creating a
satisfying customer experience, etc.
b. Related to your response above, how do you reinforce this employee behavior through your employee
performance management (performance appraisal) system? Are employees evaluated based on how well they
have exhibited this student and stakeholder focused culture?
c. Related to your response above, how do you reinforce this employee behavior through your leadership
development approach? For example, do current and future leaders continue to receive training related to how
to create a student/stakeholder focused culture?
2. Build and Manage Relationships
a. The question here is asking you to describe the different methods you use to build and manage student and
stakeholder relationships to accomplish getting new customers/students/stakeholders. I am supplying a table
that we can use to answer this, and several future, questions. If you don’t want to use this table then simply list
the approaches you use to build relationships with potential students and stakeholders to get them to use your
services and programs over their other options.
High School
Potential Students
New Students
All Current
Students
Increase
Student/Stakeholder
Loyalty and Engagement
Meet Past
Student/Stakeholder
Requirements
Meet Departing
Student/Stakeholder
Requirements
Meet Returning Student
Stakeholder Requirements
Student and
stakeholder
segment
addressed
High School
Potential Students
Meet New Student
Stakeholder Requirements
Approaches
E.g., College Fairs at
local high schools for
Juniors and Seniors
E.g., Summer Sports
Camps
E.g., Student Orientation
E.g., Tuition Refund
Guarantee
Check all appropriate areas that each approach addresses
Find & Acquire New
Students Stakeholders
Build & Manage
Relationships
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
b. The question here is asking you to describe the different methods you use to build and manage student and
stakeholder relationships to allow you to meet the requirements and expectations of your current
customers/students/stakeholders. If you used the table above, you have answered this – just ensure that you
have included all of your key approaches (e.g., Student Surveys, one-on-one advising throughout the year,
teaching modalities focused on specific student-type success, orientation that includes teaching people to study
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Incorporated (AIM, Inc.) and may not be shared or used without the express written consent of Jackie Beede or Bruce Beede.
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and take tests, etc.) If you don’t use the table, then simply list the approaches you use to build relationships with
current students and stakeholders.
c. Referring to the methods you listed in the previous question – indicate what stage of the customer lifecycle
that the approach is designed to address (e.g., new student, returning, departing, future). If you used the table
above you have already done this. If not, just indicate the stage next to the responses in above question.
d. The question here is asking you to describe the different methods you use to build student and stakeholder
loyalty and engagement with your organization. If you used the table above, you have answered this – just
ensure that you have included all of your key approaches (e.g., Alumni Association, active sports teams with
discounted tickets, open areas for playing video and other games, regular competitions of something) If you
don’t use the table, then simply list the approaches you use to build relationships with current students and
stakeholders.
3. Keep approaches current
a. For the approaches that you described above for creating a student and stakeholder focused culture updated
and current to your needs – how do you look at those approaches to determine if they can be improved? When
you find a deficiency in those approaches, how do you fix it and incorporate the change permanently?
b. For the approaches that you described above for building student and stakeholder relationships and
engagement updated and current to your needs – how do you look at those approaches to determine if they can
be improved? When you find a deficiency in those approaches, how do you fix it and incorporate the change
permanently?
II. Voice of the Customer
A. Student and Stakeholder Listening
1. Listen and Learn Current Students and Stakeholders
For Community
X
X
X
X
X
Purpose of listening
(e.g., feedback on
service, satisfaction
determination,
feedback on
programs)
For former students
Current Students
For departing
students
E.g., Focus Groups (10 annually)
For returning
students
What student/
stakeholder
group?
For new students
Method to Listen
For potential students
a. There are a number of features about how you listen and learn from/to students and stakeholders. Many of
these can be addressed through the following table. If you would rather not use the table, then outline here the
methods you use to listen and learn from/to students and stakeholders to get feedback about programs,
offerings and services.
Feedback on
programs and
service
This tool and all information contained within this document is the sole property of Accelerated Improvement Mentoring,
Incorporated (AIM, Inc.) and may not be shared or used without the express written consent of Jackie Beede or Bruce Beede.
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E.g., Student Satisfaction Survey
Current Students
E.g., Student and Stakeholder
Complaint System
All Stakeholders
X
E.g., Attendance at Chamber of
Commerce
Community
X
E.g., College days at local high
schools
High school
potential students
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
S
Determine
Satisfaction &
willing to refer
Determine
Satisfaction and
Areas to improve
Future program
needs,
satisfaction of
business
community
Likelihood to
attend, Future
program and
service needs
b. If you used the table in the previous section, then you probably have responded to this one already. If you
have chosen not to use the table then explain how you listen to different groups using different listening
approaches.
c. If you used the table in the previous section, then you probably have responded to this one already. If you
have chosen not to use the table then explain how you use different listening approaches with different groups
based on knowing the best way to communicate with them.
d. If you used the table in the previous section, then you probably have responded to this one already. If you
have chosen not to use the table then explain how you use follow-up with students and stakeholders who have
recently used your product/services to get feedback about those programs/services. Ways to accomplish this
include things like feedback cards, mid-term surveys to find improvement opportunities, focus groups
throughout the year, etc.
2. Comparative information
a. If you used the table in the previous section, then you probably have responded to this one already. If you
have chosen not to use the table then explain how you listen to former students and stakeholders to get feedback
about the programs/services they used and get feedback.
b. If you used the table in the previous section, then you probably have responded to this one already. If you
have chosen not to use the table then explain how you listen to potential students and stakeholders to get
feedback about the programs/services they expect they would use and get feedback.
c. If you used the table in the previous section, then you probably have responded to this one already. If you
have chosen not to use the table then explain how you listen to the students and stakeholders of other
organizations to get feedback about your programs/services. This could be the use of a survey given by
This tool and all information contained within this document is the sole property of Accelerated Improvement Mentoring,
Incorporated (AIM, Inc.) and may not be shared or used without the express written consent of Jackie Beede or Bruce Beede.
AIM, Inc.
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competitive/comparative institutions that compare their programs/services to yours, or could be other types of
indicators like completion rate compared to theirs.
3. Complaint Management
a. What process(es) do you have in place to manage complaints that you receive from students and other
stakeholders. If you have a diagram (or could easily create one), include it here.
b. Explain how that complaint management system is designed to ensure that complaints are resolved quickly.
Explain how that complaint management system is designed to ensure that complaints are resolved effectively.
c. What step or activity in the complaint management process allows/ensures that you regain your student or
other stakeholder’s confidence (recovery)? How does it allow you to enhance their satisfaction with you? How
does it help you build greater engagement with your students and stakeholders?
d. Explain what part of your complaint management system causes you to aggregate information and data in
order to analyze results in order to find opportunities to improve in your organization.
e. Explain what part of your complaint management system causes you to aggregate information and data in
order to analyze results in order to find opportunities for your suppliers and partners to improve.
4. Modify Action Plans
a. What process do you use to rapidly modify action plans if needed? Sometimes changing circumstances
cause changes to action plans (such as the lack of appropriate technology solutions), when that happens how
are the plans changed?
b. When an action plan has been changed, how do you ensure rapid, but appropriate, deployment of that
modified plan to all parties concerned? Both internally and externally (such as to suppliers).
B. Determination of Student and Stakeholder Satisfaction
1. Determination of Student and Stakeholder Satisfaction
a. What approach do you use to determine if your students and stakeholders are satisfied?
b. Tell me how your determination approach is different for one group of students and stakeholders versus
another.
c. Tell me how the measures that you derive from these satisfaction determination approaches are used to
capture actionable information for improvement in the organization (e.g., satisfaction survey requests an
explanation for lower scores, or turnover figures are segmentable by student/stakeholder type to identify the
specific group at risk)
This tool and all information contained within this document is the sole property of Accelerated Improvement Mentoring,
Incorporated (AIM, Inc.) and may not be shared or used without the express written consent of Jackie Beede or Bruce Beede.
AIM, Inc.
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d. Tell me how the measures that you derive from these satisfaction determination approaches are used to
capture actionable information for improvement by your suppliers/partners (e.g., satisfaction survey requests
an explanation for lower scores, or turnover figures are segmentable by student/stakeholder type to identify the
specific group at risk)
2. Comparative Determination of Student and Stakeholder Satisfaction
a. What approach(es) do you use to determine how satisfied students and stakeholders are with your
organization compared to their satisfaction with your competitor/comparison organizations?
b. What approach(es) do you use to determine how satisfied your students and stakeholders are compared to
students and stakeholders of your competitor/comparison organization?
c. What approaches do you use to compare the satisfaction of your students and stakeholders to the satisfaction
of industry and business benchmarks?
3. Determination of Student and Stakeholder Dissatisfaction
a. What approaches do you use to measure dissatisfaction of students and stakeholders? (e.g., complaints,
negative scores on surveys, customer turnover, etc.)
b. How do you use the measures of dissatisfaction in identification of student and stakeholder’s requirements?
c. How do these approaches to measure dissatisfaction roll up to aggregated levels for use in improvement of
approaches?
d. How do these approaches to measure dissatisfaction roll up to aggregated levels for use in improvement of
supplier and partners organizations?
C. Analysis and Use of Student and Stakeholder Data
1. Use Info to Identify Segments
a. The question here is: All of that data and information that you said you collect about students and
stakeholders concerning your programs, offerings and services … how do you use it to identify student and
stakeholder groups that you currently serve?
b. The next question here is: All of that data and information that you said you collect about students and
stakeholders concerning your programs, offerings and services … how do you use it to identify student and
stakeholder groups that you will serve in the future?
c. Then, next question here is: how do you identify target student and stakeholder groups based on who your
competitors are serving and other potential customer groups?
This tool and all information contained within this document is the sole property of Accelerated Improvement Mentoring,
Incorporated (AIM, Inc.) and may not be shared or used without the express written consent of Jackie Beede or Bruce Beede.
AIM, Inc.
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d. How do decide which student and stakeholder groups could best be served with your current and planned
programs and offerings?
2. Use Info to Identify Segments
a. The question here is: All of that data and information that you said you collect about students and
stakeholders concerning your programs, offerings and services … how do you use it to identify the key
requirements of your current student and stakeholder groups?
b. When you have identified requirements for each key stakeholder group, how do you figure out which ones
are most important to their enrollment/purchasing decisions? i.e., what things are most important to your
customers and stakeholders?
c. The next question here is: All of that data and information that you said you collect about students and
stakeholders concerning your programs, offerings and services … how do you use it to identify student and
stakeholder groups that you will serve in the future and their specific needs and expectations?
d. How do you identify where there are differences between student/stakeholder groups in terms of the
requirements they have of you?
e. How do you identify where there are differences in requirements of students and stakeholders at different
stages of their relationship with you? (e.g., data says that new students have greater need for advising services
that returning students, etc.)
3. Data for Marketing, Culture, Innovation
a. What data do you use about students and other stakeholders concerning the programs and services they use
in order to improve the marketing function?
b. What data do you use about students and other stakeholders concerning the programs and services they use
in order to build a customer-focused culture?
c. What data do you use about students and other stakeholders concerning the programs and services they use
in order to generate ideas for innovations in your organization?
4. Keep Approaches Current
a. What methods do you use to keep your approaches to listening to students and stakeholders current and upto-date?
This tool and all information contained within this document is the sole property of Accelerated Improvement Mentoring,
Incorporated (AIM, Inc.) and may not be shared or used without the express written consent of Jackie Beede or Bruce Beede.
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b. What methods do you use to keep your approaches to determining student and stakeholder satisfaction levels
current and up-to-date?
c. What methods do you use to keep your approaches to use of the data that you gather about students,
stakeholders, programs and services current and up-to-date?
This tool and all information contained within this document is the sole property of Accelerated Improvement Mentoring,
Incorporated (AIM, Inc.) and may not be shared or used without the express written consent of Jackie Beede or Bruce Beede.
AIM, Inc.
20106737773
2664 Highway 18 W, Fayette, AL 35555
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(205) 768-0023