Student Customer Services
Dr. James E. Shippy
Houston Community College
Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher
Education Conference
San Antonio, Texas
March 2014
Our Students Are:
O GLOBAL
O REGIONAL
O and from OUR COMMUNITY
Global
Regional
Our Community
Houston Community College Southwest
• A discussion of student customer services
activities that personnel can champion at their
colleges will be provided.
• Participants will be afforded the opportunity to
develop customer service strategies.
• Strategies will be identified to assist participants
in improving their student customer service
efforts.
Outline of Presentation
O 10 customer service challenges.
O 5 customer service requests/demands.
O Student customer exercise. Examples of
strategies to improve student customer
services in testing centers.
O Conclusion.
10 Things Your Student Customers in
Will Not Tell You, But I Will.
O I’m not a student to be
confrontational and cause a
scene. However, there are
several things that bother me
when I came to your testing
center.
O If you pass this on to
administrators, it couldn’t
hurt and probably would help.
O Thank you.
Dear College Administrator:
O
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1. Nobody greeted me when I walked into your
registration area. No one said, “Hello.” No one asked if
they could help me and no one said goodbye when I
completed my registration. Well, at least I wasn’t any
trouble.
2. Your staff looked tired. Yes, they did. Otherwise why
wouldn’t they greet me with a big smile and some
enthusiasm? It didn’t look like they even wanted me in
the place.
Dear College Administrator:
O
O
3. I came to the registration area. I
couldn’t believe no one said, “Thank you.”
No one told me to enjoy the semester. I
did get a lukewarm “Have a nice day.” But
it was said so routinely, it didn’t mean
anything to me.
4. When I phoned for some information,
my call was treated as an annoyance. I
sensed very little desire to be of any real
help.
Dear College Administrator:
O
O
5. Whoever answered your phone never
identified themselves. I happen to like to
know who I’m talking with and when I
don’t, it hurts any trust I might give your
college.
6. During the phone call, the voice of
whoever answered sounded aggressive
and challenging. I didn’t feel very
welcomed.
Dear College Administrator:
O
O
7. When I walked in, all your staff were
talking and laughing amongst themselves
and ignored me until I asked a question.
8. There were no bosses around.
Remember the old saying “when the boss
is away, the mice will play.” Guess what?
They do!
Dear College Administrator:
O
O
9. When I told your staff about my
registration concerns which was important
to me, no one sympathized with me. It was
‘business as usual’ for them. Someone
just said take a seat, someone will be with
you in a few minutes.
10. Everyone looked angry. No one was
smiling. Remember, sometimes it’s the
things you ‘don’t do’ that make me want to
attend another college.
Dear College Administrator:
O
Thanks for listening. We all know these
are basic common sense topics, but we
also know that basic common sense isn't
too common.
O
Adopted from 2013 Nancy Friedman’s, “10 Things Your Customers Won’t Tell You, But We Will”
http://www.nancyfriedman.com/10-things-your-customers-wont-tell-you-but-we-will/
FIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE
REQUESTS/DEMANDS
O 600 college students interviewed
O Five requests arose
O These should be accepted as benchmarks
O Requests/demands are fairly self-evident
O Students, as people who wish to be treated
with respect and value.
Five Customer Service
Requests/Demands
O 1. A positive reception and ongoing indications of
appreciation. Students need to know the institution
appreciates them and shows it wants them to enroll
and stay at the college by making them feel
welcomed and important.
O 2. Response and action. Students require their needs
be responded to and action is taken to fix their
problems in a manner that shows they are important.
Five Customer Service
Requests/Demands
O 3. Me-centered service.
Students expect that they will be treated the
way they expect. After all, the world revolves
around them.
O 4. Educational value and quality.
Students want to know they are given the
opportunity to learn and succeed in their
courses.
O
Five Customer Service
Request/Demands
O 5. Educational return on investment (ROI)
Students expect their investment in college
will pay off financially and socially.
O
O
Reference:
Raisman, N. (2002). “Embrace the oxymoron: customer service in higher education”.
Palm Beach, Florida: LRP Publications
List the 1-2 the most promising student customer
service ideas.
Strategies to Improve Student Customer
Services at Your College
O Greet students friendly and thank them for
being here.
O Registration center environment:
O Sign in process
O Chairs comfortable
O Computer screens
O Air conditioning and heating : comfortable
O Lighting
Strategies to Improve Student Customer Services
O Greet students friendly and thank them for being
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here.
Learn from our students. Get feedback!!
Track your results. Know what's working and why.
Be efficient. Make your processes take less time by
improving procedures more efficient for staff and
students.
Be clear with employees about customer service
expectations.
Attitude: What are the attitudes of your staff?
Develop customer service vision and goals.
Strategies to Integrate Customer
Services in Your College
O A set of statements that articulate the college’s philosophy for
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effective customer services.
Assess current level of customer services.
Clarify roles and responsibility of faculty, staff, and
administration in regards to customer relations.
Build an institutional identity with expectations about customer
services through human resource hiring and orientation with
new personnel.
Emphasize training to develop employees knowledge, skills,
and attitudes in customer service.
Communicate and give feedback how the institution is
accomplishing its customer service objectives.
Chitwood, J.P. (1996). Sensitizing community college personnel
through customer service training.
Your Iceberg
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The iceberg represents you and the 10%
above the water is your skill. The 90%
below is your attitude and character.
It’s what’s below the surface that impacts
your customer service.
An iceberg is an interesting picture of
customer services than meets the eye.
Most of the iceberg is below the surface
of the water.
So much of our influence comes from
qualities we can’t see on the outside.
It’s the stuff below the surface that
contributes to our customer service traits
such as, attitudes, behavior, trust, respect,
etc.
Adapted from
Elmore, T. (2010). Habitudes: Images That Form
Leadership Habits & Attitudes
Quality Customer Service
O Quality customer service begins when
management’s philosophy and attitude are
conveyed to the customer through the front
line staff. Training and empowering your
employees provides the core to developing a
fully integrated customer service program.
Quality Customer Service
O Can customer service be taught?
O While specific techniques can be taught, customer
service is more of a spirit where responsibility and
care for the customer is reflected in the attitude of
the employee. It is best encouraged through
coaching, lead by example and cultivated through
practice. Leadership is required to foster an
atmosphere of customer service.
Conclusion 1
O Does everyone around you have the energy and
enthusiasm for quality student customer service? Or
have their energy and enthusiasm dwindled?
O Are they still working because they love what they do or
are they simply working because they haven’t been able
to escape yet?
O Hire people with the characteristics of trust, respect,
passion, sense of humor, positive attitude, vision,
integrity, wisdom, and sensitivity.
Conclusion 2
*“It is an attitude. It is a culture. It is a collective way of seeing the
world. "Wowing" customers is not the exception. It is the rule”.
(Murphy, 2013).
O Our students, community, and employees expect quality service.
O Students are the ultimate reason we are in
business.
O
*Murphy, J. (2013). The How of Wow.
simpletruths@newsletter.simpletruths.com
ATTITUDE =100
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A 1
T 20
T 20
I 9
T 20
U 21
D 4
E 5
100
CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE!
COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS
THANK YOU!!
O HAVE SOME FUN TODAY AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE.
Dr. James E. Shippy
Dean of Student Development
HCC Southwest College
713-718-7788 office
713-718-7888 fax
james.shippy@hccs.edu