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In any business scenario, customer support service bears great significance.  At the moment, various conventional higher education institutions are not able to generate enough revenues and they are constantly in search of ways that can help them to do more with less resources.

The best possible way of achieving this is to concentrate more focus on fulfilling the expectations & needs of the customers, namely their students.

Seeing the rapid rise in the student enrollment at the for-profit institutions are proving to be a lesson for the traditional colleges that the students are more interested in gaining education which are more focused towards customer service needs.

But, what significance customer service bear in a conventional high education environment? Well, it really helps in becoming familiar of both the advantages & advantages of treating the students as customers.

Role of customer service in higher education

Customer support services can be defined as a set of activities that assists in improving the level of customer satisfaction. However, it is important that the customer support services should incorporate more than just one department and it should be ensured that increasing number of individuals are part of it. In order to create an environment that is focused towards offering superlative customer services, everyone has to give their best. The process of good customer support has laid less significance towards offering the best customer service but more importance is given towards producing educated graduates. The institution tends to reward the students if they have filled every course requirements. Universities and colleges are least bothered that the students, throughout their completion of their degree, had a satisfied time.   

Benefits of making students as customers 

Just as making the customers satisfied often results in a boon to the businesses, higher education institutes that look for drawing and maintain their consumers would be served to treat their consumers well as well. Following this approach has only one result and that is enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty. Providing the consumers with the best service has a direct influence on the enhanced retention and this also prove significant in generating revenue for the educational institutes. The main thing is that the institutes want their students to do well and shine.

In order to serve the students in a better way, the institutes should attend the varied training sessions of the customer service so that they are more acquainted about the key aspects of customer support services. Yet, there are so many in the academia for whom this is something hard to accept. All the satisfied students inform their friends, owing to which the process of recruitment also gets a boost. If the number of students will be more, it will certainly have a positive influence on the tuition revenues. Education should be considered as a product and not just mere a service, in the context of higher education, they have to thoughtful, should be responsive towards the requirements and expectations of the students.   

Disadvantages of making students as customers

It is said that satisfaction is the ultimate parameter served by the higher education. Talking about business, the viewpoint of consumers is always preferred, however in education the student can be wrong at times. The maximum part of the college comprise of the students getting acquainted from the mistakes they commit and eventually facing the music for them. Various businesses tend to tussle for the consumers, which is evident from the ice breaking competition and those provided by other major broadband players in UK. It is the duty of the schools that their actions are such they get to draw more and more bright students. They also have to be cautious, while they go against the students, that they don’t misinform the students about how the campus life would be. 

Middle Ground for providing high quality services

The quality of service, that is being provided to the students, really bear great significance. Let us get acquainted with the key tips that the institutional officials can make the most of for providing high quality services -

• The teaching method of the students should be such that the students can grasp whatever is being taught and should not have any query. A regular check on the student’s progress should also be maintained.

• The students should be taught in an elaborate way of how to deal with varied issues and problems. The college level students are there to learn and to roam around here and there in order to get the replies for basic queries.

• Various doubts and queries of the students should be aptly catered and their parents should be made aware of them.

• The students should be given high respect. This is the key right of a human being and this should be given at every cost.

A customer relationship management (CRM) can be adopted. This will prove helpful in developing a healthy relationship between the students and educational institutes. If applied to the organizational structure of the schools, the administrators will be benefited in the allocation of the funds and other sources that further assists new recruitments in the school.

There are so many principles which can be further modified in order to be used in narrating the need of taking students as customers and in the development of CRM plan. There are some points narrated by Wallace which relates to customer support services. Let us discuss these key principles which can be used in context of customer services -

• There is a requirement to solicit the student’s feedback and should be given high priority.

• The employees should know that they are there to impart education to the students. Everything that is there has a direct influence on the students and the students deserve to get the best in terms of education.

• If the students are being provided with quality education, they will end up tasting success. This will eventually provide a recognition to the students.

• Each student has its own uniqueness, it is imperative that such qualities are realized and the services are being provided as the individual needs are being catered.

There are certainly some customer support services principles which can be used by educational institutes to make the students successful. These principles can be incorporated with the higher education which will prove beneficial in maintaining graduate students.

Customer relationships

To build good customer relationships you need to:

• greet customers and approach them in a way that is natural and fits the individual situation
• show customers that you understand what their needs are
• accept that some people won't want your products and concentrate on building relationships with those who do
• help people - even just letting a customer know about an event that you know they're personally interested in is helpful
• continue to keep customers aware of what's in it for them to do business with you.

Complaints

Listen to customer complaints; you may learn something about your product or service. Let customers know that you appreciate feedback.

Overcome any objections. Listen to what the customer is objecting about (often price, merchandise or time). Confirm the validity of each concern and offer a solution. Find out more about managing customer complaints.

Companies which provide High End Customer Services