How Higher Ed Leaders Can Build a Stronger Customer Service Culture
By Aaron Basko, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services, University of Lynchburg
Have you ever experienced truly exceptional customer service? I have. It is the kind of thing you remember. Just this week, I needed to hire a temporary staff member from an agency. The person I worked with turned around all my requests (even the last-minute ones) quickly, and with a positive, upbeat attitude. Symbolically, she ended every email communication with a smiley face emoji and a word of thanks. I was so impressed!
Many higher education institutions work with TIAA for their retirement services. I’ve had the same type of experience with them over the years. Almost universally, the people I have worked with there have been friendly, efficient, and committed to helping me get the answers I need. That has influenced my decision to do more of my financial work with them.
Often, customer service is cultural. I saw this when I traveled to Japan a few years ago. It was everywhere, from chefs who came out and bowed you out of restaurants, to normal pedestrians who took it on as their mission to make sure you did not get lost. At one point, a friendly gentleman noticed I was unsure of my subway route. He actually took me on the subway to my destination and walked me there before returning to catch his own train. What a “wow” experience!
Higher education is not famous for that kind of customer service, but as the leader of a team, you can create that kind of culture in your area and impact both your environment and your results.
A Tale of Three Cultures
To be fair, customer service has not historically been part of our DNA as institutions. For hundreds of years, higher education was a scarce commodity, available only to the elite. Young men were sent away to educational institutions as a rite of passage and expected to figure things out. Some certainly received special treatment based on their family’s prestige, but for the most part they were expected to adapt. There were likely very few medieval helicopter parents.
This was largely the dynamic until after World War II, when U.S. higher education underwent a sort of metamorphosis. With the influx of students, the expansion of state schools and community colleges, and eventually the federal financial aid system, higher education began to shift its identity toward that of a “public good.” It wasn’t until the rise of the internet and the shift towards a more competitive global business climate of the end of last century that higher education was seriously confronted by the idea of customer service.
Higher education is now a curious mixture of these three cultures, and it is in the gaps between cultures where we most struggle to provide our students with a good education experience. Even as our industry becomes increasingly transactional, there are still ways to create a culture that “wows.” Here are a few steps you can take to help make customer service a positive part of your culture.
Be Proactive
Most people think of customer service as responsive. Our customer has a need that they bring to our attention. We do our best to respond to it in a way that is helpful and friendly. But the best customer service is actually proactive. It means anticipating the needs of our clients so that they don’t need to ask.
Start by mapping out your customer journey. How do people interact with your team? What questions do they usually ask?
Conduct a website review and get feedback from actual customers and see if it answers the most important questions that they have. Where do explanations need to be clearer? Provide the necessary information so that families only reach out to you if they want to, not because they have to.
Challenge your team to keep a call log of questions and to find creative ways to answer those questions for families before they ask. Monitor which offices most frequently refer families to you with the same questions. Provide answers for those offices and meet with them regularly to make sure that they understand your process and know these answers. Have your team imagine themselves as the planners for a big event, with the goal of anticipating every need of the guests.
Reinforce What Your Team Values
People give great customer service because it has become part of who they are. One of the best ways to begin building a customer service culture is to ask your team members, “Why should we care?” Ask them to reflect on why great customer service is a benefit to your team. You will likely receive answers like:
It helps us look and feel professional
It helps us reach our goals
It is the right thing to do
It is how we would want to be treated
These types of statements all reflect important needs that your team members have and we can build on them. Ask your team to describe in detail how specific actions of great customer service fulfill the values and goals they have expressed.
As a team leader, when you see good customer service in action, echo back to your team members the value that you see being lived out. (“What you did made our office look really professional and like we have our act together.” “Bob really helped that family worked through their anxiety over that issue. If that was my family, I know that would have made a big difference for us.”) Over time, these values will move from hiding below the surface of your team culture to being visible on the surface.
The Customer Is You
A powerful perspective in training employees to embrace customer service is to remind them regularly that “the customer is you.” We have all been in situations where we have been treated incredibly well by someone providing excellent services. We’ve also been on the receiving end of really terrible customer service. We need to constantly remind each other of what that feels like.
One of the best tools for teaching customer service is role playing. It is the closest thing to allowing your team to experience your service for itself. Have your team members get into groups of two or three and have them test out scenarios together. Have them practice creating and solving problems for each other. This builds confidence and opportunities for feedback.
Take the role play a step further and have them actually call between offices to practice. If you have teams from different areas, let them call each other and give feedback on how helpful the phone tree is, how many rings it takes for calls to be answered, and who can come up with the most ridiculous customer service question. The more you can make customer service into a fun game, rather than an intimidating task, the more your team will embrace it.
Create a System of Rewards
Sometimes your team members will struggle with good customer service because of bad past experiences or a lack of confidence. They may be worried that if they make a mistake or go beyond what they are sure of, they will be criticized or punished. To combat this, work to create a culture where risk taking is rewarded if it is on behalf of delivering good service.
One great way to start is to ask employees to share the positive feedback they get from families. They might feel a little self-conscious at first sharing this with everyone, but soon it will become second nature to share kudos with each other and own them as a team. Here are a few practical ways to recognize customer services:
Create a wall of customer service fame with pictures, notes, and examples
Give out prizes to those who are recognized by another office on campus or who receive follow up notes of thanks
Ask your team members to “catch” each other in spontaneous acts of customer service. Ring a bell or send around an email with a meme of celebration
Keep a “tip jar” for customer service and add to it every time a team member receives kudos from a family. Use this money to take your staff to lunch.
As the team leader, you set the pace for your team in customer service. They will do what they see in action, and they will look to you to model what you expect. Building a customer service culture involves getting your team to bond together around common goals and a common vision of success.
You need to make it clear to your team that customer service is not a burden, nor a way for you to catch them in sub-par performance. Instead, customer service should be a way to unleash the creativity of your team members. It should give them new ways to express their individuality, while reaffirming the value of the team. Great customer service will enhance the status of your department, get you closer to your goals, and increase your team’s pride in their work.
As a team, you can create an unforgettable experience.
