Education and Marketing [1 of 2]

Abstract


This is a conversation on evaluating customer service within the service offered in the education industry.



The Nature of the Service

The nature of the service of higher education invariably runs the spectrum from providing an experience and conveying information, through knowledge itself to the fullness of integration of all that a given major subject offers in concert with realities on the ground. This tends to occur through every method and sensory experience available, Aristotelian, through the likes of Maslow, Trompenaars and Bloom's taxonomy.

The value also ranges from exposure, and an individual who simply wishes to have an experience, to a comprehensive and complete forming of subject matter expertise (at its best, extending the current knowledge base).

Configuration of particulars include amount of tuition (and a variety of offsets which may or may not be available), caliber of faculty and admittance, location and ground, blended or holey online, books and / or other materials beyond books as well as technology or not (provided or not), and class sizes. “Second tier” considerations may also factor, such as the availability of work-study, dormitories, various reputations the school may be associated with, extracurricular activities, etc.



How Do We Know

How the success of institutions of higher learning occurs are measured variously by a variety of stakeholders. Students’ surveys occur at most schools regularly to measure the school and all it entails. Measuring outcomes of the students classically is the domain of the instructor, although other stakeholders also participate in their own metric of this as well. To avoid being tagged with arbitrary subjectivity most instructors are either given a rubric or craft one of their own (or some other metric).

Ultimately, the student themselves becomes the product, and the successes and contributions of alma maters is esteemed to be a senior judgment of the school.



Examples of Consumer Centricity

Obvious expressions of consumer centricity at the university and collegiate level include a wide range of services and opportunities made available to any given student body. In this writer’s estimation, they all pale to a muscular and successful placement department that not only addresses the needs of its graduates, but its alma mater as well. Dorms with swimming pools may make for great memories, but the ability to stand behind and support one’s “product” is paramount.

Less obvious consumer centricities of consequence, and along the lines of the former assessment, include assistant faculty positions, internships, industry based interactions (guest speakers, field trips, etc.), community-institution interactive consortia and the like. Schools that actively promote networking also afford such a value add.



Marketing Service

Marketing such an institution is as elusive as a poets muse is, with similar a currency. Much like doing the necessary research to find the true price of a product before going to market, most students have their higher education narrowed for them by circumstance. Such factors often include price and aid, distance, the entrance ability and the subjects offered.

Here subtle considerations play a larger role; the look of the school (from logo to bathrooms), what the course schedules look like, the apparent availability of the staff, parking and security, access to food.



Concluding Thoughts

This author has written extensively on this topic with two specifics added in, marketing and operationally realizing Argosy University in particular and doing so in Indonesia. After a period of research and subsequent writings, these culled into a singular comprehensive writing, and then published online between March 15 and 25 of this year.

http://businessglobalmarketingtheappliedarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/strategy-for-argosy-university-online.html

http://businessglobalmarketingtheappliedarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/strategy-for-argosy-university-online_16.html

http://businessglobalmarketingtheappliedarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/strategy-for-argosy-university-online_17.html

http://businessglobalmarketingtheappliedarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/strategy-for-argosy-university-online_18.html

http://businessglobalmarketingtheappliedarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/strategy-for-argosy-university-online_21.html

http://businessglobalmarketingtheappliedarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/strategy-for-argosy-university-online_22.html

http://businessglobalmarketingtheappliedarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/strategy-for-argosy-university-online_23.html

http://businessglobalmarketingtheappliedarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/strategy-for-argosy-university-online_24.html

http://businessglobalmarketingtheappliedarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/strategy-for-argosy-university-online_25.html

Within this work are addressed all the concerns across these slides, yet in significant depth.

Unfortunately, there is no apparent way of knowing who actually reads the blog (which clearly is a curiosity). Nonetheless, a handful of the following links have received in excess of a dozen hits individually (one link over 2 dozen), making this serialized blog posting among the strongest posted across the past year.