Higher educational institutions create added value by delivering, upgrading, sharing and encouraging application of knowledge. This value should also be experienced as such by its many partners. For this good relationships with external and internal stakeholders are essential. Herman Heller, managing partner of Helder Inzicht, shows what strategic customer relationship management (CRM) might mean for educational institutions and how they could excel in it. "If educational institutions developed more intense and productive relationships, they could change from being a distributor of human talent, to being a partner in deploying that talent".

Over recent years the Dutch government has been calling for attention to be given to 'excellence' in both academic research and education. Practice shows that this is being addressed typically in a product-oriented manner - adaptation of studies to market needs, selection of high-potential students and more penetrating intake discussions. 'Excellence' however goes far beyond this. Educational institutions can also excel by entering into more intense, involved and valuable relationships with their environment. Such relationships can be with school students, current students, alumni, external partners, subsidy sources and commercial enterprises.

Excellence thus not only impacts the institution and its many products, but is also experienced as such by its many partners. Educational institutions need to identify targets with whom they can develop more intense and productive relationships. The targets which educational institutions usually aim for include a numerous, high-quality student intake, reduction of student fall-out, and good study results. And the use of alumni in establishing and improving relationships with commercial interests and subsidy sources. In so doing they change from being a distributor of human talent, to being partner in deploying that talent.

Market developments

Traditionally, educational institutions have concentrated strongly on their product, i.e. high-quality education and ground-breaking research. Some institutions have been doing this successfully for centuries. In interaction with their environment, i.e. the market, however, educational institutions tend to highlight their products rather than their ability to create valuable external relationships. Over recent time, market developments have been putting educational institutions under increasing pressure. So marketing product values is no longer sufficient. School students have ever greater choice, companies demand graduates who are self-starters, and the government is pushing universities to operate in a more socially relevant and community effective manner.

There is a natural tension between the drive of researchers and professors and market demand. This article is not a plea for a 'you demand, we supply' approach. Rather, the challenge is to create mutual understanding between stakeholder and university of each other's capabilities. This understanding is the basis of fostering sustainable relationships that has added value to both sides.

Partly based on the 'life cycle of a student' we sketch a picture of the individual areas in which educational institutions can develop relationships and increase the value of them. We deal with five of the most important.

-The potential student
-The existing student
-External organisations
-The alumnus
-The internal organisation

The potential student

According to studies carried out among Dutch secondary students starting their final exams, 30% have no idea which study will suit them best. The primary objective of the potential university student here is to choose the right tertiary study. The primary objective of the university follows suit: recruiting the motivated students who are most likely to complete their study. One may wonder whether educational institutions always carry out recruitment processes efficiently. They tend to launch mass-communication campaigns that do not address students' individual needs. Emphasis lies on showing off and maximising new student numbers. This does not always help students to make the right choice.

In a previous article, From Bribery to Intelligent Guidance (Van Omkoping tot Keuzecoaching ), we address support to students throughout their selection process. Educational institutions should tune the information they provide to the needs of the potential student. This requires the educational institution to change from being a 'supply-driven distributor' to 'partner for the potential student'. This means understanding the motivations of individual students, their individual needs for study information, and introducing them to the new world of college. Activities here must go well beyond simply collecting contact details and information about the number of times a student has visited an Open Day. It requires intelligent interaction at the individual level.

The existing student

Most 'existing student' intend to complete their study quickly, and gain appropriate knowledge and experience to successfully enter the labour market. Basically, universities try to attain exactly that, although their focus is on coursework rather than directly catering for the needs of employers. There is a classic field of tension between guiding a student smoothly through his studies and having that same student develop qualities of independence.

Equilibrium between these can only be created by an individual person-oriented approach. Practice is usually very different. Researchers and professors are usually field specialists and very content-oriented. They need help on how to offer students individual coaching, for instance by properly supporting the mentoring process administratively. This also applies to such things as arranging suitable, challenging internships and graduation projects for students with knowledge partners in the business sector for example. Tracking the progress of students during these assignments is a need that exists right up to the teacher level. The institution benefits from keeping its contacts with students and external parties as favourable and positive as possible.

The external company/organisation

Nowadays, universities have to rely more on the markets for their resources, for instance through contract research for external organisations. Such external organisations are also important for internships and final projects. The educational institution is thus pivotal in the bringing together students and researchers (the potential) on the one hand, and companies and organisations ('the market') on the other. However, many companies and organisations still have difficulty in finding the right contact at the educational institution. Universities themselves typically have poor insight in the intensity of external relationships maintained by researchers and professors. Since part of the market value of researchers and professors is created on the shoulders of the reputation of the institutions for which they work, it would seem reasonable to make these relationships fruitful for the entire institution. The institution should get clear insight into all such existing and potential relationships and nurture them.

The alumnus

Many graduates from educational institutions work for potential partners and buyers of research and education products, thus being an excellent bridge to business. Some alumni may act as ambassadors for an educational institution. But to achieve this, the educational institution has to maintain good contacts with its alumni. And again the relationship can only flourish if value is added on both sides. Alumni usually remain interested in the latest professional knowledge throughout their working lives and like to be assisted in maintaining contacts. Meeting this need and continuing to follow alumni at the individual level allows an institution to identify shared educational and research targets. Especially for alumni, universities should offer value and actively maintain contact. This will surely provide more and better opportunities than constantly seeking to have alumni contribute financially to the institution without the institution delivering real value in return.

The internal organisation

When educational institutions genuinely study the targets of their relationships and seriously work on upgrading and optimising them, the internal impact will be crisp and clear. Like many organisations, educational institutions tend to consist of information islands. These islands typically communicate poorly with each other, or focus insufficiently on adding value to the institution's partners. Effective internal communication between the many relevant departments of the internal organisation is essential to be able to give shape to an external focus on relationships. The educational institution will then be able to switch from being a 'distributor', mainly focusing on bringing its own product supply to the attention of its target groups, into an institution that takes on the role of 'partner' in its relationships.

In practice this proves difficult. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is still too often seen as nothing but an information tool. CRM, however, is about setting crystal-clear targets that encourage the organisation to change, and adapt its processes to achieve shared goals with its relationships. This has impact on all employees involved and partners and will result in visible and valuable behavioural changes to the educational institution. Much energy usually is invested in selecting and implementing such a system. The traditional CRM route involves long completion time and once the system has been delivered, little attention is paid to the implementation in daily operations. Attention for customer relationship management soon fades, along with the return on the CRM project.

In other words CRM as currently practiced has insufficient effect on the behaviour of the organisation and its staff, let alone that the target group notices that investments have been made in creating productive partner relationships. After a certain amount of time the CRM system is the only thing that remains in customer relationship management and usually this system is only used as a very expensive card tray. The traditional proces looks like this:

Effectiveness

The key purpose of customer relationship management is not to fill a central information system. To build strong relationships with (external) parties and increase its real and perceived value to them educational institutions adopt a different strategy. This is also the most effective route to grow towards partnership (see scheme below). Inducements that encourage better acquaintance with relationships that serve them usefully does not require a long start up period and can be initiated promptly. This gives an educational institution enough time to follow the learning curve: what can we improve to become a better partner for our 'clients'?

This leads to a different need for information and optimisation of existing working processes. This approach makes CRM much more specific and effective and the effects are more sustainable. Only when changes have been properly introduced and anchored will one clearly see where existing information systems fail to support the desired working method. That is the best moment for an educational institution to opt for a CRM system that optimally dovetails with the new working method. An information system only follows changes and can only act as support for recently learned behaviour. Effective changes towards partnership cannot be initiated from such a system: this is work of (intelligent) men/women.

The Board should direct customer relationship management

At educational institutions, introducing good customer relationship management is complicated. The educational institution contains a number of faculties with a diversity of situations, cultures and goals that should be respected. Initiation of a CRM-project could be done on central or faculty level. Responsibility for this important process cannot rest with merely one department such as marketing and communication or ICT. From a more strategic perspective, involvement of the Board is essential. General guidance activities too should take place from the level of the Board, to ensure the entire organisation is lined up and working together on its shared goals. Strategic customer relationship management that leads to realising short-term and long- term objectives of the educational institution should thus be welcomed, nurtured and protected by the highest levels of management.

Herman Heller has extensive experience in change projects in Customer Relationship Management at Dutch universities and polytechnics. Raymond Sparreboom and Janpieter Boekestijn contributed with their practical experience to this article.

Source: scienceguide.nl