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2008-09-14 BACK
Should Students be Considered "The Customer"?
Should Students be Considered "The Customer"? This article originally appeared in the Texarkana Gazette on September 14, 2008 Dr. Ed Bashaw, Dean, Texas A&M-Texarkana College of Business As I pen these words, a full parking lot at our campus and increased traffic on Summerhill Road signal the start of a new academic year. The beginning of a new year causes me to pause and consider such things as my goals, my priorities, and even my underlying philosophies. In today's column, I share with you my basic philosophy of educating business students as I begin my third year here as Dean of the College of Business. I should first confess my biases. I have seven plus years of business experience in sales and marketing. I earned my Ph.D. is in marketing after gaining this experience. I was a marketing professor and consulted with numerous organizations for twelve years. These experiences and my education form the foundation for my beliefs on the job of Dean of the College of Business. In the for-profit business world organizations must choose an operating philosophy. I believe that the best operating principle is the Marketing Concept. It holds that a business exists to serve the customer. It serves the customer by finding out their wants and needs, deliver a product or service that meets those wants and needs better than competing organizations, and in a manner that enables the organization to meet the customers wants and needs in the future (i.e., by being profitable). Organizations are said to be "customer-oriented" when they put this philosophy into practice. This philosophy makes sense. However, it is critically important to define who your customer is. In business, there is a growing belief that the term "customer" is being applied to too many constituencies or stakeholders. For example, many organizations refer to their employees as customers. This is a misapplication of the concept. Employees do not exist without customers. In addition, businesses try to deliver their goods and services with the lowest employee base that can still meet the customers' wants and needs. By contrast, businesses want the largest customer base they can profitably serve. So, how does this apply to the College of Business? I believe, for the College of Business, classifying students as "customers" is a misapplication. I believe our students are better classified as our "products", albeit a product involved in their own development. Further, I believe the business community to be our customer. The business community "buys" our product (business graduates) by hiring them into their organizations. Professors play the critical role of product developers. If hiring organizations believe the product meets their wants and needs, they'll come back and hire more of our graduates. I'm very sensitive to meeting the needs of our business community as they seek to improve the products we produce. As such, we are open to our customers' suggestions to improve our product. This is not to say that students aren't critically important – they are! No students – no university. Students are primarily responsible for the revenues that come into a state university like A&M-Texarkana. They pay tuition that goes into the university coffers that represents about 15% of our non-construction revenues. Additionally, state funds are tied to students. Specifically, the State of Texas allocates budget dollars based on a formula greatly tied to the total number of semester hours our students take from us. Trust me – students are the reason for our existence! Students shouldn't resist this classification. In fact, I believe their wants and needs are best met by them being seen as the product. By having our faculty inculcate them with the best thinking in business theory and practice that our business community, the customer, wants and needs of our student products, our graduates benefit from the higher likelihood that they are hired by better companies at higher salaries. This also allows our College and University to increase our ability to grow, expand, and create better "products". Does this mean that nobody in the University should consider students a customer? I think not. Most employees in a university have no classroom instruction role. These employees are charged with providing the students with services that enhance their experience at our University. Those responsible for student recruiting, financial aid, student advising, admissions and records, and building and maintenance must hold the view of student as "customer". I believe an essential role of the Dean of the College of Business is to engage the "customer" (business community) to determine what they want and need from the "products" we produce. Upon my arrival here in Texarkana, I set out to build relationships, on behalf of the College of Business and A&M-Texarkana, with the business community and the community at large. I did so by becoming involved in organizations such as Rotary, Leadership Texarkana, Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, the College of Business Advisory Council and several others. I continue to do so to interact with you, the business community and my customer, to better determine your wants and needs. I'd love to hear from you and get your reactions to these ideas and, more importantly, your thoughts about what you want from our student "products". Contact me at Edward.Bashaw@tamut.edu. Ed Bashaw, PhD Dean, College of Business Texas A&M University-Texarkana 903.223.3106
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Should Students be Considered "The Customer"?
Should Students be Considered "The Customer"? This article originally appeared in the Texarkana Gazette on September 14, 2008 Dr. Ed Bashaw, Dean, Texas A&M-Texarkana College of Business As I pen these words, a full parking lot at our campus and increased traffic on Summerhill Road signal the start of a new academic year. The beginning of a new year causes me to pause and consider such things as my goals, my priorities, and even my underlying philosophies. In today's column, I share with you my basic philosophy of educating business students as I begin my third year here as Dean of the College of Business. I should first confess my biases. I have seven plus years of business experience in sales and marketing. I earned my Ph.D. is in marketing after gaining this experience. I was a marketing professor and consulted with numerous organizations for twelve years. These experiences and my education form the foundation for my beliefs on the job of Dean of the College of Business. In the for-profit business world organizations must choose an operating philosophy. I believe that the best operating principle is the Marketing Concept. It holds that a business exists to serve the customer. It serves the customer by finding out their wants and needs, deliver a product or service that meets those wants and needs better than competing organizations, and in a manner that enables the organization to meet the customers wants and needs in the future (i.e., by being profitable). Organizations are said to be "customer-oriented" when they put this philosophy into practice. This philosophy makes sense. However, it is critically important to define who your customer is. In business, there is a growing belief that the term "customer" is being applied to too many constituencies or stakeholders. For example, many organizations refer to their employees as customers. This is a misapplication of the concept. Employees do not exist without customers. In addition, businesses try to deliver their goods and services with the lowest employee base that can still meet the customers' wants and needs. By contrast, businesses want the largest customer base they can profitably serve. So, how does this apply to the College of Business? I believe, for the College of Business, classifying students as "customers" is a misapplication. I believe our students are better classified as our "products", albeit a product involved in their own development. Further, I believe the business community to be our customer. The business community "buys" our product (business graduates) by hiring them into their organizations. Professors play the critical role of product developers. If hiring organizations believe the product meets their wants and needs, they'll come back and hire more of our graduates. I'm very sensitive to meeting the needs of our business community as they seek to improve the products we produce. As such, we are open to our customers' suggestions to improve our product. This is not to say that students aren't critically important – they are! No students – no university. Students are primarily responsible for the revenues that come into a state university like A&M-Texarkana. They pay tuition that goes into the university coffers that represents about 15% of our non-construction revenues. Additionally, state funds are tied to students. Specifically, the State of Texas allocates budget dollars based on a formula greatly tied to the total number of semester hours our students take from us. Trust me – students are the reason for our existence! Students shouldn't resist this classification. In fact, I believe their wants and needs are best met by them being seen as the product. By having our faculty inculcate them with the best thinking in business theory and practice that our business community, the customer, wants and needs of our student products, our graduates benefit from the higher likelihood that they are hired by better companies at higher salaries. This also allows our College and University to increase our ability to grow, expand, and create better "products". Does this mean that nobody in the University should consider students a customer? I think not. Most employees in a university have no classroom instruction role. These employees are charged with providing the students with services that enhance their experience at our University. Those responsible for student recruiting, financial aid, student advising, admissions and records, and building and maintenance must hold the view of student as "customer". I believe an essential role of the Dean of the College of Business is to engage the "customer" (business community) to determine what they want and need from the "products" we produce. Upon my arrival here in Texarkana, I set out to build relationships, on behalf of the College of Business and A&M-Texarkana, with the business community and the community at large. I did so by becoming involved in organizations such as Rotary, Leadership Texarkana, Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, the College of Business Advisory Council and several others. I continue to do so to interact with you, the business community and my customer, to better determine your wants and needs. I'd love to hear from you and get your reactions to these ideas and, more importantly, your thoughts about what you want from our student "products". Contact me at Edward.Bashaw@tamut.edu. Ed Bashaw, PhD Dean, College of Business Texas A&M University-Texarkana 903.223.3106
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