Cultural Challenges with CRM Implementations
Ken Barrett - Enterprise Service Desk Product Owner
Tribal Education Ltd.
Abstract
In today’s competitive and challenging environment for Higher Education, it is clear that there is a demand and expectation from students for a more customer centric and focused approach to education delivery. Allied to this is the need to positively impact upon the student experience and students across the globe are seeking a more helpful and proactive approach to a better quality of customer service.
Clearly, technology has a role to play as an enabler for Higher Education institutions to meet these student expectations and demands. But a technological implementation without a corresponding change in culture will not deliver the potential benefits. Entrenched ideas of roles and ownership can detract from a successful implementation. Departmental boundaries and hierarchical positions must be reviewed and addressed. Functional teams must co-operate to allow a holistic view of student welfare. Trying to fit pedagogy with customer services can be uncomfortable but a balance must be found to create a successful relationship between the institution and the student as a customer.
Ken Barrett has implemented the Tribal Enterprise Service Desk product suite in over a dozen UK Higher Education institutions and discusses the cultural changes that need to be addressed to implement any CRM system at a UK Higher Education institution. Ken previously lectured in Management Information Systems and Knowledge Based Systems and so has experience of the different facets of educational delivery.
Customer Services in Higher Education
in the 21
st
Century
§
To offer a step change in customer support Higher Education Institutions must move
away from departmental boundaries to a student centric model
§
Staff focus should be on developing a service from the student perspective rather than
managing the technology
§
Hierarchical roles should not preclude any member of staff from logging an enquiry on
behalf of a customer and have it automatically allocated to the correct team to progress.
§
A technological implementation alone will not achieve these goals without a
CRM – All things to all people
“Customer resource management (CRM) is a widely implemented model for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients, and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize,automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,
customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients; nurture and retain those the company already has; entice former clients back into the fold; and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.”
Source: Wikipedia
• The description of CRM is so general that each department or functional area will have completely different expectations of what a new CRM system will provide for them
• These expectations must be carefully managed
• If the existing culture of a department or functional area does not identify with the generic terminology used within a CRM they will have no buy in to the process and improvements will be minimal
No organisation has just one culture
“the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society:” Source: Oxford Dictionary • CRM systems in Higher Education need to support a wide variety of functional areas• These functional areas may have their own distinct culture and trying to impose a new one through systems implementation can alienate staff and impact on project success
Enquiry Marketing Student Administration Alumni/ Fundraising Library Finance Accommodation Student Services Post-Graduate Marketing
Enterprise Service Desk
Enquiry Marketing
SITS:Vision
Alumni/ Fundraising
Tribal’s Enterprise Solution
Unity Warehouse Builder & MS Reporting
Portals Digital and traditional
communications Library Finance Accommodation Student Services Employers Business Partners Joint Ventures Funding Bodies Charities Other Universities Employers Business Partners
Joint Ventures Funding Bodies Other Universities Post
Graduates
Potential Students Alumni
Post-Graduate Marketing
7
The Enterprise Service Desk (E.S.D.)
Enquiry
Management Base (FAQ’s) Knowledge Management Diary Management Case Harvesting Email Management Queue
MS Exchange Integration
The Tribal Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) solution is an enquiry management system developed specifically for U.K. Higher Education.
This suite of web based tools offers institutions the ability to effectively manage customer support across multiple departments, teams and functions.
With each implementation, enquiry centres are created and customised for particular teams to take in to account local culture and practice.
Case Study:
Enterprise Service Desk at the University of Exeter
"
Purchased ESD – September 2010" Live with ESD as a virtual ‘Student Information Desk’, covering 11 core,
central Student Services teams, 150 key staff users and available to our 17 000 FTE student population
" Exeter use: Call (enquiry); Case; Diary;Queue management modules and
the FAQ knowledge base
" Teams included are...
• Accommodation
• Student Finance
• Registry Services (includes UniCard, Exams, Graduation)
• IT Help Desk
• Multi Faith Chaplaincy
• International Student Support
• Skills Development
• Guild Student Advice Unit
• AccessAbility (previously DRC & Access Centre)
• Employability and Graduate Development -Career Zone
• Open 8 to 8 weekdays & 10-3 Saturdays in term time
• 24/7 enquiry management
§ Comprehensive online FAQ knowledgebase § Log an enquiry – online and by text
• Proactive and personal attention
§ Roving & visible staff - taking help to where students need it
§ Student Staff – a shared resource between SID and Career zone to represent the SSC as a whole § Queue management and E Kiosks
Ø Help comes to you - no finding a desk - no long queues
Ø Driver to continually improve processes and practice
Ø Monitoring and reporting of enquiry response through SLAs and KPIs Ø Rich source of management information
Ø Priority to extend SID to Colleges for academic support
A step change in student experience at the University of Exeter Customer Service Excellence
Student Information Desk – SID (Tribal ESD)
A clear vision from Management at the
University of Exeter
Enterprise Service Desk (E.S.D.) Institutions
E.S.D. Live Institutions
• Tribal Education
• SITS:Vision client Helpdesk
• Napier University
• Student Registry Services
• Wolverhampton University
• Student Registry Services
• Applicant Support Centre
• Staff HR/Payroll Support Centre
• University of Reading
• Student Services Centre
• Student Registry
• Kings College London
• Student Services Centre (Compass)
• University of Bath
• Student Services Centre
• Birmingham City University
• Student Registry Services
E.S.D. Live Institutions
• University of East Anglia
• Student I.T. Support Centre
• University of Bedfordshire
• Student Information Desk (SiD)
• York St. John University
• Student Services Centre
• University of Exeter
• Student Information Desk (SID)
• Kingston University London
• Student Services Centre
• Student Administration
• University of London – International Programmes
• Course Enquiries
• University of Birmingham
• Post Doctoral Research Enquiries
E.S.D. Contracted Sites
• University of Worcester • Student Services • Q.M.U.L. • University of Otago • University of Sydney • Oxford University
E.S.D. Current Implementations
• Sheffield Hallam University
• Student Services Centre
• Trinity College Dublin
• SITS Vision Support
• Registry Services
• University Campus Suffolk
A top down AND bottom up
cultural influence?
“Managerial imperative control or collaborative co-workers”• Can an improved culture be imposed from Management within a technological implementation? • Can a technological implementation allow functional teams to influence the culture of Management?
The Challenge of Changing Behaviours
• Any software implementation can be sabotaged by embedded cultural behaviour:
“I hated the old system but now I want the new system to work in the same way as the old system” “We tried that years ago… it didn’t work then and it won’t work now!”
Can we create a culture of
continuous improvement?
“KAIZEN” - practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes• People at all levels of an organization participate in kaizen, from the CEO down to janitorial staff, as well as external stakeholders when applicable.
• While kaizen usually delivers small improvements, the culture of continual aligned small improvements and standardization yields large results in the form of compound productivity improvement.
Future Culture Shocks
• University Mergers • Directorate mergers • Shared Services • Departmental Consolidation • Federation of Colleges• Partnerships with Further Education Colleges
Will your institution cultures and CRM systems have the flexibility to adapt to continually changing requirements within our sector?
