CDU is evaluating the perceptions gained by prospective students when making enquiries at the University and aims to benchmark this against the service levels received at competing universities and best practice universities across Australia.
CDU is seeking to develop a more customer centric business model in-line with the changing university climate. The results of the proposed research will form part of a broader CRM project and should assist in formalising expected service delivery standards into guidelines for all staff.
A research exercise will be undertaken in the next couple of months at CDU, which will systematically test the enquiry points of CDU and other Australian universities. This will evaluate the service levels being provided to prospective students.
The research is being conducted by an external (and therefore objective) research partner, based in the Northern Territory, who operates a panel of trained assessors across Australia.
The evaluations will cover all aspects of customer interface – ie. emails, calls and face-to-face enquiry types – and will be made to the main contact areas and faculties across the Casuarina, Palmerston and Alice Springs campuses. Scenarios will follow a typical prospective student enquiry.
The main areas of focus for the evaluations would be:
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Ease of the enquiry process (contacting the appropriate person etc).
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Greeting and interaction, including listening skills.
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Efficiency and capability in handling of prospective student enquiries.
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Timing of response to enquiry (redirecting of calls/response to emails etc).Where relevant, tracking whether follow-up is occurring (e.g. mail-outs, call backs etc).
Each evaluation will generate a detailed site report. This will include:
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The list of measures being evaluated for that particular type of enquiry.
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Yes/No answers to indicate if that measure was performed appropriately.
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Detailed commentary to support these answers and place them in context.
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Where appropriate, the scoring attributed to each measure, producing an overall score for that evaluation.
It is important to note that the reports will be used as a learning tool, not as a disciplinary tool. It is important also to note that individual staff names and/or individual job tiles will not be included at any stage in the reports delivered by the research partner to CDU.
The results will be used to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement in regards to handling prospective student enquiries across the University. These learnings will be incorporated into the wider CRM project and will assist in the development of standard guidelines for staff when handing prospective enquiries.
For more information about this project please contact the project manager, Penny Shirras on 8946 6625.