La discussion reproduite ci-dessous donne une bonne idée de la façon dont est reçue cette notion de client lorsqu'elle est proposée sur certains campus universitaires américains et anglo-canadiens.
Subject:
shared understanding of customer focus
Date:
Tue, 2 Jun 1998 09:39:53 -0500
From:
Joanne Robis <robisj@UWWVAX.UWW.EDU>
Reply-To:
TQMEDU - Total Quality Management in Education - Discussion Group
<TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
Our institution continues to struggle with the concept of
customer focus
and the term "customer." We've designed and delivered
some training to
faculty and administrative staff with "Customer Focus"
as one of the topic
areas and have been met with much resistance.
We'd like to know how your institutions have reached a shared
understanding
of the concepts of customer and customer focus, any word(s) that
convey the
concept without erecting barriers, and how you identify your key
and other
customers. Also, what actions have your institutions taken to
become more
customer focused and how do you know these actions have improved
the
quality of your institutions?
Our Quality Council will meet on June 9 to discuss how we can
make our
training efforts regarding this topic more successful and would
appreciate
your feedback before next Tuesday.
Thank you!
Joanne Robis
Assistant to the Assistant Chancellor for Administrative Affairs
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
800 West Main Street
Whitewater, WI 53190
phone: 414/472-1931
fax: 414/472-1518
internet: robisj@uwwvax.uww.edu
Subject:
Re: shared understanding of customer focus
Date:
Tue, 2 Jun 1998 10:06:48 -0400
From:
"J. R. Llanes" <llanes@panam.edu>
Organization:
University of Texas Pan American
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
References:
1
Dear Joanne:
This problem you describe resonates with me. Our faculty and the
K12
staffs I work with simply reject the concept of customer. They
prefer a
less powerful word...student, dependent, recipient. But it is the
power
of the customer that is important. I swtiched to client some time
ago.
There are still objections but a "client" sounds like
one who goes to a
"professional." The other question --who is the
client?-- has also been
one of our concerns. Look at an article on the web located at:
http://llanes.panam.edu/journal/library/vol1no1/llanesarticle.html
published in the International Journal: Continuous Improvement
Process
for a comprehensive descriptions of actors/clients in public K-12
education.
Let me know if I can help you.
J. R. Llanes
Professor, Organization and Leadership
University of Texas Pan American
http://llanes.panam.edu
llanes@panam.edu
Subject:
Re: shared understanding of customer focus
Date:
Tue, 2 Jun 1998 11:27:23 -0400
From:
Larry Erdman <erdmanl@RAPTOR.LMC.CC.MI.US>
Reply-To:
TQMEDU - Total Quality Management in Education - Discussion Group
<TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
The same question is being discussion right now on my campus. We
have
established a customer service quality team to review our present
customer service level and suggest additional action.
First big questions was who is our customer. There is a real fear
that if
we even use the term customer that we are going to turn faculty
and many
of the staff off. We have spent several meetings discussing how
we can
talk about customers, quality and customer service and never use
the terms.
I come into this discussion from a non-academic background and
find this
entire conversation difficult to understand. They are all our
customers:
students, parents, business, employers, etc.. Why does it seem
that it
has to be one or the other.
I also would like to hear how other institutions have been
dealing with
this question. There are some good references on the subject but
I always
love to hear from the people who are really doing the work.
Larry T. Erdman
Lake Michigan College
Benton Harbor, Mi
erdmanl@lmc.cc.mi.us
Subject:
Re: shared understanding of customer focus
Date:
Tue, 2 Jun 1998 09:31:52 -0600
From:
"Richard F. Flor" <rflor@UWYO.EDU>
Reply-To:
TQMEDU - Total Quality Management in Education - Discussion Group
<TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
>Our institution continues to struggle with the concept of
customer focus
>and the term "customer." We've designed and
delivered some training to
>faculty and administrative staff with "Customer
Focus" as one of the topic
>areas and have been met with much resistance.
Resistance seems to be the norm when using "customer"
(or, for that matter,
other "business" language)
>We'd like to know how your institutions have reached a shared
understanding
>of the concepts of customer and customer focus, any word(s)
that convey the
>concept without erecting barriers, and how you identify your
key and other
>customers. Also, what actions have your institutions taken to
become more
>customer focused and how do you know these actions have
improved the
>quality of your institutions?
By no means has the University of Wyoming even begun to address
this, but
several other experiences here and at other institutions lead me
to offer
these suggestions:
- brainstorm how and when students can appropriately be thought
of as
customers ("student as customer" -- when, how, why,
when NOT, how NOT,
etc.), AND, when it's inappropriate (i.e., acknowledging that
there are
limitations, as well as strengths, to considering this
perspective: e.g.,
it would be inappropriate to assume that "the
student/customer is always
right, and that we should be focused 100% on pleasing them"
-- rather, we
need sometimes to be able to challenge them!)
- likewise, explore the nature of "student as learner"
-- what are the
strengths and limitations of adopting ONLY this perspective.
Depending
upon the critical thinking and communication skills of the group
of people
engaging in this type of conversations, some potentially powerful
insights
can be gained
- grounding any discussion about quality, organizational health,
viability, or change in the core reasons/missions for being is
essential:
what is the mission of your institution and its separate
programs; who are
you accountable to; what are your economic/fiscal/social/moral
responsibilities???
- like much of the work I do in supporting organization
development, I
believe it's important to assess the degree of
"readiness" for engaging in
"deep talk" (i.e., problem/issue exploration and the
associated discussion
that necessarily must happen if you're going to address things
that likely
will lead to both individual and collective/organizational
reflection,
values clarification, and cluture change). I've attached a
document here
that might help you consider some of the domains of
"readiness" worthy of
consideration.
- lastly, and perhaps most important, is that there needs to be
STRONG
leadership, vision, purpose and MODELING (e.g., of how to engage
in
"dialogue" -- see Peter Senge's description of this!)
from the TOP!
Participation by top administrators is essential. Without this,
the only
other likely avenue for significant learning to take place is
through a
strong, organized, and committed group of influential faculty who
represent
some critical mass pressing for and providing leadership for
change.
Hope these few thoughts help. Good luck!
Richard Flor
Richard F. Flor, Ph.D - Assistant Professor
Leadership & Human Development
Teacher Education
Counseling, Educational Psychology, & Inquiry
College of Education
University of Wyoming
Box 3374
Laramie, WY 82071
(307) 766-6815 [FAX (307) 766-2018]
rflor@uwyo.edu
HOME PAGE --
http://www.uwyo.edu/edu/lhdev/faculty/FLOR/RFlor.htm
************************************
...though sometimes the road less travelled is rougher, it sure
beats following the masses into oblivion...
ubject:
Re: shared understanding of customer focus
Date:
Wed, 3 Jun 1998 00:33:11 -0500
From:
Keith Rhodes <KRHODES@ACAD.NWMISSOURI.EDU>
Reply-To:
TQMEDU - Total Quality Management in Education - Discussion Group
<TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
One of our faculty members polled students about how they would
like to be
named in our internal planning documents. Overwhelmingly, they
preferred
"students" to "customers." Given the complex
economics of education, not
to mention the other, extra-economic purposes of the University,
I'd say that
to want to "share understanding" and still insist on
"customer focus" is a
contradiction in terms. Quality management comes out of a deeper
philosophy than sheer customer service, so standing on this
"customer"
terminology just seems--well, not much like profound knowledge of
the
system.
Students are students. The focus of the University is learning.
Follow
the dollars to find how slippery and diffuse the idea of the
"customer" of
education really is.
Keith Rhodes
Keith Rhodes, -----------------------
English Department, Colden Hall |"Let us not pretend to |
Northwest Missouri State University | doubt in philosophy |
Maryville, MO 64468 | what we do not doubt |
660-562-1860 | in our hearts." |
krhodes@mail.nwmissouri.edu | -- Charles Peirce |
http://www.nwmissouri.edu/~krhodes
ubject:
Re: shared understanding of customer focus
Date:
Wed, 3 Jun 1998 08:07:19 -0500
From:
Joanne Robis <robisj@UWWVAX.UWW.EDU>
Reply-To:
TQMEDU - Total Quality Management in Education - Discussion Group
<TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
Two thoughts to spark some more e-mail thinking:
1) I feel that students aren't the only "customers" of
our regional,
comprehensive institution. I put "customers" in quotes
for lack of a
better term to use to identify those groups and markets whom we
serve, such
as the local community and employers who hire our students. The
challenge
at our institution remains to ensure that each employee of our
university,
whether faculty or staff, understands that there is a person,
group, or
market served by purpose of the work performed by that employee,
whether
that work is instruction, research findings, serving food,
answering
phones, or plowing snow. I'm interested in how other institutions
of
higher education are achieving this understanding among their
faculty and
staff.
2) The concept of customer focus, using the Baldrige Category
explanation,
entails how the organization identifies and addresses the needs
and
expectations of its customer groups and markets. Even the
Baldrige
Criteria for Education recognizes that the word
"customer" is unpleasant to
educators. Baldrige usually uses the terms "customers"
and "stakeholders."
I'm interested in how other institutions of higher education have
tackled
this concept.
What are the lessons that have been learned concerning the
customer and
customer focus? What successes can be shared?
Joanne Robis
Assistant to the Assistant Chancellor for Administrative Affairs
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
800 West Main Street
Whitewater, WI 53190
phone: 414/472-1931
fax: 414/472-1518
internet: robisj@uwwvax.uww.edu
Subject:
Re: shared understanding of customer focus
Date:
Wed, 3 Jun 1998 09:06:55 -0400
From:
"J. R. Llanes" <llanes@panam.edu>
Organization:
University of Texas Pan American
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
References:
1
I find the term "client" much more acceptable to
faculty although I
don't know how students feel about it. The clients of an
institution of
Higher Education are many and as is the case in k-12 districts
where we
have done some work, they are not evenly matched. See an article
we
published on the clients in a continuous improvement process:
http://llanes.panam.edu/journal/library/vol1no1/llanesarticle.html
We use the term client but never refer to them as such when we
address
them. They are "parents", "students",
"government" etc. We use the
common denominator only when internally discussing an improvement
approach or a policy.
J. R. Llanes
Professor, Organization and Leadership
University of Texas Pan American
http://llanes.panam.edu
e-mail: llanes@panam.edu
Subject:
Re: shared understanding of customer focus
Date:
Wed, 3 Jun 1998 12:04:16 EDT
From:
TQM1BOB@AOL.COM
Reply-To:
TQMEDU - Total Quality Management in Education - Discussion Group
<TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
Joanne:
We have developed a workshop that is titled "How to Build
and Analyze
Curriculums with Quality Function Deployment that Incorporates
the Wants and
Needs of Your Customers." At the very beginning we come to
an agreement on
definitions. Possibly these can be of help:
1. Process—all of the combined tasks or steps necessary to
accomplish a given
result.
2. System—an arrangement of persons, places, or things that
permits things to
happen. A system can consists of many processes.
3. Product of an academic dept. is a "educated
graduate." The product of
higher education is the educated graduate. The product of your
class is any
student who passes.
4. Customers are anyone who uses your products. They include
other faculty who
build upon the competencies from previous courses; employers or
graduate
schools who use your graduates; and society. Faculty are internal
customers;
employers are external customers; both are primary customers.
5. A student is considered to be a worker responsible fro his or
her own
learning and quality. A student can also be considered as a
"product -in-
process" or a member of the research and development team
who helps the
thought-leader (faculty member) to find better processes fro
delivering course
materials for active learning to occur. The student is not a
customer of the
faculty member. The student is the primary customer of
nonacademic areas such
as the bookstore.
Hope this helps.
Most sincerely yours,
Bob Cornesky
TQM1BOB@AOL.COM
Subject:
Re: shared understanding of customer focus
Date:
Wed, 3 Jun 1998 18:23:27 -0400
From:
Danielle and Wayne Burke <deburkes@ADAN.KINGSTON.NET>
Reply-To:
TQMEDU - Total Quality Management in Education - Discussion Group
<TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
My personal (as opposed to my institution's) belief is that
"publics" is a
better term. This encompasses far more people than simply the
students that
we serve. It also, in the marketing-public relations split,
identifies those
people, or groups of people, that are affected by the work that
we do, and
who affect the work that we do, rather than the "target
markets" that
marketers actively seek. I also prefer the "public
relations" orientation
because it deals with relations (which is multi-faceted) and
recognizes the
importance of reputation, image, and credibility.
In recent years my students and I have agreed to call ourselves
co-producers
of their education. I have worked hard to encourage [some would
say enforce
=;-)] this view. I use the "Four Pillars of Quality" as
my guidance in the
classroom: Continuous Improvement, Customer (hmmmm) Satisfaction,
Decision-making with Facts, and Respect for People.
I request and receive frequent feedback about teaching strategies
that I am
able and willing to alter and involve students in the appropriate
decision-making.
It is not always great fun but it is helpful and the students
really learn
to appreciate their role in this. A few can get difficult in the
"I am
paying your salary" mode but most recognize that in Ontario,
though at a
declining rate, taxpayers are paying the larger percentage of the
costs of
their education. The "who is the customer?" question is
not simple to answer.
I'm sticking with "co-producer."
Cheers,
Danielle
¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,
Danielle Burke, AND/OR Wayne 'Doc' Burke
School of Business Department of Geography
Kingston Campus Queen's University
St. Lawrence College Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
deburkes@kingston.net
¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,
Subject:
Who is the Customer?
Date:
Wed, 3 Jun 1998 01:48:47 -0400
From:
Tony Polito <TPolito@UGA.EDU>
Reply-To:
TQMEDU - Total Quality Management in Education - Discussion Group
<TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
Here is a sampling of quotes regarding who
is the customer of a university that may help
your June 9 discussion:
"It is the students, not their parents, who are any school's
prinicipal customers, and, simultaneously, its products, and
it is, therefore, the students who define the quality of the
school...schools have to adopt the same attitude toward
quality that is now being adopted by leading American
industries." -- Lloyd Dobyns and Clare Crawford
Mason, Quality or Else, 1991, page 221.
"Who are the customers of a university? Students,
primarily. Strangely, universities don't always treat
their students as if they are the customers. Some people
say that's the way it should be; after all, the faculty
has know-how that students don't yet have. To the
extent that's true, we say that makes students
"clients."
They're employing a professional service -- like a
doctor or lawyer -- and should follow the guidance of
the faculty. And, in return, the faculty sould listen
carefully when students express satisfaction or dis-
satisfaction with the service they get. " -- Co-optition,
by Adam Brandenburger (Harvard Business School)
and Barry Nalebuff (Yale School of Management), 1996.
"The customers for the education of the student [in a school
of
business] are several. They are, in order of importance: 1. The
Student, who must live with the product for the rest of his
or her life. The student must become the co-manager of the
production of the education, and having such a personal stake it,
must be considered first when attempting to define what it means
to have quality in their education." -- Myron Tribus.
==============================================
Tony Polito, MBA (Fuqua), Ph.D. Candidate (Terry)
G-6 Brooks Hall, Department of Management
Terry School of Business
University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602
P O Box 7906, Athens GA 30604
Home/Pager/VoiceMail: 706.552.7655
Office: 706.542.3751 Fax: 706.542.3743
TPolito@UGa.Edu
http://www.mindspring.com/~tonypolito/
=============================================
Whatsoever you do or build, no one will strive to surpass
or slander you unless your work is stamped with the seal
of genius.
... from a Cadillac advertisement titled "The Penalty of
Leadership," Saturday Evening Post, January 2, 1915.
=============================================
Subject:
Re: Who is the Customer?
Date:
Wed, 3 Jun 1998 08:18:35 -0400
From:
Larry Erdman <erdmanl@RAPTOR.LMC.CC.MI.US>
Reply-To:
TQMEDU - Total Quality Management in Education - Discussion Group
<TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
To:
TQMEDU-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
I don't know if I would agree with this rather one sided point of
view of
who the customer is. I work at a 2 year community college. A
large number
of students who are sent to us by local businesses for skill
updating and
retraining. So, who is our customer? Is it the student or the
company
paying the tutition fee?
Many of our students also come from low income families. We help
to break
the cycle of under employement. Is society then a customer since
they
also gain benefits from the education?
I think that the concept of customer has to be a fluid one. That
is part
of the problem that needs to be looked into.
There is another way to look at this. Is the student the raw
material for
the teacher? If edcuation is a shaping and learning process then
what
comes out is different then what is started with. In this case,
the
student can be viewed differently.
Larry T. Erdman
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