Description of the result area
Key characteristics of customer results are outlined below. See also the sub-site Links between results and activities to get additional information on implementation requirements.
Customer focus
Customer focus is one of the key characteristics of the EFQM Excellence Model. Customer orientation is essential in all activities of a well-functioning educational organisation. This requires identification of customers’ present and future needs. Products and services will be designed and developed in accordance with customer needs and expectations. An educational organisation needs to identify customer groups and take account of the needs of different learners, including those gifted and those in need of special support.
Types of customers
Customer focus requires an educational organisation to identify different customer groups. Customers are recipients of the product or service provided by the organisation, and therefore they are also the best judges of services and quality. Customers may be external customers operating outside the educational organisation, such as representatives of working life and companies, or internal customers i.e. customers of the organisation’s internal operational chain (process), such as students. Internal customer relationships exist also in support services. It is important for the organisation to determine and prioritize its primary external and internal customers as part of general description of its operations.
Educational organisations create added value for customers through co-operation and partnership networks. Excellent organisations measure customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction and use the results to improve their operations. They anticipate development of customer satisfaction by using various measures, such as monitoring absences of students. Organisations also respond to and learn from customer complaints.
Read more about customer focus in educational organisations
Processes and customer relationships
Processes of the organisation are designed in order to satisfy customer needs. Core processes are related to the implementation of educational organisation’s basic role, education. These provide services for external customers. Support processes provide services for internal customers. Support services support educational organisation’s basic role and may include administrative services, information services, canteen services, student welfare services, library and property maintenance.
Read more about process-based approach in the EFQM-model (LINK not fucntional yet)
Customer perceptions and internal performance indicators
Customer results include the monitoring and follow-up of customer perceptions (6a) and internal performance results (6b) both of which are used to analyse, assess, interpret and improve the performance of organisation and to anticipate the development of customer perceptions and needs.
Perception measures (6a)
Perception measures describe customers’ perceptions of the educational organisation and its operations. The starting point for customer satisfaction is that customers’ experiences should equal or exceed their needs and expectations. According to Grönroos (1990), for example, the satisfaction may be reviewed from three perspectives: technical quality and functional quality of services provided and the image of the organisation.
Surveys and interviews are carried out among groups of students, representatives of working life, teaching staff and support staff in the organisation. The satisfaction of customers buying services produced by students, such as student-run restaurant or shop, is also measured.
Student surveys are usually carried out at the beginning of studies, once every school year and at the end of studies. Organisations follow the perceptions of students on operations of the organisation in general and on individual processes, such as instruction, teaching arrangements, guidance and counselling and support services. Feedback is often collected on individual study units or courses too. Working life perceptions can be charted through surveys or interviews. Surveys may focus on the implementation of on-the-job learning or practical training period, co-operation between the organisation and working-life and on main outcomes of the organisation i.e. students qualifications and skills upon graduation. Satisfaction surveys can be targeted to internal customers too. Image surveys are carried out to obtain information about the educational organisation’s overall image and attractiveness to students.
Look at an example of student satisfaction questionnaire
Internal performance indicators (6b)
Customer-related performance results may describe areas such as learning outcomes, number of completed qualifications, completion of qualifications within normative time, employment rate by field, the image of the organisation etc. The number of students applying to the organisation (with priority choice) can indicate its attractiveness to students, whereas low absence rates of students may indicate good motivation of students. Students’ employment after graduation and the number of those completing a qualification, in turn, indicate the overall performance of the organisation's core process.
Look at examples of performance indicators