The Education UK Partnership Team

I have previously worked in the International Marketing and Development Offices at Cardiff University, University of Wales, Institute Cardiff (UWIC) and Bangor University.  During my time at each of these institutions I engaged a great deal with the Partnership as a customer and so it is has been interesting for me to move across and see firsthand customer service from the other side. My main responsibilities within the Partnership include membership of the Leadership team; devising a Partnership Communications Strategic Plan; co-ordinating and overseeing all Partnership external and internal communication vehicles; helping to review, promote and develop the Partnership Menu of Services; contributing to Boarding Schools member acquisition strategy.

Martyn

Hi,

I’m Sara and I work as an Events and Partnership Officer in the Education UK Partnership team. I’ve been in this role for just over a year and my main responsibilities are exhibitions in Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and UAE as well as assisting with the delivery of the new services for Boarding Schools.

The blog this week has provided a good platform for debate and it has been interesting to read examples of good and bad customer service. I hope in the next two days more of you will share your experiences with the team and it would be interesting to know how important customer service is to you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Hi,

I’ve been with the Education UK Partnership team for almost a year now as Partnership and Events officer. Amongst other activities I coordinate exhibitions in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Taiwan, Malaysia and Russia.

I happen to have a book on my desk called ‘Perfect Phrases for Customer Service’. And in celebration of customer services week, I would like to share with you a small extract.

“The Customer is Always right’ – Dispelling the Myth

Clearly the customer is not always right. Customers make unreasonable requests and sometimes have unreasonable expectations. Customers may not understand your company or what you can or can’t do for them.

Practically speaking, you can’t operate under the assumption that the customer is always right and you can’t always give each customer what he or she asks for.

So can we come up with a phrase or two that realistically describe how we should treat customers? Yes.

- The customer always deserves to be treated as if he or she is important and his or her opinions, needs, and wants are worthy of listening to.

- The customer deserves to receive maximum effort on the part of those serving him or her, even when the customer’s expectations, wants and needs may be impractical.”

I think the above phrases are pretty good because they imply that although we sometimes can’t do what the customer asks, we can contribute to the customer’s development of a positive impression of our business or organisation. I would add to this that if customers do not fully understand our business and what we can and can’t do for them, then it is our responsibility to ensure that the details of the services or products we offer are communicated well so expectations are managed effectively.

What do you think?

Having just attended a customer service week ‘power hour’ entitled ‘Ow, Wow. Ok for Now’, I thought it would be appropriate to share my experiences with you all. Within the one hour workshop we discussed customer service standards across the British Council and looked at various external companies, categorising them into groups depending on whether they offer a ‘wow’, ‘ow’ or ‘ok’ service. It was interesting to hear other peoples experiences of various companies and where one person would see them as a ‘wow’ others see them as an ‘ow’.

One of the main points which came out of all the group tasks was inconsistency in service, which ultimately results in a poor service overall. The only companies that did manage to reach the ‘wow’ section were consistent with their service. Interestingly Amazon was the only company that reached the ‘wow’ section for all groups in the room, due to their personalised and consistent standards. Who would you put forward as a ‘wow’ company or organisation?

Paula

Hi

I’m Sarah and I’ve been with the team since April. I work mostly with boarding schools, but also with wider Partnership activities, and although there is still lots to learn, I really enjoy the varied and challenging work we do here.

My primary focus at the moment is  planning for the next International Agents Fair and Seminar for boarding schools, which is to be held next April.  As part of the preparation for this, I will be visiting some of our member schools over the next few weeks, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the marketing tools we provide to members are used on a day to day basis in their institutions.

I hope that we will all learn something new about customer service this week, and find some time to celebrate the good work that already goes on! I look forward to hearing some of your experiences of good (or bad!) customer service.

Best wishes

Sarah

I’m Chris Brooks and I work as a Partnership Relations and Services Manager in the Education UK Partnership Team in Manchester. I have been here a relatively short time, but have so far gained a great deal from learning about the diverse work of the partnership and in particular learning about the requirements of the various sectors that we engage with.

As in my previous lives I have worked for the London School of Economics and with various HE institutions, FE Colleges and schools within Yorkshire, I have some sort of idea of the organisation and commitment that is involved with international student arrivals at this time of year, so I take my hat off to you all and the hard work that is being put in! In particular dealing with a myriad of cultures and meeting an array of expectations is sure to be extremely complex, and over the years I have seen the orientation programmes become more focused and without a doubt enable students to settle better, at what can be an unsettling time.

I look forward to meeting many of you at the conference later in the year!

Chris

I am sorry to say that I will be missing out on most of the activities as mid week I am going overseas. In particular I was looking forward to Thursday when we are having an exchange of team members with Salford University. However I am looking forwarding to catching up with the blog, as and when I can get access.

Regards

Arlene

The running theme of the week is ‘What makes good (or bad!) customer service?’. Look out for the first post on Monday 5 October.

To comment on a post, simply follow the ‘comments’ link at the bottom of the post. If you are having any problems, please contact us and a member of the team will help you.

You can also post a related topic yourself – to do so, please contact Chris at chris.brooks@britishcouncil.org.

See you next week!