May I Take Your Order?

Certain organizations are renowned for their superior customer service. Harvard isn't one of them.

At upscale department store chain Nordstrom's, for example, employees routinely pass out free beverages to weary shoppers and their spouses. Similarly, low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines encourages its ticket agents to joke with passengers waiting in line to board a delayed flight.

But when it comes to institutions of higher education like Harvard, the suggestion that "customer knows best" might bring blank stares, if not sarcastic chuckles from top administrators. Indeed, this mentality that has won so much praise (and new business) for firms like Nordstrom's or Southwest goes against everything that the world of academia stands for.

Rather, these learning centers are imbued with the mentality that customer knows worst. Where else but in higher education could a business charge $30,000 for its service and then have the nerve to turn around and tell you who's boss?

But in recent years, many colleges and universities with less market power than Harvard have come to realize that students (and their parents by proxy) are becoming more savvy consumers of their education. With numerous schools each providing similar goods, competition for students has become fierce.

In response, some are building glitzy new dormitories and exercise facilities, beefing up scholarships and negotiating financial aid awards all in an effort to "sell" students on their institutions.

For its part, however, Harvard has been slow to join this trend. With virtually no threat of competition and a pool of applicants that could fill its incoming class several times over, Harvard has no formal incentive to be customer-friendly.

Yet as this service revolution expands in the field of higher education, even top-tier schools like Harvard soon will begin to feel the pinch. In the meantime, College and University officials ought to use their influence to make Harvard not only an academic leader, but also a "Nordstrom's" of the higher education industry.

To do so, administrators, starting from the president's office down, should take a lesson from the customer service successes that already exist on campus. Harvard Dining Services, libraries and computer services all draw consistent praise for the way that they treat their customers. Why? Because they solicit and give serious weight to student feedback, while at the same time empowering employees with the authority to make substantial changes.

Moreover, sour grapes employees who pepper some House offices, shuttle driver seats and other administrative positions should be identified and retrained in the art of customer service. Those who do not improve should be let go.

By encouraging this sort of customer service-minded culture to expand to every level of the campus, everyone gains. A happier and more content student body surely leads to higher alumni giving rate in the future.

This is not to say, however, that students have no role in the process. Customers cannot expect to be treated well when they treat employees poorly. This means writing letters praising good service in addition to those that criticize. It means asking more and demanding less.

Whatever the case, improving customer service must become a priority at Harvard, or it may soon find itself playing Filene's Basement to the Nordstrom's in New Haven or Princeton.