Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a phenomenon that describes the satisfaction of customers with a
certain product or service after consumption has taken place. The construct of customer
satisfaction is frequently used by organizations to understand how satisfied consumers are
with offered services or products. This helps organizations to optimize their service quality
and, thus, to focus its resources (time, money, employees, production process, and so on)
more effectively as well as to strengthen relationships with its customers (Anderson et al.,
1994). How customers judge service quality is mainly explained by the disconfirmation
theory, which compares expectations and experience with regard to the quality of a service
or product (Cronin & Taylor, 1992).
For marketers, the best measure of quality is customer satisfaction. Satisfaction, in this
view, is a function of perceived performance and expectations (Kotler & Fox, 1995).
Managers realise that satisfaction is determined by how closely an experience with a
product meets or exceeds a customer’s expectations (Stanton, 1994).
Customers of Education Industry
The institute makes the customer (read student) feel special and deals with the customer as
a matter of priority rather than as a secondary issue, less important than the undertaking of
other activities. The customers of management institutes need to feel this delight for them
to develop an on-going relationship with the institute. The other set of customers, the
recruiters, also needs to be delighted to come back to the institute year after year. Rapid
growth has brought with it much greater student diversity, not only in their socio-economic
backgrounds and age profiles but also in their goals and aspirations and in the strength of
commitment to degree level academic study. In India the university system of education has
been replaced by an upcoming and mushrooming growth in the number of private
management schools (Popli, 2002). It involves the institution studying the needs of the
target markets, designing appropriate programmes and services and using effective pricing,
communication and distribution to inform and serve the market. The salient features of
education in the new age are: an open and flexible system, direct and easy access to every
learner, a broad based and futuristic visionary stream of learning, edutainment and
infotainment and student-centred learning, that is more emphasis on insight and knowledge
than mere information collection, new knowledge with a personal touch and need and
utility-oriented learning.
Management Education
A large number of graduates are coming out of colleges and institutes every year, making
every job opportunity highly competitive and difficult to get. With job opportunities not
expanding to a similar extent, the majority of these graduates turn to postgraduate
education.
Second, many multinational companies, attracted by India’s ‘open door’ policy, adopted due
to economic liberalisation and globalisation, have recently set up branches and offices in
India. These companies, during campus placement and recruitment, have shown a
preference for candidates with postgraduate management degrees.
Third, several companies have raised the entry level qualification itself to post graduation
with specialisation in management. This is being done to ensure the availability of
candidates with better skills and knowledge and also to reduce the large number of
applications they receive for every job that they advertise.
Fourth, many students feel that a postgraduate qualification, particularly in management,
will provide them with special skills, such as good communication abilities, the ability to
work in a team, leadership qualities and exposure to current trends in business and
commerce, thus enhancing their employability.
These reasons led us to look into the student satisfaction in Management Education
Student Satisfaction
Student’s satisfaction can be defined as a short-term attitude resulting from an evaluation
of student’s educational experience, services and facilities. Earlier it was measured by
common satisfaction frameworks but later higher education specify satisfaction models
were developed
Student’s satisfaction is a short term attitude, resulting from an evaluation of a student’s
educational experiences. It is a positive antecedent of student loyalty and is the result and
outcome of an educational system (Zeithaml, 1988). Therefore, student satisfaction can be
defined as a function of relative level of experiences and perceived performance about
educational service during the study period.
Management education caters to two sets of customers: students and industry. Various
personal factors responsible for individual’s satisfaction cover age, gender, employment,
preferred learning style, student’s GPA and institutional factors cover quality of instructions,
promptness of the instructor’s feedback, clarity of expectation, teaching style.
Researchers identified quality of lecturers, quality of physical facilities and effective use of
technology as key determinant factors of student satisfaction. As well as, student
satisfaction in universities is greatly influenced by quality of class room, quality of feedback,
lecturer-student relationship, interaction with fellow students, course content, available
learning equipment, library facilities and learning materials. In addition to that, teaching
ability, flexible curriculum, university status and prestige, independence, caring of faculty,
student growth and development, student centeredness, campus climate, institutional
effectiveness and social conditions have been identified as major determinants of student
satisfaction in higher education
Students are important stakeholders in the quality monitoring and assessment process. It is
thus imperative that the universities providing higher education lay due emphasis on
customer satisfaction and quality assurance. Studies conducted in the USA suggest that
much of the research on course evaluation and performance information has been guided
by the notion that satisfaction or dissatisfaction results from the confirmation or denial of
expectations (Palihawadana & Holmes, 1999).
‘Feedback’ is therefore used to express opinions of students about the service they receive
as students (customer satisfaction). This may include perceptions about the learning and
teaching, the learning support facilities, the learning environment, other support facilities
and external aspects of being a student (Harvey, 2001).
Model
Basic parameters of quality can be grouped into three areas: quality of design; quality of
conformance; and quality of performance. For further detail refer Gitlow et al. (1995).
Quality of design
Quality of design deals with determining the characteristics of a product (i.e. goods and /or
services) or a process in a given market segment at a given cost. As you might guess,
marketing, operations, finance, accounting, engineering, statistics, etc. would be involved in
determining these quality characteristics.
Quality of conformance
Quality of conformance deals with how well firms and their suppliers conform to the design
requirements, including the cost requirement (uniformity and dependability). For example,
statistical quality control techniques are heavily used here.
Quality of performance
Quality of performance deals with how well the product performs in the market-place, i.e.
how well it is perceived and accepted by the customers. Customer satisfaction, sales
analysis, cost comparison (e.g. cost of quality) etc. would be some of the approaches used
here.
Therefore in case of teaching profession,
Quality of Design - classes in universities that form real, effective and meaningful partners
with industry
Quality of Conformance - Evaluate teaching effectiveness
Quality of Performance - Alumni/ employer feedback
This model is consistent with Juran’s Trilogy. The Juran approach and adaptations of that
approach have been widely used by those in new product development.
The quality of design, conformance and performance provides a disciple and structure that
helps improve the success ratio of new products. This disciple and structure will be equally
beneficial for the planning of management processes and procedures. The dimensions of
quality (design, conformance and performance) offer a college of business a framework to
identify research and operational improvement opportunities.
