You Get What You Pay For…And the Same Goes for Education!
November 9, 2009 | Alicia Ostarello
When it comes to student services, does money matter?
I love many things in life–knee high polka-dotted socks, the way the distant roar of the freeway can sound like the ocean, buttered popcorn–but one thing I love and appreciate more and more is great customer service. I have never been a demanding or expecting person, but it seems that the service side of most industries has fallen by the wayside. I am increasingly noticing bad service when I get it versus good service when I get it, and there is an interesting correlation between the price of a commodity and how good the service is you get with that item. In other words, you get what you pay for.
On a small scale, consider buying clothes from Ross–don’t get me wrong, I love their prices, but the clothes don’t necessarily fit you all that well. Plus, their service is beyond awful. The line to get out the door is intense, the racks are hard to navigate, and they put their extremely sticky price stickers on places that are hard to remove them from, like the front of a fuzzy album cover or the pane of a picture frame.
A notch up from Ross might be somewhere like Forever 21, whose quality of clothing fit and cashier excellence is a little better, though they do warn you that after 21 days you’re never returning anything to them. And from there, probably Nordstrom, where people swarm around you asking if you’d like to sample perfume. With brands like Rock and Republic and Seven for All Man Kind, the fit of the their clothes is even better and the quality is higher, though the cost of all this glitzy fit is curving sharply upward.
Well, imagine taking this to an even more ritzy store, like Armani Exchange or Ted Baker. You are paying more than a pretty penny (and maybe more than a hundred thousand pretty pennies in some cases) for clothing at stores like these, and you might be wondering what the point is. Yes, the clothes fit really well and the people working there are beyond nice, offering you sparkling water to sip as you perform the odious task of trying on clothes. But darn it if a dress costs more than going out to a nice dinner with drinks seven days in a week. What are you really paying for?
Service.
I have a friend who bought a very expensive and very attractive, but still almost wildly expensive sweater from John Varvatos. Well, a week later a button on the sweater falls off. Frustrated, he heads back to John Varvatos, and a magical thing happened: my friend was recognized right away–the sales clerk remembered him, so my friend didn’t have to produce a receipt right away. Once the lost button was displayed, the employees did more than simply cluck their tongues and murmur about how this was unusual, they immediately found another sweater that could be shipped to the store. If that wasn’t enough, they proceeded to walk to one of the nicest restaurants in the upscale shopping center and buy my friend (and me!) dinner. You buy an expensive sweater from John Varvatos and a button falls off? They are going to buy you a really nice dinner. Service.
The same thing can be applied to colleges and the service they provide students. If you go to a big, public university, you are more likely to get poor service when you go to Student Services. They deal with all sorts of things, from sending off copies of official transcripts and dispensing career advice to handling issues with the ingredients of the food at the dining commons. Not only that, but it’s much harder to get your voice heard at a large university. Imagine you are upset that you cannot get the classes you need to graduate, there’s too much noise and confusion to really get your questions answered and to even consider having your needs met. It would be like going to Forever 21 and being frustrated about finding a rip in the seam of your new jacket–you could try to let your voice be heard, but there are so many other satisfied customers, and so much commotion and music and busy-ness, it’s doubtful anyone will even care about your problem.
On the other side of this is the land of private universities–a place that would be equitable to John Varvatos in this metaphor. Private universities cost what may as well be infinitely more than their public counterparts, but you get service from them that is unheard of at the public level. When you call the Registrar’s office, you get to speak to a live human being right away, instead of being filtered through a phone system only to be told everyone is at lunch. If you cannot get a class you need to graduate, you go to the Dean of Students (because they make the time to meet with you) and they’ll help. They do all this because they can, and because you are paying them a darn-tootin’ lot of money to give you this service. When your button falls off, they might not buy you dinner, but you might get some free ice cream.
I am in no way saying a private university offers a better education than a public university, nor am I implying that all public universities are failing their students when it comes to service or that all private universities are reaching the stars. In terms of context, I have been a student of a public university that rocks the free world with their service (the University of Oregon) as well as of a public university that continually has made me more frustrated than any human being should be allowed to be (San Francisco State University). In addition, I have been an employee of a private university that other schools should take lessons from (the University of the Redlands) and I’ve heard the numerous tales of joy and woe from friends. All signs point to the fact that you get what you pay for when it comes to service, whether it be in retail or in education.
