University staff who are motivated, responsible and skilled in their service work need a special kind of CRM database system to support their empowered way of working. Carrying out their work with a ‘light touch’ amount of process support leaves them scope to deal quickly and efficiently with exceptions as they occur. In a StudentRelate process suite, part of the ‘correct’ action is in the hands of the staff member dealing with the student’s need. Because the student’s service needs are continuously evolving, departmental administration processes need to do the same. To avoid time-wasting delays, maintaining processes and screen views in the system needs to be under departmental control. StudentRelate is a special kind of CRM that does this. A similar package exists for commercial businesses.
Staff may also enter data as needed and not be forced to strictly follow a screen process that constrains them to carry out each piece of data entry before moving on to the next. This procedural type of ‘data-entry’ CRM is common in ‘corporate-style’ CRM implementations which are highly procedural, as in private sector work. This culture is difficult to implement in Student Services where unpredictable student situations occur and staff are working under extreme pressure.
For this empowered working regime to be effective there is a need for a departmental procedures and standards protocol document written by the team and for the team. Staff need to be working to achieve team goals and need to support one another to deliver on their departmental remit. Such a team will achieve productivity and service excellence standards that a process-constrained group never can.