Case Study- Customer Research
“The Henley Experience” - a view from Henley Business School Founded in 1945, by business for business, Henley was the first business school i
n the UK and is one of the oldest and most respected schools in Europe.
An impressive full-service portfolio extends from postgraduate degree programmes to a world-renowned executive education offering, from cutting-edge research spanning a uniquely broad range of fields to specialist consultancy services.
The Hotel and Estate Services Department provides food & beverage, housekeeping, waste, energy, environmental, post, reception, switchboard, leisure, security, teaching room support, grounds and maintenance services. It has been using Hospitality Assured as the primary business development tool since 2003 and has experienced year by year improvement from an initial 67% to just over 80% at this year’s assessment. This achievement is highly regarded by the Business School and ranks alongside the academic success.
Over this period, the services team, led by Alan Brand, have worked closely with Hospitality Assured Adviser Philip Catlow and would like to share their experiences with HA in relation to Customer Research.
The core purpose of the Department is to deliver a World Class Service which supports Henley’s strategic principles in promoting the quality of the School and its learning environment.
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Everyone who uses Henley, whether student, staff, commercial client or visitor has come for a learning experience. What we deliver is not a commodity, but an experience, which is a combination of the physical and the emotional. We believe that, in line with Henley’s aspirations, we provide an exceptional customer experience, the “Henley Experience”.
Customer research is the first step on the journey. Unless we know who our customers are and what they want, we could well set off in the wrong direction.
Our customers are quite diverse. For instance, your perception of a student is probably quite different from ours. Our students tend to be experienced senior managers and board level practitioners, who have very demanding requirements in terms of service as well as a high regard for a serious learning environment. Our customers are global, necessitating an understanding of their culture so that we can properly service their domestic needs as well as their business needs. This year we have managers from 110 countries registered with us, covering every continent. Over 75 per cent come from outside the UK, and of those 61 per cent come from Europe, 15 per cent from Africa and the Middle East, 13 per cent from the Americas, and 11 per ce
nt from Asia Pacific.
Hospitality Assured has enabled us to focus clearly on our customers. For instance, we have established a World Class Customer Experience Team. Each month, the team focus on a particular aspect of the business, be it a part of our facilities or an aspect of service. They look at this through the eyes of our customers, - from “outside in” as well as from “inside out”, - picking up information from our various customer feedback programmes. This will include informal conversations that have been had with our customers. Each member of the team brings a different perspective to each aspect being considered.
We also look at what is happening with the competition – not just other business schools, but the sort of hotels and restaurants our “students” might frequent in their day to day life as well as the conference centres they might also use. Alan and Philip meet up usually once a month. They identify a venue that could provide a learning experience. Alan will stay overnight, Philip will join him next morning, and a major part of the meeting agenda will be what has been experienced and learned during the visit. Other members of the team will visit hotels, restaurants and conference centres as well as meeting colleagues at other business schools. The camera facilities on our mobile phones are great for recording the good, the bad and the ugly!
All these experiences are discussed as part of the World Class Customer Experience process – the objective, to ensure our passion for continuous improvement is dynamic. The proof is in the consistently great feedback we get about how we interact with our customers.
Our focus on Customer Research, is not just something we do if we have time, it is a vital part of the “Henley Experience”, thanks to Hospitality Assured.
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