Abstract:

The paper outlines the specific features of the main customer groups in higher education including graduate and postgraduate students and their parents, local society, employers and other interested parties. Their comparative characteristics are being discussed such as the place and role in the relationship with the higher educational institutions and the perspectives of the further development, the diversity of their needs and demands. The authors show that relationship with the key customers in higher education differ significantly from traditional approach adopted in business and require implementation of co-production concept when the university focuses not only on the meeting the customer demands but rather on development of the atmosphere that promotes co-operation and value co-creation for the customers.
The paper also introduces the approach to the identification and classification of customer relationship management instruments through the definition of integral and specific goals of managing the relationships with the key customer groups. The authors introduce the broader view concerning the methods and instruments that could be recognized as the customer relationship management efforts including innovation educational technologies, outclass activities, student science clubs, grants and awards for the students and so forth. The authors conclude that customer relationship management encompasses all the level of the administrative structure of the higher educational institution and offer the classification types of the university departments and positions with regard to their degree of involvement in customer relationship management. The approach discussed allows to clarify the objects and the limits of quality management system, develop the personnel responsibilities and training in the field of customer relationship management.

Keywords:

Higher education institution, customer relationship management.