If you’re looking for trends, here’s one you can’t afford to ignore.
‘remember ME’ is the cry of todays younger generations (It is most often used by webpage designers as a checkbox when entering your details on their site – it means you don’t have to enter them again next time you come to their website). Not because they’re desperate to be remembered for their mark on the world, or even because significance is an important value. They want you to remember them for a far more pragmatic reason… because you can, and therefore why shouldn’t you?
remember – from a technology point of view, memory is cheap. Hard Drive space is cheaper than it’s ever been. To have 500 gigabytes of Hard Drive costs what I paid for just 800mb in my first computer. So space to remember is something that you’re expected to have.
ME – mass individualisation has become a norm. Hundreds of millions of cell phones covered by just a few models, but I dare you to find me two that are the same. You can’t. They have unique combinations of ring tones, wall paper, software, profiles, etc, etc. We’ve moved beyond appealing to the masses, to appealing on mass to the individuals, and it’s giving marketers a giant headache. ME is important. ME is critical. See ME. ME is unique. ME is different from all the other ME’s that are out there.
So why can’t I walk into a store and be told what I purchased yesterday, or last week, or last month? Why should I have to keep an old paint lid, when you can remember ME and tell me what paint I use? Why do I have to remember the brand of tomato sauce I use, when you can remember ME and tell me which brand I use?
Don’t think me absurd for suggesting this. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’re quite capable of remembering your tomato sauce. Because you’re already participating in this world. I bet you don’t know half as many phone numbers as you used to? You have a mobile phone that remembers ME. I even watched a friend driving with his GPS in his own suburb and follow the commands being read out, when it was quite obvious that he knew exactly where to go.
remember ME is not about ‘fat minds’. No, it’s about freeing up my mind to do other things. And anyway why should I remember, when you can quite easily remember ME?
(WordPress just remembered me so I didn’t have to scurry about for the foreign password it send me!)
Anyway, this is exactly what we need in Higher Education in the way we treat the student as our primary customer. Why should this student phone to follow up whether we received his fax and then have to repeat the whole subject matter of the fax to the call centre agent?
In the ideal situation, we should move towards a scenario like this: Student, identifying himself with student number: “Remember me?” Call centre agent: “Yes, I see you phoned your lecturer yesterday to inform him that the bookstore ran out of prescribed books for a specific course you’re taking. The lecturer has ordered books, they should arrive tomorrow. Anything else you need help with?”
Can you believe, students who have passed all their subjects and qualifies for graduation have to apply to our graduation office to be included in the graduation ceremony. If you neglect to do this, you will have to wait another six months for a graduation ceremony. Better get that application in, buster!
OK, I might be unfair, since I’m not working with the system. It is a control mechanism to not issue diplomas or certificates to students who want to continue their studies to degree level ,but still, there has to be a better way to not make this the student’s (as the customer) responsibility.
Revealing bit by bit to you of who we are and the tough job ahead of us. I’m sure you guys are up for it!
Barrie has fleshed this concept out more fully in this month’s e-zine: http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz/content/view/427/40/