The Academic as Service Provider: is the customer ‘always right?

Abstract The bottom line in academics feeling uncomfortable about regarding students as customers is the impression that from a marketing view ‘the customer is always right’. While Australian universities have not yet undergone a ‘customer care revolution’, it is important that educators and educational managers better understand how a marketing perspective can assist them to operate effectively within a market environment. Good service provision does not necessarily mean ‘doing everything the customer wants’ so much as bringing the expectations of the service provider and the customer closely into line. As an important first step towards doing so, educators and educational managers would do well to devote more attention to ascertaining just what the expectations of their customers are. The literature on professional services marketing distinguishes the professional service in question from the manner in which it is marketed. To be taken seriously in ongoing policy debates regarding the transformation of higher education academics might do well to develop a greater professionalisation as educators in addition to that as subject experts.