Nuffic customer satisfaction survey
04 Jun 2009
At the start of 2009 Nuffic carried out a customer satisfaction survey. The aim was to get a better insight into how satisfied students (incoming as well as outgoing) and staff of higher education institutions are with our service in general.
Questions focused on what determines whether these customers are satisfied, how they rate the Nuffic services and what their expectations and requirements are.
TNS NIPO carried out the survey that was both quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative part consisted of two group discussions with students (incoming as well as outgoing) and ten individual interviews with staff of higher education institutions. The online questionnaire, the quantitative part of the survey, was completed by 873 students and 459 staff members of education institutions.
General
The outcome showed that overall Nuffic does well in carrying out its tasks and is customer focused. Customers appreciate Nuffic for its administrative tasks and see the organization mainly in a positive light. This is clear from much-mentioned expressions like 'serviceable' and 'helpful'. The students and staff of institutions do differ in the extent to which they are satisfied about Nuffic's services.
Students
Ingoing students are by far the most enthusiastic about Nuffic. 'Clarity' is important to them: they want to know what to expect. Their satisfaction is mainly determined by everything to do with grant applications and information provision. These aspects are being handled well in their opinion and they think that should remain as is.
Outgoing students are also positive (Nuffic offers help, is important, useful), but they have more criticisms. Proactive thinking, support during a stay abroad, the time it takes before an email reply is sent and the user friendliness of scholarship applications are cited as points for improvement by both groups of students.
Institutions
Like the students, staffs of higher education institutions have a mainly positive image of Nuffic: reliable, competent and easily accessible. Nevertheless higher education institutions have higher demands of Nuffic services. This results in much more criticism than was received from students. Points for improvement are, amongst others, the extent to which Nuffic takes the lead and works proactively with the institutions.
The survey has made Nuffic aware of what its customers think is going well and where there is room for improvement. We will use the outcomes to further improve our service provision.