Research purpose: The main aim of the study was to measure students’ level of loyalty, advocacy intentions and perceptions of customer experience during service encounters with administrative staff of the North-West University.

Motivation for the study: Positive experiences by students on-campus can increase their satisfaction levels which will lead to an increased propensity for further studies, develop a sense of loyalty and increase advocacy intentions to promote the university to others.

Research approach, design and method: This quantitative research followed a descriptive research design. Self-administered questionnaires were handed out to 1295 students on the 3 campuses of the university.

Main findings: Students on the Potchefstroom campus show much higher loyalty and advocacy intentions than their counterparts on the Vaal and Mafikeng campuses. Overall the findings indicate that the students have very positive perceptions of the professional appearance of staff members, and also think that their personal information is handled in a secure manner. Male and female students did not differ in their levels of customer experience. European language-speaking students reported a higher level of customer experience compared to their African language-speaking counterparts. The customer experience levels of students in the Potchefstroom Faculty of Health Sciences are higher than students in the Vaal Faculty of Humanities.

Practical/managerial implications: It could be beneficial for the management of tertiary institutions to gain insight into the sources or factors that constitute positive experiences for students, for example convenient opening hours and ease of contacting staff by telephone. The training of newly appointed and existing staff could also be enhanced when they are sensitised regarding students’ perceptions of positive customer experiences.

Contribution/value-add: The adoption of strategies by HEIs to attract and retain students and render excellent services will result in loyal ambassadors who will demonstrate high advocacy intentions.

Since the mid-1980s the service quality sub-discipline became a very important and relevant concept in the field of marketing (Clewes 2003:69). Clemes, Gan and Kao (2008:315) are of the opinion that service quality is the most important contributor towards increased customer satisfaction levels. Gummesson (2002:3) posits that relationship marketing (RM) can be regarded as an extension of marketing based on the interaction within networks of relationships. Payne and Frow (2005) define customer relationship management (CRM) as a management approach that seeks to create, develop and enhance relationships with carefully targeted customers in order to maximise customer value, corporate profitability and thus shareholder value.

Customer experience management (CEM) is a closely related term to CRM and RM which is markedly receiving more attention, not only in the literature, but also by practitioners and market research companies (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons 2006:11; Frow & Payne 2007:89–101; Verhoef et al. 2009:31–41). It can be assumed that the CEM approach could lead to benefits for all types of organisations. Loyal university students, for example, could be a valuable marketing tool to promote and recommend the university to friends or family members.

Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons (2006:11) postulate that services are undergoing a transformation from the traditional concept of a service transaction to one of an experience. According to these authors experiences must ‘create added value by engaging and connecting with customers in a personal and memorable way’ (p. 11). Hence, it can be assumed that the achievement of acceptable customer satisfaction levels is a vital instrument for HEIs. Due to fierce competition, universities are nowadays engaging in promotional and recruitment programmes to attract and retain students (Yeo 2008:267).

The next section will provide a brief and concise overview of the literature pertaining to this study. The problem statement and objectives will be presented, followed by the methodology and a discussion of the results. The limitations of the study and suggestions for future research will conclude the article.

In the HEI context, Bolliger and Wasilik (2009:105) and Paswan (2008:288) contend that service augmenters, such as a strong and effective administrative department, will be a positive factor towards increasing the levels of students’ experiences, resulting in satisfaction and eventually loyalty towards the institution.

The historic work of Pine and Gilmore (1998:98) considers experience as a total new dimension of commodities, products and services. This view is supported by other authors (Arussy 2005:42; Rahman 2006:203; Verhoef et al. 2009:31) who believe that the creation of a superior customer experience seems to become one of the central objectives in business. Henry and Greenhalgh (2005:45) define customer experience management (CEM) as the management of the touch zones of customer interactions that take place during the customer lifecycle.

The concept of total customer experience (TCE) was introduced by Petre, Minocha and Roberts (2006:189), who claim that it influences customers’ perceptions of value and service quality and as a result affects customer loyalty. They also assert that this experience takes place in a multifaceted personal, public and educational framework, which influences the customer’s expectations, opinion and loyalty. According to Wadhwa (2008:8), TCE is not merely the improvement of customer service, but a radical change in the interactions with customers through added value in multiple channels and transactions.

Student satisfaction is a goal worth pursuing for HEIs, as it is ‘significantly and positively associated with recommending prospective students’ (Mavondo & Zaman 2000:787). Bolliger and Wasilik (2009:105) found that administrative issues can also affect a student’s satisfaction level. Paswan (2008:288) states that universities with strong administrative support systems can positively influence a student to be brand loyal to that university. Helgesen and Nesset (2007:38) posit that high levels of association exist between student satisfaction and student loyalty.

Table 1 illustrates the logic that a HEI that is committed to service quality will render services that are memorable, satisfying experiences for students who can become loyal ambassadors promoting the university to friends and family members (Frow & Payne 2007:98; Rowley 2005:574).

FIGURE 1: Service quality, experience, satisfaction and loyalty.

Studies on gender issues and gender roles are widely researched topics in a broad field of disciplines. A continuing stream of studies, covering a wide range of topics related to gender in the field of marketing specifically, are being undertaken across the globe (Kruger et al. 2013; Levy et al. 2012). Based on the Values and Lifestyle (VALS 2) segmentation approach the ‘experiencers’ (one of the identified segments) according to Babin and Harris (2012:116,119) are consumers of both genders who are impulsive and enthusiastic and who value novelty and excitement. Findings from a study by Dhurup and Mohamane (2007:72) to determine the relationship between administrative personnel (internal suppliers of service) and the research and development personnel (internal customers) within a petrochemical company indicate that male employees experience higher levels of satisfaction than their female counterparts in the realisation of service quality through cooperation, consistency and accessibility of services. Babin and Harris (2012:288) posit that value can be seen as a key outcome variable in the consumption experience. For example, marketers in India redesigned the Vespa scooter (the ‘Indian Vespa’) by adding a footrest extension to the left side because Indian women only ride in a side-saddle style (Babin & Harris 2012:181). This value-added feature enhances the customer experience levels of this segment. In the South African higher education context Wiese, Van Heerden and Jordaan (2010:153) and Lubbe (2013:337) investigated male and female differences in choice factors considered by potential students when selecting a higher education institution.

In order to determine students’ perceptions regarding their customer experiences and the literature presented earlier, we hypothesise:

H1: Significant differences exist between male and female students’ perceived customer experience levels.

North and Kotze (2010:21) indicate that ethnic differences exist between consumers’ perception regarding sources of shopping enjoyment, for example shopping to socialise and shopping for exercise. Wang and Mattila (2011:429) posit that consumers’ cultural backgrounds influence their service consumption experiences, including expectations and reactions to service recovery after service failures. Brand (2003:28) posits that much of the inequality and inaccessibility of HEIs in the past originated from class distinctions and discrimination based on abilities of students. Language can be seen as a barrier to access and success in higher education in South Africa, because most of the HEIs in South Africa offer their programmes in English or Afrikaans. Van der Walt and Brink (2005:824) contend that many South African higher education institutions offer their courses in English, with some offering core programmes in another language (for example Afrikaans) as a commitment to the particular community. Thus, it is hypothesised that:

H2: There is a significant difference between the perceived customer experience levels of students who speak European languages (Afrikaans and English) and students who speak African languages.

The three-campus model of North-West University (NWU) makes provision for 3 separate campuses with a rector and senior managers for each campus. In total, 15 faculties offer courses on the 3 campuses. From 5 of these faculties fewer than 50 respondents participated, and from 6 faculties between 50 and 100 respondents participated in the study. Therefore, for the purpose of this study it was decided to compare the perceptions of students in the 2 largest faculties, namely the Potchefstroom Faculty of Health Sciences (198 respondents participated) and the Vaal Faculty of Humanities (180 respondents participated). In the Dhurup and Mohamane (2007:72) study, differences regarding internal service quality were recorded between the employees from the Human Resources department and employees from the Science department. Hence, we hypothesise:

H3: There is a significant difference between the perceived customer experience levels of students enrolled in the Potchefstroom Faculty of Health Sciences and students enrolled in the Vaal Faculty of Humanities.

Hence, the broad aim of the study was to determine undergraduate students’ perceptions of customer experiences during service encounters with administrative staff on the 3 campuses of NWU. More specifically, the study focused on the following:

• To describe the demographic profile of respondents.
• To determine students’ advocacy intentions and loyalty towards NWU.
• To determine if differences exist between the perceived customer experiences of:
  • male and female students.
  • speakers of European (Afrikaans and English) languages and African languages.
  • students enrolled in the Potchefstroom Faculty of Health Sciences and students enrolled in the Vaal Faculty of Humanities.

This study could contribute towards a better understanding, awareness and application of the measurement of customer experience in the higher education environment.

Undergraduate modules were randomly selected from all faculties, and the researcher obtained permission from the relevant lecturers (for the on-campus programmes) to visit the lecture room during a contact session to conduct the research. Every tenth student (as they were seated in the lecture room) was then requested to complete a questionnaire. The programme managers of the off-campus programmes were requested to provide a list of all the study centres, facilitators at those centres, as well as the timetables for all the modules. Modules were randomly selected from all off-campus programmes and the facilitators were contacted. If they agreed to assist, the questionnaires and detailed instructions were forwarded to them.

The facilitators then assisted with supervising the completion of the questionnaires at these off-campus study centres, whilst the researcher was available by telephone to answer any questions or assist with any problems or uncertainties. Completed questionnaires were then couriered back to the researcher, coded and then analysed together with the questionnaires of the on-campus participants.

In this study, systematic random sampling was used to select the undergraduate student participants from all the strata. Ten different strata were identified and their sizes were obtained from the NWU management information system. Due to the marked difference in size between the different strata (ranging from 156 students for the school-based learning model up to 13 201 for the on-campus students at Potchefstroom), it was decided to adapt the sample size percentage according to the size of each stratum relative to the total population. For the smaller strata the sample size was determined as 10% of the population from the different campuses and modes of learning, but for the 2 largest on-campus strata (Potchefstroom and Mafikeng) the sample size was reduced to 4% of the population. The target population included 1295 undergraduate students.

The structure of the questionnaire contained a preamble inviting students to participate in the study and they were also assured of the confidentiality and anonymity of their responses. The first section contained 5 questions relating to demographic information of respondents. The next section contained a seven-point Likert scale (1 = strongly agree; 7 = strongly disagree) with 18 statements to measure respondents’ views on their level of customer experiences during service encounters with administrative staff. The scale was adapted from the work of Abdullah (2006:569, 576) who developed the Higher Education PERFormance-only (HEdPERF) instrument. This measuring instrument captures the authentic determinants of service quality within the higher education sector. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were utilised to test the unidimensionality, reliability and validity of the HEdPERF scale. The last section contained a four-point labelled scale with 2 statements to determine students’ loyalty (1 = not; 4 = very) and advocacy intentions (1 = never; 4 = always).

The draft questionnaire was pretested with a convenience sample of 15 undergraduate students of both genders and subsequently submitted to 5 academics. A few minor errors in the draft questionnaire were reported and consequently changes were made accordingly.

According to Table 2 full-time (on-campus) students on the Potchefstroom campus have the highest loyalty levels (84.4%) compared to 63.1% for the Vaal campus and 56.3% for the Mafikeng campus.

Table 3 provides an exposition of the advocacy intentions of the respondents. Marked differences exist between the high and low intentions of students on the Potchefstroom campus (94.3% versus 5.7%) and the Vaal campus (83.8% versus 16.2%). A relatively low percentage of students on the Mafikeng campus (53.1%) have high advocacy intentions.

Table 4 presents the mean and standard deviation for the 18 statements used in the questionnaire (Likert scale: 1 = strongly agree; 7= strongly disagree).

The overall findings for the 3 campuses indicate that students have a positive perception of the professional appearance of staff members (mean 2.32). They also think that their personal information is handled in a secure manner (mean 2.38). Convenient opening hours (mean 2.61) and being confident in their dealings with administrative staff of the university (mean 2.60) are positive perceptions. Surprisingly, the findings indicate that their perceptions regarding their requests for assistance (mean 3.43) and efficient and prompt dealing with their complaints (mean 3.32) were less positive. Marked differences exist between the perceptions of students on the 3 campuses (Potchefstroom, Mafikeng, Vaal) for efficient and prompt dealing with complaints (means 2.65, 4.05, 3.26).

The seven-point scale used for this study was adapted from Abdullah (2006:576) by using 18 variables from the non-academic aspects (Factor 1) to measure respondents’ views on the customer service experiences at the NWU. Construct validity was confirmed by subjecting the items to a confirmatory factor analysis using the maximum likelihood model for extraction and Varimax for orthogonal rotation (Pallant 2010:185). The KMO measure of sampling adequacy realised a value 0.969 and a p-value of 0.000 for the Bartlett’s test of sphericity. Only one factor was extracted explaining 59.8% of the variance. The factor loadings varied between 0.559 and 0.843.

H2 states that significant differences exist between speakers of European (Afrikaans and English) languages and African language-speaking students’ customer experience levels. The results indicate that speakers of European (Afrikaans and English) languages have a higher level of customer experience (mean = 2.5679; p-value = 0.000) than African language-speaking respondents (mean = 2.8741; p-value = 0.000). Hence, Hypothesis 2 can be accepted.

The results for H3 confirm that significant differences exist between students enrolled in the Potchefstroom Faculty of Health Sciences (mean = 2.7811; p-value = 0.000) and students enrolled in the Vaal Faculty of Humanities (mean = 2.3403; p-value = 0.000). Hypothesis 3 can therefore be accepted.

In this study differences between the experiences of students from different ethnic groups are reported. This finding is consistent with other cross-cultural studies on higher education (Clemes, Ozanne, & Tram 2001:15; Mai 2005:873). Wang and Mattila (2011:429) found in their study on service failures and recovery that East Asian consumers rate excuse explanations higher in terms of informational fairness than their Western counterparts. In this study, the overwhelming majority of students on the Potchefstroom campus fall in the group of European language-speaking group (Afrikaans and English), whereas the majority of the students who speak an African language are enrolled on the Vaal and Mafikeng campuses. Staff on the latter two campuses should be sensitised to deal effectively with complaints communicated by students, and be willing to customise and adjust the services to meet the needs of these students. Wiese et al. (2010:159) speculate whether results regarding ethical and language issues support comments by Higher Education of South Africa (HESA) that some institutions still have alienating institutional cultures. In an attempt to create a culture of inclusion, the Potchefstroom campus could embark on a strategy to recruit African language-speaking students.

The findings also indicate that students enrolled in the Potchefstroom Faculty of Health Sciences perceive the services rendered to them by administrative staff more favourablely than their counterparts in the Vaal Faculty of Humanities. The reason for this is not clear. It could be that the administrative staff on one campus are better equipped and trained than staff on another campus. Formal investigations could supply answers to these questions.

The loyalty levels of both the Vaal and the Mafikeng campuses are much lower than their counterparts at the Potchefstroom campus. The advocacy intentions of students on the Mafikeng campus in particular, are significantly lower than their counterparts on the Vaal and Potchefstroom campuses. Findings from a local study by Wiese, Van Heerden, Jordaan and North (2009:39) indicate that word-of-mouth from friends does not rank very highly as a source of information potential students consider when they have to make a choice regarding enrolling at a HEI. The reasons for the differences in loyalty and advocacy intentions between the three campuses should be investigated. It could be beneficial to investigate, inter alia, whether one campus has better strategies to recruit better qualified and more experienced administrative staff and lecturers. Alternatively, the management of relationships with alumni may be more established on one campus compared to other campuses. Formal investigation into these (and other) matters could possibly supply answers and propose solutions to improve the loyalty levels and advocacy intentions of students on the Vaal and Mafikeng campuses. Other HEIs in South Africa who have more than one campus could benefit from such investigations.

Overall, students have positive perceptions of the professional appearance of staff, think members of administrative staff have sufficient knowledge of systems and procedures, and are confident in their dealings with staff.

This study only measured perceptions of students regarding their service experiences. Although the SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985) is a highly debated measure of service quality, it is proposed that researchers in this area also measure students’ expectations of the service delivery of HEIs (Hoffman et al. 2009:167, 410). A large gap between expectations and perceptions is an indication of a service failure and this should be addressed to improve the efficiency of the service operation. Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons (2006:149) warn that a service failure ‘becomes a story for that customer to tell others’. In order to remain competitive, marketing and human resource managers at HEIs should offer training courses to staff including, inter alia, the following topics: management of consumer waiting periods, dealing with difficult customers (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons 2006:328, 333), failures and service recovery (Hoffman et al. 2009:441) and the role and importance of personal branding of employees to enhance the corporate brand of the HEI (e.g. dress code, personal grooming, communication skills and connecting with students by being friendly, positive and customer focused). Clemes et al. (2001:12, 15) posit that administrative staff of HEIs should be incorporated into the internal and external marketing programmes of universities. Future studies should measure the perceptions of students regarding service experiences in similar faculties, for example the Potchefstroom Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and the Mafikeng Faculty of Commerce and Administration.

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