Understanding Customer Needs
Changes are often made to benefit our students, staff or both. Hence it is really important to consider their needs when delivering change.
This website uses the term ‘customers’ to describe those people who will benefit from the change.
A customer could be any person or group who benefits from the change or initiative activity. At the University, this could be students, staff, faculties, school, service area etc.
* The Customer concept can include internal ‘process’ customers as well as external ‘paying’ customers.
** Refer to the Hints & Tips for some examples of each method.
*** Additional guidance on the KANO model is included as part of Prioritising Requirements.
DOWNLOAD the Voice of the Customer
Hints & Tips
There are a variety of tools and techniques to capture the voice of the customer (VOC). They can be divided into two categories, those that involve direct contact with the customer and those that don’t.
1. Direct Methods
- Observation of the customer
- Discussion or interviews with the customer
- Customer Surveys
2. Indirect Methods
- Speaking to people who work with the customers
- Creating User Personas
- Speaking to specialists