A Case Study: Communication in Tuition Payment Options

By Maria Davis Briana Delgado Carlos Estrada Daniel Dominguez

A Case Study: Communication in Tuition Payment Options

Introduction Many times through out the day we come across situations where simple miscommunication or a total communication breakdown has occurred. As students at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), this is where we pass a lot of our time, either in class or studying. But before we were able to get those privileges we had to register and pay for our classes. This is where we all encountered the Office of Student Business Services (SBS), whether in person on online. At SBS is where we found that a communication problem existed between management, students and the public in reference to tuition payment options. Through research of history, problem analysis and brainstorming we have reached solutions we believe will benefit all parties with better communication service. History

UTEP was founded on September 23, 1914, previously known as Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy. The original building in Fort Bliss burned down and was moved to the present location in 1917. The school became a branch of the University of Texas system in 1919. UTEP went through many name changes until finally becoming the University of Texas at El Paso on March 31, 1967. The SBS is an office of UTEP that serves to help students with financial assistance. It serves a prominent place on campus although it was unclear as to when the office opened its doors originally. The SBS is located in the Mike Loya Academic Service building. SBS helps student paying for tuition or other costs related items. Every student that attends UTEP deals with SBS either directly or indirectly. Matters such as financial aid and a variety of payment methods that include payments in person of cash or in check and online payments are handled by SBS. Exceeding expectations of diverse customers through services provided is SBS vision, according to their strategic operating plan. They not only help students but also state and federal constituents, and the administrators of the university. The mission of SBS is to work towards providing timely customer service and financial practices.

Mission, Vision and Goals The office of the SBS has five goals that will help them reach their mission and vision statements. Every goal is broken down into sub categories with steps to help them achieve these goals. The first goal deals with providing effective and timely service to customers. Developing a core internal workforce accomplishes this goal. Providing feedback, work groups and key indicators will help them to define performance. This will enable them to see how effective their services are. SBS provides professional development opportunities to employees, which is their second goal. The third goal of SBS is to improve their procedure changes that are effective and implement others to help them achieve effectiveness. The use of debit cards is an example that is given. Credit cards are a valuable form of payment that is quick and easy for those who need to pay in a hurry. Technology is essential now a day. The fourth goal of SBS deals with technology and different way to improving technological forms of payments. An example would be their online payment option. These methods of payment, gives a greater variety that allows them to open up to those who prefer one method over the other. According to their strategic operating plan SBS intended to implement a call center that would overall provide better customer service. The final goal is to apply solutions that will help with fulfillments for State and Federal mandates. Complying with the law is essential to running any business. An idea suggested was to apply a University Fiscal Appeals Committee. Enabling someone to know they have more leverage tends to make people feel as though they have a voice that can be heard. Overall it provides better customer service, which is the vision, mission and values of SBS. The Problem SBS at UTEP is one of the most important and busiest businesses on UTEP campus. It is in charge of any kind of financial issue between students and the university, and between any kinds of department within UTEP campus. This is why SBS needs to have the best communication skills in campus. The main problem that SBS is facing right now is the lack of communication between customers and the company, and the lack of communication between employees and employers. SBS takes care of approximately 22,740 students a year. Its actual problems

are the payment methods which changed on December 1, 2012. Student business services decided to negate the credit card payments at cashiers windows due to an increment in convenience fees charged to students for the credit card owners. This has caused a huge problem to the staff of SBS due to the lack of communication between SBS and customers. As one of the busiest companies in campus, SBS some of the times has a large waiting line, which irritates customers. After doing the line, customers not knowing that the only payment methods in person are with cash or check try to pay with a credit card and burst out in anger when they are unable to make the payment. This lack of communication problem affects incoming students that could transfer to other universities due to this unexpected change and the lack of organization. It also affects UTEP, SBS, and affects the enrolled students. SBS needs to find a way to communicate to every student and department that the only way of paying tuition in person is with cash or check, and that credit card payments are accepted online only with an additional charge of 1.90% of the payments. Challenges & Strategy The ability of communicating in business is one of the most crucial elements for its success; this is because without communication, companies wouldnt be able to accomplish any business operations. One of the most common errors that companies do is that they communicate well with its employees but they forget to communicate with their customers, or vice versa. In the case of communication problems there are inherent challenges in order to eliminate these problems, for example, Teamwork, listening, technology, and meetings. Team work is one of the challenges that will improve the communication in the workplace; this is because when employees and employers work as a team, by inertia it will create a friendlier ambience which will improve the customer service, or communication between customers and staff, and a better relation between employee and employer which will improve the production and the effectiveness in business operations. Listening is one of the hardest challenges because it is sometimes hard for employees to listen to complaints and to their employees. This lack of communication is caused because employees are not used to listen to complains or orders, and because

sometimes employers give an order in a threatened way, when this happens employees stop listening and this can lead to the termination of the job. Technology can help the improvement of communication inside and outside business, this challenge can increase the popularity of the business, it can make announcements fast and in a very easy way. The ways to use technology to improve communication could be the use of any kind of social network, Hotmail, voicemails, fax, or any kind of intranet messaging. Meetings are the easiest challenge because most of the times it will be between employers and employees only, this will be a fast method to communicate any kind of changes or goals. SWOT Through SWOT analysis, SBS strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats were analyzed and used in coming up with solutions to their communication problems previously mentioned. Strengths and weaknesses are considered internal factors, which can include resources and experiences. These factors can be controlled by SBS. Opportunities and threats are external factors, which SBS cannot control but can implement into its strategies. Strengths: The strengths of SBS include a very productive group of employees. With only eleven (11) full time employees and ten to fifteen (10-15) student employees SBS manages to deal with over twenty-four thousand (24,000) students, plus all of UTEPs faculty and staff. The overall reputation of SBS is outstanding. Weaknesses: The main weakness is the lack of communication between SBS and community. SBS lacks encouragement to students and public to use its web site. Opportunities: Opportunities that SBS can take advantage of is to connect with marketing departments to promote SBS web page throughout campus.

Threats: The threats SBS faces are that students may be disillusioned with the school because of the lack of communication. This could in turn affect student registration numbers through withdrawals due to finance issues. Solutions to Problems in Communication While the communication issues that we have talked about today are not of any significant issue, and by significant we mean issues that will lead the business fail, the solutions that we are about to propose are only to further improve the efficiency of the SBS. With a max of only twenty-six employees to serve the over twenty-three thousand students currently enrolled at UTEP, it is essential that SBS utilize its workforce to fulfill the tasks that they provide instead of dealing with upset customers over the lapse of communication. The only way for SBS to do this is to correct the problems that we have mentioned with the solutions that we list here: A survey for students who actually use Student Business Services. The survey can include general knowledge questions about Student Business Services, and also a detailed evaluation about the personal use of the services that were provided to them. By surveying students who go to use the services in person, SBS can then better understand the severity of the current communication problem. Posting notices in public will help Student Business Services in getting the word out about their present policies of payment forms accepted in person, and payment forms accepted online. They can put on these notices that cash and checks are the only accepted forms of payment when one goes to Student Business services in person and that if one wants to pay with a credit card, then online is the only way to do so. o They should also mention somewhere in the notice that if one is going to pay with a credit card OR debit card, that an additional 1.9 percent will be charged because of the newly instilled charge fee. The only way to save the 1.9 percent charge fee is to either pay in person with cash or check, or by going online and directly linking your personal bank account with Student Business Services where they will then take payment directly from the bank.

Making the Student Business Services website known to the public is another way of allowing SBS customers to be better informed about in person and online services that they provide. Prior to this study, three out of the four students in our group were absolutely unaware that SBS even had its own website. If Student Business Services made the student body more aware of the fact their web page, a big part of the communication problem would disappear. SBS would not even have to pursue advertisement in an aggressive manner because with due time the student body themselves will pass the word along. However, someone must get the ball rolling and therefore we suggest that they promote it by posting flyers and banners on college bulletin boards, putting a small ad in The Prospector, and running short videos on the Universitys own UTEP Today. o After the website is promoted, Student Business Services can then put a vast amount of information of the website that should include all the services that they provide. They should then put more detailed information about the more common services that are used like pay now, easy installment plan, emergency loan, third party payments, and guaranteed tuition plan just to name a few. In Conclusion Student Business Services is great organization that offers an invaluable service to

the students, professors, and administrators of UTEP. It is one of the most important and without a doubt the most used service on campus, as every single student who is enrolled at UTEP must go through them at some point. While Student Business Services already does an outstanding job in serving its university, it does have some small problems, as any organization who serves twenty-three thousand people with only twenty-six members will have. By implementing the simple solutions that we have suggested, not only can Student Business Services save themselves some of the headaches that accompany being part of the service sector, but they can also become more efficient and be better regarded amongst UTEPs student body.

WORKS CITED UTEP Alumni history and spirit. http://alumni.utep.edu/page.aspx?pid=405

UTEP Student Business Services http://sbs.utep.edu/index.php/en/component/content/article/84-static-pages/146-about

http://admin.utep.edu/LinkClick.aspx?link=Strategic+Plans+08%2FFinancial%2FSBS+O perating+Plan+2008-09.pdf&tabid=43132&mid=113090

Gonzalez, Juan, Director of Student Business Services juang@utep.edu

Renault, Val. SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats http://ctb.ku.edu SWOT Analysis. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm