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Abstract

This article describes an innovative, hands-on approach to teaching customer service that was initiated at Purdue University's School of Consumer Sciences and Retailing in 1992. The course does not follow the structure of a traditional classroom setting. Instead, the customer service function from the business world is simulated for a university setting. Participants in the course are responsible for operating and managing a consumer hot line for their school so that feedback from students, faculty, and staff can be gathered. This feedback is subsequently processed with the help of a special computer program in order to obtain actionable information for university administrators. The implementation of this experimental course frequently proved to be a "sink-or-swim" (that is, problem-solving) experience. Therefore, in addition to a description of teaching method, course content, and evaluation, considerable attention is paid to the lessons learned from solving a number of unforeseen problems. These are especially relevant to marketing educators.

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Teaching Customer Service Hands-on: A Sink-or-Swim Experience

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