Determining the Criteria of Customer-Orientation in Education: Viewpoints of Students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Due to the intense competition that has dominated the world economy, providing additional services to customers and quality improvement are not considered as added value but as necessary and inevitable. Therefore, higher education, and focusing on customers, particularly students, is the main pillar of progress and comprehensive development of each country. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine the scores of customer-oriented criteria according to the viewpoints of students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. This analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted in 2011. Research community included all students in 7 schools of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Sample size was calculated as 384 persons. Data collection tool was a self-made questionnaire evaluated the four criteria of customer-oriented (student-oriented) approach. It covered customer orientation of the university management, faculty, educational departments, and the educational process. All assessments were made based on a Likert scale. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were also evaluated. Finally, using SPSS, independent t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed to analyze data. Score of educational departments (53.45) was higher than the other criteria. Faculty (50.27) and educational processes (46.12) had the highest level of customer-orientation. However, management had minimal impact (40.56) on promoting customer-orientation. Gender and level of education were significantly associated with most customer-orientation criteria, i.e. women and master's course had the highest levels of customer-orientation criteria. Since gender is considered as a determining factor in medical and health-related services provision, customer-orientation can differ in various aspects between universities of medical sciences. In order to improve customer-orientation, attention needs to be paid to student-centered activities.