CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., July 15, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Too many college officials still resist the notion that they are running a business and that their students are "customers" who deserve to be treated with more consideration. The result, says TargetX CEO Brian Wm. Niles, is further erosion of the public's view of the value of higher education.
"Colleges are notorious for putting themselves first and their customers second," he said. "One of TargetX's goals is to convince higher-ed leadership to focus more on customer service."
TargetX is a technology company that helps colleges build relationships with their most important constituencies, including prospective students, current students, alumni and potential donors. But the company is also known as a thought leader in higher education, a reputation established over 15 years.
The company's enterprise-wide CRM system is built on the powerful development platform of Salesforce.com -- the worldwide leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and a pioneer in cloud computing.
TargetX's advocacy for the student-customer mirrors the recent introduction by Salesforce of the concept of being a "customer company." Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says there is a customer revolution underway in virtually all industries. Consumers understand that they have the power in today's marketplace and they expect to be at the center of an organization's decisions.
Niles believes that expectation is especially strong in the higher-ed industry, where consumers skew to the younger side and are used to the customer-centric philosophy of such companies as Apple and Amazon.
"Colleges have to think differently about who they are serving," he told more than 150 clients at the company's recent user group conference in Philadelphia. "TargetX has always been committed to being a 'customer company.' Now we hope to convince the industry we serve to take the same approach with their customers."
For more information on TargetX, visit www.targetx.com
To learn more about Salesforce, visit www.salesforce.com