A process for building successful customer relationships with international education agents : an Australian universities perspective

The aim of this paper is to explore customer relationship management particular to the business setting between Australian universities and international education agents. In a socially and culturally diverse setting, universities require effective tools to manage and enhance performance of the education agents whom they engage to recruit international students. No previous studies have examined the stages of relationship marketing development and recruitment performance enhancement between universities and education agents in the international education industry. A case study approach was adopted for this exploratory study, using multiple embedded units of analysis. In-depth, interviews were conducted with 31 industry experts from eight universities and 16 education agents to examine both sides of the relational dyad. Data were analysed using both manual qualitative data analysis techniques and Nvivo. The findings suggest that there is a seven step process flow to build an effective customer relationship with international education agents.