American University’s student services weren’t working the way administrators wanted. Students found the mix of offerings confusing. Too many alumni seemed lukewarm about their campus experience. So the provost decided it was time to blow it all up. "I said, ‘I’d like to start with a clean sheet of paper,’" recalls Scott A. Bass, the provost. "What would we do if we could do that?" The question of how a university can reinvent the way it interacts with students outside the classroom has led American to an unlikely source for inspiration: customer-service powerhouses like Wegmans, the high-end grocery chain, and the Cleveland Clinic, an elite academic medical center.