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Why Career and Trade Schools Choose Campus Cafe

A Robust Solution

See how career and trade schools grow their business with Campus Cafe’s student information system.

Career and trade schools have different technology and reporting requirements than traditional colleges and universities. These institutions benefit from a student information system (SIS) tailored to their unique student body and program requirements.

Campus Cafe works with many small and mid-sized career and trade schools. Find out how schools like yours can use the system to simplify operations and better serve students.

A recent survey among four career schools rates Campus Cafe’s system an average of four out of five for value and a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of nine out of 10. NPS is the likelihood that a customer recommends a company, product or service.

Career and trade schools rank Campus Cafe an average of four out of five for value. Campus Cafe receives a nine out of 10 Net Promoter Score.

“Campus Cafe offers everything. From admissions to enrollment, student account management, financial aid, attendance tracking and grading.”

– Kirk Schlotzhauer, Director

1. A Comprehensive System

While flexibility and ease of use are paramount for small teams, an integrated SIS that tracks the full student lifecycle helps career and trade schools bolster student success for nontraditional students.

Additionally, the cloud-based system ensures data integrity and helps career schools work more collaboratively between departments.

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“It is the main way that we recruit and register students, record grades and student progress, and keep track of students. It’s our admissions staff, it’s our academic advisement staff, it’s our tutoring staff, it’s our faculty, it’s our financial aid office, it’s our business office.”

– Ken Clough, Chief Academic Officer

2. Flexible and Adaptable Features

Campus Cafe is not a one-size-fits-all solution; we work with each school individually. The system is flexible enough to be adapted to any career or trade school’s unique program requirements – one of the company’s biggest selling points, clients say.

“The software is very robust and very customizable.” 

– Rudy Agras, EVP and Co-Owner

Triangle Tech is just beginning to realize the system’s full capabilities. Staff are implementing additional modules, including the student portal and online payments.

Clients also note that Campus Cafe is constantly testing and adding new features, underscoring the company’s commitment to meeting the changing needs of today’s career and trade schools. The School of EMS plans to launch online payments and an alumni portal to track placements and employment data for its grads.

See how our integrated student information system helps modernize your campus operations.
Our robust student information system has six integrated modules.

“Tracking the alumni is something that we’ve previously not had the ability or the time to do.”

– Phil Collins, IT Director

3. Expansive Third-Party Integrations​

Many career and trade school departments rely on specialized third-party software for billing or marketing. While Campus Cafe’s SIS has modules to perform those functions, some schools aren’t ready to transition away from those programs. That’s why Campus Cafe offers integrations with a range of third-party applications and programs.

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“One of the great things we liked about Campus Cafe is all the integrations.” 

– Ken Clough, Chief Academic Officer

Read the Full Success Story

4. Affordable Price Point

Several clients note that Campus Cafe’s system offers robust capabilities at the right price point. This value proposition is especially important for smaller and mid-sized schools with limited technology budgets and IT resources.

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“I think it provides a lot for the price. We’re not using everything yet, so we have a lot of unrealized value in the product that we’ve got to really gear up for.”

– Ken Clough, Chief Academic Officer

Perhaps most importantly for these schools, administrators say that Campus Cafe provides excellent customer service and technical support.

5. Responsive Support and Training

During the transition to a new SIS, comprehensive training and reliable, ongoing support are essential. As schools explore and expand their usage of the SIS, Campus Cafe also offers training for new hires and retraining for existing users.

At Triangle Tech, the Campus Cafe team spent several days training staff onsite, including specialized instruction on financial aid software.

Once schools are running Campus Cafe, the technical support team continues to offer assistance.

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Dedicated Account Manager

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U.S.-Based Help Desk

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Online Knowledge Base

At the School of EMS, staff are learning to use additional modules. Campus Cafe has visited for additional onsite training, and the school is now using more functions, including the admissions and finance modules.

“Anything that I needed to get done, [they are] always an email away, and it is so, so helpful.”

– Phil Collins, IT Director

6. More Efficient Operations

Campus Cafe clients report that the system helps their staff work more efficiently, produces more reliable data and fosters collaboration between departments.

For example, Triangle Tech uses the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module, which triggers notifications to students based on workflows the school sets up.

“Just the fact that […] it automatically triggers text messages and different outputs from Campus Cafe, and emails. That’s what you have to have.” 

– Rudy Agras, EVP and Co-Owner

Campus Cafe's higher-education CRM helps colleges manage prospects, students and alumni.

The School of EMS shares how a transformation in its finance department reduced time-consuming and repetitive manual work. Now the department automates group billing, resulting in increased productivity and reduced workload.

“This group billing takes so much manual work away from this lady that runs the finances because it’s such an intricate process the way we bill.” 

– Phil Collins, IT Director

Campus Cafe Hits the Sweet Spot for Value and Features

As career schools look to grow and streamline operations, Campus Cafe offers premium features and flexibility at an affordable price point. Clients are impressed by the extensive scope of services, and they laud the user-friendly features. 

Importantly, when challenges arise, Campus Cafe’s staff, including company leaders and the support desk, respond promptly and take extra steps to solve problems and find solutions.

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“The company is big enough to stay on top of technology and functionality but still small enough to be a partner. They’re willing and nimble.”

– Ken Clough, Chief Academic Officer