In the competitive landscape of higher education enrollment, technology is reshaping the way admissions officers connect with and engage prospective students. The shift from traditional manual outreach methods to a more streamlined and efficient approach is crucial for the success of modern admissions processes.
Admissions officers have long relied on manual outreach strategies, juggling endless spreadsheets and investing valuable time in data entry and follow-up.
The result?
Disorganized data scattered across disparate locations, leading to potential inaccuracies, duplications and omissions in critical information such as contact details, forms and applications.
Modernizing admissions outreach and management begins with adopting a customer relationship management (CRM) tool designed specifically for higher education. However, the key to having a competitive edge is a CRM that is integrated into your student information system (SIS).
From the initial inquiry to a student’s first day on campus, maintaining regular and consistent communication with prospects is paramount.
An SIS that centralizes communications within the CRM offers solutions to streamline the process, including the automation of specific functions, enhanced reporting and analytics, and efficient communication channels.
Understanding How Admissions Uses a CRM
Admissions officers play a pivotal role in identifying and engaging the right-fit prospective students.
Their responsibilities include managing relationships with students, families, community organizations and business partners, overseeing recruitment areas, and orchestrating outreach programs and marketing campaigns.
Needless to say, it’s a lot to coordinate, but it’s also where a CRM shines.
Specifically, it helps admissions teams manage and store those important conversations on a student profile and shares the information among all users of the SIS.
Additionally, admissions teams can also use the CRM to address pressure points in the admissions process. It helps the staff record and track information on prospective students, logs all engagements, and triggers follow-up responses and notifications, including emails, texts, print mailers and phone calls.
The Importance of Integration
A CRM that is part of your SIS establishes a single source of truth, making information visible to all stakeholders across the campus.
Unlike standalone systems, an integrated CRM is built into the suite of features and lives in the same ecosystem as other modules within the SIS. It ensures real-time data exchange among different departments from admissions and the registrar to the financial aid office.
When admissions teams are working with updated and reliable information, it helps ensure that data isn’t siloed so prospects complete the journey to become students.
Enhancing Admissions With a CRM
Admissions officers, whether managing the process individually or as part of a team, play a crucial role in identifying, engaging and enrolling prospective students.
Their responsibilities include maintaining relationships with various stakeholders, attending recruitment events, and executing outreach efforts and marketing campaigns.
But for years, admissions departments have relied on traditional marketing and communications methods that are labor-intensive and error-prone, with no way to keep information centralized and accessible to everyone. Instead, everything is tracked on spreadsheets or documents stored on hard drives.
Obviously, these ad-hoc processes pose lots of problems.
Without reliable real-time information, it’s impossible to collaborate with colleagues or other departments, and difficult to communicate effectively with prospects.
In the worst cases, potential students fall through the cracks, important documents go missing and relationships are severed due to frustrations with the process.
A CRM revolutionizes how admissions officers operate. Think of a CRM as a hub for all admissions and recruiting operations, as well as a centralized database to manage prospects, enrolled students and organizational data.
With a well-equipped CRM, admissions can streamline and improve the admissions process in five notable ways:
- Informed Decision-Making: Data-driven insights empower admissions officers to make strategic decisions on marketing and outreach campaigns.
- Streamlined Application Management: The CRM ensures efficient communication and engagement with students throughout enrollment. Application fields can trigger automated notifications for the student to upload specific documents.
- Data Analysis: Admissions officers can research historical and current admissions data, providing valuable insights for strategic recommendations to senior leadership.
- Faster Communication: The CRM facilitates easy communication via calls, texts and emails, allowing admissions officers to engage with students requiring assistance during the application and enrollment process.
- Reporting and Dashboards: Generate weekly enrollment reports and create internal dashboards for comprehensive reviews.
How a CRM Improves Collaboration Between Admissions and Other Departments
At most schools, admissions is just the beginning of a student’s journey. The information collected on a prospect is also vital to other departments.
Here are just a few examples that show how a CRM fosters seamless collaboration between admissions and other campus departments:
Marketing
CRM data helps inform marketing decisions and budgets. Admissions and marketing teams can collaborate to develop targeted campaigns and marketing materials, assign and follow up on leads and facilitate mass communications.
Financial Aid
As students move through the admissions funnel, financial aid is a determining factor in making a decision. The CRM helps admissions work with the financial aid and business offices to determine specific aid for students.
Alumni
Because a CRM stores data on the entire student lifecycle, admissions begins the process of data collection that can be handed off to inform alumni relations or track career placement data. Admissions and alumni teams can work together to connect with family members and business leaders through the CRM’s integrated system.
The Bottom Line: A CRM Helps Boost Admissions
As the journey to enrollment becomes more dynamic, a CRM helps your admissions team to be more competitive and agile. It also positions your school to operate more efficiently and accurately, which can help boost enrollment and revenue.
An integrated student information system with a built-in CRM stands as the cornerstone of success, ensuring a seamless experience for both admissions officers and prospective students.
See how Campus Cafe’s integrated CRM helps admissions meet their enrollment goals. Contact us for a free demo.
