In our business building CRM for university admissions, we have seen a lot of alarming inefficiencies and poor processes within college admissions departments. Unfortunately, too many institutions still do not have the necessary software solutions that are required to adequately operate recruitment, admissions, and enrollment activities. Without a proper CRM for university admissions system, the left hand does not speak to the right, and nobody has any insight into the effectiveness of recruitment and admissions functions.
The following is a true story, but the names have been removed to protect the innocent and guilty alike.
Somewhere in the US, there is a large college system, with multiple campuses, that employs many undergraduate recruiters who are charged (pre-covid) with visiting high-schools in their respective territories in order to meet potential students in an effort to recruit them to the college. While the recruiters may collect the prospective students’ information, that data is not entered into any central system. Upon the end of the meeting, the prospective students will not hear from the college again because their information was not entered into a CRM for university admissions. The recruiter, on the other hand, can only hope that the prospective students will go to the college website to apply. However, if that even happens, there is no record or connection to the fact that the recruiters influenced the prospective students to apply. Furthermore, if the prospective students begin the application process but do not complete it, the admission personnel at the college do not receive any record and are unable to encourage the prospective students to complete the application.
If the colleges were to adopt a CRM for university admissions, they would be able to deliver a vastly superior experience. Upon meeting prospective students, recruiters could immediately enter their information into the CRM system. That would kick-off an automated communication plan personalized to the prospective student’s interests. All behavioral and demographic activities would be tracked in order to measure the engagement of each prospective student. Prospective students would apply through the CRM for university admissions and applications would be managed and tracked throughout the entire process, with automated reminders being sent out based on attributes and other triggers.
It is irresponsible for colleges and universities to ignore the need for CRM for university admissions. The challenges of working in a decentralized environment are only increasing, and the antiquated business process cannot survive. It is imperative that schools find ways to implement future-proof strategies around CRM for university admissions or risk losing everything.
Contact us today to schedule a demo of our CRM for university admissions.
