A few weeks ago, the Washington Post had an interesting article “Freshman Applications to Selective Area Colleges Surge”. Or consider the UK market where applications are up by almost 20% according to an article in The Guardian “University Applications Reach Record Levels for Fourth year in a row”. For many people, this is no surprise. Yes, in times of uncertainty, an education can be viewed as an opportunity to make one more “marketable”. Students are increasingly becoming more discerning with their education choices and most are placing a higher weight on the Return on Investment a post secondary education provides… in essence their “outcome is income”. They’ve applied to more than one institution and are carefully evaluating all their options.
Considering the hyper competitive global education market, and the pressure on institutions to be more accountable to their varied stakeholders, it is clear that each step in the recruiting cycle be examined and scrutinized to ensure that results are fully maximized. Read More »
February 16, 2010 – 10:59 am
Today’s “going green” phenomenon is sweeping the nation and costing us a pretty penny while doing so; hybrid cars, wind energy, organic products, the list goes on. In the context of Higher Education, college and university recruiting offices can also “Go Green” and save money doing so.
Mercyhurst College reduced View Book printing by 50%.
How?
Mercyhurst College strategized when sending view books to prospective students and rather than sending a view book to every prospect, they only sent view books to students who demonstrated an interest in Mercyhurst. Their selectivity paid off! Not only did they reduce printing and postage by 50%, they also experienced a 7% increase in freshman enrollment. By leveraging their CRM platform capabilities, Mercyhurst was able to better identify key prospects. Instead of wasting time and money trying to reach out to everyone with print based materials, they intelligently focused their recruitment efforts on the prospects most likely to enroll. Read More »
January 28, 2010 – 11:09 am
As I said in my last Blog, the notion of deciding what CRM is or what CRM can do… is not easy especially in the context of higher education. Consider that when you Google “What is CRM?” about 21,000,000 results are returned. Yes CRM has been around for years in the commercial sector and has been criticized for over promising and under delivering… and for being over hyped and over priced. And no doubt much of that criticism is justified. And for higher education institutions… this is actually very good news indeed. Because HEI’s have generally been followers on initiatives like CRM, the mistakes of the past in the commercial market can be avoided (hopefully). A fundamental starting point then is defining what you want CRM to accomplish… both now and in the future. And it’s critical to recognize that CRM is a journey and not a destination. Consider a Harvard Business Review article; CRM Done Right. “A wide range of companies are successfully taking a pragmatic, disciplined approach to CRM. Rather than use it to transform entire businesses, they’ve directed their investments toward solving clearly defined problems within their customer relationship cycle.” Read More »
December 16, 2009 – 3:25 pm
Yes… alphabet soup for sure so let’s clarify. WHAT YOU NEED IS WHAT YOU GET CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT for HIGHER EDUCATION. So what does this mean? Let’s start with what’s happening in higher education… at least from a very high level perspective.
Today’s Higher Education leaders are facing dizzying change in the demographics they serve and the environment in which they deliver. They must provide higher levels of service demanded by an increasingly sophisticated, discerning, and tech savvy students. They face intense competition in a globally flat market. They must manage internal stakeholders, who are reluctant to embrace change. They must satisfy external stakeholders, who have increasingly aggressive expectations for institutional accountability. And they must do all of this with diminishing direct funding, while cutting expenses and tightening budgets. It’s a tall order! So… for today’s higher education leaders, operating in this environment on a “business as usual” approach will ensure one thing… institutional extinction. Read More »
November 23, 2009 – 2:28 pm
