Dynamics CRM Online as a Solution to Student Recruitment and Retention in Higher Education

Is Student Recruitment and Retention in Higher Education a New Problem?

Student Recruitment and Retention is definitely getting a lot more focus from Education institutions these days.  Education is becoming a hot topic in federal politics. All the political parties have been putting forward their own proposals over the last few months and the recently released Gonski Report has generated lots of discussion.  People realise that the surest way to impart a better standard of living to their children is through a good quality education and there are clearly opportunities for improvement in the current education systems in Australia.

Prior to the Gonski Report the Federal Government commissioned the Bradley Report in 2008 to examine the performance of Australia's higher education system in light of growing competition in the global market for skills and innovation.  In responding to the review the Federal injected new funding and a number of reforms.  The most significant of these reforms was the decision to introduce an new demand-driven funding model from 2012, to promote growth in student placements as well as increased student choice. 

Funding for higher education places would be allocated on the basis of student demand.  This gave universities the freedom to expand enrolments but they would also face increased competition to attract and retain students.  These new reforms combined with ever more discerning parents and students and Australia's Universities and Higher Education institutions are now being put into a position where they have to actively compete to get students and they have to actively work to retain them.  In a recent walk through a local train station in Sydney this writer encountered no less than 5 different advertisements on Billboards each from a different education institution inviting potential students to investigate their programs.

Why the Increased Interest in Dynamics CRM as a Solution to Student Recruitment and Retention?

In the last 6 months there has been a dramatic interest from education institutions in Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a solution to Student Recruitment and Retention.  The problem of Student Recruitment is further divided into the problems of finding and interesting potential students in university programs and then processing their applications (trying to ensure that the students that are recruited have a good chance of success).  The problem of Student Retention is also broken down into managing current student interactions effectively (treating them more as customers than students) and proactively identifying and working with students perceived to be at risk to take action to retain them.  Broadly then prospective buyers are looking to a CRM system to help them...

1. Recruit New Students;
2. Manage the Student Enrolment Process;
3. Manage Students on-going Interaction with the University to improve Service Levels;
4. To be Proactive in Retaining Students Considered at Risk;
5. Once a Student is an Alumni actively market to them for contributions. 

With it's preferential Education Pricing, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides Education Institutions with a cost effective method of addressing all of these scenarios with one system.  Each Application of Dynamics CRM would be considered in turn...

Recruit More New Students

Students these days use a variety of mediums to make a decision about which University or Tertiary Education Organization to invest their time in.  The majority of these mediums are digital.  Facebook, Linked In, Websites and Email are all key marketing tools which University marketers need to master.  Along with more traditional forms of Marketing such as information sessions and presentations and conferences and industry associations.  Dynamics CRM supplemented by a marketing tool called Click Dimensions provides the answer here.  University marketers can use Dynamics CRM with Click Dimensions to turn their web site into a lead generation tool, doing lead nurturing, lead scoring and using customized emails, EDMs and communication through LinkedIn and Facebook to provide the prospective student with highly targeted communications.  A number of universities have deployed Dynamics CRM with Click Dimensions to great effect increasing enrolments. 

Manage the Student Enrolment Process more Effectively

Student Enrolment can be a complex process.  Once you've identified the student you want to recruit and enrol there can be many steps in the enrolment process.  You want to make this process as efficient as possible thereby allowing your enrolment folks to spend more time evaluating which students to admit and reject versus spending most of their time chasing the requisite paperwork.  Dynamics CRM with it's Case Management, Workflow and Queue management tools allows your Registrar to automate this enrolment process moving the application to the right person at the right time with automated responses in terms of emails and automated follow ups when certain information is missing.

Improve Student Service Levels

Students interact with the University or Higher Education Institution almost weekly for a variety of reasons.  Many Universities employ the use of Call Centres to answer and address the myriad of questions students might bring up.  To improve services levels to your students in an effort to retain them it's important to having systems in place which provide you with a 360 Degree View of the Students and methods to easily answer the most common questions they may have.  These tools in combinations with an integrated self service portal for the Student means more efficient call centres with lower costs to operate and higher perceived service levels on the part of the students. 

Proactively Retain Students at Risk

What about the student who fails an exam, stops showing up to class or fails to make a tuition payment.  Clearly these students are at a high risk of dropping out.  The university has invested large sums of money in recruiting these students and getting them to walk down their halls.  It is clearly more cost effective to put action plans in place to try to keep them.  Universities are looking for systems that can...

• Alert the University for Students flagged at Risk;
• Provide information in a single location so that staff can easily understand the circumstances of the student;
• Ensuring accountability at the University for managing these High Risk Students;
• Provide processes and guides for the staff at the university to manage the students through their issues and to set an effective action plan; and
• Ensure that the action plan for the student is followed up on a timely basis.  

Dynamics CRM has tools and capabilities to address all these requirements.

Market to Alumni

The same tools used to Recruit Students can be used to great effective to market to them once they are alumni and encourage them to continue to support their school. 

Dynamics CRM Online as a Solution to Student Recruitment and Retention in Higher Education 

Dynamics CRM Online thereby provides a flexible, cost effective and easy to use tool for Higher Education to manage the student all the way through their student life cycle from recruitment all the way through to alumni management.  Being provided at the extremely low pricing that Microsoft offers in a hosted fashion (which makes it easy to deploy) it's no wonder that a number of Education Institutions are considering CRM.  The only question a lot of the schools I talk to have is where do they start.  If you have this question feel free to drop us a line at info@esavvy.com.au  


David Goad is the Managing Director for eSavvy – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Gold Certified Partner. eSavvy is an award winning Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner staffed by some of the most experienced solution and technical architects in the Microsoft partner channel. We build and deliver relationship management solutions based on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform for large enterprises as well small and midsize businesses in Australia.