Not too long ago, higher education was a bit disconnected. Admissions teams constantly juggled multiple spreadsheets, each dedicated to a different task or student group. It was messy, time-consuming, and often led to inefficiencies.
Then, colleges began taking cues from other industries, adopting customer relationship management (CRM) systems to simplify and streamline these scattered processes.
Modern CRM solutions are flexible and customizable, designed to work across various industries, including education. An integrated CRM platform facilitates seamless information collection, personalized engagement, and automated responses, improving tasks like admissions, student outreach, and overall communication.
CRMs are incredibly powerful tools for organizing operations and maintaining smooth communication. Yet, surprisingly, not all colleges are taking full advantage of them.
Some schools still use outdated, clunky in-house systems or rely heavily on spreadsheets. Others are stuck with old CRM systems that aren’t built for the unique needs of the higher education sector.
Does this sound familiar?
What is a CRM for Higher Education?
Definition and purpose
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for higher education is specialized software tailored to help institutions effectively manage relationships with students, alumni, donors, and other stakeholders throughout the student lifecycle.
A student information system plays a crucial role in managing student data, improving communication, enhancing enrollment efficiency, and facilitating collaboration among departments.
The primary purpose of a higher education CRM is to act as a centralized hub for managing student data, facilitating communication, and enhancing the overall student experience.
By using a CRM, colleges and universities can:
- Improve student retention by tracking engagement and offering personalized support.
- Increase enrollment by streamlining recruitment efforts and automating communication.
- Build stronger relationships with alumni and donors through targeted outreach and engagement.
This integrated approach ensures that every interaction—whether it’s a prospective student’s inquiry, communication during their academic journey, or post-graduation engagement—is seamless, personalized, and data-driven.
Ultimately, a CRM helps institutions thrive by optimizing their student lifecycle management, driving growth, and fostering long-term success.
Importance of CRM in Higher Education Institutions
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are indispensable for higher education institutions. They enable colleges and universities to effectively manage relationships with students, alumni, faculty, and staff. By centralizing data and streamlining operations, CRM systems enhance student engagement and retention, which are critical for institutional success.
A well-implemented CRM system supports the entire student lifecycle, from recruitment to alumni relations. It provides a unified view of constituent information, facilitating better decision-making and collaboration across departments. This integrated approach ensures that every interaction is personalized and data-driven, ultimately improving student outcomes and institutional growth.
In today’s competitive educational landscape, investing in a CRM system is not just a luxury but a necessity. It empowers institutions to deliver exceptional support and services, fostering a more connected and engaged community.
Why Invest in a Higher Education CRM?
Ultimately, CRM systems equip you with the tools you need to improve the user experience for your applicants, students, alumni, donors, and staff.
You can store and manage individual information, configure workflows, and automate critical tasks. Here’s what it does:
1. Centralizes information
Your CRM should act as your first—and only—point of call for communicating digitally with applicants and students. Education data architecture is crucial in creating a cohesive and integrated experience for managing student and faculty data.
You can view information on specific candidates, have a bird’s eye view of the admissions cycle, and automate personalized emails. And that’s just the start.
2. Creates admissions reports
Without the right software, creating reports can be time-consuming at best and frustrating at worst. With A CRM, you shouldn’t worry about formulas and missing information because the technology can generate several reports instantly.
3. Boosts applications and enrollments
You can leverage the information in your CRM to nurture curious inquisitors into bona fide applicants and applicants into enrolled students.
It’s well-known that consumers typically engage with a brand about seven times before purchasing. The same applies to higher education. CRM systems enhance sales and marketing processes for outreach, recruitment, and enrollment initiatives, establishing touchpoints and automating follow-ups to improve campaign efficiency and reduce manual communication.
A CRM enables you to deliver a top-notch campaign through targeted ads, quality events, and customized communications—every step of the way.
4. Saves time
The time that used to be spent filling out spreadsheets and searching for mislaid information can be spent on other things, such as your marketing strategy or a recruitment event.
5. Allows you to evolve with student lifecycle management
Ever wonder where your leads come from? With a CRM, you can see whether an inquiry came from a specific ad campaign, an internet search, or a social post.
You can share this data across departments and use it to inform next year’s strategy. Where’s the biggest return on investment? Where’s room for improvement?
6. Enhances collaboration across departments
, A higher education CRM, often integrated with a student information system, streamlines collaboration among departments by providing a unified platform for sharing student data and insights. This integrated approach fosters teamwork between admissions, marketing, student services, and alumni relations, ensuring consistent messaging and support for students throughout their journey.
By enhancing communication and coordination, CRMs improve operational efficiency and enrich the overall student experience, enabling institutions to meet their community’s diverse needs better.
7. Transforming the student experience with better data
A reliable CRM system can revolutionize the student experience by harnessing the power of data. Institutions can gain valuable insights to deliver personalized support and services by tracking student interactions, preferences, and behaviors. This data-driven approach leads to higher student satisfaction, increased engagement, and better academic outcomes.
With a CRM, institutions can identify areas for improvement and optimize their processes. For example, by analyzing data on student engagement, colleges can tailor their support services to meet individual needs, ensuring that students feel valued and supported throughout their academic journey. This proactive approach enhances the student experience and contributes to higher retention rates.
Moreover, CRM systems enable institutions to allocate resources more efficiently, ensuring that support services are targeted where they are needed most. This strategic use of data helps institutions to continuously improve and adapt to the evolving needs of their students.
Features to Look for in a Higher Education CRM
A higher education CRM system should possess the following essential features to manage the entire student lifecycle effectively:
- Student information management: A centralized database to store and manage student data, including contact information, academic records, and communication history. This ensures that all relevant information is easily accessible and up-to-date.
- Admissions management: Tools to streamline the recruitment and admissions processes, including application tracking, advanced document management features, and automated communication. These help efficiently manage prospective students and their journey from inquiry to enrollment.
- Enrollment Management: Features to manage student enrollment, including course registration, payment processing, and financial aid management. These tools simplify administrative tasks and ensure a smooth enrollment process for students.
- Communication management: Automated communication tools to engage with prospective and current students, alumni, and donors via email, text message, direct mail, or phone call. This ensures consistent and personalized communication throughout the student lifecycle.
- Reporting and analytics: Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities to track student behavior, measure student retention, and identify areas for improvement. These insights help in making data-driven decisions to enhance the student experience.
- Integration with other systems: Seamless integration with existing systems, such as student information systems (SIS), learning management systems (LMS), and customer service platforms, ensures that all systems work together harmoniously and provide a comprehensive view of student data.
- Mobile accessibility: A mobile-friendly interface enables staff and students to access the CRM on the go. This flexibility is crucial in today’s fast-paced, mobile-centric world.
- Security and compliance: Robust security measures to protect sensitive student data and comply with regulatory requirements. This is essential for maintaining trust and meeting legal obligations.
What Are The Steps For Choosing a Higher Education CRM For Your University?
There are many ways you could approach the process of choosing a CRM. To a large extent, it’ll depend on your needs and existing procurement processes. Here’s one way of doing it:
Step 1: Assemble your selection committee
Before researching different CRM options, you must discuss what you want the software to achieve with your colleagues.
Whose input would be valuable for this?
Who you choose to join the selection committee will depend on what you will use the CRM for. For instance, will it be used primarily for marketing and admissions? Or do you require a college-wide application to manage the entire student lifecycle?
Don’t forget to invite admissions, marketing, IT, and student services stakeholders. Get input from the staff using the CRM and find out what they need.
Step 2: Outline your needs
In an ideal world, what would you want your CRM to do?
You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the level of functionality available today. First, determine which tools you use to establish your workflows, such as email marketing scheduling tools and spreadsheets.
Once you start researching features, you may encounter some you didn’t even know existed. Did you know, for instance, that some CRMs integrate with your payment modules, allowing you to eliminate time-consuming fee collection processes?
Step 3: Book demos and ask questions
At this point, it’s time to create a list of potential vendors and book demos.
CRM demos will typically take you on a virtual tour through examples of screens, dashboards, and reports. But you don’t just want to know what your potential CRM looks like or how much it costs—you need to know how it works
Here are a few initial questions you could ask:
- How does it differ from other CRMs on the market?
- What elements can I customize for my college?
- Does my IT team need to build anything?
- How long does implementation take, and what would it entail?
- Can it integrate with my existing systems?
- What training and support will you provide, and will it be ongoing?
Step 4: Establish an implementation timeline
Several factors will affect your implementation timeline.
One of the first things to look into is your existing CRM contract, if you have one, and when you can abort it. Another consideration is your historical data: when will you need to ensure it’s loaded to your new CRM, and will you have to store it elsewhere temporarily?
After speaking with your team, you might choose to launch a handful of CRM features at the start, or you might decide that the best way forward is to launch all features straightaway. Whatever your decision, be sure to set ample time aside to test your new CRM so you can resolve any issues before you launch.
You can also book a demo with the shortlisted options and see which suits your institution more.
Top 5 CRM Platforms for Higher Education Institutions
Choosing the right CRM platform is crucial for higher education institutions looking to enhance their operations and support the entire student lifecycle. Here are some popular CRM options tailored for higher education:
1. LeadSquared Education CRM
The journey toward enrollment is as crucial as the enrollment itself, and LeadSquared simplifies this process by identifying suitable applicants through criteria like age, GPA, interests, and course preferences. Assigning quality scores to prospects helps admission teams prioritize efficiently, saving time and resources. Additionally, its Flostack platform ensures timely engagement by directing late-hour inquiries to a microsite and assigning leads to available agents, enhancing responsiveness and boosting conversion rates.
2. HubSpot CRM
Hubspot deals with institutions with constrained marketing and software budgets and offers features such as email tracking, meeting scheduling, and live chat tools. Its user-friendly interface and free pricing model make it an attractive option for smaller institutions or those just starting with CRM.
3. Zendesk for Education
Zendesk is a specialized CRM platform that focuses on customer service for educational institutions. It offers features such as email, chat, phone, and social media integration, making it easier for institutions to manage and respond to inquiries from students, parents, and alumni.
4. Ellucian CRM
Ellucian CRM is tailored specifically for colleges and universities and offers features such as constituent relationship management, fundraising efforts, and support services. Its deep integration with other Ellucian products makes it a powerful tool for institutions already using Ellucian’s suite of solutions.
5. Pipedrive
Pipeline is designed to enhance and automate sales and marketing processes; it is ideal for institutions seeking to optimize their outreach, recruitment, and enrollment efforts. Its intuitive interface and powerful automation features help institutions streamline workflows and improve efficiency.
When selecting a CRM platform, institutions should consider their specific needs and goals, the features and functionalities required, the budget, the current technology infrastructure, and the level of support and training needed. By carefully evaluating these factors, institutions can choose a CRM that best fits their unique requirements and helps them achieve their strategic objectives.
Future-Proofing Your Institution with a Higher Education CRM
As higher education institutions evolve, the need for adaptable, scalable, and efficient systems becomes even more critical. A modern CRM system addresses the current challenges of recruitment, enrollment, and student engagement and ensures that your institution can grow and adapt to future demands. With features like cloud-based accessibility, ongoing software updates, and the ability to integrate new tools and technologies, a CRM ensures your college or university stays competitive in an ever-changing educational landscape.
By investing in a future-proof CRM, you’re setting the foundation for long-term success, preparing your institution to meet the needs of tomorrow’s students while maintaining meaningful relationships with alumni and stakeholders.
Conclusion
Implementing a higher education CRM is about more than just operational efficiency; it’s about creating a personalized experience for students, alumni, and staff. A CRM centralizes data, automates tasks, and provides analytics that enhance every stage of the student lifecycle.
The right CRM enables colleges and universities to improve enrollment, boost retention, and strengthen connections with alumni and donors. By choosing and implementing a suitable CRM, your institution can effectively tackle current challenges and seize future opportunities for growth and success.
