IMPERIAL COLLEGE RANKED #3, #5 AND #7 BEST UNIVERSITY - SO WHICH CRM DO THEY USE?

“It’s a solid and affordable option for those looking to get their CRM activities up and running without extensive development work. It is easy to set up and use and continually being built upon and developed, and customer support is excellent." - Ryan Abbt, Customer Relationship Management Officer, Imperial College, London.

This consistently high-performing UK university uses Student CRM for their student recruitment.

Imperial College, London is ranked #3 (Times Higher Education), #5 (Complete University Guide) and #7 (Guardian) in 2020.

Using Google Meet

We use Google Meet for phone calls and screen sharing. Usually, we are on a laptop and we can talk and share our screen with anybody with our Google Meet Link (you will be emailed a Google Meet link that you open in your web browser).

You choose whether to allow Google Meet to access your PC’s camera as well as your microphone. Bad hair day? Just microphone is OK :)

No downloads are required. It is very simple and free. See you there.

18 most common university web forms

• Applicant Days

• Auditions

• Campus Tours

• Conversations with Enquirers

• Enquirer Satisfaction Feedback

• Evening Events

• Interviews

• Newsletter sign-ups

• Open Days

• Open Evenings

• Parents Evenings

• Postgraduate nights

• Prospectus Requests

• Register your interest (prospectus still being printed)

• School Group Bookings

• Surveys

• Taster Days

• Webinars

Our Web Form Manager app is where you get to build the forms you need to improve your student recruitment results, like this Open Evenings booking form for City:

Open Evenings form by City, University of London

Video: Tracking student enquiries from Facebook and Twitter

University marketing is expensive; by only using anonymous visitor tracking* do you really know how effective it is?

Student CRM's UTM tracker removes the anonymity and connects your marketing to an individual student which means that you can see a list of every student who clicked through from Facebook**. You can now calculate the conversion rate from a Facebook enquiry to an application.

*Google Analytics can only show you anonymous visitors, not real students.

**Not just Facebook, Student CRM also tracks leads created from YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter, WeChat, LinkedIn, Instagram and all other social media channels.

Using your university CRM during Clearing

We all know that Clearing is a stressful time - for you, for the students you’re trying to help, for everyone involved. That’s why Student CRM’s Customer Support team puts your mind at rest.

Be prepared: checking your Wants before they become Needs

We might not be able to pass the tissues, but we can support you in other ways. By discussing your Clearing activities with us early on, we’ll know where, when and how best to allocate resources. Need a form change rushed through, or some advice on a complicated setup? We’ll have the right people in place at the right time to get it all done. So on the day, all you need to focus on is getting that placement for a student who will change the world.

Availability outside normal hours

Got an urgent question on Saturday morning? Brain a bit frazzled at 7pm on Monday? Don’t worry - not only is brain-fade normal, but there is someone here in our offices to answer any questions about the system that your frazzled self needs to ask.

DND: No New Launches over Clearing

Seems like a no-brainer, huh? Don’t do anything that could impact the functionality of a system during an important peak time. And yet many companies still seem to do it, like a commerce site amending an order form during the Christmas run-up. That’s why we’ve made a solemn pledge to never do anything disruptive during the peak Clearing weeks.

Student CRM helped The University of Brighton through Clearing 2019 - without incident.

Interested in how we could help you through Clearing?

Which enquiry channels do your students prefer?

Inbound emails, online forms, telephone calls, and walk-ins off the street - a good enquiries officer knows a question can come from any direction. Knowing where your enquiries come from helps you plan your resources for different times of the year.

With the Enquiries by Channel report from Student CRM, you can do exactly that. Now you can process seven enquiry channels with ease.

Are your officers satisfying their enquirers?

We know that it’s important for your Enquiry Officers to give good advice to those students who come to them for help. You don't want them just rote processing questions from potential students. But how do you keep an eye on the satisfaction of your enquirers?

With the new “Feedback by Category” report from Student CRM, you can get a better idea of how your teams are performing. This report shows you your Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score per team allowing you to measure how satisfied your enquirers are.

Think clearer, more collaborative reports would help your enquiries team?

How your university officers handle both sweet and sour student enquiries

Sweet and sour student enquiries

When you are managing new student enquiries all day every day, you come across all types of enquiry. From the sweetest and most grateful to the sourest and hardest to please. Not easy.

We find that each officer managing enquiries in Student CRM is typically maintaining up to 25 open conversations with student enquirers at any one time. So they need quick and reliable tools that help them deal with all eventualities. They need to switch style and approach to help each student feel like they have connected with a real human being who listens and cares.

Not a bot. Not a fan of bots.

Give me real people very time.

Example of an ‘01. Anything else I can help with?' signature.

One size does not fit all

Depending on each enquiry you should be able to drop in any of your saved signatures, each one with a different purpose, ie:

• '01. Just looking into that for you' (holding whilst you ask an expert or a colleague).

• '01. Anything else I can help with?' (you think it's all wrapped up but want to check before closing).

• '01. Thank you and bye' (you are closing this now as the student appears satisfied).

• '01. Screamer' (student is irate so you empathise and reassure you are working to resolve the issue as a priority).

• '01. Sweetie' (student is very pleased, so you ask her to spread the love on social media with links).

World Access to Higher Education Day 28th November 2018

Here at Student CRM we support WAHED

https://worldaccesshe.com

The first World Access to Higher Education Day (WAHED) is on the 28th November 2018.

The aim of WAHED is to create a platform which raises global awareness around inequalities in access to higher education and act as a catalyst for international, regional and local action.

In the era of the 4th industrial revolution access to skills and knowledge has never been more important, but in every country in the world where we have evidence (over 90%) inequalities in access by social background exist. The initiative is being led by the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) in the UK which is a non-profit organisation leading on equitable access to HE work in the UK.

For further background on WAHED and the organisations that are supporting the initiative please go to www.worldaccesshe.com. It is supported by a planning group of organisations from across the world and by NCUK.

UNESCO SDG 4: ‘equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and higher education’ is a goal that student CRM continues to support through enabling UK universities to extend their reach to include a broader spectrum of individuals wanting to access higher education.

Student CRM supports this goal

If you have questions about engaging with World Access to Higher Education Day through social media please contact Martin Webster on martin.webster@londonhigher.ac.uk

World Access to Higher Education Day is an initiative led by the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) in the UK and supported by NCUK.

Student CRM to support Global Goals

Each of the 17 global goals at https://www.globalgoals.org/ has the power to change the way we live. Here at Student CRM, we have chosen to help build a better future for everyone by joining organisations from around the world and working towards a better world by 2030.

Goal 4: Quality Education is one of the 17 goals of non-profit organisation from the UK 'The Global Goals'. These goals were agreed by 193 countries on 25 September 2015, ranging from Poverty (Goal 1) and Global Hunger (Goal 2) to Affordable and Clean Energies (Goal 7) and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (Goal 16).

Goal 4 is the goal that we are getting  behind:

"Education liberates the intellect, unlocks the imagination and is fundamental for self-respect. It is the key to prosperity and opens a world of opportunities, making it possible for each of us to contribute to a progressive, healthy society. Learning benefits every human being and should be available to all."

It's shown through this statement that access to Education is believed to be a crucial aspect to the mission of 'The Global Goals, which is to 'to end poverty, fight inequality and stop climate change' and to create 'a better world by 2030'. 

Within Goal 4, there are targets, in order to give a roadmap of how to accomplish it and also give direction to any efforts towards it. There are 10 targets, as listed below:

4.1 - FREE PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

4.2 - EQUAL ACCESS TO QUALITY PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION

4.3 - EQUAL ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE TECHNICAL, VOCATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION

4.4 - INCREASE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WITH RELEVANT SKILLS FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS

4.5 - ELIMINATE ALL DISCRIMINATION IN EDUCATION

4.6 - UNIVERSAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY

4.7 - EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

4.A - BUILD AND UPGRADE INCLUSIVE AND SAFE SCHOOLS

4.B - EXPAND HIGHER EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIPS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

4.C - INCREASE THE SUPPLY OF QUALIFIED TEACHERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Can Gen Z students trust UK Universities with their personal data in 2018?

If you think that Gen Z appear ambivalent about their PII (personally identifiable information) - don't be fooled by these digital natives.

They entrust you with their PII throughout their student recruitment journey, so if you put one foot wrong all that hard-earned trust could evaporate in a heartbeat.

Only the trusted universities will prosper

Student trust is earned by helping each student understand how and why you are putting their interests first. These data subjects are in control. An uncomfortable reality perhaps, but for those UK universities who are embracing GDPR as a new opportunity to build trust and gain a competitive advantage, this is an exciting journey.

In the past 4 months I have spoken (confidentially) with so many UK universities about the issues they are facing with building GDPR into their student recruitment processes.

These are the top 5 areas of concern I deal with on a daily basis:

1. Data protection controls - how can our Data Protection Officer and their team all benefit from more robust GDPR controls, processes and stored communications evidence?
2. Stored evidence - how can we rely upon a detailed audit trail stored against each student to support fast CMA and GDPR issue resolution?
3. Safe marketing communications - how can we continue to send out our recruitment campaigns after 25 May 2018?
4. Getting consent - how should we get, store and update appropriate consent throughout the student journey?
5. Dealing with the new rights - how do we handle every single data subject right exercised without a huge new team of experts on hand?

Of each of these, I think #3 is my favourite:

"how can we continue to send out our recruitment campaigns after 25 May 2018?"

I explain how they can empower their marketing and recruitment teams to continue sending creative mar-comms from within a safe framework. To prevent what I call 'cautious recoil' (where marketers freeze in the headlights, preferring to do nothing rather than do something that might be or go wrong) their university must remove any inhibitions.

And then I show them why students trust the universities who use our UK-based solution - Student CRM.

Summary

At the time of publication of this post, Student CRM is still the only HE student recruitment solution to have built and launched its GDPR and CMA compliance services. It is built into every web form that collects data (in) and into every automatic touchpoint and campaign that sends consent compliant comms (out). 

Data Harvesting is Awards Sponsor for 2018 Annual HELOA Conference

20 Oct 2017

Data Harvesting is the official Awards Sponsor for the 2018 Annual HELOA Conference.

HELOA National Conference – Wednesday 24 to Friday 26 January, Crowne Plaza, Stratford upon Avon, CV37 6YR.

https://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/gb/en/stratford-upon-avon/sfdua/hoteldetail

This three day conference provides delegates with the chance to engage in debate on current issues in HE policy, education liaison, marketing, student recruitment, widening participation and admissions. Members also contribute to discussions on the future direction of the Association through the Annual General Meeting and hear from the Innovation and Best Practice, and Group Spotlight Award finalists.

Further information

For more information please email bookings@heloa.ac.uk.

No GDPR 'grace period' for UK Universities

For all those UK Universities planning on being "nearly ready", "in an advanced state", "largely compliant" or anything short of GDPR compliant on 25 May 2018 - read on...

Ambiguity being a bugbear of mine, I checked with the ICO's office earlier this month. Case Reference Number: ENQ0698938

Brace yourselves...

Unfortunately there is no ‘grace’ period provided within the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and therefore Universities will have to ensure they are compliant with their obligations under the Regulations on 25 May 2018.

We are now getting approached regularly by UK Universities who need to understand how to implement GDPR controls to cover their student recruitment activities.

We provide the UK's only CMA and GDPR fully compliant student recruitment platform - www.student-crm.co.uk. Our clients automatically benefit from this upgrade, as it is just one of the 25 upgrades we roll out every year.

We are happy to talk you through how we can help you to achieve CMA and GDPR compliance with robust controls built-in.

#hellobrookes campaign gains 4 million+ impressions in A-Level results week

When Oxford Brookes asked for our support to help make this campaign happen, we were delighted to say yes.

The student recruitment team at Oxford Brookes recently used Student CRM to run an innovative social media campaign.

The campaign delivered highly personalised video messages and off platform printed media to congratulate next year's students on being offered a place onto their chosen course during A Level results week.

Student CRM was the central driver for the campaign which automated a series of congratulations emails and allowed campaign officers to search and segment data for offline marketing actvities.

Oxford Brookes created 286 personalised videos featuring a range of staff including the Chancellor Dr Dame Katherine Grainger PHD. The #hellobrookes hashtag achieved over 4 million impressions on Twitter and Instagram and were viewed over 50,000 times on Facebook and Twitter. 

Dana Rock, Student Recruitment Campaigns Officer commented;

"I'm really chuffed with how smoothly it's all gone so far with the triggered and personalised touchpoints -  it's powerful and it's working!"

Is this your University's student enquiry workflow?

Their very first enquiry builds each Student's record in Student CRM, and every subsequent interaction adds to the bigger picture. All enquiries and answers are stored in a CMA-friendly way. Also great to know that, besides being compliant, your enquiries team is also being prompt, efficient, accurate and building up a rich data set for student recruitment colleagues to make great use of.

If your enquiry workflow doesn't get delivered like this (out of the box), then you could get a huge boost to your recruitment efficiency by using Data Harvesting's Student CRM.

Is yours just like this?

NB: Enquiries can also be received via email (but a web form generates more structured data).

Integrate a branded online enquiry form into your university's website to allow students to ask questions about studying at your university, and to capture additional student details to build the relationship.

These enquiries filter into Student CRM and are channelled to the relevant department ready for a member of your university team to respond. All enquiries and responses are stored centrally against the student's record so that your colleagues can view the full history of interaction. 

Request a short demo of our Enquiries app by adding your details below: