Faced with stretched resources, Northumbria University's CRM team leveraged Gecko's intuitive UI to implement a self-service model. This empowered departments to manage engagement strategies independently, allowing the small CRM team to focus on high-impact tasks while maintaining effective student communications despite budget constraints.
Northumbria University is an award-winning institution – the Times Higher Education University of the Year 2022, a top 25 research institution and more. But the reputation and ranking only goes so far in insulating them from the funding issues squeezing the whole sector.
We caught up with Phil Smith, CRM Manager, and Michael Towsey, CRM Systems Specialist, to understand how they’ve transformed their approach to managing student communications in a resource-constrained environment.
For the CRM team, initial training for standard system users, and collaborating with key marketing and recruitment teams in bespoke system configuration and developments, is key to the effective use of Gecko, but this work can be time consuming.
Time pressures dictated that the team adopt a self-service model with a basic introductory session for most users. This was easily delivered through Gecko’s user-friendly UI – allowing colleagues with less complex requirements in areas as disparate as the careers service to admissions, to quickly get to grips with the system. Because shifting towards a self-service model is only possible when colleagues know how to serve themselves.
For a CRM team juggling a range of responsibilities, the result of this pick-up-and-play simplicity is more time to focus on areas where they can make the biggest impact. By consolidating forms, refining workflows, managing user-groups, and supplying templates, they’re giving teams the tools they need – ensuring best practice, without repeat training or constant hand-holding.
Want to learn how Gecko can help your institution do more with less? Talk to our team today and explore how our user-friendly platform can streamline your student engagement efforts.
