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Gecko Clearing checklist

Offers and rejections have been sent, exams have come to an end and the university campus seems quieter than ever. The eerie silence can mean only one thing- the Clearing countdown has begun!

To help ensure that you are ready to tackle one of the busiest periods in the UK admissions calendar, we’ve created the Gecko Clearing checklist to keep you on track:

  • Pre-Clearing preparations

There is a misconception that Clearing begins on A-level results day, but in fact, Clearing begins on Thursday 5 July. To ensure that you’re capturing leads ahead of A-level results day, embed a pre-Clearing form onto your website and create a unique live chat channel in GeckoChat to capture live questions ahead of A-level results day.

GeckoChat can be added to any website and you can pick and choose which pages the widget appears on.

  • Devise a call script including what questions callers need to ask.

Identify what information you need from each prospective student caller and devise a call script to guide your callers through all necessary questions on-the-day. Where possible, use radio choices to ensure ease of data entry during each call.

Dynamic scripts are a great way to make call scripts easier to digest for new callers, whilst still capturing all of the information you need. Use dynamic scripts to cater for different user levels e.g. have two script options for callers, a long version for new users and a short version for more advanced users.

  • Set-up accounts for all on-the-day Talk users =

Whether you are using an internal team, academic staff or trained callers on-the-day, make sure that everyone is set-up with their own Gecko account with the appropriate access to personal data.

  • Build your campaign

Use GeckoTalk to pull together all aspects of your call campaign using workflows. Keep in mind how many callers you have working on the day, what they specialise in and how you would like your prospective students to be added to the campaign.

  • Identify all possible outcomes and what follow-up communication is needed

Once you have your forms and call campaign ready, identify what type of communication you would like to automate from the campaign and start thinking about appropriate messaging.

  • Create follow-up communication

Use Gecko’s Email & SMS builder to create the appropriate communications in-line with the outcomes identified in the previous step. Use template tags and dynamic content to personalise as much as possible.

  • Prepare your workflows and bring it all together

No matter how you choose to build your campaign, adding the appropriate workflows is an essential part of the design process and are important to get right.

  • Create SMS broadcast

Prospective students are 20% more likely to answer a call from a number they don’t recognise if they know that is your institution calling. Send a short SMS message identifying a rough time slot beforehand and the number that your institution is calling from and increase the number of calls your team makes in a day.

  • Test everything

Put yourself in the prospective student’s shoes and test every possible avenue for contacting your institution on Open Day and ensure that they are receiving the service you would want to receive.

And, from your own perspective, does the student end up with the desired outcome and are all of your systems talking to each other?

  • Track activity on-the-day

Whether you are looking to keep track of enquiries, calls or offers given on-the-day, use our customised dashboards to provide real-time reporting, so all you need to do on the day is hit refresh!