It goes without saying that higher education institutions’ priorities are often laser focused on the student experience, and with good reason. Ensuring students enjoy the best possible experience benefits everyone. It helps to drive enrollment numbers, retention numbers, student satisfaction and more. But in large and complex ecosystems like universities and colleges, student experience shouldn’t be the whole story. Staff experience, motivation and morale are also key drivers to institutions’ success. After all, one doesn’t work without the other. We take a look at some of the biggest challenges your staff face, how to address them and the impact improving their day-to-day lives has on the overall success of your college.
CRM frustrations
Your CRM and student information systems are arguably the two backend linchpins of student engagement. However, as expectations by students evolve towards greater digital communication, interaction and transaction through a wider variety of channels, CRM systems can often fall short. You could argue that CRM systems aren’t meant to be everything to everyone. Far better they function first and foremost as a relationship database, rather than an event management platform or communications channel, for example. Any mismatch between student expectation and digital preference vs. CRM capability can lead to admissions staff feeling increasingly frustrated.
Integrate to innovate
Integration is the answer to bridging the gap between current CRM functionality, satisfying your students and not only easing the frustrations of your staff, but empowering them to do their jobs better and faster.
By integrating solutions like a built-for-purpose event experience platform or automated chat software with your CRM system, you can capitalize on all the rich data held in your databases and use it in more powerful ways. And your staff can do all this quicker, more easily and more efficiently than before. Here’s how: