Education CRM software is a powerful tool for educational organizations aiming to improve their enrollment and onboarding experiences. If you’re part of the enrollment staff, a CRM for educational institutions helps you build lasting relationships with new students and manage them efficiently throughout their lifecycle.
In this quick guide, we’ll learn more about CRM in education industry, the features it offers, and how you can use it to streamline your admission processes.
What Is Education CRM Software?
A CRM in education industry manages all your educational organization’s interactions with prospective and current students. It also supports communication with, employees, students, and other relevant stakeholders in your organization’s community. An Education CRM software designed specifically for the sector gathers crucial student information from various sources and consolidates it into one accessible database. This data may include:
- Name
- Age
- Gender
- Educational background
- Senior secondary CGPA
- Contact information (e.g., email, phone number, and social media)
With this information, you can personalize your communications to students across all platforms. To understand more about CRM for education industry, watch our enrollment expert in this explainer video.
Do I need CRM in the Education Industry?
In today’s digital age, students rely on various forms of digital communication. To connect with students effectively, it’s essential to adapt your communication strategies to their preferences. As such, education CRM software has become a necessity rather than a luxury. CRMs for educational institutions are now vital tools, no matter the size, location, or type of organization.
How Education CRM Software Benefits Your Organization
A purpose-built CRM for education industry such as Meritto works like a well-oiled operating system, seamlessly addressing every aspect of your administrative processes. Here’s how an education CRM can be a game changer for your organization:
Manage Students through their Enrollment Journey
Onboarding new students can be a complex process involving multiple departments and numerous prospects. Errors in collecting contact information can result in lost opportunities. A CRM in education industry helps create a straightforward journey by assigning leads to specific enrollment officers, ensuring reliable data capture and contact management.
Handle Student and Internal Communications and Inquiries
Communicating with thousands of students simultaneously can be challenging without a robust system. Inefficiencies can lead to missed communications and slow processes. A CRM in education industry offers tools for personalized and targeted messaging, ensuring timely and accurate communication with all students.
Measure Organization’s Growth
Tracking your institution’s growth and progress is crucial. A CRM in Education industry provides valuable insights into different success metrics, helping you measure achievements against goals and make informed decisions.
Simplify Fee Payments and Reminders
Handling student payments can be a challenging task, especially when your institution accepts payments through various platforms and banks. This is where Collexo by Meritto comes in. As a Unified Payment Platform, it is designed to help educational organizations seamlessly collect any type of fee (one-time, partial, or recurring) quickly and efficiently through all student touchpoints and channels. Whether payments are made via your website, payment links, or your existing ERP, Collexo supports all methods of payment including online, cheque/DD, offline cash payments, and instant financing.
Additionally, Collexo also features a powerful reporting engine that provides real-time settlement reports, finance dashboards, payment workflows, and communications. It can handle late fees and more, while its integrated communication suite automates reminder notifications, sending real-time emails, SMS, and WhatsApp messages to your students
Measure Marketing ROI for Your Institution
Understanding the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is essential. A CRM in the education industry allows you to assess the sources of your highest converting clients, monitor ad spend, and attribute admission success to specific platforms, optimizing your marketing strategy.
How CRM for Educational Institutions Can Foster Growth
In this sub-section, we’ll explore how a student recruitment and enrollment CRM can empower your educational organization to drive long-term growth:
Better Record-Keeping
A CRM purpose-built for the education industry aggregates all key data from prospective students into one centralized database. It helps recruitment staff identify hot leads, communicate with them, and eliminate errors in records by merging duplicate profiles and assigning unique admission numbers.
Simplified Handling of Inquiries
Managing multiple inquiries becomes effortless with education CRM software. Features like canned responses streamline messaging, while automated workflows ensure that leads are assigned to the right staff members for prompt follow-up.
Boosted Admission Numbers
A CRM in the education industry improves enrollment numbers by enabling effective student recruitment drives. It identifies the largest sources of qualified leads, allowing you to allocate resources effectively. Marketing automation and integration with social media channels further enhance recruitment efforts.
Seamless Integrations
A purpose-built education CRM software supports various integrations, extending its functionality. Integrations with social media, email accounts, and other tools enable comprehensive management of marketing activities and streamline communication processes.
Enhanced Cooperation and Teamwork
An education CRM enhances cooperation between teams and departments. A content repository within the CRM allows data sharing across levels, speeding up processes and improving staff efficiency. Mobile capabilities ensure accessibility, enabling staff to perform tasks on the go.
Analytics for Informed Decisions
Customizable reports generated by a CRM in the education industry measure the success of your institution. Staff can extract useful information from databases, assess success patterns, and make decisions to increase student retention.
Features of CRM for Education Industry
Application and Inquiry Management
An education CRM system should enable you to manage applications and inquiries efficiently. For example, using a marketing hub, you can generate and manage website traffic, qualify leads, respond to inquiries, and manage applications.
Learner Communications
Effective communication tools are essential. Education CRM software should support chatbots, live chat, appointment booking, and email automation to facilitate seamless communication and enhance user experience.
Analytics and Reporting
Education CRM software should help you collect and analyze marketing data, measure ROI, and track student conversions. It should offer robust analytics and reporting capabilities to monitor progress and make data-driven decisions.
Integrations
Support for various integrations is crucial. Education CRM software should integrate with email, scheduling apps, live chat, and other tools to extend its functionality and streamline operations.
Enhance your Admission Process with Meritto
Whether you’re a small or large institution, a purpose-built CRM in the education industry like Meritto is essential for your admission process. Trusted by over 1,000 educational organizations, Meritto’s unified CRM enhances team productivity, boosts student experiences, optimizes marketing spends, and drives enrollment growth.
Explore how Meritto’s education CRM software can empower your education by streamlining operations, growing enrollments, providing 360° funnel visibility, and ensuring a fully-fledged online admission process. Connect with our team to learn more about how Meritto can be the best fit for your enrollment needs.