School admissions can be quite tedious and quickly become overwhelming when there is an overflow of applications. For schools, admissions management is all about engaging with leads and parents. Oftentimes, when this entire process is manual, many leads get lost along the way.

A parent fills out a form, a parent calls the school, one sends a WhatsApp message, and a counsellor calls the parent the next day, but an enquiry gets stuck in a spreadsheet. This is where CRM comes into play.

But what exactly is CRM and how does it help with school admissions?

What Is the Full Form of CRM? 

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, and it refers to the strategies, processes, and technology used by organizations to manage all the enquiries and leads that come in.

The term CRM typically refers to the following three concepts:

• A strategy helps in focusing and fostering long-term customer relationships.

• A process is the required steps and process to get hold of a prospect and turn them into an actual customer.

• As software, CRM typically refers to the application that stores and tracks all interaction information about a possible client

In the case of schools, all three elements are applicable. The strategy is nothing but the parent or guardian enquiring, the process is the selling of school admissions, and the tech is nothing but the CRM software.

How Does CRM Software Work?

A CRM helps you sort through multiple pieces of information and interactions in a systematic manner. All the information and enquiries from your emails, WhatsApp, etc. can be stored in one centralised place.

Some of the basic features that can be found in an ordinary CRM include:

• Creating a database of all kinds of online, telephonic, walk-ins, referral, social media, and campaign leads from prospective students in one single place.

• Filtering out duplicates and assigning new leads to counsellors and team members.

• Scheduling follow-ups, sending reminders, brochures, invitations for campus visits, and other related information through WhatsApp, SMS, emails, etc.

• Generating leads from enquiry/information to application, documentation, merit list, and admission.

• Tracking sources, follow-ups, and conversion rates.

It helps the admissions team to get a bird's-eye view of all that needs to be managed.

What Is an Education CRM, and Who Can Use It?

An education CRM refers to the CRM software customized for the industry. The education CRM differs from a CRM since it can be configured to automate processes such as student inquiries, counseling, campus visits, the application process, and admission and enrolment.

In the K-12 education sector, the school CRM for inquiry and admissions will prove to be effective for various teams within a school as follows:

• Admissions and front office teams will be able to record the information related to the lead and identify the team member responsible for the lead.

• Counselors will be able to track the pending follow-up and maintain logs of all conversations with parents.

• Marketing teams will be able to understand the source of leads and the marketing campaigns that result in admissions.

• Principals and management teams will have an overview of the total admissions, conversion rate, and occupancy levels of each section.

Ether Enrol, the admissions CRM offered by Join Ether, is specifically designed for K-12 schools' admissions. It collects all inquiries from various sources into a single pipeline.

Why Do Schools Need a CRM?

The CRM software is mainly classified into two major categories:.

Horizontal CRM is meant for all sorts of organizations irrespective of the industry. They come with generic tools for managing contacts, leads, sales pipeline, and interaction with customers.

Vertical CRM, on the other hand, is designed for the purpose of a particular industry and therefore comes with features which are based on the requirements of that particular industry.

Most CRMs available out there are made for the purpose of traditional B2B selling wherein the organizations would manage their business contacts, opportunities, negotiations, and long sales cycles.

Admissions at schools take place differently from that process. They come with numerous queries, individual decisions of individuals, timely follow-ups, visits to campus, applications, and enrolment procedures.

Therefore, a CRM that is particularly made for educational purposes would come with workflow processes in line with the process of school admissions.

5 Benefits of Using an Education CRM

The above-mentioned education CRM software implementation will make it possible for educational institutions to optimize the process of enrollment, enhance communication with parents, and effectively handle the entire process of going from initial queries to enrollment.

1. Enhance Communication with Parents

With an education CRM system, it becomes possible for admissions teams to manage communication via different channels including e-mail, telephone, WhatsApp, and others. The record of all interactions will allow counsellors to give relevant answers in a timely manner to parents of future students.

2. Ensure Effective Follow-Ups and Get More Conversions

With the help of the organized admissions pipeline, the process of following up on pending tasks as well as handling queries will be significantly simplified.

3. Make Admission Decisions Based on the Available Data

It becomes possible to monitor all necessary metrics including source of inquiry, admission rate, and others, via CRM reports and see which measures proved to be effective.

4. Increase Effectiveness of the Work of Admissions Teams

Automation of many routine processes thanks to an education CRM system will significantly reduce the time required for them, allowing admissions teams to concentrate on actual communication and management of queries.

5. Provide an Improved Parent Experience

Having a consolidated record of all the queries, conversations, and follow-ups makes it easier for the counsellors to know where the parents are coming from and be able to cater better to their needs.

What Should You Look for in School CRM Software?

Selecting the appropriate school CRM software is crucial because not all CRM solutions cater to school admissions.

Before choosing a system, it is essential to check if it allows:

• Multi-channel lead capture on websites, WhatsApp, calling, physical visits, social media, and referral sources.

• Admission funnel management that allows tracking leads from enquiry to enrolment.

• Communication with parents through means like WhatsApp, SMS, and emails.

• App management and document tracking for managing information related to admission.

• Enquiry, conversion, campaign, and admission performance reports and dashboards.

• Access control according to roles for security reasons for parents' and students' information.

• Integration with other systems of the school for admission information flow in other parts of the school management system.

• Mobile accessibility for counsellors and admission personnel while on the go.

6 Key Features of a CRM Specialising in Education

1. Centralisation of Data

Education CRM combines the leads that come in from various sources like websites, social media, school fairs, walk-ins, phone calls, and referrals in one single platform. As a result, your admissions team is provided with just one database rather than several spreadsheets and paperwork.

2. Enhancing Parental Engagement

Using CRM, you can assign each enquiry to the appropriate counsellor using pre-set parameters. The counsellors will be able to see previous interactions, pending follow-ups and status of enquires. Thus, they will be able to communicate with parents effectively at all the stages of the admissions process.

3. Optimizing Marketing Budgets

CRM enables schools to understand how certain marketing channels or campaigns are able to yield new enquiries, applications and admissions. Automatic communication through WhatsApp, SMS, and email will help your admissions team to engage potential parents.

4. Ensuring Security of Admission Data

Admission details include a lot of personal information about parents and students. Role-based permissions and limited access enable schools to restrict information according to roles.

5. Improved Decision Making through Analytics

The CRM reports will help you not just measure the number of inquiries but the whole admission process, starting from how an inquiry is generated to campus visits, the application stage, and admission. You can also evaluate the campaign performance and counsellor pipelines to have better decisions.

6. Admissions Management made easier

Your admissions staff does not have to be confined to their cubicles all the time. They can do some mobile work when they visit campuses, attend events, or meet parents.

CRM vs School ERP: Better Together

The school management system or ERP becomes relevant only after the enrollment process. The duties performed by the system include the processing of fees, attendance recording, handling academic records, transportation, examination scheduling, student file creation and maintenance, and communication with parents. The systems are designed to take care of the needs of a student in the school environment.

In turn, a CRM system is more concerned about the processes that occur prior to the enrollment of a child into a particular school. These processes include managing inquiries from parents, following up the application process, and ultimately, guiding them to make their decision.

The two systems are closely interconnected, since one deals with establishing a relationship with the future students and the other provides help to the student in navigating through the post-enrollment phase in the school. Together, these systems can significantly reduce the need for duplicate entries into the database. For instance, all the data entered by the parent in the process of application process will be automatically transferred to the management system of the school.

Why Choose Ether Enrol for School Admissions?

Ether Enrol is an admission CRM provided by Join Ether and designed specifically for K-12 schools to handle the whole admission process from enquiry to admission under one software application.

The tool has features like enquiry capture, lead management, follow-up management, digital application, communication, admission pipeline management, and reporting that enable admissions teams to easily manage all the stages of admission.

When all the admission-related processes are handled through the same software, schools can get better insight into the enquiry pipeline and save the trouble of managing data through different platforms.

Do you want to make your admission process easier? With Ether Enrol, your admissions team gets all the tools needed for managing enquiries, following up and all the admission stages.

The Bottom Line

CRM refers to Customer Relationship Management, but in an educational institution, the concept has evolved from merely keeping track of contacts. Enquiries, communication, follow-up, applications, and admission activities all come together in an organized manner through CRM.

Considering the ever-increasing trend of digitizing school admissions, along with an increasing number of enquiries, it is clear that having an organized system to manage potential parents will be a requirement in the coming times. With a good CRM system, schools can decrease their effort, maximize the use of admission data, and create an adaptive admission process.