Increasing contact rates by 19.8% by utilising after-hours and weekend calling

Discover how we achieved fantastic results for the Australian Institute of Music with ongoing audience and time-of-day analysis.

Supporting a busy team

The Australian Institute of Music offers a range of highly reputable courses in areas such as music performance, composition, music theatre, and creative technology.

While the Australian Institute of Music was attracting a volume of leads through their website, they didn't have the internal resourcing to be able to contact each of these prospects. So, our Melbourne-based call centre was tasked with calling each lead who enquired through the website and re-engage leads who had enquired previously but failed to book an audition.

Our goal? To increase applications and enrolments, and qualify the highest-intent leads.

Services

Team Members

Chamalee Karunanayake | Account Director

Max Schuler | Head of Call Centre

Case Study Timeline

August 2022 – March 2023

Results to call home about

Between August 2022 and March 2023, our campaign found that:

Contact rates improved by 19.8% on weekends and after hours

Weekends were hands-down the best time to contact leads, with an average 2% higher contact rate than on weekdays.

Overall call connection rates increased significantly

Since the last report, an increased connection rate suggested prospects were in more of a conscious research phase and therefore picking up the phone more quickly.

Contactable leads wake up early

Through time-of-day analysis, we found that the best time of day (by far) to call leads was between 8am and 9am, with over 30% answering at this time.

Customised calling

Our approach ensured we maintained an engaging, informative approach throughout the Australian Institute of Music's customer conversion journey.

Naturally, not every outbound call would be answered, so we developed a systematic plan for reaching out to leads. After the first missed call, we sent an email. If the second call was missed, we followed up with an SMS. Our three-pronged approach offered multiple touchpoints for leads, which increased the likelihood of eventual, meaningful engagement.

To streamline the application process, we custom-built 'Application Sent' and 'Application Complete' stages. After expressing interest in a course, the lead would receive an application link via email. If a lead completed the application, they would automatically be updated to 'Application Complete', effectively removing them from our calling list.

Through this strategic approach, our call centre not only generated qualified leads for the Australian Institute of Music, but also facilitated a seamless application process for potential students.

Each lead we called was meticulously classified into one of the following stages:

  • * ‘Not Interested’: where leads indicated they were no longer interested.
  • * ‘Appointment Request’: for leads ready to book a meeting or an audition, which we directly scheduled into Calendly.

… and more. (Get in touch to learn about our model!)

"Student Garden complemented our in-house recruitment team by contacting prospects in the hours that we couldn't. By integrating our systems, the transition between our teams was seamless, with some great results!"

— Kerry Capsanis, Head of Marketing and Recruitment at the Australian Institute of Music

Optimising for
two-way integration

We integrated our calling system with the client’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, which not only allowed us to track when leads were completing their applications but also improved our reporting capabilities.

This optimisation in the campaign marked our first truly two-way client integration. By being able to influence the status of leads in our system through theirs, we were able to promptly remove leads that unsubscribed from marketing. It also saved us time by instantly alerting us when a lead completed their application, eliminating the need for double-handling or any miscommunication.

The campaign was further enhanced by our omnichannel approach that leveraged calling, email, and SMS to engage with leads effectively. The Australian Institute of Music's commitment to providing us with new information — such as upcoming events and new course Key Selling Points (KSPs) — was instrumental in helping us up-sell courses. The campaign's success was a testament to the benefits of collaborative working relationships and the power of strategic optimisations.

From the Garden:

“Having built such strong integrations between the Australian Institute of Music and our own systems, the calling campaign was fluid for our agents and seamless for the customer. By calling leads quickly we were able to immediately connect with them and give them the initial information they needed, while still adding value to their next steps.”

— Max Schuler | Head of Call Centre

"The Australian Institute of Music's calling campaign demonstrated the transformative power of a well-crafted UX journey and effective client communication. By investing in these aspects, we elevated the campaign's performance, achieved higher connection rates, and fostered a strong client relationship."

— Chamalee Karunanayake | Account Director

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