Case Study: Quick Wins for Student Recruitment

When conversation drives conversion

Existing data is often put to one side when it comes to recruiting new students. Yet this data presents a great opportunity. Given 97% of Australian students conduct research about potential institutions online, the fact that a potential student has provided you with contact information and course interest indicates they’re further along the enrolment funnel.

And while past enquirers and graduates can be re-engaged throughout the year by lead nurturing and marketing automation, this doesn’t always work when you need a fast turnaround. For institutions who need quick wins now, the quickest results come from reaching students directly: by getting them on the phone.

Re-engaging students at scale

A leading Australian university partnered with Social Garden to run a student re-engagement program using a database of 1,935 undergraduate and postgraduate students, in the two weeks before Christmas 2018.

• Re-engage prospects: Identify, pre-qualify and segment potential students within the current database and use online booking form to book engaged students into one-on-one consultations with staff.
• Database cleanse: Update out of date contact information to increase contactability and website tracking rates
• Market Research: Ask questions of the contacts to determine those who have enrolled with a competitor or establish what influenced their decision making

A seamless handover experience

Given the short timeframe within which students needed to be called, Social Garden executed a strategy that would allow for re-engaged students to be handed over directly to the student advisor team.

Our Melbourne-based call centre booked re-engaged leads directly into one-on-one course consultations using the university’s online form. And for students not yet ready for a consultation (but interested in more information), an email notification with their questions and updated information was sent to the university for a seamless hot lead follow up.

1. TWO CALL ATTEMPTS

Every student was contacted twice if they didn’t answer on the first call.

2. BOOK INTO ONE-ON-ONE CONSULTATION

Our customisable script showed the value of a one-on-one consultation.

3. HANDOVER HOT LEAD TO STAFF

Students booked directly into a course advisor’s calendar and synced with their CRM.

4. DATABASE ENRICHMENT

Automated reporting updated each student’s status in the enrolment funnel after the call.

Services provided:

• Phone sales conversion
• Customised scriptwriting
• Automated reporting
• Database enrichment

The results:

• 1,935 students called in 14 days
• 27.45% call connection rate
• 123 appointments booked with course advisors
• 53 students to be directly followed up by course staff

How higher education providers can best use the Social Garden call centre:

Enrich your database

Drive conversions with an accurate and consistent database. We profile students over the phone and update the data in real-time.

Prioritise your team’s time

We help student advisors and course consultants to spend more time meeting with prospective students rather than trying to book them in.

Speed to market

Get quick wins on the phone with less than a week turnaround time from data handover to the first student call.