Posts Tagged ‘admissions customer service’

18,000 College-Bound Students Stunned Us With This Response

March 28th, 2017

In our soon-to-be-released study, “Hidden Influences: Revealing the unspoken perceptions that prospective students have about your college and why it matters in your ability to grow and control enrollment,” we asked over 18,000 college-bound students whether they felt the colleges they considered were more focused on understanding their needs and preferences or more focused on presenting information about their institutions.

Only 20% of students felt that colleges placed the focus on them. This feeling was shared by students bound for both public and private institutions.

What difference does this make in college selection? A big one.

Colleges that adopt a student-centric focus differentiate themselves within the college market and reap the benefits. The fact is, there is a positive correlation between likelihood of enrollment and the level of focus a college puts on a prospective student. There is more good news, too. You can take the first step today to immediately enable richer, more fruitful conversations with the students you are trying to recruit.

First Step: Explore every facet of the student’s preferences.

All too often, in interactions between colleges and the students they are trying to recruit (through personal meetings, email exchanges, phone conversations, texts or any of the other ways students and counselors connect) colleges are doing almost all of the talking. Often overlooked is the student’s unique combination of interests, preferences, desires, anxieties and aspirations.

Colleges with smaller pools have the luxury of communicating personally with most, if not all, of their prospective students to probe and understand the uniqueness of an individual and presenting their value based on what the student perceives as being valuable.

Colleges with larger pools don’t have the luxury of having conversations with everyone. But that doesn’t mean they can’t get the same information through mechanisms other than conversation. They can utilize e-mail, text, social and other channels to not only OUTPUT information to students but also to enable students to INPUT information that can be appended to CRM data and used to refine future, more personalized, messages. (This isn’t theoretical by the way. We’ve been doing it for years for our college clients.)

When you shift your focus to the student you will better serve them and more effectively communicate your unique value proposition.

When the student perceives you as unique among their options you will have reached the coveted state of differentiation. Aligning your institution’s value to a student’s specific needs and desires breaks through barriers and creates real excitement for your college that will translate into enrollment.

In a previous higher education study, “Your Value Proposition: How students and parents perceive value and select colleges,” we learned that a student’s excitement about attending a college is more strongly correlated to likelihood of enrollment (by a factor of two) than either cost or the perceived quality of the institution.

Employ proven strategies for best results.

The Hidden Influences study revealed actionable information that colleges can use to uncover and manage the perceptions and opinions that prospective students have about their college and the other colleges they considered. In the study, students suggested specific strategies that colleges can use to uncover and understand their true feelings about the colleges they are considering.

In upcoming blog posts we’ll dive deeper into those strategies and how they can be employed, regardless of the size of your pool.

We are preparing to launch our next study!

Each year our national co-sponsored studies attract even more colleges that want to “get in” on the new and different insight we give them about their prospective students and students nationwide. If you’d like information about the topic of our next study, and the benefits you receive as a co-sponsor, be sure to CLICK HERE now to be alerted soon when put together our next group of co-sponsors.

You can also CLICK HERE to receive an advance copy of the Hidden Influence study report prior to its national release.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. Be sure to Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.

Rick Montgomery is as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company. With over 20 years in higher education marketing, he brings an innovative and dynamic approach to helping colleges and universities meet their enrollment goals. Rick can be reached at 913/492.1265 x.708 or via email at rmontgomery@longmire-co.com.

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Posted in Closing the Sale, Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training, Organizational development, Research, Your Value Proposition

Tags: admission counselor training admissions admissions counselors admissions customer service admissions success brand management college college admissions college branding college enrollment college presidents college recruiting college recruitment college yield EMChat enrollment enrollment management finding the right college fit Hidden Influences higher ed higher ed marketing higher education strategies higher education value longmire longmire and company Longmire and Company study The Excitement Factor value proposition yield yield enhancement

Things Prospective Students Won’t Tell You … Unless You Ask!

March 22nd, 2017

We all know that prospective students don’t always tell us what they really think. Sometimes they don’t want to be completely honest about their REAL first-choice college because they think they’ll hurt our feelings. Or, they may tell us they had a great campus visit, yet tell their parents on the way home that they’ll never enroll. They often say one thing and do another.

The fact is: These hidden issues are often deal breakers but, when uncovered and dealt with, they can lead to enrollments.

Admission counselors tell us this “not knowing what a student really thinks and feels” is one of the greatest frustrations they face. So, we joined forces with 36 colleges and universities, private and public, large and small, from all over the United States, to explore this reality in-depth and find solutions. Over 18,000 college-bound students participated in our soon-to-be-released study, “Hidden Influences: Revealing the unspoken perceptions that prospective students have about your college and why it matters in your ability to grow and control enrollment.”

Beginning today and over the course of the next few weeks we will share details from this fascinating study. Today we are sharing strategies and techniques you can use to uncover the things students are holding back. And, by the way, these aren’t strategies we created. These are strategies that prospective students told us will work in revealing their true impressions and feelings.

These discoveries can be used immediately to enable richer, more fruitful conversations with the students you’re trying to recruit.

Half of prospective students visiting a college campus will see and experience things that they find unappealing.

Sure, students are not going to like everything they see at all of the campuses they visit. That’s not news. What’s newsworthy is the finding that colleges are not probing to uncover whether negative impressions exist and, more precisely, WHICH negative impressions may have formed.

On average, only 13% of students say that an admission counselor ever inquired if they had seen or experienced anything the student found unappealing, concerning, or missing about their campus.

After a campus visit prospective students are often asked for their general impressions. We say, “So, how was your tour today?” Or, “What did you think about our campus?” About 70% of students will easily share their positive impressions. Will they so easily share their negative impressions? No. Only about 10% will.

Effective strategies to uncover what students really think.

Prospective students, like most people, are naturally inclined to be kind and keep quiet when they see things they don’t like about our campus. However, 72% of students say they would be comfortable talking about their negative impressions if invited to do so.

In a focus group we conducted with college-bound students in preparation for this study, students identified six things counselors can do or say that would prove effective in getting them to open up and share what they like and dislike the counselor’s college.

The single most effective statement (as identified by 6 in 10 students nationwide) in making them most comfortable involved, “The counselor simply and sincerely encouraging me to be open, honest, and forthcoming.”

Six statements/assurances students suggest that counselors use to get them to open up.

Try it out and see what you uncover!

Here’s how your interaction might play out using one of the assurance statements: “I’m glad you like the campus, especially the stadium/dorms/quad. It’s great, isn’t it? But let me ask, did you see anything that you didn’t like? And don’t worry. You aren’t going to hurt my feelings and it will help me do my job better.” Counselors often hold themselves back from asking penetrating questions because they’re concerned that students will perceive them as being intrusive. That’s so unfortunate. For both the counselor AND the student.

Admission counselors who employ this approach tell us that they are often surprised by the answers they get. A misconception can be corrected or a concern alleviated. Not only do they get a real-time assessment of what the student is feeling, but they frequently uncover the ONE THING that will turn an admitted prospect into an enrolled student. It’s simple, and effective.

We will soon release the complete report of this national study, along with its recommendations for action and new approaches in conversations between admission counselors and prospective students. If you would like an advance copy of the Hidden Influences report CLICK HERE.

We help colleges and universities have better, richer conversations with prospective students to help them grow and shape enrollment. With our yield enhancement programs, interactive training workshops for counselors and other tools, we can help you too. Please call.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. For more information about Longmire and Company’s Interactive Counselor Training Program, click here. Be sure to Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.

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Posted in Behavior, Campus Tours, Campus Visits, Closing the Sale, Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training, Parents, Research, Your Value Proposition

Tags: admission counselor training admissions counselors admissions customer service admissions success brand management college college admissions college branding college enrollment college presidents college recruiting college recruitment college yield EMChat enrollment enrollment management finding the right college fit higher ed higher ed marketing higher education strategies higher education value longmire longmire and company Longmire and Company study recruiting value proposition yield yield enhancement

Re-think, re-charge and BE READY for Yield Season 2017

December 15th, 2016

Everyone knows that this time of year is a crazy busy time for everyone. But the truth is, those of you who work in higher education admissions have twice as much on your to-do list than most people.

Topping that list: Prep Your Team for a Winning 2017!

Over the next three posts we are presenting key focus points in our Higher Education Counselor Training Series. We’re giving you information and video content that is loaded with techniques that you can adopt immediately for greater success in your recruitment efforts in the immediate future.

Here’s to the Best New Year!

At the heart of our Interactive Counselor Training Program is a proven model of communication that counselors tell us is transformative. It’s simple and effective. Adopt these straightforward methods and you’ll have richer conversations with the students you’re trying to recruit and you’ll see greater success in your recruitment efforts.

By using this model properly, both you and the student will be better served. You will understand the individual student’s needs and preferences and THAT will enable you to align the value of your institution with what the student (and parent) PERCEIVES as being valuable. You will cut through the clutter of what every other college is saying about itself. Your message will resonate with the student.

While the model may be simple, your skill in executing it makes all the difference. Swinging a bat is simple. Great execution makes for batting champions.

The 4-step process begins with PROBING: This really just means asking the student a lot of great questions that have both scope and depth.

In any conversation you have with a prospective student, whether it’s your first or your fifth, and regardless of where you are in the recruiting cycle, you need to probe. You HAVE to ask many questions.

Most counselors think they already do this. But in our training workshops with admissions counselors across the country, we see two common mistakes.

First, the questions being asked don’t penetrate deeply enough to uncover all of the student’s motivations, assumptions, concerns, preferences and influences in their college selection decision.

Secondly, we see questions asked that do little more than give the counselor an opportunity to talk about the college.

The key is to turn the focus of the conversation toward the individual student. Information you provide about the college must relate to only those things the student has told you is important in their college selection decision or, frankly, it is meaningless.

We have a theory that we share with counselors: To have a relevant conversation we must discover what a student is thinking. To be more meaningful we must know what a student is feeling. A conversation without relevance and meaning is just talk.

When you have asked enough questions to have a full understanding of the student’s unique preferences, you are ready to talk about your college and demonstrate how your institution can best meet their individual needs.

This next phase of the model is called SUPPORTING: This is where you’ll discuss your institution’s benefits and values, and you’ll need to focus on what you know is important to the student.

Supporting is an art in itself.

With practice, you’ll be able to not only INFORM the student that you have what they want but you’ll also get them excited about attending your college. The various ways you can support are too numerous to detail here but it’s the part of the conversation where a student’s interest in you will either get stronger or weaker.

The third step of the communications model involves DEALING WITH CONCERNS OR OBJECTIONS.

First, you have to find out if any exist.

That may sound easy but we have learned that most counselors don’t do it.

And, when you don’t do this you are left scratching your head, wondering why the student you fully expected to enroll chose another college. Again, probing comes into play here. You’re searching for concerns, objections, or indifference.

When you find them, you have to deal with it.

Maybe the student’s concern is based on a false assumption about your school. If so, you need to correct it. Maybe they’re worried about something. If so, you need to reassure them. You can’t address their concerns or objections if you don’t uncover them and you can’t uncover them if you aren’t asking the right questions.

Once you have uncovered and dealt with any objections, you are ready for the fourth and final step in the communication model: CLOSING.

Closing simply means getting the student to take the next logical step on the path to enrolling.

You know there are many milestones on that path. But in every conversation you should end with a suggestion that the student take the next step. If the student resists, you have to circle back to uncover their objection or concern.

The model of communication and its four elements is a simple approach to having great, productive conversations that benefit both you and the students you are recruiting.

Remember, the goal is to best serve the student by truly understanding what they need and want which will ultimately make both you and the student more successful.

As I stated at the top of this post, this is the first in a three-part series that we hope will set you and your staff up for success in the coming yield season.

So you know:

We’re doing something new this yield season with our counselor training workshops. We’re conducting them on centrally located campuses around the country and inviting nearby colleges to send directors and counselors to the event. Each will be a day-long intensive interactive training workshop that will prepare admission professionals for yield season success. New and seasoned counselors will benefit.

The price of attending is more than affordable for every college, even those that have little or no budget for professional development. The focus of the Yield Season Workshop will be to give your counselors powerful new skills and techniques that they can put into action immediately. It will be convenient and close to home. Your staff will drive to the event in the morning, participate in a dynamic training workshop, and be home in time for dinner.

We’ll be conducting workshops in January and February on campuses in Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and elsewhere. We’re continuing to add events. Keep checking HERE as colleges join the list of host sites. And please, feel free to contact me if you’d like to host an event or suggest a location.

[This is Part 1 in our Series: Counselor Training for Recruitment Success. Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly valuable information. In Part 2, we will take an in-depth look at skillful probing techniques.]

Bob Longmire is President of Longmire and Company, Inc. He is a recognized expert on the topic of how prospective students and parents form their college selection decisions – and how colleges can use that knowledge to grow and control their enrollment. He can be reached at (913) 492-1265, ext 709 or at blongmire@longmire-co.com. Connect with Bob at Linkedin/in/boblongmire.

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Posted in Behavior, Campus Tours, Campus Visits, Closing the Sale, Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training, Organizational development, Worthwhile Reading, Your Value Proposition

Tags: admission counselor training admissions admissions counselors admissions customer service admissions success brand management college college admissions college branding college costs college enrollment college presidents college recruiting college yield EMChat enrollment management finding the right college fit higher ed higher ed marketing higher education marketing higher education strategies higher education value longmire longmire and company staff training value proposition yield enhancement

Finding out what prospective students will and won’t tell you

December 6th, 2016

“Why don’t the students we are recruiting just level with us? I had four no-shows last weekend for campus visits, all from students who had verbally committed to me the week before,” an admission counselor recently asked me. I’ve heard iterations of this question many times: “Why do students say one thing and do another?” We asked over 18,000 college-bound students that very question, and many more.

Students may not be willing to share their hidden perceptions and feelings with the colleges they are seriously considering but they have been opening up to us in our latest nationally co-sponsored higher ed study, “Hidden Influences: Revealing the unspoken perceptions that prospective students have about your college and why it matters in your ability to grow and control enrollment”. This study focused on the things students hold back from colleges during the college shopping process. An analysis of the results have revealed techniques and strategies colleges can use to unmask hidden influences and deal with them before the student solidifies his or her enrollment decision.

For instance, nearly 30% of college-bound students admit to making commitments to colleges that they knew they were unlikely to keep (e.g. completing an application, visiting the campus, enrolling, etc.). FYI, females are almost 60% more likely than males to do so.

Why do they do this? Here’s what they tell us:

I felt uncomfortable saying no (10%)
I wanted to end the conversation (7%)
I thought there was a possibility that I would keep the commitment (60%)
It was easier than explaining why I didn’t want to commit (11%)
I wanted to keep my options open (78%)

(Students were asked to check all that apply.)

This is just one example “Hidden Influences” uncovered where study participants demonstrate that they do NOT like to be the bearer of what could be perceived as “bad news” to their admission counselor. Take note of the responses to this question:

If you need to tell a college that you are no longer interested in enrolling at their school which methods are you most comfortable using to do so? (Check all that apply.)

Face-to-face conversation: (15%)
Phone conversation: (32%)
Voice mail: (9%)
Email: (90%)
Text: (17%)

So, what should a counselor do? College-bound students told us there are ways to get them to open up with you even about difficult subjects. More than half of the study participants said that they would be comfortable talking about negative things if “the counselor sincerely encouraged me to be open, honest and forthcoming.” When a prospective student communicates a concern or objection about your college, it’s a good thing. Really. When a concern or objection is revealed, you can deal with it. If they don’t share their concerns, they’ll never enroll and you’ll never know why. Give them “permission” to be completely open with you and you will be building a richer relationship with the students you are recruiting.

This study yielded new market intelligence to shed light on the hidden influences and provide you with actionable data you can use to uncover and manage the perceptions and opinions that prospective students have about your college and the other colleges they have considered. The findings will influence your future conversations with students, as well as your mass communications. We are excited to share that with you and soon we will release the full national report on this eye-opening study. (Click here to put your name on the list for an advance copy.)

Shifting gears: We are delighted to announce that for a limited time, Longmire and Company’s highly regarded counselor training workshop is coming to a location near you! A number of colleges and universities will be serving as regional host sites where nearby colleges can send counselors to participate in a full-day intensive Yield Season Counselor Training Workshop that will prepare counselors for yield season success. This very affordable workshop is designed to benefit seasoned counselors just as much as counselors who are going through their first full recruiting cycle. Best of all, counselors you send will return home with skills and techniques that can be shared with the whole admission team. For more information or to register today, click here.

We help colleges with their recruiting efforts every day. If we can help you please call me or any member of our team, Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. For more information about Longmire and Company and the tools we have to offer, click here. Be sure to subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.

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Posted in Behavior, Campus Tours, Campus Visits, Closing the Sale, Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training, Research, Worthwhile Reading, Your Value Proposition

Tags: admission counselor training admissions admissions counselors admissions customer service admissions success brand management college admissions college branding college enrollment college presidents college recruitment college yield EMChat enrollment management higher ed higher ed marketing higher education strategies higher education value longmire longmire and company Longmire and Company study yield enhancement