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Recruitment | News

For-Profit Colleges Lax in Followup to Prospective Students

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 11/14/11

Private, for-profit institutions could greatly improve their responsiveness to prospective students. A recent study found that nine out of 10 private colleges and universities fail to reply to new inquiries by phone from prospective students within the first 12 hours; four out of 10 let a full day go by before they reply. These same schools did much better in their responsiveness to e-mail inquiries, with slightly more than three-quarters responding via e-mail within 12 hours. But even then, some schools never reply to e-mail inquiries with e-mail.

These results come out of a "secret shopper" research project sponsored by Leads360, which sells enrollment management software. The test, which focused specifically on private sector higher education, examined responsiveness at 28 schools selected as a representative sample.

The full version of "Failing Grades: Evaluating Admissions Processes at For-Profit Schools," is available for registration at leads360.com.

The research focused on four key performance indicators (KPIs): speed-to-call, speed-to-e-mail, number of call attempts, and number of e-mail "nurture" attempts.

According to project results, the best performing schools managed to call prospective students within an hour, but only one school met the Leads360 best practice of calling within two minutes. The same responsiveness is expected for e-mail inquiries too. The best performer in the speed-to-e-mail category, Grand Canyon University, was the only school in the survey to send an e-mail to prospective students within an average of one hour.

The study also looked at the number of call attempts and e-mail attempts. Best practice as set by the company is to send between two and four e-mails per inquiry or to make six call attempts, depending on which medium was chosen by the prospective student.

More than half of the schools in the study group attempted 10 or more calls; 30 percent averaged more than 16 calls. Two colleges in the sample averaged more than 65 calls--one at 68, the other 88.

"If school administrators knew how poorly equipped their admissions departments were to effectively respond to inquiries, they would think twice about their marketing strategies," said Nick Hedges, CEO and president of Leads360. "This report sheds new light on where schools can improve their approach to recruiting high quality students by responding more promptly and better controlling the actions of their admissions departments throughout the recruitment process."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business for a number of publications. Contact her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.

Comments

Wed, Jan 11, 2012 Martin Lind California

As the Education Vertical Manager at Leads360, I'd like to address some of the comments and concerns posted here. Alanna: Because we are a software as a service, we host all of our clients' data, so we have millions of inquiry records in our system. We frequently anonymize the data and do detailed analyses of it to determine what works best to convert and inquiry into an enrolled student (i.e., "best practices"). Our studies have found that you are four times as likely (compared to the average - to convert an inquiry into a student if you contact them within one minute of them filling out a request for information. That benefit plummets as time marches on, so the advantage nearly disappears after 30 minutes. Atom: Our clients would disagree with you. They have found that improving their speed-to-contact metric has dramatically increased their enrollment yield. Yes, we put our name on the study, but that does not make the results less legitimate. Please find me a study where the sponsoring institution chooses to remain anonymous. Richard: Yes, continuing one's education is a huuuuge decision that shouldn't be taken lightly. Our study doesn't address the decision-making process, just the speed with which the school should contact the inquiry so she of he can begin the decision-making process. I just decided to re-roof my house - a big-ticket decision. That doesn't mean that I didn't want to be called back immediately when I fill out an inquiry form on a roofer's website. I wanted to immediately get all the information I needed from multiple roofers so I could make an informed decision at my leisure. The roofer that calls me back after I've made the decision - regardless if they are the best roofer - misses out because every other roofer has returned my call.

Thu, Dec 29, 2011 Dian S Nevada City, CA

I've received an update on the report put out by Leads360. The company apparently has gone back to its data and pulled a version of the stats that uses a different method of data collection and ranking. Here's what I've been told: "The study found the mean time it took to receive the first phone call was more than 6 hours and, despite the low cost of automated email responses, several schools and universities also failed to promptly respond by email. On average, the first email was sent more than 14 hours after the inquiry was received. The best performers in both speed-to-contact categories reached out to new prospects within 1 minute." The company added, "The study also revealed room for improvement in controlling the number of follow-up attempts to each inquiry by admissions counselors. Previous Leads360 research has demonstrated the optimal number of nurturing emails to send to each inquiry is between two and four and the optimal number of calls is between five and eight. On email, only 16% of schools studied hit the mark on average, with twice as many sending too few emails and 52% sending too many. Institutions also failed to follow up on inquiries with a healthy number of call attempts, only 24% of schools surveyed made between five and eight call attempts per inquiry."

Mon, Nov 21, 2011

I have worked in both sectors and the claims being made on both ends are ridiculous. We hear all the time that we call "too soon" or "too often". Immediate response from a for profit usually tips off the "stalker" insinuation. Even though that person REQUESTED the information, an immediate reply comes across as too much, or they assume that were are trying to "force or coerce" them to enroll, when in actuality, we are trying to understand exactly what they need, and why they asked for more information. Immediate response from a not for profit institution could be taken the same way, depending on the receiver. When it boils down to it, people who are interested in schools should not submit their personal contact information if they don't want to be contacted. If it is urgent, and they feel they need to speak with someone in 2 minutes of their inquiry, they should call in. Moreover, a simple fix to any unwanted calls is to ask to be placed on the national DNC list.

Tue, Nov 15, 2011 Alanna

This report is highly suspicious. When I inquired about graduate programs at a for-profit university, I was afraid I would be stalked by a high pressure sales team just because I wanted information. Instead, I've had the best possible experience in my graduate program. No pressure, but always someone available (an actual person even) when I need them. The public college where I work, on the other hand, has worse customer service than your average McDonalds. Also, who says within 2 minutes is a best practice? I think it would be a turnoff as it makes the school look desperate for enrollment. Who is writing this stuff?

Tue, Nov 15, 2011 Atom NY

I love studies like this, because without context, they seem to reveal something. Let me ask you this: how many people have an expectation to get a phone call from *any* institution at all a couple of hours after filling out an online form? This is essentially a marketing piece: 1. conduct study, 2. Misrepresent results by making unreasonable expectations seem reasonable, 3. Ensure plenty of mentions of your company and how you work on this very issue if you just purchase our software! What a ridiculous story.

Tue, Nov 15, 2011 Brandi Kernel Indiana

..and if you are a current student, good luck getting anyone on the phone that works at the school-especially if it entails money. My sister is still trying to receive tuition reimbursement for over-payment from her school and that was two years ago. She no longer attends that private, for-profit!

Tue, Nov 15, 2011 Don

When it comes right down to it, colleges (profit/nonprofit) are there to to make a buck. The nonprofits seem to have a more vested interest keeping students happy and coming back. They usually have lower fees and have to keep up the volume to stay a float. Profits usually have higher rates, try to get the money up front, and don't seem to really care. They already have your money, know your hooked, and move on to find other fish. I finished my masters using two different schools and it was painful.

Tue, Nov 15, 2011 Lee Cleveland, OH

I am very surprised by this article's findings. One of the reasons I got my Masters degre at Indiana Wesleyan (they have a campus here in Cleveland, Ohio)is that I applied to Cleveland State University and they never bothered getting back to me and wouldn't return my phone calls! I took BOTH the GMAT and the GRE and scored high on both. I paid the application fee, paid for my transcripts to be sent in and for both of my entrance exam results to be sent in. It was a big waste of time and money. Then someone told me about Indiana Wesleyan. I never heard of them. I contacted them and everything went very quickly and smoothely. The next thing I knew...I was sitting in a classroom!

Tue, Nov 15, 2011 Steven

This quick response, hard sell, while the prospect is deer in the headlights is exactly why we have the problem with privates today. Leads360 seems to be pushing the "UofP process" that we now know for certain is short sighted.

Tue, Nov 15, 2011 Don

And how long does it take a traditional private or public university to contact a prospective student? Maybe a week at best? I'm finishing a PhD program at a prestigious private university, and I can't get their administrative assistant to respond to questions in less than 2 or 3 weeks.

Mon, Nov 14, 2011 Richard

OMG! A full day! To return a call or email about a major decision requiring years of work and thousands of dollars. Gosh, I wonder if the company that sponsored the survey sells a program that promises to speed up responses?

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