Baker Online sought to increase the College’s share of a large and expanding military market. Baker Online hired Vantage Point Consulting to aid in addressing the challenges in penetrating this market. Baker Online can increase enrollment and persistence rates of military students through improved processes, policy, and technical coordination through Student Lifecycle Engagement (SLE)—i.e., strong relationship management.
For-profit competitors, such as University of Phoenix, Devry, and AIU, are taking market share at alarming rates from private institutions like Baker Online. They have made investments in data-driven customer relationship management (CRM) systems, which widen their competitive advantage as they continually refine their strategies. Approximately one third of all colleges and universities have made investments in CRM, and this is expected to increase to one half within the next two years.
The objectives of the proposed SLE/CRM are to:
1. Have a well-developed profile of prospects and students, which includes educational goals, timeline for achieving those goals, and particular obstacles faced.
2. Thoughtfully transition students across lifecycle phases through personalized touch points that monitor progress goals, probe for risk signs, and continually motivate.
3. Engage prospects, students, and alumni with faculty, administrators, and peers in ways that work best for them.
4. Identify at-risk students to provide proactive support.
5. Connect all institutional activities through a workflow that makes processes seamless and automated.
6. Base decisions on accurate and accessible data, as well as receive feedback regarding outcome achievement.
7. Eliminate administrative rekeying of data and physical distribution of files.
Baker Online and Vantage Point defined the initial set of requirements for a robust SLE system, which is designed to capture essential data elements for a particular student cohort (in this case, military), trigger automated communications to the cohort based on risk tier, track all inbound/outbound communications and case types in a CRM module, and provide data-warehouse functionality to report on defined success measures for the various engagement initiatives.
Success is defined as improved retention and persistence rates for the cohort. The following is one section of the flowchart developed by Vantage Point and the Baker Military Leadership group as input to the Baker College SLE/CRM system: (click to enlarge)
The SLE model will increase military enrollments at Baker Online through targeted, relevant communications throughout servicemembers’ time with Baker Online, as well as help manage servicemember cohorts from initial inquiry through lifelong alumni engagement. Baker Online plans to focus on the military population to drive enrollment and retention gains, and then expand the initiatives to other student populations.
Baker Online has selected Hobsons to provide the tools needed to manage our SLE model. Their product, EMT Retain, provides the tools needed for a successful CRM system. Improved student data collection, communications, and an early-alert system will aid Baker Online in retaining a greater percentage of students. Vantage Point consultants continue to help in the transition to Retain by serving as project manager for the implementation.
