Changing Higher Ed Student Lifecycle Strategies for Enrollment and Retention
College and university leaders who understand and implement the customer lifecycle model into their processes and procedures can boost enrollment numbers at their institutions despite the ongoing trend in higher education.
In his latest podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton explores how higher ed leaders can follow the seven steps of this particular business model with Modern Campus’ Senior Director of Strategic Insights Amrit Ahluwalia, who also serves as editor-in-chief of The EvoLLLution, an online newspaper focused on nontraditional higher education and transforming the post-secondary marketplace. Drawing from his experience of working with more than 2,500 leaders at various colleges and universities across the US., Amrit discusses the most effective ways in which schools can engage with students and alumni and how to define specific tactics and priorities that will improve enrollment and retention.
Podcast Highlights
· The six stages of the customer lifecycle are attract, engage, convert, retain, loyalty, and nurture and grow. The “attract” phase makes people aware of your institution. “Engage” provides them with the information they need to make the right buying decision for them. “Convert” gets them from prospect to customer. “Retain” keeps that individual through their buying process. “Loyalty” represents when you build and foster a relationship with that individual. “Nurture and grow” expands the nature of your relationship with that individual beyond what you have today.
· “Attract” is about how the customer is looking for a solution to solve a problem. So, the institution has an opportunity to position itself as a solution provider. This comes down to identifying your communication strategy and rating the effectiveness of your website design, for example, how easy it is to find the right thing at the right time on the website to move forward. Your SEO strategy has to be dialed in, and the program mix has to be right for the learners you're trying to serve. This requires understanding who your learners are, what they like about the institution, and what needs to change. These are the core ways that you can define your target audience. Higher ed has spent too long trying to be Harvard that there's a fair number of institutions that have lost sight of what makes them unique, interesting, special, and valuable.
· At “engage,” your prospective customers have been on your website and are starting to sift through it to find materials that meet their needs. The majority of students enroll in a post-secondary program because they have specific career outcomes in mind. How are you communicating those career outcomes from a program page perspective? Provide possible salaries that students can earn in their area and tee up relationships with employers. That kind of messaging and visibility will make a massive impact on the students likely to continue onto the next step, which is “convert.”
· At “convert,” the individual decides they’ll go through the registration process. There are things that this student must do to adequately apply for the program. Have your enrollment management department and applications department go through an exercise to define every single step. For every single question that you ask these students, ask yourself at every stage, “Is this a piece of information we need? Or is this a piece of information we already have?” If you're coming from the noncredit or continuing ed world, simplify. How simple can or should you make it? How easy are you making it for that individual to provide exactly the information they need to share and no more? How easy are you making it for them to pay? Are you accepting multiple payment types? Are you legally allowed to take credit card payments?
· At “retention,” you assume that the individual has completed the credential that they enrolled for. The involvement of faculty in the enrollment and retention process is critical. Most of the time, when alumni think back about their college experience, they remember the relationship that they had with a professor or multiple professors. But higher ed has unfortunately created an environment that does not necessarily reward faculty for their capacity to develop and maintain relationships with students. Some schools have, like Arizona State, with its vertical research track, vertical teaching track, and continuing education lifelong learning track. Create a situation where faculty members who are oriented to teaching and want that to be their profession can do that and can be rewarded for it.
· “Loyalty” is executed on the back of retention. Loyalty is the exemplification of the relationship you've developed with the individual by their tendency to make another purchase. In higher ed, the metrics for this are whether the individual returned for a post-baccalaureate certificate, enrolled in a professional certification workshop, came back for some kind of upskilling rescaling program, and meaningfully reengaged with the institution. “Loyalty” should not be based on fundraising. The higher ed fundraising model is broken since it essentially involves asking graduates to donate because they graduated. Higher ed needs to treat students like consumers and base their relationship with them on teaching and learning. Facilitate greater access to ongoing learning for alumni in the execution of that enrollment.
· To “nurture” and “grow,” higher ed needs to address the complexity of their back ends. Everyone has their own systems running, and it's very difficult for information to pass from system to system. Alumni who want to reenroll at their alma mater for ongoing education should not have to go through another 30-step registration process. Start by creating tighter relationships between continuing education, the main campus, and alumni relations. Create consistent and high-quality credentialing frameworks that clearly define what a badge is, what a competency is, what a micro-credential is, and what a certificate is. Then make the information that transfers between all these various systems seamless to create a more streamlined experience for students.
About Our Podcast Guest
Amrit Ahluwalia is the Editor in Chief of The EvoLLLution, the online newspaper developed by Modern Campus to create a conversation hub focused on non-traditional higher education and the transforming postsecondary marketplace. Ahluwalia was part of the team that conceived of and launched The EvoLLLution. The EvoLLLution, which launched in January 2012, serves over 2,000 contributors and attracts approximately 60,000 monthly visitors. The site publishes articles and interviews by some of the industry’s leading thinkers at every level—from presidents and provosts to deans and directors to educators and students to employers and government officials and everyone in between—from across the United States and around the world. Ahluwalia works personally with every contributor at The EvoLLLution to produce the content that has supported the site’s rise to becoming the top resource for non-traditional higher education. He also serves as Senior Director for Content at Modern Campus, ensuring thought leadership assets align with industry trends. He regularly speaks on topics related to the changing higher education environment at conferences across Canada and the United States, and advises college and university leaders to help frame the strategic visions for their institutions. Ahluwalia earned his BA (Honors) in Political Studies from Queen’s University and his MA in International Politics from McMaster University. He lives in London, Ontario.
About the Host
Dr. Drumm McNaughton, host and consultant to higher ed institutions. To find out more about his services and read other thought leadership pieces, visit his firm’s website, https://changinghighered.com/.
The Change Leader’s Social Media Links
● LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdrumm/
● Twitter: @thechangeldr
● Email: podcast@changinghighered.com
Keywords: #studentlifecycle #highereducation #studentenrollment