Sharpen your pencils. Count your Flair Pens. Find your Stylus. Put the athleisure (mostly) back in the drawer. It’s back-to-school season!
Just as every teacher and staff member have back-to-school checklists to make welcoming students back smooth, your Admissions and Enrollment Office is likely doing the same.
There are many, many tools available in the admissions, enrollment, and tuition management space. How do you choose what’s best for your school, students, and families? Talk with Community Brands’ experts today to learn more about what we offer with Ravenna and SSS.
Don’t miss these five things you should look for in an admission, enrollment, and tuition management solution.
1. Online Applications
If you haven’t already, take your application process online. With three of the top four marketing methods used by schools found online—school website, social media, and digital advertising—why would you continue to have any portion of your application process involve physical paper?
Look for a solution that allows you the flexibility of adding your application requirements and timeline. Seek one that makes it easy for you to track and families to submit any additional, required paperwork. Tools that automate reminders and provide easy-to-understand reporting ensure that everyone involved in the application process, from parent to head of school, is informed and confident in your admission and enrollment processes.
2. Flexible Tuition Payment Options
Seek a tuition payment solution that provides an easy-to-navigate family experience. Don’t create barriers. Look for an integrated system, so that you don’t have to ask for basic information again.
Think about your staff, too. If your admissions and enrollment system doesn’t sync with your tuition payment tools, your business office is left to track fees in one system and tuition payments in another.
With only 7% of families at schools which offer online tuition payments still choosing to pay via cash or physical check,1 your families want secure, online, and mobile ways to pay. Seek a solution that provides the flexibility, security, and accuracy your staff and families deserve.
3. Virtual Events and Meetings
According to a recent survey, 2 84% of people want the option of attending a virtual or hybrid event. People have adjusted to and now prefer some of the virtual experiences the past few years necessitated.
Look for a tool that allows you to easily schedule and host online meetings and interviews, as well as virtual tours. Face-to-face meetings certainly have a wonderful place in admission and enrollment. But, if you don’t provide easy-to-use virtual meeting tools, you are isolating families who would like or require contactless experiences.
Give prospective families access to your school on their terms.
4. Multi-Channel Communication
Few schools have dedicated marketing staff. That likely means your team cannot juggle multiple communication platforms that facilitate emailing, texting, and other outbound messaging, like videos. It also means the time to strategize, track, or follow up on any of these communication efforts is limited, at best.
Find an admissions, enrollment, and tuition management solution that allows you to connect with families on the platform. This enhances the family experience while giving all involved staff the tools and visibility to better engage with families and students.
5. One Stop Experience
How do you feel when you go to reset a password and you’re prompted with “your new password cannot be the same as your old one?”
It’s likely not great.
There is a better way to do this within your admissions, enrollment, and tuition management platform. Who says you have to require families to set up a whole account before they enroll? And, when they choose your school, make sure you haven’t chosen a solution that requires them to reenter their information.
There are tools available that have all of these moving pieces in one place. Using one enhances the experience your students and families have with your school from the beginning.
Your students, families, and staff deserve supportive, easy-to-use admissions, enrollment, and tuition management tools. Community Brands is here to help. As a leader in the education space, we have helped tens of thousands of schools over the years work more effectively and efficiently.
Connect with our team of experts today to get started. No need to bring your composition notebook.
- 2022 K-12 trends report. Ravenna Solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://www.ravennasolutions.com/resources/guides/2022-k12-trends-report/
- Kopyt, J. (2022, June 10). The state of virtual events 2022. Kaltura. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://corp.kaltura.com/resources/state-of-virtual-events-2022/
