Two weeks ago, Edu, short for Eduardo, completed an online form to request information for a Master's Program. By today, he has yet to receive even an acknowledgment. Did they receive his message, are they overwhelmed with the level of interest, or did they ignore it because of his profile? Edu had to complete quite a bit of information before he could submit his request. Though they might reply at some stage, he is now less likely to apply.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” This quote is attributed to many people, such as Oscar Wilde, Willy Rogers, and Andrew Grant, but for this post, it doesn’t matter too much. What is more important is that Edu lost his confidence in your institution!
Why?
Edu showed interest in your institution. He was hyped to learn more about your programs. Unfortunately, due to a lack of strategy or processes, Edu hasn’t received any communication from your side.
What would be an ideal response time?
Mircosoft’s 2017 State of Global Customer Service found that 50% of e-mail senders expect a reply within 24 hours. Are you operating a Live Chat function on your web? Hubspot, in a more recent survey, discovered that 90% of inquiries should be replied to within a 10-minute time frame to meet customer satisfaction. It provides an idea of the different expectations of resolution speed by channel.
No doubt, there are peak periods in every company. Dealing with an overwhelming level of inquiries can be challenging and might lead to a slower response time. To ensure that Edu does receive communication, we can explore a nurturing strategy and how we can measure whether this strategy produces the desired results.
First, it’s fantastic that potential candidates like Edu are contacting you by e-mail or through a web form. This means you have generated organic traffic to your website. But what is next? You have either an e-mail inbox where you collect those inquiries or a CRM system that captures the lead information. In the case of Edu, you don’t have an established workflow that defines a response to his inquiry. What does it take to create one?
Here are some options:
All e-mails should include calls to action. These CTAs can be invitations to events, articles published by your faculty, a meeting scheduler to advance the relationship through direct communication with Edu, or a link to the online application.
Congratulations! You have set up your nurturing e-mails, providing Edu with relevant and engaging content. How can we learn whether this strategy works and helps recruit more students? Depending on the systems you work with, the effort to obtain the data can differ. Nonetheless, you should be able to measure the following:
Overall, you are measuring the level of engagement. The more engaged a candidate is, the more likely you will see him/her progress in the sales pipeline and successfully enroll in your program.
A final thought on the information thirst of the institution. If you include a form on your page to collect inquiries, be mindful of the amount of information you are requesting. Research suggests that the number of questions in your form should be 5-10. You are already within those limits when you ask for personal and contact details and location. With more questions, the response rate dramatically decreases. The more information you are asking for, the more expectations you create that you will use this information to personalize the candidate's journey. If you don’t plan to use this information, reconsider asking them. As a result, you might see an increase in inquiries as well.
If you wish us to review this process or book one of our Workshops, just contact us.
About this blog: EDU, short for Eduardo, is a great guy! He is your lead, candidate, student, and alumni. He helps you see things from his perspective. You will understand why things matter to him. On his blog, he will pose questions to which you hopefully have answers - or we help you to find them! So, go ahead and explore more stories at Eduardo or get the latest story directly delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.