An online Enrollment Counselor has little in common with a traditional brick-and-mortar Admissions Counselor.
The two differ in many ways: job description, daily expectations, training methods, and qualifications.
In the online environment, everything is different: students' expectations, marketing approaches, contact strategy, interview process and follow-up procedures.
If your enrollment management team does not spend at least five hours a day on the phone, your school will never service all of the leads you have generated.
Online enrollment management is more about contacting and bonding with individual students than it is about selling the school, and time spent with each prospective student is incredibly important.
Given the nature of online education, the process always has a sense of remoteness that colleges and universities cannot overcome completely.
However, you can make great strides if you remember this: the school that bonds with the prospective student will win.
Most students shop several schools with online programs before making a decision and, unlike the traditional process that might involve weeks of campus visits and interviews, the online world moves at lightning speed.
Decisions are made in hours and days, not weeks and months.
Students can, and will, request information from several schools in a matter of minutes.
They seek someone to help them make a decision, and they want help with the process.
Thus, the role of an Enrollment Counselor becomes incredibly important to the success of your online education program.
Enrollment Counselors serve as the first point of contact with prospective students, and they guide prospects through each step of the enrollment management process, from lead to applicant to enrolled student.
--An Enrollment Counselor's Average Day-- Step 1: Review the day's planned activities.
Planned activities may include scheduled:
Leads should be grouped into categories including:
An Enrollment Counselor should give priority to hot and warm leads before contacting the remaining lead categories.
The goal should always be to schedule an activity (such as a phone interview or application walk-through) with each lead he or she contacts.
Step 3: Call database contacts.
As mentioned in step two, first priority should be given to recent leads.
However, it is greatly beneficial to contact old and recycled leads, as prospective students often may have had to put college on hold for some reason, such as settling into a new job, starting a family, or feeling overwhelmed at the time of the original inquiry.
Since then, their circumstances in their lives have changed, and Enrollment Counselors may be able to convert these leads into new hot leads.
Step 4: Prepare for phone appointments.
This step includes:
As mentioned in step one, scheduled activities may include:
A good Enrollment Counselor should be familiar with every page of the school's website and know the location of every piece of information that students need to access.
The Enrollment Counselor should cover all of the course material, program details, tuition costs, financial aid and online classroom requirements.
By the end of the call, prospective students should be ready to complete their applications.
Course Demos/Walk-throughs Every college or university offering online programs should have an online course demo available to prospective students.
A course demo typically includes the first 1-3 sections of an online course, including their corresponding lectures, readings and assignments.
During the course demo/walk-through, an Enrollment Counselor should explain the online modality, how to navigate through courses and how to access vital information in the learning management system, including assignments, grades and forums.
Application Walk-throughs During an application walk-through, an Enrollment Counselor answers any questions that prospective students may have, while helping them locate any resources, such as transcripts, ACT/SAT scores and recommendation forms that they may need to complete their applications.
An Enrollment Counselor may also help prospects complete their FAFSA at this time.
The two differ in many ways: job description, daily expectations, training methods, and qualifications.
In the online environment, everything is different: students' expectations, marketing approaches, contact strategy, interview process and follow-up procedures.
If your enrollment management team does not spend at least five hours a day on the phone, your school will never service all of the leads you have generated.
Online enrollment management is more about contacting and bonding with individual students than it is about selling the school, and time spent with each prospective student is incredibly important.
Given the nature of online education, the process always has a sense of remoteness that colleges and universities cannot overcome completely.
However, you can make great strides if you remember this: the school that bonds with the prospective student will win.
Most students shop several schools with online programs before making a decision and, unlike the traditional process that might involve weeks of campus visits and interviews, the online world moves at lightning speed.
Decisions are made in hours and days, not weeks and months.
Students can, and will, request information from several schools in a matter of minutes.
They seek someone to help them make a decision, and they want help with the process.
Thus, the role of an Enrollment Counselor becomes incredibly important to the success of your online education program.
Enrollment Counselors serve as the first point of contact with prospective students, and they guide prospects through each step of the enrollment management process, from lead to applicant to enrolled student.
--An Enrollment Counselor's Average Day-- Step 1: Review the day's planned activities.
Planned activities may include scheduled:
- Telephone interviews
- Course demos/walk-throughs
- Application walk-throughs
Leads should be grouped into categories including:
- Hot leads (less than 48 hours old)
- Warm leads (48 hours to one week old)
- One week to three months old
- 3-6 months old
- 6-12 months old
- More than 12 months old
- Recycled leads
An Enrollment Counselor should give priority to hot and warm leads before contacting the remaining lead categories.
The goal should always be to schedule an activity (such as a phone interview or application walk-through) with each lead he or she contacts.
Step 3: Call database contacts.
As mentioned in step two, first priority should be given to recent leads.
However, it is greatly beneficial to contact old and recycled leads, as prospective students often may have had to put college on hold for some reason, such as settling into a new job, starting a family, or feeling overwhelmed at the time of the original inquiry.
Since then, their circumstances in their lives have changed, and Enrollment Counselors may be able to convert these leads into new hot leads.
Step 4: Prepare for phone appointments.
This step includes:
- Reviewing prospective students' files, meaning the Enrollment Counselor should review students' questions, requests and academic interests prior to making calls.
- Gathering assets, such as information packets, applications and financial aid documentation to have on-hand during the time of the calls.
As mentioned in step one, scheduled activities may include:
- Telephone interviews
- Course demos/walk-throughs
- Application walk-throughs
A good Enrollment Counselor should be familiar with every page of the school's website and know the location of every piece of information that students need to access.
The Enrollment Counselor should cover all of the course material, program details, tuition costs, financial aid and online classroom requirements.
By the end of the call, prospective students should be ready to complete their applications.
Course Demos/Walk-throughs Every college or university offering online programs should have an online course demo available to prospective students.
A course demo typically includes the first 1-3 sections of an online course, including their corresponding lectures, readings and assignments.
During the course demo/walk-through, an Enrollment Counselor should explain the online modality, how to navigate through courses and how to access vital information in the learning management system, including assignments, grades and forums.
Application Walk-throughs During an application walk-through, an Enrollment Counselor answers any questions that prospective students may have, while helping them locate any resources, such as transcripts, ACT/SAT scores and recommendation forms that they may need to complete their applications.
An Enrollment Counselor may also help prospects complete their FAFSA at this time.
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