www.le.ac.uk

MyLeicester: A case study in CRM

Jonathan Tinnacher

Head of Student Recruitment

Division of Marketing, Planning and Communications

Why CRM?

• Wikipedia: Customer relationship

management (CRM) is a broadly

recognized, widely-implemented

strategy for managing and

nurturing a company’s interactions

with customers, clients and sales

prospects. It involves using

technology to organize, automate,

and synchronize business processes

What did we want to achieve?

• A single CRM solution for all student enquirers

and applicants, across all levels of study.

• A solution which allowed us to respond to the

needs, interests and decisions of the student.

• A solution which enabled the student to access

the information they want, where and when

they want it.

How did we proceed?

• Azorus: A portal-based

CRM solution

• Company based in

Canada. Worked with

HEIs in USA, Canada,

and one in UK.

Communication plans

Communications plans developed which

followed the student through each phase of

their journey:

• initial enquiry

• further interaction

• application

• registration

Principles of communication

Relevance to individual:

• Must be of interest to them

• Must be timely

• Must grab their attention

• Must be true to our brand

Examples of communications

• Enquiry portal

• Enquiry communications:

– Print: e.g. Prospectus, Open Day programme

– Email: e-zines

This is the light background

• There’s also a layout for a title with a light

background.

• And a layout for a plain slide and one with just

a heading.

• If you need more layouts you can make extra

masters. Go to Master slide view and create

new ones.

• Marvellous isn’t it?

This is the light background

• There’s also a layout for a title with a light

background.

• And a layout for a plain slide and one with just

a heading.

• If you need more layouts you can make extra

masters. Go to Master slide view and create

new ones.

• Marvellous isn’t it?

Monthly e-zines

• Relevance by virtue of timing

• Topic choices underpinned by

research

• Each e-zine checked for brand

messaging

• Each e-zine encourages reader

on a journey through different

media

• Clear ‘Call to Action’

Event e-zines

• Relevance established by

action of enquirer. Eg. booking

an Open Day

• Encourages further

interactions.

• Clear ‘Call to Action’

News e-zines

• Relevance established by

interests specified by student,

or by other enquirer data (eg.

year of entry, level of study

etc., enquirer interaction)

What have we achieved?

Since launch (Jan 10):

• Prospectus requests: 21,000

• Open Day bookings: 14,000

• Portal sign-ups: 1,400

What have the challenges been and

the lessons learned?

• Technical

• Timings – it always takes longer than you think!

• Communications and getting the team right

• Messaging and branding

What next?

• Undergraduate applicant communications

• PG enquiry and applicant pilot

• Applicant Open Day bookings

• Facebook application

• Full Departmental role-out

Discussion notes

• A discussion was held, and members described their involvement in CRM projects within their

own institutions. Themes of the discussions were as follows:

– Project team - Important to have a large enough team, with a mixed skill set (IT, Comms,

Data, Planning etc), in order to develop and maintain the project.

– Project timescales - Technical issues tend to mean that developing CRM takes far longer

than initially invisaged.

– Multiple systems - Some universities have different systems running different elements of

enquirer and applicant communications simultaneously. Different systems clearly have

different strengths and weaknesses and integration is key.

– Portal – Students will only return to a Portal is the content is rich enough and continually

updated.

– Matching / de-duplicating data – The ‘MyLeicester’ system uses the email address as the

unique identifier to match UCAS applicants with current enquirers. The system will also

match name and postcode (a 100% match is required if email address is different).

– Collecting enquiry data at events – Different institutions use different methods (most use

paper forms, but a couple are trialling use of laptops). Note that students do not tend to

like to queue or wait to do this, and any system needs to allow multiple users.

– Personalised prospectuses – A small number of institutions are taking personalisation

further and send our personalised printed prospectuses based on enquirer preferences.