15 Best CRM Schools In 2022

According to the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, up to forty percent of prospective students withdraw from school prior to the start of the academic year due to issues with the admissions process.

Similarly, two-thirds of high school students indicate that social media communications influence their college enrollment decisions. In other words, if an institution does not aggressively use social media for admissions, it is missing out on a pool of prospective students.

In addition to prospective students, alumni are another significant asset that any school must maintain. Why? Because alumni are essential for fundraising possibilities, marketing, and brand recognition.

Institutions may enhance their recruiting, enrollment, admission, and retention efforts thanks to a tool.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions in higher education have one objective: to establish more value customer connections. The finest student relationship management (CRM) systems for higher education assist institutions in maintaining ties with their present students and fostering relationships with prospective students.

Regardless of whether your institution is large or small, private or public, arts-focused or research-driven, this article covers all you need to know to select the finest CRM system for your needs.

Let’s go!

Advantages of Implementing CRM in Higher Education

Consider a school administration system that is utilized by several schools. This sort of software runs in a largely binary environment in which it monitors behaviors such as:

• Is the student registered or not?
• A bill is paid or not.
• Class attendance: yes or no

A CRM system for higher education, on the other hand, functions in a larger environment and assists institutions in the following areas:

• Bringing in fresh pupils.
• Enhancing alumni relationships.
• Enhancing the educational experience.
• The automation of the admissions procedure.
• A comprehension of organizational processes.
• Safety and protection of data.

Interaction with Prospects

Prospects look for useful information, and first impressions are crucial. By utilizing a CRM, you will be able to record a prospect’s name, email address, geographic location, past schooling, and more. This sort of information is extremely significant since it can be used to target future promotions and campaigns.

Marketing Through Automation 

Colleges and universities may gain a lot from marketing automation. The finest CRM systems for higher education can help you streamline your student lead management and follow-up procedures, therefore enhancing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of your operations.

Gain Insights into Organizational Processes 

Once upon a time, higher education institutions acquired insight into their organizational processes by maintaining pen-and-paper records or complex spreadsheets containing redundant or obsolete data. Today, owing to CMS platforms, data collection is relatively straightforward. The reporting and analytics capabilities of these CMSs allow users to add, manage, and access information. Thanks to these robust capabilities, institutions of higher education can make better judgments and design more successful growth strategies.

Manage Budget & Resource Allocation 

CRM solutions include options for collecting detailed, vital information about your audience. This data is neatly organized into precise reports that can facilitate wiser management of budgets and resources.

Security & Data Protection 

Your CRM will contain an abundance of personal data, such as applicants’ and students’ names, birth dates, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. Meaning that it is necessary to protect these extremely personal and sensitive records. The top CRM systems include a variety of security measures, such as user identification, authorization, encryption, and data security filters.

Key Features of Higher Education CRM

Manage Institution Events

Fundraising, recruiting, and student involvement all include event planning in major ways. With a CRM, you can organize and track all of your event-related duties and data from a centralized system. The majority of CRMs have robust event management solutions that may be utilized to inform your event planning approach.

You may utilize the event management tools of your CRM to:

• Create a strategic guest list.
• Create straightforward sign-up forms.
• Create customized ticket rates.
• Create registration for recurring events.
• Send pre-and post-event questionnaires.
• Create personalized event reports.

Manage Inquiries

In the past, the only method to receive an inquiry was over the telephone; today, things are a bit different. Multiple channels, including phone, email, social media, and website chat, can be used to receive inquiries. To guarantee that no inquiries go through the cracks, you must collect and store them all in a centralized location. Additionally, you must act quickly. After five minutes, the probability of converting a lead into a buyer drops by an astounding 80 percent! Fortunately, the majority of customer relationship management (CRM) systems include all the capabilities required to respond quickly to new requests and sustain connections. With more complex capabilities, you can ensure that leads are sent to the appropriate admissions officer depending on zip code, city, course selection, and more.

Streamline Admission & Assessment Procedure

CRMs for higher education allow you to simplify the whole admissions procedure, from lead to application to the student to enrollment to payment. On the basis of thorough data, you may monitor the progress of your leads and determine which procedures require greater investment. Moreover, many of these CRM systems have an integrated document management system for uploading, examining, and printing student paperwork as part of the admissions process.

Accounting and Billing Systems Management

Every institution of higher education needs a functional accounting and billing system to efficiently manage financial operations. The top CRM solutions enable safe payment processing, payment history tracking, and the generation of financial reports. In addition, CRMs can link with external payment gateways to enable online tuition and other school fee payments.

Integrate with Institution’s Website & Social Media Channels

Your website is the driving force behind your recruiting initiatives. This is where prospective students may learn pertinent information, ask questions, and view photographs of campus life. By connecting your website with a customer relationship management system, you can efficiently handle leads and convert them into students. Information will be sent from your website to your CRM in real-time.

The same holds true for your social media platforms. These are your most important lines of contact. Your social media platforms are dense with information that must be processed and managed by your staff. Integrating your social media networks into your CRM may save your team hours of data analysis and response time to questions from prospects. Your team will have the proper strategy, tools, and support in place to maximize its usage of social media.

Maestro SIS

Features / Benefits

• Excellent client service.
• Highly adaptable customization solution.
• The simplicity of usage.
• Available on any device (phone, tablet, computer).
• Appropriate for growing companies.

Drawbacks

• A slight learning curve.
• Obsolete interface

Pricing

Although the provider does not give pricing information, a free trial is available if you book a demonstration.

Radius by Campus Management

Features / Benefits

• Excellent workflow automation
• Best for admissions management.
• Completely cloud-based.
• IT setup is minimally required.
• Utilize a web-based chat function that allows for two-way communication to address student questions swiftly.

Drawbacks

• Gradual learning curve
• Not the ideal CRM solution for novices.
• An antiquated user interface.

Pricing

The seller provides no price plan information. Contact us to learn more.

The HubSpot CRM

Features / Benefits

• Excellent free CRM version.
• User experience and interface that is superb.
• Synchronizes automatically with other HubSpot hubs.
• Excellent selection for first-time CRM users.
• Effective tools for generating leads.

Drawbacks

• Once you add additional features, it might get rather costly.
• Few customizing possibilities are available.
• Lacks sophisticated capabilities.

Pricing

HubSpot’s main CRM technology is completely free to use indefinitely without incurring any costs. There is no expiration date for the complimentary plan. You may add up to one million contacts and an infinite number of users, in addition to experimenting with email scheduling, live chat, tasks and activities, ad management, and email templates.

FileInvite

Features / Benefits

• Excellent client service.
• The program is simple to use and configure.
• A fantastic document gathering solution.
• Strong safety features.
• Videos that aid in the onboarding process.

Drawbacks

• It may take some time to upload files.
• Insufficient integrations.

Pricing

You can pick from the following four priced plans:

• Lite (from $12 per month)
• Pro (POA)
• Multi (POA)
• Enterprise (POA)
• There’s also a 14-day free trial with unlimited functionality.

SchoolMint

Features / Benefits

• End-to-end capabilities are provided by customizable software.
• User-friendly interface.
• Simple to check and track data.
• Communication by email and SMS is simple.
• An excellent method for keeping track of applications, vital paperwork, dates, and contacts.

Drawbacks

• Report creation may be laborious and unintuitive.
• The technology malfunctions too often, causing issues with data handling.

Pricing

The firm lacks a straightforward price structure. For a bespoke quote, you will need to make contact.

NetSuite CRM

Features / Benefits

• Ideal for small and medium-sized academic institutions.
• Unlocks a comprehensive, real-time perspective of your consumers.
• Supports your whole sales process and customer life cycle by integrating seamlessly with other apps.
• Fully adaptable to your specific needs.
• Simple, responsive, and engaging user interface.

Drawbacks

• They might benefit from improved documentation of certain procedures and modules.
• It can be especially difficult for non-tech-savvy individuals.
• Creating complex reports or searches may be quite difficult.

Pricing

The seller does not give price information. Nevertheless, according to customer evaluations, it is a costly solution with complex professional services and flexible usage. Expensive add-on modules that increase capability increase the price.

Ellucian

Features / Benefits

• Personalized communications and workflow automation
• Options include SaaS, private cloud, and on-premises.
• Rapid and straightforward integration with a variety of solutions.
• Configurable search, reporting, and sharing of data capabilities.
• Track and manage alumni and donor funding.

Drawbacks

• Limited reporting capabilities exist.
• The navigation is not very intuitive.
• The initial steep learning curve

Pricing

The firm lacks a straightforward price structure. For a bespoke quote, you will need to make contact.

Embark Campus

Features / Benefits

• Send emails individually or according to a schedule.
• Compatible with mobile devices and tablets.
• Customize the website for your application with your own colors and logo.
• Adapt the application form’s logic.
• Organize applications into groups and assign reviewers.

Drawbacks

• Problems with the uploading of content.
• Not as user-friendly as users would want.

Pricing

• You must request a personalized estimate.

FreeAgent CRM

Features / Benefits

• Gain immediate context for each of your consumer connections.
• They regularly update its features.
• Time-saving marketing automation workflows
• Highly intuitive and simple to navigate.
• No steep learning curve and anyone with basic technical competence may use it.

Drawbacks

• Challenges in narrowing search parameters.
• No mass email functions exist.

Pricing

Depending on your demands, you can pick from four priced programs, including:

• Essentials ($25 per user each month)
• Professional ($75 monthly per user)
• Enterprise ($135 monthly per user)
• Unlimited ($250 a month per user).
• The Essentials premium package includes a free trial, whereas the Professional level provides a demonstration.

Admitek

Features / Benefits

• The integrated payment gateway for accepting payments in a protected setting.
• Adaptive solutions to your specific demands.
• Admissions management.
• Counseling and interview management.
• Reports may be customized by specifying parameters.

Drawbacks

• There are no integration possibilities.
• Lack of online testimonials

Pricing

Annual pricing begins at 42,500 INR ($576) and includes comprehensive technical assistance. Contact the firm for discount information. Customization of software is possible and is priced individually.

Creatix Campus

Features / Benefits

• Recruitment and alumni management.
• Online assessment and evaluation.
• Manage and keep track of attendance.
• Scheduling and curriculum management automation
• Integration with more than 500 programs, apps, and tools.

Drawbacks

• Customers are unhappy with customer service.
• The program is so complicated that even simple activities can be challenging.
• No finance module.

Pricing

• The provider does not give pricing details. You must request a tailored estimate.

Slate

Features / Benefits

• Multiple communication routes
• Marketing automation with a dynamic component
• Unlimited drag-and-drop forms are available.
• Embedded analytics and statistics
• Event management.

Drawbacks

• A delay in the release of desired features.
• It may take some time to master the platform’s many features.
• Could benefit from improved reporting choices.

Pricing

• The provider does not give pricing details. Contact us to get a demo.

Copper

Features / Benefits

• Integration with all G Suite applications.
• Automation handles responsibilities such as recording phone conversations, meetings, tasks, and activities.
• The mobile version allows you to do all necessary tasks while on the go.
• Automatically proposes that recent email recipients be added to your list.
• Identifies where each lead is in the sales process.

Drawbacks

• Support appears to be difficult to reach.
• There is a high learning curve for people who do not understand the fundamentals of coding.
• The CRM’s superior functionality is accompanied by a significant price increase.

Pricing

Although Copper CRM does not provide a free subscription, a 14-day free trial is available. There are three distinct paid plans available, including:

• Standard ($19 monthly)
• Professional (monthly fee of $49)
• Commerce ($119 per month)

Stars Campus Solutions

Features / Benefits

• Utilize tools like attendance notifications to monitor your pupils’ academic progress.
• A Student Portal that allows students to examine their class schedules, the start date, teacher, and location of each class, among other information.
• Send a bulk text message or email to the intended recipients.
• Instruments for automating the admissions process.

Drawbacks

• Customer service issues.
• It is occasionally difficult to locate a report or function within the system.
• Not very user-friendly.

Pricing

• Monthly pricing begins at $139 per institution. A free demonstration is available upon request.

Finalsite

Features / Benefits

• A comprehensive website, marketing, and communications system.
• Boost enrollment with potent inbound marketing software.
• Integrate Finalsite with your admissions platform and/or student information system.
• Support for many payment methods.
• A digital platform that allows parents, students, and professors to receive information that is tailored to their needs.

Drawbacks

• Lack of personalization
• Too costly for smaller companies.

Pricing

• Setup expenses begin at $15,000, while yearly subscriptions typically begin at $7,500.

Conclusion

Let’s recap!

Higher education CRM solutions have transformed the field of education and brought institutions a degree of change not seen since the introduction of the Internet. Using a higher education CRM is essential for maintaining a competitive company, from simplifying admissions and coordinating events to fostering ties with alumni.

When it comes to selecting the ideal CRM for your firm, your decision will be influenced by the unique features your organization requires.

Are you searching for a highly responsive, adaptable solution that is excellent for growing businesses? Consider Maestro SIS as an option. SchoolMint is an excellent tool to maintain applications, crucial papers, dates, and contacts, whereas Ellucian excels at tracking and organizing alumni and donor funding.

However, if the complete connection with all G Suite apps is your top priority, Copper is your only option.

Choose HubSpot if the preceding information is basically useless and you want a platform with a straightforward user interface and faultless user experience.

Each of these 15 providers has a robust set of capabilities, so the choice is yours. Hopefully, this compilation has helped you limit your options, and one of these solutions has caught your eye.

Now is the moment to maximize the CRM and begin expertly managing your higher education institution!

While you are here, maybe you want to learn about the best project management softwares. Click here to learn more. 

Meta Title: 15 Best CRM schools In 2022

Meta Description: Examine and evaluate the ideal CRM for Higher Education to streamline the admissions process, enhance conversions, and promote student retention while engaging alumni and other stakeholders.