Customer Experience strategies for higher education institutions
Customer experience (CX) is a sometimes overlooked but crucial strategy for higher education institutions. In many ways, customer Experience strategies for higher education can mean the difference between success and failure when it comes to the recruitment and retention of graduate students.
To ensure the best customer experience possible for students, higher education institutions need to understand exactly who their audience is, embrace the latest technology, and focus on creating a personalized, seamless experience for its students (customers). Here’s a closer look at how to do just that.
Know your audience
First and foremost, it’s crucial to understand your core audience.
Look at the data for your prospects, new students, and the existing graduate student body very closely. What are their demographics? What are they currently studying or looking to study? Are they local or from across the country or even the world? By having a strong grasp of your audience, you can better hone your CX strategy specifically to them.
Create a seamless experience
Creating a seamless, intuitive, and simplified customer experience is also very important.
This is especially critical when it comes to technology. All too often, schools design their online services with themselves in mind, as opposed to their prospects and students. Instead, embrace digital transformation and a customer-centric approach by creating user-friendly, seamless customer portals where students can find all of the information they need in a single, unified location and conduct a website audit to ensure your site is intuitive, easy to navigate, and has all of the key information that students and prospects need clearly stated.
Leverage the latest technology
Technology can also go a long way towards improving your CX.
Embrace it as a way to boost your customer service and provide a more seamless, user-friendly experience for your students and prospects. This can be done by leveraging chatbots to resolve simple questions and issues quickly and successfully, customer relationship management (CRM) tools to track every conversation and keep important data in a single location, and various social media channels to convey critical information and boost engagement.
Focus on personalization
Personalization is also key.
Today’s graduate students are increasingly diverse. Rather than treating them as a whole, personalize your communications and interactions with them to better suit who they are, which can lead to improved metrics like conversions and retention. To accomplish this, use personalized emails, custom videos, and tailored social media communications.
Create a guided experience
Finally, focus on creating a tailored, curated experience for your students and prospects.
Navigating the graduate school process can be very stressful and intimidating for both prospects and students. However, by creating a guided, personalized experience, you can reduce this stress and improve your customer satisfaction. Embracing technology and tools like screen sharing, video chat, co-browsing, and tailored email communications can help create a guided experience that will improve your overall CX greatly.
Improve your customer experience strategies for higher education institutions
CX should be a top priority for any higher education institution looking to boost student recruitment and retention. By implementing these strategies and best practices, you can ensure you are delivering world-class customer service to your audience, increasing recruitment and boosting retention all at once.
