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Admissions Focus
Technology Helps New Orleans University Rebuild Enrollment
6/5/2008
Getting the Message Out
With the campus ready to serve students, Maggiore needed to get the positive message out to students and parents. Another challenge was dealing with drastically reduced staff. In January 2006, because of flooded homes or other reasons, only half of Maggiore's admissions staff had returned.
"We looked for technology to compensate for the lack of manpower," Maggiore said. Prior to Katrina, he had 30 people in the admissions office. In January 2006, he had just 14. "There was a severe hiring shortage after the storm, and when we tried to recruit, [prospective workers] were bombarded by negative media images."
One technology piece that has been useful in helping Maggiore deal with recruitment management in the face of severely reduced staff: an Oracle PeopleSoft CRM product UNO purchased more than a year ago and started using several months ago, after great effort. That product allows the university to "control the communication stream from the admissions office," Maggiore said, by automatically generating customized letters to admitted applicants, to select prospect pools, to high school counselors, and to others. "It's a very sophisticated communication product, totally integrated within PeopleSoft," Miggliore said.
Another solution Maggiore turned to was a service called GoalQuest that helps schools create and target finely crafted messages to recruit and retain students. The university is now in its second year of using GoalQuest. Initially, company representatives came to campus, met with Maggiore and staff, then produced a Web site and a series of targeted messages to students and parents that he said have helped immensely in driving up numbers. UNO retains complete control of the content and look of the site but used no staff to construct it, Miggiore said.
GoalQuest sends a steady stream of tailored e-mail messages to students as they move through the recruitment and admittance process, encouraging them and answering questions. A GoalQuest service center receives student and parent questions via e-mail; Maggiore has a staff member who responds quickly.
The company gave the hard-hit university a substantial two-year price discount, which it recently extended. The cost is such, Miggiore said, that if he enrolled just 20 students that he wouldn't have otherwise, the product has paid for itself.
Students have been receptive to the service. For example, Maggiore gave GoalQuest about 1,500 e-mail addresses of admitted applicants and said half of students have already registered to receive more information. Parents have also been receptive to receiving e-mail messages.
"It's the best of both worlds," Maggiore said. "We know that students love to receive information this way.... It requires minimal resources from campus personnel; it's totally offloaded to [GoalQuest] staff. But it still allows us to customize the message."
Linda L. Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, Calif.
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