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Redefining the Enrollment Experience for Private and Independent Schools

WIDENING THE APERTURE

About SchoolAdmin .......................................................................................... 21

We’ve Been Thinking About Enrollment All Wrong .......................... 01

INTRODUCTION

The Modern Enrollment Experience: What’s Changed? ................ 05

PART 1

Liquid Expectations:What We Can Learn from Other Industries .......................................... 13

PART 2

How to Create a CaptivatingEnrollment Experience Across the Lifecycle ......................................... 14

PART 3

Table of Contents

We’ve Been ThinkingAbout EnrollmentAll Wrong

Introduction 01

But there’s a reason for this dilemma and a way to overcome it.

In too many cases, “enrollment” has focused almost exclusively on the admission funnel—nurturing prospective families from inquiry through enrollment. And while keeping prospects engaged through this period is critical, it’s not enough to sustain our schools.

Wooing prospective families is no longer enough. To meet our enrollment goals and ensure the longterm financial health of our schools, we must nurture families for the entirety of their educational journey with our schools and even afterward. Tight-knit relationships that extend long beyond the offer of admission help secure re-enrollment year after year, future enrollment of siblings, donations, and invaluable referrals.

In other words, if you want to move the needle, you have to focus on the enrollment experience across the entire student lifecycle — and beyond.

We don’t need to remind schools that times are changing at a whirlwind pace. After all, we’ve been hard at work managing these ebbs and flows for over a year. But, even before the pandemic, the way schools engaged with prospective students and their families was rapidly shifting. In some cases, parents’ expectations were evolving so quickly that schools failed to keep up — and that’s a problem with severe consequences.

Introduction 02

Enrollment isnot

a point in time.

Reviews Conversation with a Neighbor

Phone Call

Open House

Email

Interview

Enrollment Process

First Day of School

Orientation

Teacher Interactions

Community EventNewsletter1:1 Meeting

Level-Up Day

Re-Enrollment

Referral

Graduation

Donate

Website

Inquiry

Viewbook

Campus Tour

Enrollment is every interaction across the entire student lifecycle

Introduction 03

Enrollment is no longer, and it really never should have been, thought of as just a single point in time. It’s not a singular activity of signing an enrollment contract or paying a tuition deposit. Instead, enrollment should be viewed as every touchpoint and every interaction across the student lifecycle. It’s every micro-interaction that occurs day in and day out that will ultimately lead to a family’s decision to enroll, and whether they re-enroll year after year.

Enrollment is an intentional journey that you curate for every family from the time a family signs on the dotted line. It’s all about the experience from that first interaction all the way through graduation and beyond.

But you don’t have to simply take our word for it.

We surveyed over 350 admissions and enrollment professionals and discovered that the schools that focus on the student and family experience meet their enrollment goals before the school year begins and maintain a below-average attrition rate.

The bottom line: It’s time to reimagine enrollment by widening the aperture. By illuminating the path, schools can evolve beyond traditional practices and create magical, meaningful moments that ignite life-long relationships.

But what does that look like?

Introduction 04

Based on our research, survey data, and experience working with more than 650 private and independent schools, we’ve uncovered four fundamental discoveries:

In this guide, we’re taking a deeper dive into all of the above and sharing what today’s families expect from private and independent schools, what you can learn from other industries, and how successful schools thrive (based on real data).

Admissions and enrollment must be widely recognized as crucial elements of a school’s longterm sustainability and financial health. The enrollment experience directly impacts a school’s bottom line. Tuition dollars account for about 70 - 80% of a typical independent school’s annual revenue, according to data shared by NetAssets. But, for far too long, admissions and enrollment professionals have been left out of the decision-making process — and this limits schools’ potential.

Schools must recognize that the new customer experience (CX) has changed everything—including the enrollment experience (EX). A new generation of parents have grown up in a digital world and expect enrollment experiences to mirror the customer experiences (CX) they have with other industries, like e-commerce (and, more specifically, with Amazon).

Additionally, the pandemic accelerated the digital transformation across every vertical. From scheduling grocery delivery to buying a car — many of today’s transactions and purchases happen in an entirely digital environment. And this new way of interacting with brands and service providers undoubtedly carries over to your school’s Enrollment Experience (EX).

Focusing on relationships is the only way to survive. The experience doesn’t end after the contract is signed. A school’s long-term sustainability depends on retention, referrals, and donations, to ensure the support of students’ success year after year. If families don’t feel a genuine connection with faculty and staff and the community at large, they’re significantly less likely to re-enroll, refer others, or make donations. Schools must focus on building and maintaining authentic relationships because our survival depends on it.

A signed enrollment contract isn’t the finish line.Our efforts to protect and grow enrollment begin with our very first interaction with a family—maybe an ad or our website. And then they should never stop. “Enrollment” is an always-on effort, with each and every interaction having the possibility to make or break a family’s experience.

https://www.netassets.org/blogs/jeffrey-shields/2020/10/19/attention-to-retention

SECTION 1: The Modern Enrollment Experience: What’s Changed? 05

As a consumer, you know what makes a great experience. And you know that it looks different today than it did a decade or two ago. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the enrollment experience must also evolve to remain successful.

What was considered going above and beyond ten or twenty years ago is now a baseline expectation. To captivate prospective families and retain them for years, your enrollment experience must thoroughly wow them.

The Modern Enrollment Experience (EX): What’s Changed?

SECTION 1:


The Basics: Meeting ExpectationsBelow are a few EX non-negotiables schools need to meet families’ most basic expectations. This is the bare minimum necessary for most families to consider a school a worthy contender:

StreamlinedFamilies expect an experience that’s

convenient and easy to navigate. Think through every aspect of your admissions and

enrollment process from inquiry through billing to ensure that every step is clear and simple. You can even have a faculty or staff

member test out different parts of the process to locate any sticky parts so you can

optimize them.

Mobile-firstToday, most of our first experiences

engaging with any organization (whether it’s a brand, service, or school) happen online, and often they happen via mobile. Families expect to be able to get all the information they need about a school (and even complete the entire enrollment process) via their mobile devices.

Personalized

Premium-quality

Consumers purchase more from brands that personalize than those that don’t. The

same holds true when selecting a school for their children because families want to feel recognized and special — and they want to

know their child will be seen and known.

Your experience should reflect the pricepoint. If someone pays a significant sum of money (i.e., tuition), they expect the CX to be flawless and feel premium. Since public

schools offer a free alternative to private and independent schools, your school will always

be considered a premium option.


But remember: merely meeting expectations isn’t enough. To drive increased interest and to keep students engaged through the entire student lifecycle, schools have to go beyond the bare minimum.

The “Wow” Factor: Exceeding ExpectationsTo engage prospective families and retain them throughout the student lifecycle, we need to do more.

Schools that receive enough or more than enough qualified applicants in a year

With below average attrition rates (below 9.5%)

And that meet their enrollment goals before the start of the school year

* of those who answered

Drilling Into the Data

1

2

3

Schools that...

Share these common characteristics:

have a clearly defined value proposition

83%

have 5+ touchpoints

79%customize at least

some elements of the candidate’s

experience

73%

< 24 hour inquiry

response

69%

record details of their

interactions with families in a database or

CRM

68%

have mapped out the steps of the admissions & enrollment

journey

79%


According to our survey, schools that receive enough (or more than enough) qualified applicants per year and maintain a below average attrition rate (below 9.5%) have seven things in common:

They respond immediately.We live in an age of instant gratification. People are busy, parents are often overwhelmed (especially amid the pandemic), and convenience is critical. Successful schools aren’t just fast when following up – they’re nearly instant. A sizable 85% said they respond to inquiries within 24 hours, and 46% respond in six hours or less.

How long does it typically take your admissions team to respond to a new inquiry?

N/A - we don’t collect inquires

3+ days

1-2 days

12-24 hours

6-12 hours

1-6 hours

Less than1 hour

3%

3%

9%

24%

15%

31%

15%

On average, approximately how many touchpoints do you have with a typical prospective family before they enroll? (Example: If you send an email, make a phone call, and send them a text, that would be three touchpoints).


5-7 touchpoints

36%

10+touchpoints

31%

2-4touchpoints

21%

8-9touchpoints

10%

0-1touchpoints

2%

They’re always communicating.In addition to expecting fast responses, our attention spans are shrinking, and parents are bombarded with messages and obligations all day. The best way to cut through the noise is to be consistent. A whopping 77% of respondents have five or more touchpoints with prospects, including emails, phone calls, direct mails, text messages, and more.

What tools do you use to connect with prospective families throughout the admissions and enrollment journey?


Podcast

PeerPal

Live chat on website

Text messaging

Video messaging

Bulk direct mail

Webinars

Digital ads

Handwritten letters

Bulk emails(via SchoolAdmin,

MailChimp, etc.)

Video conferencing

(Ex: Zoom)

Phone calls

1:1 Emails

4%

13%

21%

22%

27%

33%

43%

44%

46%

77%

78%

91%

97%

They centralize information.You can’t track what you don’t know — and it’s hard to know much when information is scattered across multiple disparate systems. It’s no surprise that more than two-thirds (68%) of successful schools record details in a customer relationship management tool (CRM).


of schools that meet or exceed their enrollment goals record details in a customer relationship management tool

68%

If a family shares a deep, intimate story of their child’s journey with an admissions team member — what they went through, what worked and

what didn’t work — I want to make sure they don’t have to start at square one the next time we talk with them. Recording these details is important because it helps us customize the process. By mapping out the admissions

journey and providing different paths to take depending on where a family is in the process, we are able to provide a personalized customer

experience with multiple touchpoints.

- Mindy Hildebrandt, Director of Enrollment Management, Science & Arts Academy

They map out their process.Preparation is everything. Before you can create a meaningful, memorable EX, you have to illuminate the path. We found most successful schools (79%) have mapped out all the steps of their admissions and enrollment process to ensure they consistently recreate success.

They leverage customization.Remember when we said families like to feel special? This goes beyond simply inserting their first name in an email campaign. A sizable 73% of successful schools said they customize at least some elements of the candidate’s experience.


They clearly communicate their value.When a prospective family navigates to your website, they shouldn’t have to look very hard to learn why you’re the best option for their child — it should be one of the first things they see. More than three-fourths (83%) of successful schools have a well-defined value proposition.

They go beyond yielding students.Successful schools nurture relationships at every stage — from awareness through referral, graduation, and beyond.

SECTION 2: Liquid Expectations and What We Can Learn from Other Industries 13

Admissions and enrollment teams can glean a lot by looking at customer experience examples in other verticals. But many are hesitant to consider them. After all, why should you compare your enrollment experience to e-commerce brands like Amazon when what you’re offering isn’t a simple commodity — it’s a top-tier education that prepares students for a successful future?

The answer is, because it’s what prospective students’ families are accustomed to. Parents are (consciously and subconsciously) comparing their experience with schools to experiences they have elsewhere — with retailers, service providers, financial institutions, and more. In many ways, what keeps someone loyal to a brand isn’t much different than what makes them decide to enroll their child in a school (and keep them enrolled long-term).

In other words, no matter the product or service an organization offers, dedicating more resources to building and maintaining genuine relationships drives revenue, retention, and customer satisfaction. Whether someone is buying a car, selecting a credit card, or choosing a school for their child, they expect to be wowed and engaged. And the organizations and institutions that deliver on this expectation win every time.

Liquid Expectations andWhat We Can Learn from Other Industries

SECTION 2:

1

SECTION 3: How to Create a Captivating Enrollment Experience 14

So, what does it take to create magical enrollment experiences that help you meet your enrollment goals? Here are four things you can do to elevate EX and thrive in 2021 and beyond:

It’s time to shift the idea of enrollment management to enrollment leadership.

For decades, admissions and enrollment professionals have been excluded from many of a school’s most strategic conversations — even though their efforts contribute directly to the school’s bottom line. And those contributions are nothing to sneeze at. Enrollment drives more than two-thirds (about 70%) of school revenue (according to data shared by Net Assets).

It’s long past time to bring the expertise and insights of enrollment managers to the decision-making table. One way to achieve this is by designating a Chief Experience Officer (CXO). This is someone who makes sure you’re driving consistently positive interactions with prospective and existing students and their families. (Most admissions and enrollment teams are already doing this, just without the recognition they deserve. Others have roles that stop once a family enrolls, which doesn’t serve the school or its families well.)

A dedicated and focused CXO can provide meaningful data and insight into admissions, enrollment, and retention trends and issues across the entire student lifecycle. By having a permanent seat at the table, a CXO can influence how your institution addresses EX at every level. And when everyone at your school can see, with irrefutable data, the impact formally addressing EX has on the bottom line, it makes it’s value impossible to ignore.

How to Create a Captivating Enrollment Experience

SECTION 3:

Appoint a CXO for your school

2


Retention isn’t a single point in time — it’s not the moment someone signs an enrollment contract or pays a tuition deposit. Additionally, it shouldn’t be an afterthought once you’ve given all your time, energy, and other valuable resources to new families. Focusing on retention from the first interaction with a prospective family until after the student matriculates is the key to success. (And even then, keeping the lines of communication open will generate additional referrals and foster donation opportunities.)

Rethink retention

From the time a family signs on the dotted line — and really from the time they visit campus — you are in a constant state of proving your value.

- Kila McCann, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, The Bolles School

Here are three ways to reimagine retention:

Identify signals and address them.

The best way to reduce attrition rates is to pinpoint red flags that a family is at risk of leaving and give them extra love before it’s too late. These warning signs could be as obvious as a parent filing a complaint or requesting a transcript be sent to another school, or as subtle as a typically active parent scaling back on participation.

It’s also a good idea to create a formalized retention committee dedicated to keeping families delighted and engaged, to ensure no one slips through the cracks.


Never stop selling.

Today, it’s especially critical to re-engage andre-educate current students and families on the valueour schools provide because their needs change over time.

The reason a parent chooses a school for their kindergartner (such as student-teacher ratios or the unique pedagogy) is likely different from the reason they choose to re-enroll their student when they’re a ninth-grader (such as competitive athletics or a desirable college placement list). As children mature and change, so do family expectations and desired outcomes.

It’s your job to woo your families during the admission process—but that first-class treatment shouldn’t stop in the weeks, months, and years after they first enroll. To keep your families, you need to roll out the red carpet over andover again.

It’s not just a matter of the entry point, but also retention.There are always things you can do, like checking in with families after

school starts and then 30, 60, and 90 days into the year. Make a phone call every 30 days or so to see how things are going, and make sure you’re still

known. Because the biggest recruitment tool we have is word of mouth.

- Monica Rangel, Director of Admissions, St Mary Academy-Bay View


Does your school currently do any of the following for current / returning families?

Newsletter for current community

Conduct surveys to measure the satisfaction of current families

(Net Promoter, Score, etc.)

Offer opportunities for current parents to get involved with recruitment/

admissions (ambassadors, etc.)

Offer opportunities to get to know school leadership on a 1:1 basis

Share photos of their children at school on a regular basis

Ask current familiesto leave reviews online

(Niche, Yelp, etc.)

Host virtual admission/enrollment focused events for returning families

(example: virtual level up days)

Have a method fortracking and responding toissues with current families

Host in-person admission/enrollment focused events for returning families

(example: level up days)

Host referral program or incentives for referring new prospective families

Podcasts for current community

82%

62%

61%

49%

49%

42%

41%

40%

38%

17%

6%


Make it a school-wide initiative.

To successfully and consistently boost retention, schools must see it as more than just the responsibility of the admissions team. To keep families engaged, you need all hands on deck. Families should receive regular communication from teachers, coaches, and anyone else who interacts with their children on a regular basis. And every person at your school needs to understand the impact of their interactions on a family’s decision to stay at your school. When you have on-site events, faculty and staff members should be prepared to engage with families and include specifics about the student in those conversations.

When students and their families feel accepted, known, and embraced by the entire school community, there’s little room for them to doubt that they are in the right place.

The only way to have an effective and efficient enrollment cycle, and realistically move into retention, is if students want to stay. They have to

feel connected and feel continuity in the process. Kids are coming from all over the place and don’t know us — they don’t have a history here, and

their family members didn’t go here. So they’re walking this journey with us for the first time. And we recognize the importance of having touchpoints between when they’re admitted to when they start with us in the summer.

- Angela Reno, Director of Admissions, Loyola High School of Los Angeles

Who serves on your retention committee?

Nurse

Parents

Director of Residential Life

Advancement

Counselor

Business Officer/CFO

Teachers

Academic Dean

Division Head

Other Staff+ Faculty

Head of School/Principal

Head of Admissions

4%

7%

10%

15%

20%

20%

21%

27%

30%

35%

60%

70%


During the [early days of] COVID, when we were all

separated from each other,I wrote a note to each student and to the parents and said, ‘We’re all still connected. I’m thinking about you.’ And the

responses I got from parents...a lot of them brought

me to tears.

- Annie Murray, Principal, Mother Teresa Catholic Academy

3


The EX shouldn’t end once enrollment is complete. Schools should continue finding ways to keep families engaged, so they stay enrolled, refer your school to other families, and provide donations.

Consider outreach efforts such as calling families regularly to gather feedback and identify areas of opportunity, sending handwritten notes every few months, and holding regular events, whether in person or virtual, where parents can meet and engage with faculty, staff, and each other. The longer you go without making contact, the greater the chances of families becoming disengaged.

It’s not just about keeping parents happy — you also need to ensure students are adjusting to their new learning environment, too. From assigning student ambassadors to hosting orientation “boot camps” where new students can learn more about school culture and extracurricular activities, to your ongoing student-life efforts, making sure students feel comfortable, included, and accepted is critical to their continued enrollment.

Relationships should be genuine and meaningful — impersonal email blasts don’t count. Instead, schools should invest the time to get to know each family and their child’s interests so they can communicate in ways that make sense. An enrollment platform can support these efforts by helping you track the information and make it easy to personalize communications based on that data.

Strive to place yourself in your prospective and current students’ and families’ shoes, and consider what you’d want at each phase of the student lifecycle. You can start by looking at your school calendar and thinking through what parents (and students) may want to know on a monthly basis. Then consider that different families may need to hear the message via different avenues or more or less frequently. For example, first year families may need more explanations and check-ins, but your returning families may simply need a quick refresher. Always look for new ways to add value and a personal touch.

For example, be sure to reach out in times of change or crisis to let students and their families know you’re there for them.

Matriculation is just the beginning

Authenticity matters4


It can be challenging to reimagine enrollment when your school is accustomed to doing things a certain way. In fact, evolving your enrollment experience can require an entire culture shift. But by widening your aperture and focusing on your customer experience (CX) and enrollment experience (EX), we can build long-term, genuine relationships with families. And, as a result, be better prepared to drive significant revenue for our schools, reduce attrition, and support healthy enrollment numbers for years to come.

SchoolAdmin, now part of Finalsite’s suite of award-winning website, marketing, and communications solutions for schools, is a strategic enrollment management system for private K-12 schools. Finalsite + SchoolAdmin will help you woo your prospects, wow your families, and elevate your school.

Whether your goal is to attract prospects, enroll students, retain families, or convert alumni to lifetime advocates—the powerful combination of our products will give you a complete suite of tools and services to help your school crush your goals.

Headquartered in Austin, TX and Glastonbury, CT, and trusted by more than 2,500 successful schools, our team is dedicated to empowering schools around the world and helping them meet their goals.

Conclusion

About Finalsite + SchoolAdmin

Learn more atwww.schooladmin.com


Enrollment Experience Survey Participant DemographicsOver 350 admissions and enrollment professionals from across the country with various roles, titles, school and team sizes, and school types took our Enrollment Experience Survey in the Fall of 2020. This report presented our findings based on their responses. Here’s a deep dive into exactly who took our survey.

Which genders does your school serve?

Which of the below best describes the residential status of your school?

Which of the below best describes your school type?

Co-ed

85%

All girls9%

All boys6%

Day

80%Both

boardingand day

17%

Independent

53%

Catholic-Diocesan

17%Catholic-Private

12%

Private-Non-Catholic

10%Public4%Charter

2%

Other1.8%

Higher Ed.2%

Boarding3%

Approximately how many total students are enrolled at your school?

More than 1,000

701-1,000

501-700

301-500

101-200

201-300

0-100

15%

10%

17%

25%

16%

13%

16%

4%

Which grades does your school serve?Other

PG

9-12

6-8

K

1-5

Pre-K

10%

9%

67%

64%

16%

55%

57%

48%


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