In school admissions
Communications enabled
More personalized communications for students
Introduction
Founded more than 130 years ago, Post University has established a legacy of student success. Whether interacting with on-campus students, online students, or university athletes, the school’s focus is always the same: making education personal.
Their team always keeps an eye on new technologies that serve their mission, and Post was a pioneer in the development of online education in Connecticut. This commitment to innovation has helped Post grow into the second largest school in Connecticut, with thousands of students in their online, main campus, undergraduate, and graduate programs.
This level of personal connection with prospective and current students relies heavily on relevant and timely communication. Similar to many other universities, Post has traditionally used channels like email and phone calls to communicate with their students. But texting is now the clear preference for their students.
The Challenge
The university’s current telephone system had an SMS component, but it offered limited functionality. This only compounded the fact that the school’s teams often worked in silos and didn’t have an integrated system to bring their various communications and efforts together.
“When I started in 2010, the common thread was ‘Marketing’s not providing us the inquiries that are going to convert,’” recalls Jeanna Sinn, the university’s chief operating officer. “And the marketing response was, ‘Of course we are, you’re just not converting them.’”
With no one-stop shop to house information and student conversations, the siloes remained, admissions numbers stagnated, and internal finger pointing continued.
The Solution
The university began discussions with TrueDialog and discovered that the platform not only had most of the features they were looking for, but our team was willing to build out additional things that weren’t currently included.
“It has been a true partnership,” says TrueDialog chief executive officer John Wright. “We’ve built and managed a lot of the things that are currently in our offering today to specifically meet Post’s needs.”
There was some initial pushback to TrueDialog’s SMS platform because some team members were concerned that mass communications weren’t in line with their mantra of “Post makes it personal.” But features were introduced that made it easier for them to send not only mass texts to thousands, but personalized messages to segments or down to the one-on-one level.
“We developed our systems to be able to send out broadcast messages from an enterprise level with the short code we had procured on their behalf,” recalls Wright. “We then route all of that traffic back to the appropriate person inside of Post University and continue to make it personal.”
“Don’t make a decision based on what’s available or easy. Figure out exactly what you want, and don’t really settle. I mean, there’s student information platforms that are going to provide certain solutions. And the way technology works today is, you can find the absolute best solution for you and integrate them all together.”
– Jeanna Sinn, COO
The Results
Post University is thriving thanks to the enhanced collaboration and connectivity empowered by TrueDialog’s platform. The first SMS campaign that Post launched via our platform was a smash success. In fact, the response was so intense that the university’s call center was overwhelmed with calls. There were 400 employees taking calls and they still couldn’t handle the volume.
The university has now shifted their operations to be available 24/7, which is ideal for nursing students and others who work overnight shifts. When these students have a break in their busy schedules and are ready to communicate, so are Post’s representatives.
And the results have been astounding, with 46% growth in admissions.
“When we see 46% growth, we’re thinking ‘Is that even possible?’” says Sinn. “And when we look back through the last decade, there’s a lot of moving parts and pieces to how those results came about. It wasn’t always pretty but we’re building a truly extraordinary student experience.”
Using the data captured and stored by TrueDialog, the university is now looking for new ways to refine their strategies. And these data-driven decisions are leading to new opportunities for Post to continue to make it personal for its students.
