Telecommunications

Unlike a field of dreams, college students don’t simply come to your school once you’ve built it. With hundreds of schools to choose from, all offering similar programs for relatively the same cost, students have to make a personal connection with your school if they’re going to enroll. To make these connections you’ve got to do something to get them in the door – something to give them a chance to see, experience and react to what you have to offer.

Traditional universities and career colleges alike often rely on open houses to get students onto their campus. Once you’ve got them there, admissions reps, instructors and even other students can make personal contact with the potential students. They put a face to a long list of program offerings.

Open houses are big undertakings. Much time and effort is expended on these events in hopes that students show up on the big day. After such a big investment into the event, colleges can’t afford to take a gamble that students will find about the event through word of mouth. But here’s the big question: How do you get the students to come to the open house?

You can do a multitude of things to inform students about your open house. Press releases, direct mail campaigns and newspaper ads are all great ways to reach potential students. But here’s another good way to reach them. A way that might just put you a step ahead of your competition: contact center solutions.

Target Admissions Support Center, the contact center solutions division of PlattForm, recently did a calling campaign to help a University of the Arts promote their fall open house. After about 230 hours of calls, TASC signed up 591 potential students who said they planned to attend their open house. Additionally, 769 respondents said they would like the college to contact them with additional information.

The calling paid off for University of the Arts. More than 2,100 people showed up to the open house.

“It was the largest group we’ve ever had,” said Eileen Grabosky, Assistant to the Director of Enrollment Management for University of the Arts. “I would say the majority of students that attended came from the call campaign.”

The moral of the story? Contact center solutions are a great way to raise awareness of your next big event and help get students in the door.