Challenges faced by traditional schools entering into the online (part4)
5. Support offices
Speed and efficiency are everything
The same fast pace seen in the sales cycle of the online education environment must filter down to support offices also servicing the residential student body. These crucial offices comprised of the Registrar’s office, financial aid, and student accounts all have to be ready to turn student enrollment very around quickly. Schools can have a great marketing plan, highly skilled sales agents, and a comprehensive post-lead strategy, but if financial aid or the other support offices are bottlenecked producing a slow turnaround time, student frustration and attrition will ensue. While streamlining each of these areas for efficiency is often easier said than done, it is crucial that schools address this issue as the rate of growth can be stymied.
When examining online education and the extensive possibilities it can provide, school leadership must see the whole picture and avoid the easy trap of focusing on or fixing one area and then moving forward with high expectations. Marketing and lead generation are important, the sales force is important, the post lead strategy is important, the academic mindset and assessment process is important, back-end student support offices are important, and the data to analyze each of these areas is absolutely critical.
6. Embrace change
The rate of external change should never exceed the rate of internal change
As a whole, the education industry typically is slow to change, adopt new ideals, or embrace forward, out-of-the-box thinking. We all know that businesses have to change quickly to keep pace with the ever-growing demands of their customers or they face losing market share. Education shouldn’t be viewed any differently. Although it is not commonly popular to refer to students as customers or to view other schools as competition within the realm of higher education, this is the reality regardless of which terms you may choose to embrace.
School leadership needs to recognize the extensive value of starting an online division — a potentially larger alumni base for future giving, a feeder program for their residential campus, larger profit margins then residential programs, fewer infrastructure demands when expansion is called for with increasing growth, and the availability to branch into alternative revenue sources such as certificates or a grade school academy.
For-profit schools have a far better understanding of the value of online education than non-profit, traditional (residential) schools. Leadership at the traditional institution has to be willing to implement changes to the current structure and culture to create the dynamics necessary to be successful in the online market. Brand loyalty in the online market is far less than it is in the traditional residential model. The ease of changing schools when enrolled online forces schools to quickly address changes to student needs or else run the risk of losing those students.
Comments
Leave a Reply
-
Page Views Since January 2008
-
