Getting students to arrive for their scheduled tours is something that almost every technical or career college struggles with. It is something that can mean an immediate improvement in your show rates.

We secret shopped at over 400 different career colleges and technical schools in a variety of different industries; Cosmetology, technique, related to health, etc. We found that mistakes are made much more often than people realize. And we identified 20 mistakes that were being made largely.

Most schools have five errors or more. These errors can affect your stats, your show rates, the number of tours you are taking, and ultimately, of course, your sign-ups. We work with schools to fix their lead generation, while improving the results of their admissions team, and these results lead to increased enrollment. One of the 20 bugs we’ve found hurting admissions stems from phone system frustrations.

When a call is not routed correctly, it is extremely frustrating. No one likes call trees, and no one likes waiting for a response, whether it’s a text or an email. Speed ​​to lead is extremely important and that shows in how quickly someone can talk to a live person or receive a text from a live person. Think about the speed to lead and how frustrating it is to not get an answer or not be able to get through to someone very quickly. If you must have a phone tree, keep it as simple as possible. If there is any kind of delay between the time a potential customer arrives from your website and the time they can return to it, keep it as short as possible.

Having a clear policy and a clear script for what is said when someone calls is very important. It’s never good for the receptionist to say, “Let me check. I’m not sure about that. The person who handles that isn’t here right now. He’ll probably be back in 45 minutes. Can you call back?” 15 minutes or can you call back in 45 minutes?” or “Actually, I don’t do admissions. The person who does it is on tour right now. I can ask him to call you back.” You know, just not being prepared, not being professional, not being friendly, not being helpful. Some schools make the big mistake of making students answer the phone and that opens up another can of worms. from a compliance standpoint and also because a student is generally not trained to answer phones. That’s getting rarer, but we still see it in schools. If there are students answering phones, that’s something that needs to be corrected immediately. immediate.

Your reception team should not answer admissions questions. The best way to get into trouble with the Department of Education or your accreditation body is to let inexperienced and untrained people talk about financial aid, admissions, and any other sensitive topics. Therefore, do not expose yourself, or your school, to serious consequences as a result of allowing someone who is not properly trained to speak to a prospective student. The person who is talking to a prospective student needs to know what she is doing.