A Study of Electronic Customer Relationship Management in Higher

Educational Institutions
P.S.LALITHA1 N.K.RAJARAM2
Research Scholar, MBA, Department of Management studies,
Department of Management studies,
S.V. University, Tirupathi, AP
S.V. University, Tirupathi, AP

ABSTRACT

More and higher educational institutions (HEIs) are now adopting Electronic Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) systems to attract, retain and serve its students. Viewing
students as customers and implementing a CRM can help an institute gain edge in a highly
competitive higher education marketplace. Surprisingly, many Higher Educational Institutions
still do not use CRM software because they lack adequate knowledge about such systems. CRM is
an amazingly powerful tool which if properly executed and leveraged can provide valuable
insights about our customers, allowing us to develop stronger and more personal relationships not
just with prospective and current students but also the alumni. For better understanding, in this
study we have compiled a list of some of the benefits of CRM for Higher Educational Institutions
that empower our competitors.

Key Words: HEIs, CRM, Students, Technology, Knowledge.

INTRODUCTION

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are experiencing vital changes in the way they operate and
interact with their ‘customers’, i.e. students, their parents, alumni, employers and staff members.
Higher education clients are demanding more attention and instant service and so proactive
universities are turning to technology – customer relationship management systems – to cater to
this demand in an effective way.

Higher education CRM systems normally serve three key audiences: prospective students,
current students, and alumni/donors. This article is focused on prospective students’ .

CRM systems are software applications used to automate and manage communications with
prospective and current students, employees, alumni, donors – everyone in your institution’s
community. Customer information, such as lead’s/customer’s name, gender, educational
background, telephone, email, marketing materials, social media and any other relevant
information across different channels is compiled into a single database enabling easier
information access, allowing to personalize and customize messages and the channels used to
deliver the message to the student in a timely manner. Every interaction with the “customer” is
tracked by the CRM, all in one place.

CRM systems are extremely beneficial to HEIs. Some of the core benefits of using a CRM
system are described below.

Firstly, utilizing a CRM system drives faster service. Emails and other types of communication
channels may be automated in order to speed up response time. It may also help at identifying
trends which become feedback for marketing, admissions or other departments included in the
process. Furthermore, CRM systems provide real-time numbers, data, and graphs that may be
useful in decision making

Another useful and widely used feature of a CRM system is workflow automation. This feature
will make sure that you never forget to respond or follow up on an enquiry ever again. The
system may be automated in such way that tasks are assigned to a relevant staff member
automatically. For example, once the student requests a brochure, relevant department will be
assigned a new task in the CRM database – to send the brochure.

Tracking is yet another great feature that comes with the most of the CRM systems. It enables
institutions to track which website(s) a certain student used to find your institution. This allows
for smarter marketing budget planning, allocating resources to the most effective marketing
campaigns.

There is no better way to show the effectiveness of utilizing CRM systems than to hear it first
hand from the institutions that are using CRM systems.

Electronic Customer Relationship Management vs. Customer Relationship Management

The differences between Electronic Customer Relationship Management and customer

relationship management as indicated by numerous authors are obvious and minor; the definition
for Customer Relationship Management and Electronic Customer Relationship Management is
virtually the same but Electronic Customer Relationship Management uses internet as a medium
or tool. A good number of practitioners and researchers approve that Electronic Customer
Relationship Management is a business strategy that smears the technology power to bond
together all features of a company’s business to shape long-term customer relationship and
customer loyalty (Rigo et al., 2016, Safari et al., 2016, Wahab et al., 2011).

Largely, Customer Relationship Management is a vital and crucial function of a customer

concerned with marketing. Its function contains collecting and accruing customer – related
information in order to offer efficient services. Electronic customer relationship management
concerns with all arrangements of managing relationships with customers making usage of
Information Technology. The objective of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
system is to enhance customer service, maintain valuable customers, and develop a relationship
(Darajeh and Tahajod, 2010).

According to Faed et al. (2010) electronic customer relationship management launches and
enhances the traditional customer relationship management techniques by assimilating
technologies of fresh online channels, such as voice, wireless, and Web technologies, and
assimilates them with online business applications into the whole customer relationship
management strategy.

People, process and technology

Customer Relationship Management strategy attaches three fundamental dimensions of

organizations, technology, strategy, and philosophy. Additionally, the success of CRM strategy
rest on the precise balance between three significant organizational resources: people, processes
and technology. Only by working efficiently with these three resources will organizations be able
to use CRM to attain great levels of customer loyalty, retention and satisfaction (Rigo et al.,
2016; Navimipour & Sultani, 2016; Khan & Kamal, 2015).

People The first fundamental resource in CRM strategy is people. Organizations must make
their employees dedicated to a customer-centered strategy (Rigo et al., 2016, Khan & Kamal,
2015). Employees should to be trained as well as inspired to encounter customer expectations
and desires. Employees have an important character in the relationship between organizations
and their consumers (Mendoza et al., 2007), particularly those who work in frontline positions
for example vendors, call centers, and customer services attendants.

Technology infrastructure: The second essential resource in CRM strategy is technology

since Information Technology typically brings important contributions to enrich business and
organizational processes. Actually, one of the focal results of implementing CRM strategy is
changing and generating processes. As Beldi, et al. (2010) affirms that CRM strategy is
transversal and touches the entire organization. CRM effects request the appraisal of all
processes involved indirectly or directly with customer relationship, so they grow into more
customer-oriented and more effective (Khan & Kamal, 2015).

Process :The third essential resource of CRM strategy is process. CRM is certainly a means for
organizations to get a competitive advantage, subsequently, as they invest in CRM strategy; they
improve customer value, thus refining

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Here Andy Ball “One of the first successes with our CRM service was the implementation of
the digital event management system. By utilizing online booking forms, confirmation and
reminder e-mails, and providing tablets for scanning barcode registrants, we are able to offer an
improved user experience whilst also harnessing better quality data for our marketing efforts.
Before the advent of the digital solution, the post-event reconciliation of data would take several
days of manual entry, copying names from paper to our Student Record System. Now, with
uploads to our CRM direct from our event tablets, we are able to complete our data process and
follow-up with our attendees and non-attendees within an hour.”

Natalia Antsiferova “The CRM system has helped us to focus on the right recruitment activities
and structure the communications with our prospective and admitted students. Among other
things, we can now reach the right audience, target prospects with personalized content and
invite interested students to the events related to them. We can now also track the level of
engagement of our targeted groups and see if any amendments of the message/content are
necessary. Overall, using a CRM system has been definitely a great improvement for our
recruitment and admissions processes and a great help to our team.”

Raluca Tasca “The CRM system is a great tool for managing and exactly targeting the great
number of leads and prospective students we receive every day for our German universities and
academies. Regular reporting help us identify trends, adapt our workflows, analyze the success
of our marketing campaigns and plan effective campaigns for the future.”

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To identify the ECRM practices adopted by HEIs.

2. To find out the factors influencing on ECRM in HEIs.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study undertook descriptive research to achieve the stated objectives. The research is purely
based on secondary data sources include journals, online articles and textbooks.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF CRM in HEIs

Customer relationship management implementation model that integrates the three key
dimensions of process, people, and technology within the context of an enterprisewide customer-
driven, technology-integrated, crossfunctional organization is proposed in Figure 1.1. Managing
a successful customer relationship management implementation needs an integrated and balances
approach to process, technology, and people (chen and popovich, 2003).
Figure 1.1: The conceptual framework Source: (Chen & Popovich, 2003)

BENEFITS OF CRM FOR HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUIONS

 Track Potential Leads

 Build Long Lasting Alumni Relations
 Handle Student Enquiries
 Manage Admissions
 Monitor Fee Payments & Reminders
 Streamline Teachers Evaluations
 MIS Reports
 Enrich Student Lifecycle Management

 Manage Admissions

Manage the complete student admissions lifecycle from one single platform: the course &
program the student is admitted, complete details of student’s batch & roll no, academic
documents and all other tasks that are required in completing the admission process. Streamline
your admissions operations by identifying and recruiting the best candidates, engaging them more
successfully and improving enrollment results.

 Track Potential Leads

Students nowadays rely on digital channels to gather information about their dream universities.
CRM systems come with integrated tracking tools that let you track leads through multiple
engagement programs including print, email, and invitations to both online and physical events
and evaluate their feasibility. It enables institutions to track which website a certain student used
to find your institution. This allows for smarter marketing budget planning, & allocating resources
to the most effective marketing campaigns.

 Handle Student Enquiries

Deliver high quality service by making follow ups for every enquiry. Keep a record of every
interaction with the student during the counseling process. Maintain the follow up & enhance the
communication process between your academic institution and the student.

 Streamline Teacher Evaluations

Eliminate paper process, and help increase consistency and efficiency for the teacher certification
process and other career-related processes. Streamline tasks so that you can devote resources to
finding and placing the best and brightest teachers.

FINDINGS

Despite clear benefits of utilizing a CRM system, there were some unexpected findings in the
higher education market. While many proactive institutions do use CRM systems, a research
conducted by StudyPortals and iE&D Solutions revealed that 59% of the surveyed HEIs do not
use a CRM system, the main reason being lack of knowledge about these systems, with the lack
of budget being the second major reason.

StudyPortals and iE&D Solutions to compile a detailed report comparing various CRM systems
on a number of features, as well as pricing, communication, integration, user friendliness,
customizability, support, and functionality. Furthermore, the report provides an overview of the
current state of CRMs in higher education industry.

CONCLUSION

Adopting e-CRM initiatives to increase performance, promote better management practices, and
improve the HEI’s relationship with current and potential students is an essential effort. The
importance of people capability to implement electronic customer relationship management in
HEIs plays a critical role of Electronic customer Relationship Management success.

While implementing a CRM system is quite costly and time-consuming, the return on investment
is clear as soon as enrollments start flowing in as students respond to outstanding service.
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