Campus Management Poll Finds Traditional Communications Less Effective When Communicating With Students

BOCA RATON, Fla., Feb. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A poll conducted by Campus Management Corp., a provider of enterprise software products and services for educational institutions, confirms that colleges and universities have found that telephone calls and printed mailings have been officially surpassed by the latest in chat, email and text messaging technology.  What is more, a rising number of institutions are awakening to the importance of a lifetime thread of communications with their constituencies.

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When it comes to communicating with students, of the 151 university administrators polled from a full range of public, private and proprietary institutions, three-quarters (75 percent) believe that email is the most effective way to communicate with students, followed by website postings (45 percent) and text messaging (33 percent).  Telephone and traditional printed mailings fell to the bottom with only 31 percent and 14 percent, respectively, indicating these communications tools are less effective.  

"To support a goal for the United States to produce the highest number of college graduates by 2020, universities and colleges need new platforms with systems to ensure academic progress and the retention of students," said Timothy S. Gilbert, senior vice president and CMO of Campus Management.  "Phone calls and print letters are sometimes preferred, but clearly the colleges have learned that students are on the go and have new expectations for information critical to them.  Those on the leading edge in education are using highly personalized messages inside emails or text messaging, and most importantly, they are trending toward outcomes in recruitment and retention."  

When asked where CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) software is the most beneficial, more than half of the respondents answered "recruiting" (61 percent), while one in four (24 percent) cited that CRM would be most beneficial to enhance "student services." On the rise, fundraising (10 percent) and alumni relations (5 percent) are now cited as uses of CRM above and beyond admissions departments.  

"More and more colleges and universities are envisioning CRM as a strategy to be utilized throughout the lifetime of their constituency," said Mr. Gilbert.  "The trend in the next three years is to expand CRM from recruitment and student services, into a more holistic view of the student and employee lifecycle --from admissions through alumni relations, workforce, and all other sources of funding and gifts."

About Campus Management Corp.

More than 1,700 colleges, universities, foundations and other organizations in 17 countries rely upon Campus Management Corp® enterprise software products and services. Talisma® is part of Campus Management's CampusVue® Ecosystem, a vision for a fully integrated, centralized administrative and e-Learning platform that unifies services, academic delivery, administrative management, and reporting for the range of public, private, and proprietary postsecondary institutions.

Campus Management's award-winning student information system is used by more than 75 percent of the largest U.S.-based proprietary and online colleges. Additional offerings include: fundraising software; financials; HR solutions; and Talisma CRM, a leading Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) solution for Higher Education and a range of other industries. Campus Management employs associates worldwide, providing clients with a full range of consulting implementation, support, training, and integration services. For more information, visit www.campusmanagement.com.

SOURCE Campus Management Corp.