Saint Joseph's University Supplements 'Lean' Graduate Recruiting Staff with CRM Tool from TargetX

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., Jan. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A CRM system designed specifically for higher education has proved so efficient that two full-time staffers can successfully recruit students for 41 graduate and certificate programs at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

The Student Recruitment Manager®, a cloud-based customer relationship management system developed by TargetX, is the basis of an electronic communications strategy that facilitates the recruitment of thousands of students to a wide assortment of specialized graduate programs.

"We've put in place a comprehensive communications plan for prospective students and a process for managing those communications despite a very, very lean staff," says Jill Dougherty Cleary, Director of Marketing and Recruitment for Graduate Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Cleary works with one other full-time staff member and several graduate assistants to respond to an enormous number of prospective students, provide the most relevant information based on their interests, lead them through the recruitment process and team them with an academic program director.

And the Student Recruitment Manager makes it possible. "We're able to be much more strategic and student-focused," says Cleary. "Prior to our use of the SRM, there was a lot of guessing about where a student was in the process. For example, we didn't know if a prospect had attended a recruiting event, had traveled to campus for an interview, or even if they had already applied for one of our programs.

"With the SRM, we can see what they've done and what else they need. We can respond instantly to their inquiry and then put together a communications stream that's completely tailored to their interests."

The result is a highly-effective process that takes advantage of the tools built into the SRM®, including email communication, event management, online chats, custom reports and workflows.

In addition to creating a much more efficient process, the SRM is proving invaluable in measuring return on investment (ROI), highly desirable among marketing professionals, but often difficult to track and calculate.

"With so many niche programs, we have to invest our advertising and promotion dollars in a lot of specifically targeted publications, websites and social networks," explains Cleary. "We need a way to tie it all together to see what's working for us, and the SRM is making that possible."

Cleary, who served as the university's project manager for implementation of the SRM, is moving from the graduate office into the IT department where she will work on technology projects across all divisions of the university. She sees enormous potential for a CRM system to help in other areas at Saint Joseph's, including financial aid, student retention and alumni affairs.

"The importance of relationship management has become a huge topic on campus," she explains, "and I can see where the SRM can have application for all of our key audiences, not just prospective students."

The Student Recruitment Manager is a groundbreaking CRM system that helps colleges manage, integrate and automate the process of student recruitment from the first point of contact through enrollment. In 2008, TargetX built the SRM on the proven Force.com platform of Salesforce.com, the worldwide leader in on-demand customer relationship management and a pioneer in cloud computing. The result is a cloud-based system that is the most powerful, mobile and customizable recruiting tool in higher education.

The SRM is used by the undergraduate admissions office at Saint Joseph's as well as the graduate studies office.

About Saint Joseph's University

Saint Joseph's is a private independent and comprehensive university founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851. As a Catholic and Jesuit university, SJU advances the professional and personal ambitions of men and women by providing a demanding, yet supportive, educational experience. Saint Joseph's is home to 4,600 traditional day students, 700 College of Professional and Liberal Studies adult undergraduates and 3,500 graduate and doctoral students. Steeped in the 450-year Jesuit tradition of scholarship and service, Saint Joseph's was named to the 2010 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for General Community Service. The University strives to be recognized as the preeminent Catholic comprehensive university in the Northeast.

For more information, visit www.sju.edu

About TargetX

TargetX is the leading student-recruiting firm serving higher education. It offers both technology tools and consulting services designed to help colleges recruit today's more sophisticated, web-savvy students. Founded in 1998 on the belief that colleges need to change the way they communicate with prospects and their families, TargetX has been a forward-thinking leader in managing change in higher education and embracing the concept of the experience in higher-ed marketing. More recently, TargetX launched an Education & Training Center (ETC) where admissions professionals can collaborate and brainstorm with colleagues and thought leaders through coursework and office retreats.

To learn more, visit www.targetx.com

SOURCE TargetX