How Salesforce Solutions Empowered Ahmedabad University to Rethink Student Engagement and Administrative Efficiency
Success Metric: Real results happen with GetOnCRM Solutions
43%
Increase in Enrollment Process Efficiency
29%
Improvement in Lead Conversion Rates
25%
Increase in Student Engagement after IntegrationObjective
Ahmedabad University undertook a transformative journey with Salesforce to improve student engagement and administrative efficiency by integrating with their Community Registration Portal. Leveraging Salesforce’s suite of cloud solutions (including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud ) simplified registration processes while outreach processes became much more straightforward.
This initiative sought to automate and optimize lead management, communication workflows, event activities, real-time updates, and comprehensive data synchronization. Ahmedabad University enhanced its outreach capabilities by centralizing data management, integrating advanced communication strategies, personalized student interactions, and significantly increasing operational efficiencies – supporting its commitment to offering seamless educational experience and proactive engagement with prospective students.
Objective
Ahmedabad University undertook a transformative journey with Salesforce to improve student engagement and administrative efficiency by integrating with their Community Registration Portal. Leveraging Salesforce’s suite of cloud solutions (including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud ) simplified registration processes while outreach processes became much more straightforward.
This initiative sought to automate and optimize lead management, communication workflows, event activities, real-time updates, and comprehensive data synchronization. Ahmedabad University enhanced its outreach capabilities by centralizing data management, integrating advanced communication strategies, personalized student interactions, and significantly increasing operational efficiencies – supporting its commitment to offering seamless educational experience and proactive engagement with prospective students.
The Challenges
Data Fragmentation and Duplication
The university faced difficulty collecting accurate, consistent data from various sources - direct walk-ins, web inquiries, and external partners alike. Furthermore, their two non-customizable platforms for outreach and registration caused discrepancies that resulted in errors and duplications that compromised lead management effectiveness and reporting accuracy.Complex Lead Management
Managing leads from diverse sources--online, walk-ins, partner referrals, aggregators, social media engagement, and campaigns--proved challenging and time-consuming within Salesforce's environment. Tracking and nurturing these diverse leads was often complex and time-consuming.Manual Outreach Inefficiencies
The outreach team relied heavily on manual data entry and tracking activities like school visits and career fairs; this process was time-consuming and error-prone; due to this lack of automation, they struggled to effectively manage leads while monitoring engagement strategies for maximum engagement success.Engagement and Communication Lags
Managing and tracking communications with prospective students was complex without an integrated system, leading to less effective student engagement and decreased interest from potential candidates. Without automated communication triggers, managing these communications was often ineffective, resulting in missed engagement opportunities or reduced enthusiasm among potential student candidates.Inefficient Registration and Data Integration
Registration processes at the university were inefficient, with problems in synchronizing data across systems and delays in receiving real-time updates leading to inaccuracies in data management and communication. The existing setup could not accommodate real-time updates, resulting in inaccurate management and communication of student records.Reporting and Analytics Gaps
The university faced significant gaps in producing actionable reports on outreach activities and event results. Due to a lack of robust reporting tools, generating reports for analysis on campaign performance, lead source effectiveness assessment, ROI measurements of events, and strategic decision-making were often challenging and limited strategic decision-making processes.The Solutions
Centralized Data Management
Salesforce Sales Cloud allows us to aggregate data from various sources, ensuring its integrity through features like duplicate management and advanced data matching rules - effectively eliminating fragmentation and duplication of information.
Enhanced Lead Management
We leveraged Salesforce Marketing Cloud to enhance lead nurturing through targeted communication journeys, dynamic lead scoring, and automated routing. In addition, the Ad Studio Module can be used for targeted social media campaign execution, thereby streamlining complex lead management.Automation of Outreach Activities
Automating data entry and tracking for outreach activities like school visits and career fairs with Salesforce Sales Cloud's lead management and campaign module reduced manual errors while increasing operational efficiencies.Improved Communication and Engagement
Integrating Salesforce Marketing Cloud with Email Studio and Mobile Studio was vital in providing real-time communication and engagement tracking through emails and WhatsApp messages, increasing overall engagement rates, and providing timely, tailored communications that ensured timely, personalized communications that led to higher overall engagement rates.Seamless Registration and Data Integration
Integrating Community Registration Portal and Salesforce into one seamless solution has allowed for real-time data synchronization, automated notifications, and advanced validation processes - streamlining registration processes while increasing data accuracy.Advanced Reporting and Analytics
Salesforce Report & Dashboard features enabled the university to gain actionable insight into campaign performance, lead source effectiveness, and event ROI. Customizable dashboards and real-time analytics enabled strategic decision-making and quick adaptation to rapidly shifting dynamics.Quantifiable Success Metrics
Increased Enrollment Process Efficiency by 43%
Enhancements between the community registration portal and Salesforce have expedited application and enrollment processes, significantly shortening the time from inquiry to enrollment and improving user experience.
Lead Conversion Rates Improved by 29%
Implementing advanced lead scoring and targeted nurturing campaigns on Salesforce Sales Cloud has proven highly successful at turning prospective students into registered students, as it enabled a deeper understanding of student behaviors and preferences.
Student Engagement Boosted by 25%
Enhancing communication strategies and personalized interactions using Salesforce’s comprehensive tracking and automated communication tools has led to higher engagement and participation rates at university events and outreach activities.
40% Reduction in Application Processing Time
Utilizing Salesforce’s seamless workflows and real-time data synchronization features to expedite enrollment decisions significantly reduces the time required from initial application to enrollment decision and enhances administrative efficiency.
30% Increase in Data Accuracy
Implementing advanced data validation and integrity checks within Salesforce ensures greater accuracy of student information, reducing errors and duplications that compromise decision-making processes and reporting accuracy.
25% Uplift in User Engagement on Registration Portal
Utilizing integrated Salesforce communication tools and automated notifications, user interactions with the portal have increased significantly, resulting in higher engagement rates and more completed applications.
