Education agency service pipeline

Stefan

As an education agent, you are constantly under pressure to bring more applications into your service pipeline, and keep track of them to make sure they don’t slip through cracks. Looking at this statement, the question that comes up is: what are the stages of my service pipeline? This is what I’ll try to answer in the following paragraphs.

1. What is a service pipeline?

A pipeline is a way of classifying your student applications through stages until they are finalised and you start claiming commission on them. A pipeline answers the question, “How many applications do I have to pursue in order to win a certain amount of commission?

Pipelines are typically defined in stages:

  • How many student applications have you created
  • How many student applications have you submitted
  • How many student applications are you following
  • How many applications are you claiming a commission for

Every education agency business process is different, so there’s no set standard for how you categorise your student applications in your pipeline. The main idea is keeping track of where each application is in the pipeline, so you don’t lose them.

2. How to create a service pipeline?

To create a pipeline, first categorize the applications you are tracking. What are the stages of your business process from start to finish? What is the stage where your application enters the pipeline? Let’s call it: the Interested stage. Here are your applications where students are interested in studying a particular course, but have not decided yet.

What is the second step in the application’s lifecycle? This would be the stage where the potential student decides to go ahead with an application. Let’s call this stage, the Created stage, because you’ll create an application. The application is not lodged yet, because you still need to collect more documents, however the application is created.

The next logical step in the application’s journey would be the stage where the application is lodged with the education provider. Let’s call this stage the Submitted stage, because this is the stage in your application’s journey where your application is submitted with the education provider.

We already have three stages in our pipeline. You would have figured out the ropes by now, how this works.

A study application’s lifecycle pipeline, from start to finish, would need to have around 5 or 6 stages.

Your education agency service pipeline should look something like this:

If you lodge student visas for your students as well, you should create a student visa application pipeline as well. This journey of the application would be similar in length to the study application journey. In total, the study application journey plus the student visa application journey should have around 11 or 12 stages.

Online student management system

There are plenty of project management tools out there where you can build this service pipeline to keep track of your applications however, I recommend an application management software specifically created for education agencies, such as Inteleagent. Inteleagent comes out of the box with a services pipeline for your study and student visa applications. You can edit the stages as you see fit. Each stage comes with preset tasks that you can edit or delete to fit your business processes. Each stage is automated, meaning, every time you complete the last task at that particular stage, the application will automatically move to the next stage.

What is your education agency service pipeline? Feel free to share…

5 education agency challenges and how to address them

International student recruitment challenges
Stefan
International student recruitment challenges

International student recruitment challenges can make it difficult for you as an education agent, to find students. Learning about challenges in international student recruitment and different ways to mitigate them can ultimately help you attract more international students and increase your commission.

International student recruitment challenges

Working as an education agent is an exciting career. In fact, once you get in the industry, you are likely to stick to it for years to come. Most education agents I know have been in the industry for at least 10 years. But exciting careers come with challenges of their own. Most of these challenges can be addressed by implementing a policy to use software for educational consultants to process applications throughout your education agency offices.

Have a look at the following international student recruitment challenges and possible ways to solve them.

1. Competition

You might find the right student and match him with the right course, but chances are you are not the first. There are a lot of education agents out there, and many are reaching out to the same international students as you. You might find it difficult to cut through the noise and catch the attention of genuine international students. Especially in geographical areas such as the Subcontinent, Asia, or South America, there are hundreds, if not thousands of education agencies competing for international students.

According to the Australian Government – Department of Education and Training, based on Agents or Agencies who have created CoEs between  04 April 2012 and 12 September 2018, there are 10,626 Agencies and 26,565 Agents in the world.

Solution: Take advantage of international students’ referrals. Nothing catches the attention of an international student like a friend advising them to contact you. When you successfully place international students, ask them to refer you. People often listen to those they know. Your software for educational consultants would have a reporting feature that would give you an insight into the percentage of international students recruited through referrals. Aim to increase that.

2. International students receiving several Offer Letters

Because the demand for genuine international students is high, many students can afford to be selective. They often have multiple offers to choose from and are likely to accept the most competitive option. You might put a lot of time into moving an application through the recruiting pipeline, only to find they’ve accepted an offer letter elsewhere. When students receive several offers at once, it can be easy to lose them to another education agency.

If your student chooses another offer, you might need to go back to previously declined applications. Those students have likely moved onto other opportunities as well, so you might need to start the process over.

Solution: To stand out from the competition, create a great student onboarding experience. Start with building an effective onboarding experience in your software for educational consultants. Be sure to note the benefits, outcome, and study experience your education institution offers. Be clear about the necessary academic and English entry requirements. Listen to your students throughout the enrolment process. If the education institution extends an offer to your student, be enthusiastic about it and explain the next steps.

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3. College / university partner moving slowly

The longer it takes to get a letter of offer, the more strain it puts on your education agency and your students. Education institutions want you to source quality, genuine students and your student wants their applications to be moved through the application process quickly. Accomplishing both tasks simultaneously can be one of the biggest challenges in the international education agency business.

Sometimes, a student might not understand the application process, or they might get sidetracked during the enrolment process. This can slow an education institution extending an offer, causing you to lose the student through these cracks.

Solution: Use a student application management system or a software for educational consultants to streamline your process. You can enter and organize student data at every stage of the recruiting pipeline. You spend less time searching for information and more time talking with your student. And, the software helps you follow the application’s journey, so the process can move forward faster.

4. College / university offer is poor

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to recruit genuine students. International students are a huge factor in driving the success of an education institution businesses. But if your education institution partner wants to recruit the best, most genuine students, they need to be willing to up their offering.

Scholarships, perks and innovative approaches to programs delivered are all huge details in an international student’s decision. If your education institution partner doesn’t have a competitive offer, it will be hard to source top genuine applicants.

Solution: Talk to your education institution partners about the importance of having an attractive offering. Show them examples in the industry. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Your college / university partner might need to get creative when it comes to international student perks. For example, they could offer flex timetable, scholarships, or discounts at various partner businesses.

5. Low international student retention

It’s more common than ever for international students to jump courses. When this happens, your college / university partner might question whether you’re able to find the right students for their programs.

International student retention issues can hurt your education agency reputation. You find an international student and your education institution partner onboards the student. After a few months, the new student finds a course that is cheaper elsewhere. You have to start the application process all over. Or worse, the student doesn’t even choose your education agency for their application to the new program. This can quickly become one of your biggest international student recruitment challenges.

Solution: Start by sourcing international students with a high potential to complete the course. Ask behavioral questions during interviews to screen for loyalty. Also, make sure your college / university has a strong culture and onboarding program. And, check in with your student once they begin their studies. Find out if they have any concerns, and resolve issues early on.

In summary, detecting these risks early in your education agency life can make all the difference between success and failure. Consider them early in your education agency’s journey and mitigate the risk.

5 tips on how to engage potential students with social media

Stefan

It is a certainty in the cultural environment we live, that your current students will be talking about their experience with the college or university they are studying with, and they will be posting images and videos on social media platforms. If this user generated content is positive, it can be an excellent recruitment tool that you can’t afford to miss.

As an education agent, you can leverage the positive content your recruited students are providing, by adopting a dynamic and responsive approach. You need to encourage it, respond to it in an enthusiastically manner, making it easier to find on the wide space the social media platforms provide.

User generated content is 35% more memorable and 50% more trustworthy than traditional media, according to a recent Ipsos/Crowdtap survey.

Here are 5 tips you can take home to positively influence your brand:

1. Use Emojis

Emojis are visual, and they are part of a student’s language. According to recent research, if you tweet with emojis, you are bound to receive 25% engagement than without them. Facebook likes increase by 57% and comments by 31% on posts with emojis. Emojis offer a more personal, fun and humorous conversation than just “liking” the comment.

2. Hashtag it

Hashtags are at the base of searchable content, so make sure you come up with a good hashtag that is cool and unformal. If the students get the impression that you are forcing it on them, they won’t use it. Encourage students to use your hashtags and try to promote them everywhere you can, such as physical spaces, brochures, email newsletters and on social media.

3. Be responsive

Out of respect for students, who took time to write the post, take that picture, or tweet, you need to respond timely and thoughtfully.

4. Be thankful

Flowing from number 3 above, make sure you thank the student for posting, adding a personal touch to the comment. If you want to engage in a conversation, you will need to put a bit more effort in, to show that you are genuinely interested in the student’s post.

5. Leverage your influencers

If you really want to succeed in your social media student engagement quest, ask a few of your closest students who are enthusiastic about their experience and are active on social media, to tag their posts with your hashtags. Ideally, these students have quite a following.

Social media can have a great impact on your marketing overall, and thinking strategically about it would bring positive outcomes to your education agency recruitment strategy. As always, the secret is perseverance. Never quit! Keep on moving forward!