IS YOUR APPLICATION HURTING YOUR BRAND?

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1 IS YOUR APPLICATION HURTING YOUR BRAND? Undergraduate Admissions Edition

2 Top ways to improve your user experience, gain the trust of your prospects, and boost conversion rates Facebook generation prospects crave high doses of interaction and easily become anxious without knowing the status of their application. Additionally, user experience researchers have proven that dopamine (the happy brain chemical) is released by constant positive feedback during learning and other activities 1. So just imagine what happens when a high school student, used to extremely well designed online interfaces, interacts with a clunky, hard-to-navigate admissions process. REGARDLESS OF WHAT SYSTEM YOU USE, HERE ARE THE GROUND RULES: Eliminate technical barriers to application completion Create a system that enables interaction and establishes a relationship Surprise and delight, rather than confuse and annoy As a starting point to improve any user experience, story map the process. Story mapping is a best practice used by agile development teams and marketing companies to create great user experiences for a target customer. Story mapping can be as simple as watching (and hopefully recording) a few students as they complete your application. Then ask yourself, What are our key requirements - and how can we make them both discoverable and navigable for our constituents. Quite simply, you need to start thinking more like a prospective student. Easy, short term wins for a superior admissions experience Find ways to eliminate barriers Often times confusing application processes stop an applicant in his tracks. It might be as simple as misunderstanding admissions requirements or even a confusing document upload experience. Sure, you might need letters of recommendation, but couldn t they be processed in parallel? Are you willing to lose a candidate relationship in order to satisfy your own convenience? Probably not.

3 YOU CAN REDUCE OR ELIMINATE BARRIERS BY TAKING TIME TO: Create a story map walking through the admissions process from the viewpoint of an applicant Track abandon rate and determine who abandons Allow prospective students to complete the application in steps, rather than completeing the application all at once Avoid dead ends in the application at all costs Engage the applicant with your brand through the admissions process Applying to college is terrifying. The student s future is in your hands. It is a huge investment of her time, resources, and energy. In many cases, the process can be even more unsettling for the parents. YOU CAN WIN TRUST BY DIGITALLY HAND HOLDING APPLICANTS THROUGH THE PROCESS BY: Offering live chat support Including tutorial videos with a friendly admissions counselor or faculty member Surprise and delight your prospects with help to complete the application Applicants start the college application process with fairly low usability expectations. They know it is going to be a lot of work. By humanizing the process, you will impress both the applicant and her parent, leaving a lasting and positive impression of your institution. YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH THIS BY TYING TARGETED CAMPAIGNS INTO THE APPLICATION DATA WITH THE FOLLOWING PROCESS: Capture major, program, and activity interests early on

4 Integrate the prospect card process seamlessly into the application Trigger an based on prospect data, both encouraging applicants to finish their application, and offering help (Example: Did you know that our institution places over 1000 students in paid summer internships resulting in a 95% job placement rate at graduation? Want to learn more? Here s contact information for your admissions officer.) Long-term wins for a superior admissions experience THESE SUGGESTIONS ARE MORE RESOURCE INTENSIVE, BUT CAN BE DEVELOPED IN PHASES. BEST PRACTICES FOR HAVING A BEST-OF-BREED ADMISSIONS EXPERIENCE INCLUDE: Providing applicants with an engaging dashboard that communicates the application process, offers constant confirmation and validation, and serves as a marketing opportunity Offering a fully mobile-accessible application process that increases access. In many cases, under-resourced students complete more applications by phone, as many may not have consistent access to laptops and PCs. Seamlessly integrating your prospect card intake with automated marketing tools, such as Pardot or Marketo. Offering around-the-clock phone and chat support to parents and applicants, especially during peak deadlines. Huge gains in conversion rate can come in those hours leading up to the deadline. Enlisting the aid of high school counselors and community-based organizations by providing them with dashboards, updates, and student communications. 1 Burns, Martha Ph.D. (2012, September 18). Dopamine and Learning: What the Brain s Reward Center Can Teach Educators. Retrieved from

5 About DecisionDesk DecisionDesk enrollment management software helps Higher Education institutions achieve admissions goals. By collecting personal information, application materials and portfolios, DecisionDesk provides a holistic picture of students displayed to reviews through a single, configurable workspace. By helping institutions to connect with and market to prospects throughout the process, our clients see more completed applications. Over 100 higher education institutions use DecisionDesk to improve the admissions experience and to help institutions achieve their admissions goals.