Franklin University Is Tracking Student Lifecycles with This CRM Solution

Lyndsey Clark says Talisma is her “communication tool from tip to tail.”

Talisma, a CRM solution by Campus Management, was implemented at Franklin University in order to replace spread sheets, and better track student lifecycles.

Clark, Associate Director of Admissions Operations and Graduate Admissions at Franklin University, uses Talisma every day.

She says admissions uses Talisma to hone in on leads – reaching out to those leads and “continuing the conversation” with those leads if a relationship is sparked from initial outreach.

“[We use it] primarily in keeping track of our students,” Clark says. “What we have spoken to students about has allowed us to do a lot more with our reporting ability.”

Jessica Skala, Assistant Director of CRM & Technology Tools from Student Affairs at Franklin University, says Talisma’s customization tools help make the university’s campaign functionalities run more efficiently.

Plus, it helps the school’s advisors save time, and quickly identifies students for them.

“We use the campaign functionality so that it creates efficiency, and sends out campaigns so our advisors don’t have to necessarily research each individual student,” Skala says. “Then we use it like a regular admission to identify students for outreach, and then we track those calls. We’re very excited about what we’re doing with it.”

Skala also says Talisma has enabled her department to maintain relationships with Franklin University students, and monitor their progresses.

“We were able to move from being reactive to being proactive,” she says. “Students used to rely on us and tell us when there were issues, but now, Talisma has enabled us to integrate a lot of student information so we can see indicators of at-risk behaviors and successful behaviors, and we’re able to do that outreach proactively.”

The Rules of Engagement: Communication Is Key

The biggest benefit CRMs like Talisma offer colleges is the opportunity to better engage with their customers – prospective students and their parents, current students, and alumni.

Jason Soffer, Product Marketing Manager at Campus Management, says solutions like these give colleges a 360 degree view of their customers – what they like and dislike about a school, grade performances, and even what students are doing on and off campus.

These solutions also create clarity on which method of communication colleges should use to reach out to these customers.

“By having more data points around those constituents, they can best engage and communicate with them,” Soffer says. “That’s really where the benefit of a CRM comes into play, not just understanding what [someone] likes or dislikes, or the fact that he or she likes text messages versus campaigning. We can better segment our population to communicate that and begin to come up with an analysis and draw conclusions as to what’s going to be best for our population.”