Navigating the choppy waters of CRM implementation Derek Nott & Charlie Habershon

Customer Experience Consultant Charlie Habershon Who we are? . . Derek Nott Customer Experience Consultant Charlie Habershon Higher Education Consultant

Why are University’s investing in CRM? External . Heightened Student expectations Higher fees and expectations of a ‘Amazon’ like user experience . Ambitions to grow student numbers and keep them. UG, PGT and Wider Participation . More competitive market The removal of the student cap Inclusion of international students in net migration target

Why are University’s investing in CRM? Internal Students enquiries are answered through out the University and often not recorded Inconsistent processes for application handling Often there is a lack of ownership across the student journey from enquiry to enrolment. Lack of management information to fully understand which activities are effective Enquirers will be bounced around the University with getting a satisfactory answer Lots of frustrated staff whose valuable time is taken up by double data entry and deduplicating data! There is no single record of prospective students and their needs and interactions with the University Academic’s time is often being taken up by dealing with enquiries or making simple admissions decisions .

What challenges do we all face implementing CRM? . Convincing senior leaders to make the investment Bringing activities from across the University together to create a more consistent voice Getting buy in for more standardized ways of working Prioritiesing activities? Everything is ‘business critical’ Introducing new ways of working with a focus on the ‘customer’ A belief that the technology will solve all of the Universities problems. Releasing staff time when everyone is busy Too often it is seen as an IT project. How do you get the business to take full ownership? It will take a long time before the full benefits are realised. How do we maintain momentum across he duration?

What are the opportunities for CRM? . The capability to deliver a more effective and professional experience for prospective students A better understanding of our prospective student The capability to send consistent and targeted communications to prospective students. Improve visibility of student recruitment numbers allowing for intelligent student planning Management information to evaluate activities and focus efforts to increase conversion.

What does good change management look like? MAKING IT ESSENTIAL READY HAPPEN STICK Creating urgency and commitment and building the case for change to make it essential. Communicating and following up on the change initiative to make it stick Driving and releasing implementation of the change initiative to make it happen. Designing and specifying the plan for the change initiative to make it ready.

Driving and Releasing Change on your CRM project Build and communicate a compelling case for the CRM Design and drive the CRM programme Design a new institutional operating model Enable change leadership Engage and enable academic and professional service staff Embed new behaviours MAKE THE CHANGE ESSENTIAL MAKE YOUR INSTITUTION CHANGE READY MAKE THE CHANGE HAPPEN MAKE THE CHANGE STICK Develop case for change. Ensure this is audience specific and future proof Communicate the change narrative. What are the best channels for your audience? Agree and track benefits. How will these make a difference to staff and students? Realise and communicate benefits. Be consistent in your messaging Agree governance and scope of processes / departments Develop the detailed plan. Share with key stakeholders. Deliver against project milestones. Deliver and communicate quick wins. Review and support transition to Business as Usual Design detailed operating model change. Think outside conventional structures Deliver business design changes. Develop improvements and embed KPIs Identify, form and develop guiding coalition with senior sponsors Build change capability. Where are the skills gaps needed for delivery? Lead and commit to the changes Personify change as the new normal Assess Impact, identify and engage change champions. Provide training and support transition with frequent feedback mechanisms Maintain engagement activity and feedback. Define the desired future behaviours Identify behavioural gaps. What activities could address this? Implement changes, empower and incentivise staff Anchor changes, celebrate successes Define changes to your operating model and roles Identify and understand stakeholders and the scale of change required Drive change top down Release change bottom up

Making the change essential Points to consider: The case for change has to be genuinely compelling – the vision must be exciting and the evidence base sound Develop a comprehensive business case including full costs and benefits Get the right people on board – governance needs to be aligned with planned outcomes not institutional structure Allow sufficient time – don’t underestimate the effort required Design from the outside in – the student experience must be developed from the student’s perspective. Think outside conventional HE structures Work with the enlightened – those that will make the change happen and help you to remove blockers Focus on the benefits that matter – move beyond time and cost with focus placed on broader benefits

Making your institution change ready Points to consider: Think about your audience – CRM means different things to different people so pitch your messages accordingly Be open and honest with stakeholders – if you require a day a week from them, tell them Design the technology around the optimum student experience not how the technology works best Involve the right people – blend analytical, constructive and creative thinking – capture requirements in a way that works for people Support change leaders to maintain the vision as the focus of change – change is not about completing the programme but driving and releasing the vision. Ensure leaders ‘walk the talk’ – most will know that commitment is generated from the top

Making the change happen Points to consider: Keep your eye on the big picture – CRM is not just about the technology. Ensure all projects come together to deliver the overall change vision Face time – there is no substitute for seeing people face to face to discuss progress, secure real-time feedback and generate ongoing buy-in for the change Several iterations may be required to deliver the required business change – persevere and ensure continued alignement with the change vision Provide support little and often – different people require support in different ways – tailor the approach to the person – one size rarely fits anyone Never rely on the message getting through first time – helping staff to adopt new ways of working requires both formal and informal feedback mechanisms – repetition is key

Making it Stick Points to consider: Communicate successes – but realise that all improvements won’t happen on day one. Be patient and communicate improvements and successes as they happen And lessons learned – it can be all to easy to dive on to the next project or programme. Take time to engage staff and students on what went well, what didn’t and how you can change things in the future Anchor the change in the organisation – the key to making the change stick is cultural and behavioural shift – measure the impact of CRM with hard and soft metrics

Q&A Any Questions?