Campus “one-stop shops” are getting an upgrade, thanks to potent customer relationship management (CRM) technology that’s being used to improve student services. For instance, at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, 20 university offices – from student life to enrollment, financial aid and advising –are now being delivered via a single, coordinated approach, reported Inside Higher Ed. The system is called One-Stop Student Services and offers services such as a customized, interactive advising experience where academic advisors can view student profiles via a case management system and track their progress and goals. “Coming out of the pandemic, we are finding [students] like to have these self-service tools,” said Melissa Stone, vice provost for enrollment management at Dearborn.
While the newer one-stop shop models differ from school to school, they often feature a student portal and a web services portal with links customized to a specific student’s profile, according to Laura Gogia, research director for learning technologies and student success at the Tambellini Group, an independent technology research and advisory firm focused on higher education. She likens them to medical systems. “The CRM is the equivalent of an electronic health record for that student,” she said.
These one-stop shops also include walk-up kiosks, in many cases. “For students, it’s trying to reduce the silos that tend to exist so the student just has to go to one place to get their information and not say, ‘Who do I go to for this?’” Stone said.
A challenge the team at Dearborn faced was determining how to agree upon and integrate new ways of doing things. “You had to come together and step back and think from a student lens to come up with more comprehensive procedures… instead of this college doing it this way and this one doing it that way,” she said. “People had to be willing to step back and reach consensus for the common good.”
Find out about other institutions using CRM systems to provide more comprehensive student services here.
