Crm in Higher Educatio

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HIGHER EDUCATION CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT (CRM): FOCUS ON STUDENTS
UDC

Milovic Boris
Faculty of Sports, Union – Nikola Tesla University
Abstract.In the work of higher education institutions there is a need for Customer
Relationship Management – CRM which will help to create and maintain relationships
with existing and potential students. The goal is to find, attract and create a positive
image of higher education institution in order to become respected in wide circles and
ultimately attract potential donors. Academic institutions increasingly perceive students
as users of their services. Implementation of CRM solutions in these institutions
enables them to create a strong relationships with students and other interested parties
(alumni, parents, staff, donors, etc.). The possibility of distance learning, web
development, electronic commerce, the emergence of a large number of different
faculties have contributed to the development and implementation of CRM project in
higher education. Perception of the students as customer provides a competitive
advantage for higher education and increases the capacity for educational institutions
to attract, retain and serve its customers.
Key words:customer relationship management; CRM; e-CRM; higher education; high
education institutions; online learning.

1.

INTRODUCTION

Events in today's economy, scientific and technological revolution and information era
create a complex environment that impose a constant necessity to maintain adjustment
and innovation in all areas of life. Education as the main driving force and the base of
every society requires special attention when it comes to adapting the concept of the
educational system, as well as continuous review of its efficiency and competitiveness.
CRM strategy of non-profit institutions at its core in the higher education sector
includes colleges, high schools and universities. The term CRM is implemented in the
operations of every institution in the higher education sector, but it is not recognized as
CRM strategy. Its role in this segment is to offer and to customize the behavior of the
institution on education market, since they affect the lives of people from local
communities, on the way of life, and particularly the status in society. Higher education
institutions are organizations focused on providing services and certain factors that are
part of the marketing activities are found. All institutions have: Product – offered courses
of study, schooling, multimedia classrooms, lessons in nature, sports associations; Service

– teaching, finding the company where they will perform professional practice (such as
additional services), library and information services, personal development programs;
customers (targeted group) – potential students;Cost – tuition, fees, etc..; distribution –
the place to transfer knowledge from teachers to students (can be physically in the
classroom, but today there is more and more online use of personal computer through
various portals for e-learning); competition – other colleges and universities that offer the
same or similar programs of study. In this case, higher education institutions could carry
out targeted marketing, which means that the institution has chosen one or more market
segments and developed a specific offer to meet the needs.
Higher education has expanded remarkably in recent decades. Growth is, by all
measures, fasterthan anticipated. Projections gave 120 million students worldwide by
2020, but that number hasalready been achieved (Daniel, Kanwar, & Uvalic-Trumbic,
2006).Over the past decade, growth in student enrollment in some European countries is
presented in the following table, showing a significant rate of increase in the number of
students:
Table 1: Student enrollment trends (Unesco Institute for Statistics, 2012)
Student enrollment trends in public and private universities in European
countries
Country
1999
2009
%
Austria
252,893.00
308,150.00
82,07
Belgium
351,788.00
425,219.00
82,73
Cyprus
10,842.00
30,986.00
34,99
Denmark
189,970.00
234,574.00
80,99
Finland
262,890.00
296,691.00
88,61
France
2,012,193.00
2,172,855.00
92,61
Iceland
8,462.00
16,919.00
50,01
Ireland
151,137.00
182,609.00
82,77
Israel
246,806.00
342,707.00
72,02
Italy
1,797,241.00
2,011,713.00
89,34
Malta
5,768.00
10,352.00
55,72
Netherlands
469,885.00
618,502.00
75,97
Norway
187,482.00
219,282.00
85,50
Portugal
356,790.00
373,002.00
95,65
Spain
1,786,778.00
1,800,834.00
99,22
Sweden
335,124.00
422,580.00
79,30
Switzerland
156,390.00
233,488.00
66,98
United Kingdom
2,080,960.00
2,415,222.00
86,16
Understanding the factors and circumstances that create a market environment is a
primary goal of modern-oriented higher education institutions in order to align the offer
with current demands and define the appropriate CRM strategy. CRM strategy

formulation process of higher education institutions, in addition to consideration of
existing services, represents identifying new opportunities, analyzing and positioning
with regard on the relevant competition. The need for change in marketing strategy and
market restructuring of higher education institutions appears as a natural consequence of
the economic system pulsing based on the dynamics of market needs and competition.
Effective marketing strategy should be built onmission, vision and values – purpose
and goals of the higher education institution need to be defined; financial analysis – it
needs to be determined what services and markets make money and which consume it;
portfolio analysis; reputation and image assessment; a relative SWOT analysis;
competitor evaluation; an appreciation of the regulatory and policy framework; market
needs/demand analysis and forecasting; understanding “consumer behavior” – how
choices are made; marketing evaluation (resources, competencies, integration, etc.);
feedback from current and recent users, members, students, clients, parents (ec.europa.eu,
2008).
Through the promotion of addressing the targeted segment with adopted CRM
strategy higher education institution convey messages about its programs, the possibility
of additional education, the acquisition of specific knowledge and it is transmitted by the
messengers of the institution,teaching staff, governing body (deans), and nothing less of a
role has other staff of the institution that can greatly affect the positive or negative image.
Higher education are faced nowadays with many challenges when it comes to CRM
implementation. Users of higher education have much higher expectations than they did
several years ago. Increased competition drives educational institutions that are leaders in
providing higher education to examine existing business practices in order to differentiate
themselves from others. The use of CRM is widespread in the corporate sector, although
higher education is far behind with CRM implementation.
CRM is an initiative that focuses on developing and coordinating a detailed review of
clients across business applications and business units of the organization (Nair, Chan, &
Fang, 2007). CRM provides easy integration of multiple business areas that are in contact
with the client – marketing, sales, customer service and support in the field – by
integrating people, processes and technology. Higher education sector is a large market
for CRM implementation. Providers of CRM solutions realize this fact and therefore
develop CRM solutions that can fit in all processes that work with the constituents in
higher education institutions.
Benefits of CRM have been at first applied by production companies (consumer
goods, durable consumer goods, industrial equipment, etc..) and at the end, the service
companies and organizations. It is important to note that in recent decades in developed
countries marketing has been applied in areas for which it was considered that its use was
not ethical (accounting, health care, law, education, architecture ...).
Successful CRM solution necessarily involves defining the strategy, identifying
process and executing the plan. The aim of such solution in the case of higher education
institutions is the maximization of established relationships with students through
rigorous monitoring and management of comprehensive interactions during the entire
duration of the student life cycle – from timid requests for information about faculty, to
alumni donor status.

Strength of CRM lies in its necessary foundation: strong database, network speed,
ERP (Enterprise resource planning) automation of back-office functions, acceptance of
the Internet, and communications technologies. CRM is a business strategy that
encompasses the entire organization and it is designed to optimize revenue and customer
satisfaction by organizing institution based on customer segments. Developing a CRM
system in higher education institutions is not always as easy transition as it is in the
business sphere. Therefore, CRM technologies, applications and processes require
adaptation to the distinct characteristics of the institution. This strategy can bring a
serious change in the existing organizational culture and behavior (Fayerman, 2002).
CRM infrastructure is consisted of four components, information, processes,
technology and people. Each of these four components is critical in delivering successful
CRM program (Virgiyanti, Bakar, & Tufail, 2010).
One of the biggest challenges for vendors of CRM solutions for the education sector
is the ability to develop solutions specific to the department level, where processes are
unique to individual departments, and also the ability to deliver solutions at the corporate
level so that information can be stored, resources shared and cooperation increased.
2.

THE NECESSITY OF DEVELOPING CRM IN THE RELATIONSHIPS OF EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS AND STUDENTS

Concept of CRM in higher education sector needs to be understood as a fundamental
strategic orientation of the entire university aiming at the increase of student satisfaction
and the creation of additional value for the students as well as for the university. The goal
is to bind students to the academy not only during their years of study but also after they
graduate (Hilbert, Schonbrunn, & Schmode, 2007). The main difference between profit
and nonprofit organizations and thus higher education institutions is that non-profit are
directed at various audiences which is less able to influence the fate of theirorganizations
compared to the profit ones. Attention of the non-profit organizations is focused on
service users and the ultimate goal is their satisfaction. Higher satisfaction scores explain
positive changes in referral behavior of students (Persson & Ryals, 2010).Process of
defining the targeted market and reviewing the factors that influence the customer
behavior is complex, and all this makesmarket segmentation and defining appropriate
strategy more difficult.In essence, the idea of many CRM initiatives is that value-based
segmentation is deployed with the customer base so as to identify and split out groups of
customers according to how much they are worth to the organization(Tapp, Hicks, &
Stone, 2004).Nowadays relationship between institutions and students is more complex
than ever.Expectations regarding student services, communication and technology,
combined with increased competition in the market of higher education sector brings
many challenges and opportunities for today's higher education institutions.Maintaining
this unique relationship with students, from the initial registration, enrollment and
graduation through alumni donations and financial status, is crucial to the success of these
institutions.High education institutions can no longer see their operations as separate and
independent.Today's constituents of higher education expect services across all academic,
administrative, social and alumni activities (oracle.com, 2008).Obsolete higher education
systems do not have much to offer students, especially new students who, with the help of

technology, want to be more in control of their environment for education.On the other
hand, in the new learning environment, faculty and student services are closely linked,
dynamically sharing resources and strategies to enable student learning (Lávanya, 2011).
Prerequisite of the satisfaction is that higher educational institution creates and
provides students with a greater value than the competition. This value is what makes
students choose to purchase and use products/services of particular higher education
institution. Every higher education institution seeks to provide customers with a
product/service that will bring them additionalvalue. In this way it differs from
competitors, and throughout the meeting of the needs of customer it can influence their
satisfaction and thus retain them. By understanding the elements that constitutes, i.e. give
satisfaction to the students, management of the higher education institution can "manage"
customer satisfaction.

Reliability
Pro4duct Quality

Situational Factors

Responsiveness
Assurance

Service Quality

Customer
Satisfaction

Empathy
Prices
Tangibles

Figure 1: Customer perception of service quality and customer satisfaction (Rostamy,
2009)
Of particular importance in higher education institutions is the use of social networks
on the Internet, that is to create high-quality profiles and communicate with potential and
existing students.In recent years social networks have evolved from those that provide
insight into several images to the real business platforms and a very powerful marketing
tool.They offer lots of content, allowing users to achieve communication with each other

Personal Factors

in a far more efficient and fun way.The fact that makes them powerful is the number of
users that is increasing indefinitely from day to day.Different profiles of users of social
networks with different interests will create their own groups within the network and thus
it will make it easier to find targeted group.Through a profile on social networks, higher
education institutions can look for potential students, invite interested parties to organized
events and carry out a complete marketing campaign.Higher education institution can
daily add new contents, video clips and articles about the school on its profile and thus
control the image of the school where there’s always something happening, that
cooperate, organize, monitor and take care of its students.The advantage of this method of
communication with the targeted group and the general public is also measurable, since
within a social network, it can be found out who is our "friend", how many we have, what
age they are, education level, their interests and similar information. Any educational
institution can afford its profile on social networks regardless of their budget.
Students require a high level of access to information about their options, performance
and their future. They also require that technological resources are an integral part of their
educational experience. Standards for access to High education institutions and student
services have changed as students want virtual access to resources of university and
student services. The old ways of interacting with students are becoming unsustainable –
as the expectation that students stand in line for hours while instead they can choose an
institution that can respond to their needs, with the appropriate layout, using virtual
support system (Grant & Anderson, 2002).
All institutions of higher education have a variety of stakeholders, and while each
institution must work to satisfy them, the stakeholder with the most influence is the
customer – the student (Seeman & O’Hara, 2006). Students are categorized as primary
beneficiaries of education and should therefore be viewed as customers (Yeo, 2008). The
most common understanding of service quality is its connection with the participation of
professors and students in relation with the certain level of professionalism/intimacy,
which directly affects the immediate and lifetime learning. In managing the student
participation in the education process, the quality of the experience as perceived by them
will depend on their values and expectations (Telford & Masson, 2005). The emphasis on
continuous improvement is the key for sustainability of quality services.
Seen from the perspective of CRM, the concept of student life cycle can be divided
into phases that students go through when considering and using the services of
educational institutions. Phases through which the student passes during its life cycle are
as follows (Nair, Chan, & Fang, 2007):







Prospect – a student who could be a potential candidate for the school
Candidate – a potential student who is in the process of gathering information and
forming an opinion on school
Applicant – a student who decided to enroll in the institution
Accepted student – a student whom the school has decided to accept
Enrolled student – a stage where student becomes part of an institution
Alumni – at this stage, students are satisfied with their academic experience
creating long-term loyalty to their school.

Higher education institutions appear to be extremely concerned about their standing
and image in the marketplace. To this end, their ‘name’ or reputation often underpins their
existence (Beneke, BusSc, & BusSc, January 2011). School reputation is very important
when choosing a faculty in which student wishes to enroll. Higher education brand image
is visibility and reputation of colleges and universities formed in the long-term
development. Higher education brand image is an important indicator in student
recruitment, teacher recruitment and obtaining employment for students (Liu, Duan, &
Li, 2010). CRM solutions for higher education need to create an awareness among
potential faculty candidates through segmentation and tailored personalized messaging.
High education institutions must step into the lives of potential students in the early
stages of their planning for higher education. With this personalized content, higher
education institutions can enable the creation of relationships with students even before
the student enters school. They must share the elements that prospective students can use
in order to identify an appropriate program and institution that offers it. The importance
of using authentic resources and benefits of gathering information from current students,
alumni, and advisors available at the facility must be emphasized. Prospective students
must be informed of how and why personal ability, interest and resources should be
evaluated before selecting a program, regardless of its popularity and the prospectus.
Details of how the program is accepted in the industry, government and other institutions
must be divided. Students must be informed in order to analyze the prospectus of the
program in terms of business opportunities, further study, and also their entrepreneurial
and professional content. Such analysis should be a factor in the time for which the
student expects to complete the program. Above all, the strength of the program to
support alternative routes, if unexpected situations close all opportunities when a student
graduates, must be examined. It may also be useful to share the details of similar
programs provided by other institutions. High education institutions must provide to
students all the tools necessary to investigate, analyze and make informed decisions.
Whenevernecessary, marketing departments can include academic staff, students, alumni,
and members from the industry and the career counselors and academic advisors
(Ramachandran, 2010). All these efforts will minimize the problems that managers of
higher education institutions and students are facingbased on the lack of information,
deferred counseling, and career counseling. Students who participate in student
organizations and leadership development events tend to believe or realize that leadership
skills may help them secure a job in the future, more so than those who do not participate.
That might be an incentive strong enough for them to participate(Clark, Backhaus, Tsai,
& Erdinc, 2010).
Once the student enters college, the challenge is to be kept there. Retention activity is
normally directed to the traditional comprehensive programs, counseling and activities
aimed at students. The number of programs for managing enrollment that advertise the
institution are growing and their efforts are paying off(Seeman & O’Hara, 2006). By
analogy, academic institutions are increasingly perceiving students as the users of their
services. Implementation of CRM solutions in these institutions enables them to create
strong relationships with students and other stakeholders (alumni, parents, staff, donors,
etc.) (Milošević, 2006).
There are potential three types of student users in the context of higher education,
right, wrong and risky right users (Virgiyanti, Bakar, & Tufail, 2010). The right users

provide long-term returns for the organization in the form of alumni donations, which can
persist for years after graduation. Wrong users are those who do not offer this type of
long-term revenue but also they are inadequate because of the critical features of
academic preparation and benefits they are seeking from higher education. Wrong users
have the ability to drive away high-risk right users. Right users must be retained, wrong
users must be allowed to drop out and risky right users must be recovered. Strategies
must be set to their proper placeso that institution can achieve its competitive goals and
long-term profitability. Institutions need to timely detect high-risk students to prevent
them to transfer to another institution or to prevent them to drop out. CRM has to identify
risk factors so that teachers can intervene in time to encourage students to continue their
education at the institution.Withdrawals from the university can take place at any stage in
the institution-student relationship. Once the relationship has broken down, the likelihood
of de-registration and formal withdrawal is high. Universities and colleges need to
manage each of the stages in the relationship life cycle, even though the service staff at
each stage may be different. A whole college and coherent strategy of retention is
necessary. In addition, retention strategies need to embrace all stages in the life cycle of
student(Rowley, 2003).
Student loyalty after graduation is different from a simple customer loyalty to the
product. It includes activities such as providing students with information regarding
employment, providing practices for current students, holding a reception for prospective
students to talk about the institution, maintaining contact with other students who
completed their education, helping in fundraising for the school, attending alumni
meetings, and other related activities (Ehigie, 2009). It is important that school stays in
touch with former students because they can engage in activities that will help promote
the image of the school. Student loyalty after graduation depends on the efficiency of
managing the expectations of student performance, service and satisfaction with the
services they received as students. Based on student satisfaction for the time spent at
university their future loyalty to the university can be predicted. The school must provide
appropriate services to students so the loyalty may remain even after graduation.
Consideration of the school needs to go in the direction of academic and social services,
because both areas are very important for student loyalty after graduation.
CRM business strategy is intended to provide support to students during the
recruitment and enrollment. Marketing and management processes and applications can
provide support and recruitment for enrollment and fundraising. The institution may
target specific groups, using data analysis to determine which potential candidate would
be likely to sign up. Personalized mails campaigns are run using e-mail and traditional
mail. With each e-mail, the potential candidate would receive a personal identification
code to access the university. To all candidates who do not respond in any way (Internet,
e-mail, phone, fax, etc.) would again have been accompanying e-mail message (Grant &
Anderson, 2002).
CRM for administrative systems of High education institutions also provide true selfmaintaining system that encourages an administrative team to review the investment of
administrative resources in institutional services.Transferringresponsibility for the
information to students and faculty members, and encouraging them to complete the
relevant processes and secure access to vital information, administrators can focus on

more productive, rewarding, and satisfying activities – such as making personal
connections with students and helping them make plans for the future(Grant & Anderson,
2002).
Approach of the staff in managing relationships with students is a key factor for the
success of CRM. During the implementation of CRM and innovation strategy of
institutions must be reviewed and adapted in such a way that is really user friendly.
However, this change may result in changes in the role of many employees. Business
processes and organizational structures are setting the behavior of employees, but all the
rules cannot be set. To be successful in changing staff roles, management of the
institution must develop and clarify the vision of that change to employeesalong with
clear rules, which employees can accept and identify with. They need to collect financial
and personal resources, to make appropriate action plans and in the end, which is very
important, to provide the knowledge necessary for these changes and to build motivation
and evaluation systems. Managers will always play a key role in managing of the change
in CRM (Vlčkova & Bednarikova, 2007). Administrative staff whose job is to perform
contacts with students must be composed of employees who are oriented towards
relationships, who must seek to assist and care with the ability to observe the situation
from the student’s point of view. Their work is dependent on the flexible support of
computer technology, with which they are able to do their job effectively. The institution
must provide the new staff supplementary courses, retraining, or to adapt them based on
specialty and organizational mechanisms. Taking into account the constantly changing
demands for knowledge and capabilities of man in modern society, the current staff also
needs to upgrade their knowledge and skills to be able to respond tothe new challenges
that their job is bringing. Competitive advantage is based on creating and maintaining
relationships with valuable customers by providing high quality services, whose quality is
associated with the work of staff, which has a strong correlation with their educational
level, knowledge, skills and motivation. Trained staff creates value for both the company
and users.
3.

THE CONDITIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CRM IN HIGHER EDUCATION

High education institutions should take into account all, including current, former,
prospective students, parents, faculty staff, government organizations, vendors, corporate
sponsors and the entire community. These users can be grouped into three categories:
consumers, business users and internal users. Each user group has to interact with
different functional areas of a college or university. Knowing the user's interest, identified
through historical records, can enhance all interactions and overall relationships that
higher education institutions has with its customers. Conversion of historical information
into the user's knowledge can be useful for customers as well as higher education
institutions. A set of processes and technologies that can together convert customer
information into user knowledge is in fact customer relationship management CRM.
Technical innovations have made CRM a reliable, affordable and implementable
technology (Fayerman, 2002).The rapid development of CRM system, as pointed out is
related to the development of information communication technology and the Internet.

In order to support the goals of student-centered education, student information
systems must have the improved application process that allows anytime, anywhere
registration with date based settings in order to support both traditional and distributed
learning opportunities. Access to student services should be provided so that students can
access and update their information without assistance or services of the staff unless a
problem arises. In addition, comprehensive monitoring of date keeps all the historic and
status changes of student records accessible over the Internet. All interactions are
immediately stored in the database and in the appropriate process. Information about
students and employees should be accessible to all CRM functions with appropriate
protection (Seeman & O’Hara, 2006). With the elimination of multiple databases and the
resulting double records, overview of students is no longer distributed throughout the
organization. Instead, the student data are put into one place in a single system. This data
integration increases coordination among functional areas and synchronizes processes,
and therefore improves customer service. Information about all colleges can be collected
and stored in one central data warehouse. This central repository enables retrieval of data
and reporting for analytical purposes such as data mining and for operational tasks such
as planning and registration. All systems use electronic forms instead of paperwork that
must be carried or sent between departments.
Departments and offices operate as separate entities in many High education
institutions today. Faced with the limitations in this distribution, it is very difficult for
these different institutional functions to focus on their customers in a coordinated manner.
By providing a common platform for customer communication and interaction, CRM
solutions are designed to eliminate organizational barriers that hinder proactive customer
interaction. CRM applications are also designed to increase efficiency of staff members
who interact with students and potential candidates. The use of CRM applications can
lead to improved responsiveness to customer requirements and a comprehensive
overview of the entire student lifecycle. CRM solutions that are tied directly into the ERP
system are especially powerful because the institution can meet the needs of users
through a closed series of well-defined steps and processes. Given that CRM applications
provide a framework for creating, promoting and executing best practices in customeroriented activities, ERP provides support, resources and operational applications in order
to make the organization more effective in achieving these goals (Grant & Anderson,
2002).
Satisfaction with faculty programs and services is a critical measure of performance.
CRM can play a significant role here. Many students perceive the administrative
activities as a "necessary evil", and therefore information system, with improved CRM
initiative that provides a personalized approach for rapid completion of these activities,
can be a strong incentive to choose a particular institution (Seeman & O’Hara, 2006).
Adoption of CRM systems is coherent in those organizations that practiceuser-focused
approach. The ultimate goal that is pursued by organizations that use such systems is to
provide customers with additional value based on personalized understanding of their
preferences (Daradoumis, Rodríguez-Ardura, Faulin, Juan, Xhafa, & Martínez-López,
2010). A successful CRM strategy must include the effective use of technology, data
integration, such as knowledge management, data warehousing, sophisticated channel
systems for the delivery and analytics. A key element of CRM strategy involves the
architecture of customer information that enables accurate and integrated customer

information. The best approach is to develop a customer data warehouse, and delivery
channels such as tools for campaign management and customer service applications.
Collaborative architecture provides a single point contacts through the organizational
portals and analytical systems that allow decision makers to analyze customer
information (Fayerman, 2002).
4.

THE BENEFITS OF USING CRM IN CONTEMPORARY HIGHER EDUCATION

Academic institutions have far less problems in terms of computer literacy of their
customers than companies that work with the public, so therefore it doesn’t surprise quick
adopting of CRM concept and endeavor to make a concept of preparation and conducting
the teachings more appropriate to the moment and state of the facts. In this sense there is
the recommendation to definitely consider implementing the following activities:






Working to create opportunities to hear the voice of students and respond to it
appropriately throughout the lifetime of the student. This includes the concept of
continuing education, which automatically extends the life of a student/alumni in
the life of a person;
The creation of the overall "look" to the student regardless of the access channels
to collect customer information. The information provided would then have to be
available to the relevant departments;
Proliferation of access channels is necessary – primarily based on the Internet, it
has to promote awareness towards the implementation of individualized portals;
Collecting mentioned information must be used to create reports and conducting
the analysis for the timely spotting of trendsand taking appropriate steps.

The management of higher education institutions should view the managing
relationships with students (CRM) as a key business process. CRM differs from
traditional customer service because it represents a systematic approach to developing
organizational structures and inter-unit processes, while customer service is typically
based on transactional approaches and approaches related to specific events. CRM directs
the functional areas of support, customer service, planning, marketing and strategic
management of accounts. It involves effective coordination and communication between
these functional areas, with the clarity of purpose focused on customer needs (Conant,
2003). While customer service focuses on delivery and support of specific products and
services, customer relationship management is trying to understand how users actually
use the products and services and how to measure the resulting outcomes. Customer
relationship management is associated with the satisfying, measuring and improving
business processes (Milović, 2013).
On the one hand, CRM provides the High education institutions a clear and complete
picture of each individual student and all the activities the student performs within the
institution, on the other hand, CRM allows students to carry out interactions with the
university as a separate entity by providing a clear understanding of its status within the
organization. For students this includes information on enrollment, registration, financial
aid, student accounts and accommodation. Another application of CRM in the High
education institutions is in the educational advancement. CRM enhances the interaction

with alumni and donors at all stages and fund-raising activities, and improves
relationships with alumni with application of customized and targeted information
towards users through the appropriate contact mechanisms (Fayerman, 2002). Benefits of
CRM application in the educational progress are increased campaign efficiency and
intermediation, increased average amount of donations, increased user satisfaction,
reduced costs of campaigns, and increased alumni participation.
CRM technological tools available in the field of education make possible to exploit
the potential of databases, data mining systems and interaction technologies with the aim
to collect and store large amounts of information about the characteristics and behaviors
of students, and to create knowledge about them that would be made available to teachers
so that they can more effectively contribute to the educational process of students.
However, conventional technologies are limited to collecting and analyzing information
about student behavior and virtual environment; especially when students work together
in carrying out educational activities (Daradoumis, Rodríguez-Ardura, Faulin, Juan,
Xhafa, & Martínez-López, 2010).
CRM brings the following advantages to higher education institutions (Milošević,
2006):







Faster access to information;
The existence of quality data;
Better attraction of potential students;
Better informed students;
A higher level of student retention;
Improved management of resources.

CRM system for higher education institutions allows users to consolidate the list of
students and alumni in a central database. This includes e-mail marketing tools that
monitor responses and calculate return on investment. Student’s questions can be
monitored and can immediately respond to them. Tools for event management can
manage invitations and reminders. Options of retention and improvement facilitate a
long-term relationship with students through integrated student information systems and
systems management courses. The control panel will allow users to view reports and
analysis ofenrolment and campaign results and other data (5 Best CRM for Higher
Education, 2011).
Management of the relationship may be a key strategy for coping with the challenges
unique to higher education institutions, like usually politicized environment, a strong
emphasis on building consensus, problems with funding and budget and individual or
faculty power of veto. Significant changes in the expectations of incoming students also
contribute to the importance of relationship management strategies. Customer
relationship management is a holistic, integrated approach which is applied across the
organization to manage customer relationships in relation to time. Often, it requires a
dramatic change in IT management. Nature of relationship management in IT today and
its significance for higher educational environment provides a framework for
understanding how its successful execution can dramatically improve the way the user
sees IT. Relationship management strategy helps to match IT resources to the

requirements of the organization, and it can help to mitigate the usual criticisms of IT
such as (Conant, 2003):






Lack of responses to academic and business needs;
Inefficient usage of IT resources;
Inability to effectively and quickly develop a new technology;
System silos organized around business units and technology;
Poor communication between IT and institutional constituents – faculty,
administration and students.

Whether the management of relationships is managed by dedicated account managers
or it is integrated into the role and responsibility of existing staff, a number of key
performance indicators predict the likelihood of successful execution. Relationship
management strategy should have characteristics such as executive management
commitment, a commitment to building relationships with customers and business
partners, responsibilities, agreement on the definition of success, the process performance
indicators (which include financial performance, process performance, customer
satisfaction and employee satisfaction), relationship managers with expertise in business
processes and knowledge of the systems that support their clients, a clear understanding
of technology, the credibility of managers who manage with relationships and the IT of
the organization, relationship management objectives should be included in the overall
strategic plan.
Student directed marketing units in higher education generally focus more on
responding to the needs of students rather than on identifying strategies to sell their own
products. Considering their great commitment to the community, marketing managers
also involve themselves in a developing of the market that is strong and accept or reject
the higher education services available to them. Interestingly, beside group of interested
academic staff, the marketing unit is the only team that has an easy and early access to
internal and external information about the various developments in the higher education
sector, particularly with regard towards new products and anticipated changes in the
various higher education institutions. Marketing teams also carry out the necessary
checks to ensure that the higher education products have appropriate quality. They
communicate with academic staff to understand the structure of the various programs,
their main goals, and job opportunities, and analyze how they are ranked in comparison
with similar programs offered by other institutions. Likewise, the academic staff also
joins the marketing team to provide details that may be useful for potential students
(Ramachandran, 2010).
The most frequently met type of marketing activity that universities conduct is strong
promotion and communication towards potential applicants related to increasing
recruitment and admission. However, marketing specific actions should not stop here, the
essence of satisfying the consumer (the student as primary consumer) is to offer him
quality services (educational and support services). Therefore providing good student
experience plays a major role in ensuring student satisfaction (Nicolescu, 2009).
CRM provides a new conceptual and structural framework for the management of
institutional activities in order to win over and retain customers. The following are ways

in which all users of institutions can benefit from increased access to information and
services (Grant & Anderson, 2002):






Students, alumni, faculty members and staff can access and update information
from any device with Internet anywhere in the world;
The evolution of "point-to-point" integration between applications and databases
which includes a facility with an integrated library of business rules and
workflow processes will blur the differences between students, finance, alumni,
and human resource systems;
The need for the customer base becomes the focus rather than strict procedural
structure that is the focus of the present systems;
Administrative systems are seamlessly integrated with instructional computing
and communication systems.

CRM solution enables higher education organizationsitmanage the complete lifecycle
of the student, from winning over candidate to the alumni management through learning
centers. Better understanding of the needs of candidates and a significant increase in the
rates of winning over the students is another of the benefits of CRM system, as well as
the automated management of marketing campaigns, allowing optimization and increased
efficiency in communication and less time for attracting students. Allowing enhanced
process efficiency and substantial savings, CRM solution for higher education enables to
academic institutions to achieve enrollment quota, retention and advancement goals by
building a strong relationship with the student community and stakeholders throughout
the institution.
One of the key questions that need to be addressed in any CRM process that aims to
obtain successful results is the question of monitoring and evaluation of customer
performance in order to know the proper way to address and, if necessary, specific actions
to improve.
5.

CONCLUSION

Customer relationship management creates the perfect relationship between the seller
and the buyers - between the school and its students.In a dynamic and competitive
environment, the future success of educational institutions is based on the ability to
differentiate themselves from competitors and build up a significant relationship not only
with current students, but also with potential. To achieve this, one must use the full
potential of the internal systems through the integration and use of CRM that provides
easy access to the disseminated information from all types of databases and resources,
while maintaining the necessary high quality of services provided to students (Virgiyanti,
Bakar, & Tufail, 2010). Improving the reputation of the faculty with potential students,
increasing the rate of registration and enrollment, and increasing student satisfaction, are
only one part of a comprehensive CRM solution. This solution must also provide reduced
costs while also maximizing revenue. CRM for higher education sector should be
possible to achieve these goals and also to develop valuable relationships with students
throughout their life cycle.

Higher education products are highly intangible and have characteristics that limit the
application of marketing framework (Ramachandran, 2010). Emerging CRM processes
and technology will manage the growth of new types of resources and services. Within
higher education organizations, the majority of these new features will be on focused in
CRM. This new level of student-related features and performance will have an impact on
students and the administrative staff and management, faculty, and institutions as a whole
(Grant & Anderson, 2002). For the High education institutions, this means increased
revenue through improved recruitment and retention, reduced recruitment costs,
improved customer service, fasterstudents winning over, increased student satisfaction.
Business of higher education should be focused on the people it serves, and not on
administrative systems. While CRM efforts are often very demanding, the benefitsthat are
eventually obtained are impressive.
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UPRAVLJANJE ODNOSIMA SA KORISNICIMA U VISOKO
OBRAZOVNIM USTANOVAMA: FOKUS NA STUDENTA
Abstakt.U radu visokoškolskih insitucija postoji potreba za Customer Relationship
Managementom – CRM (Upravljanje odnosima sa krisnicima/studentima) koji će
pomoći da se stvore i održavaju odnosi sa postojećim i potencijalnim studentima. Cilj
je da se pronađu studenti , privuku i stvori pozitivna slika o visokobrazovnoj isntituciji
kako bi ona poslatla poštovana u širokim krugovima i na kraju mogla privući
potencijalne donatore. Viskoobrazovne institucije sve više doživljavaju studenta kao
korisnika njihovih usluga. Implementacija CRM rešenja u ovim ustanovama
omogućava im da stvori jake veze sa studentima i drugim zainteresovanim stranama
(alumni, roditelja, zaposlenih , donatora , itd ).Mogućnost učenja na daljinu, veb
razvoj, elektronska trgovina, pojava velikog broja različitih fakulteta su doprineli
razvoju i implementaciji CRM projekta u visokom obrazovanju. Percepcija studenata
kao kupca odnosno korisnika usluge može obezbediti konkurentsku prednost za
visokoobrazovanu insituciju i povećava njene mogućnosti da privuče, zadrži i pruži
potrebnu uslugu studentima.
Ključne reči:upravljanje odnosima sa klijentima; CRM, e - CRM; visoko
obrazovanje ; visoke obrazovne institucije ; onlajn učenje.

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