By David Cooper, Senior Vice President, CMD Outsourcing Solutions, Inc.

Today, many schools are struggling to meet the administrative needs of their students, who are calling, e-mailing or perhaps standing in line, with questions for key departments. Financial Aid, Bursar, Admissions, Registration and even Housing often find it difficult to respond to students’ problems or questions throughout the year -- particularly during peak processing times.

This “barrage” of inquiries often results in poor customer service, frustrated students, processing delays and ultimately, lower student retention rates. Processing delays in areas such as Financial Aid and the Bursar’s office negatively impact cash flowing into an institution, not to mention causing anxiety for students who are wondering how they can pay their bills.

What should you do? Adding staff is expensive -- not only does it increase your base budget for salaries, technology and facilities, it also adds to the burden of recruiting, hiring and training, as well as managing employee turnover.

Is outsourcing the answer?

Outsourcing student communication through a reliable company with expertise in higher education administrative areas may be an option to consider. While not a panacea for all of an institution’s service problems, outsourcing can be an effective means of improving service levels and freeing up resources to provide much needed administrative relief.

Through outsourcing, schools which may have struggled to answer e-mail, phone calls or web inquiries can see dramatic improvement in customer service levels. This support is provided behind the scenes and in the school’s name by an outsourcing partner, making the process completely seamless to the student or parent.

Benefits of outsourcing

Schools that outsource student communication benefit from:

Greatly improved service levels with variable rather than fixed costs. This means you pay more during busy times and less during slow periods.
An attractive financial and operational alternative to constantly hiring and training staff.
Customized reporting to understand why students are contacting you and how to address these issues to eliminate or reduce future inquiries.
Access to new technologies such as live chat and interactive web videos. In addition, you’ll gain access to other innovative ideas that will improve service at your institution year after year.
Does it cost too much?

When you fully consider all costs such as salaries and benefits, training and managing staff, employee turnover, facilities, telephony and other technology, outsourcing becomes an attractive financial and operational alternative. It’s almost a certainty that if you try and match the service levels achievable through outsourcing by using internal resources, it will cost you more.

For more information on how outsourcing could help your institution, contact David Cooper at CMD Outsourcing Solutions, Inc. 888-817-7575, x254 or dcooper@cmdosi.com.