The strategy of using surveys for lead generation has been around for a long time. Years ago, people actually wanted to participate in surveys so you could use them to collect lead data and then sell things to them. However, people caught on and over time, stopped doing surveys from unsolicited sources.
Surveys can still be a great source of leads if done well. Take, for instance, generating Charter School and Private School leads. Enrollment is critical for these schools as their revenue is per student, and not based on levies and other sources. Word of Mouth is critical to get students in the door.
Surveys can be used to boost word of mouth, and increase enrollment.
Increase Student Enrollment with Surveys
To use surveys to increase student enrollment in a school, you need to survey the parents of younger students or directly survey the older students. This must be done very regularly, and ask meaningful questions about their experience with the school. And one question, that they should see at least once a month, is “Do you know anyone who would be a good fit at our school?”
By asking something like this at least once a month, you can stay top of mind. They might have a conversation with a friend where that person expresses dissatisfaction with their current school, and when they see the survey question, they will remember it and say yes. Then your enrollment person just needs to follow up, get the info and reach out.
Likewise, frequent surveys to parents can let you know trends, and parents who are not happy over time might not return their children to your school. It is said that that it is 10 times easier to keep a customer than to find a new customer. If you know people are not thrilled, you can be working to find out why and rectify the problem. Increasing enrollment is a combination of improving student retention and attracting new students. Surveys can be used for both of these efforts to improve enrollment in any type of school.
Survey Tools for Schools
While a common tool for schools to do surveys is Survey Monkey or Google Docs, these are not ideal for a couple of reasons. They are more of a heavy, standard survey that might get answered occasionally, but not weekly or even multiple times per week. They also are not built for tracking trends over time, and across schools.
Outstanda is a tool that uses texting (SMS) to connect with people and they can click on their phone and do surveys in under 30 seconds very easily. This allows a school to frequently take a sample of their students’ and parents’ feelings and concerns. It also gives administrators a chance to generate those referrals that can improve school enrollment.
Probably the biggest issue is that you are not trying to use surveys to generate school leads. You are using surveys to improve your school and aid your students. Boosting enrollment is a bonus when you are doing a great job at that stuff.