Recruiting Intelligence

For all those students of economics, yes PPP can stand for purchasing power parity, but I would like to use PPP as President and Parent Perspective. Why do I want to talk about that perspective? 

We've been having a great time this spring at Intead. Not only are we hard at work creating great content for our blogs, Insights, inSession eCourse series and conference presentations, we have also had one of our employees serve as an undercover mystery shopper. If you are unfamiliar with the concept this is a frequently used method in the retail industry to explore how a business operates when secretly examined. We had our employee pose as a prospective undergraduate from China. He sent an email through a QQ account requesting information from 30 institutions in the US, Canada and Australia-- popular destinations for Chinese international students. He asked about admission requirements for Fall 2014 and he requested information in Chinese to share with his parents. We were curious about the response rate from institutions as well as the information they would provide our mystery shopper. The data gleaned from our mystery shopper experiment was quite fascinating.

Universities are looking for future revenue streams. Couldn't universities invest in the future of their students and secure their own future? How would that work? 

It's like a sea of alphabet soup. NAFSA, NACAC, OACAC, ICEF, AIEA, AAIE, EAIE, EIEIO...the list goes on and on. (And of course we are kidding about that last one!) What is a new international admission, advising or services professional to do when encountering this vast array of professional organizations? While all of these organizations are reputable, educational, and professionally minded, it would behoove you to spend some time researching where your interests and skill set would be best met. It will be impossible (and cost prohibitive) to join every organization that exists. Yet with some research you will be able to discover which organizations will best advance your career and expose you to the most relevant research and professional discourse.

How important is response time and turn-around time for your success in international student enrollment?   Let me tell you why I am thinking of response time in marketing. I had two recent experiences that made me focus on the topic.  During a side conversation at a conference with the owner of a for-profit college, he mentioned that they follow up with a phone call within seven minutes of a registration on their web site (almost 24-7). Wow.  Then I needed a garage door repair, signed up on a website for recommendations for repair companies and received three recommendations to fix our garage door problem.  While I picked up the phone, the first repair person from that recommendation list called me.  The follow up happened within 30 seconds.  AMAZING. 

Sometimes I try to imagine what it was like before I could Google everything I ever wanted to know. It's hard to believe that such a time existed considering our reliance on internet searches. I Google restaurants, maps, colleagues, stores, toys for my children. You name it, I've Googled it. And you can be sure if I'm traveling I conduct a series of Google searches. If I'm heading out of the country Google is my best resource for information. Google images takes it to the next level with pages of images to accompany any search I can imagine. 

You are reading an excerpt from our e-book "88 Ways to Recruit International Students" (Click here to read the entire book) 

41. Overseas recruiting offices

You are reading an excerpt from our e-book "88 Ways to Recruit International Students" (Click here to read the entire book)