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7 Tips For Choosing The Perfect CRM For Your Admission Needs in 2021

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7 Tips For Choosing The Perfect CRM For Your Admission Needs in 2021

For those of us who are still trying to grapple with the enormity of a CRM system’s power and reach in securing admissions in today’s digitalised era, it would be unnerving, to say the least, to navigate through the plethora of Customer Relationship Management tools available online, in an effort to choose one that’s perfect for your institute. And with the onset of the admission season, it becomes even more imperative for institutes now to streamline their communication process among the counsellors and recruitment team, in order to gain the maximum ROI on admissions. Here, we offer you 7 wonderful tips that’s guaranteed to make your search for the ideal CRM system easier – well in time before the admission buzz kicks off for 2021!

  1. Identify your Institute’s Needs :- An ideal CRM tool is one that helps you engage with your customers in a timely and appropriate fashion, while encompassing key business processes such as admissions, communication and operations within its software. However, before implementing a CRM system within your institute, it is necessary to first establish the objectives of your organisation, so that you can choose an option that caters to your specific business needs. You need to choose a CRM system that offers customised solutions to the specific issues you are facing, rather than several generalised ones. You also need to keep in mind whether you require a CRM system only to enhance the institute’s communication channel with the existing student body, or to strategically increase your student count across your centres.
  2. Go with a User-Friendly CRM :- If you don’t pay attention to the specific features offered by the CRM system you purchase, your whole effort might turn out to be counter-productive. Check for a CRM technology that specifically answers your admission needs – is your institute only looking to marginally increase the existing student count, or are you looking to improve admission count across all your centres and batches? An ideal CRM tool should be capable of automating your recruitment process, and organising leads’ data in a convenient way that helps you manage communication with those leads, throughout their admission journey. Invest in one that is easy to use, as well as to train your staff on. Make sure it has easy-to-find tabs or icons, a fuss-free dashboard, as well as a search bar to help you locate different fields or tools.
  3. Choose a Reputed Vendor :- The reliability of the company offering you a CRM system is just as important as the tool’s quality. Your ideal CRM vendor should be able to provide you with optimal solutions that can augment your team’s student admission efforts, thus helping you streamline communications, organise data and create factual reports on the leads generated and subsequent follow ups. Look for vendors who can boast of a good market presence, and try to check with their existing clients whether they provide round the clock support and guidance, not only while implementing the software, but also in terms of providing necessary training, as well as in offering to resolve technical issues in the long run.
  4. Go for one that is Scalable :- It would be a good idea to check for reviews from other institutes on whether the CRM system you are planning to purchase was designed to scale or not. Find out how long have they been using the tool, and whether the vendor was able to adapt the technology in line with the exponential growth of their school/college. It is important to ensure that as more and more of your staff, students and/or branch members start accessing the purchased software, it should not crash, hang or in any way become unusable or redundant. Invest in a CRM that’s both dynamic and scalable – capable of meeting your growing business needs down the years.
  5. Always request for a Demo :- A demonstration of the CRM you intend to purchase will help resolve all the doubts clouding your mind – be it about the CRM’s features, reliability, or overall usefulness. The vendor may be able to allay your fears by lucidly explaining which functions specific to your institute could be customised before purchase, how easily can the staff be trained to use the tool, and how capable it would be in adapting to your institute and its environment. He may also be able to share the benefits of their years of industry experience with you, and guide you on how to use their CRM system to its fullest potential.
  6. Go for one that requires Low Maintenance :- A good quality CRM system is often the result of years of dedicated work by a team of seasoned professionals. They are capable of seamlessly integrating admission records, lead conversions, marketing strategies and inter departmental communication, all under a single streamlined tool. It is more likely to be consistent in its usability, adaptability and design, which not only increases your admission team’s productivity, but also makes it a cost-effective solution in the long run. Therefore, it’s imperative to choose a well-designed CRM software that not only has relevant features, but is less likely to develop bugs or glitches while in use, regardless of the number of years you need to utilise it.
  7. Check for a CRM with regular updates and upgrades :- A CRM system that has a demonstrated history of regular updates as well as upgrades happening is always recommended. Regular upgrades suggest that the tool has evolved according to market demands, and offer clear proof that the CRM provider conducts technical upgrades and compliance requirements much required for the education sector. Regular updates and upgrades also demonstrate the sincere intentions of the architects and developers involved, to keep improving upon the CRM system.

To sum it up, adopting a reputed and reliable CRM software need not necessarily be a cause for stress – rather, armed with these tips, you can be sure of making an informed decision – one that can not only aid your communication strategies, augment admission campaigns and improve your ROI and overall business profitability, but can also help your institute achieve a very high level of customer satisfaction!

TECHNOLOGY IN TIMES OF COVID – and how it helps in boosting education

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— VANDANA DEVI SREEJITH

A classroom in 1991:- The teacher walks into the classroom with an armful of books. She greets the class and turns to write on the blackboard. Her students, meanwhile, spend most of their time rummaging through endless books and stationery, trying to find the right ones while half listening to their teacher’s words.

Fast forward to 2020:- The Covid pandemic has hit humanity worldwide. People remain closeted in their homes, hugging on to their lives while shops and schools remain shut. The tech savvy generation that they are, kids happily play on their parents’ gadgets with scant regard for what’s happening outside, while parents and teachers alike fret over the waste of their child’s valuable academic year.

Enter Online Education. A special kind of technology based learning methodology that answers parents’ prayers while alleviating the woes of educators to a great extent. A solution that is a definite win-win for everyone involved, as it is easier to keep the attention of a kid focused on a gadget than on a blackboard. Technology offers unprecedented solutions, and hitherto unexplored avenues to enhance the learning experience, not only for students but also for schools and teachers alike. While animation videos and graphics can be effectively used to teach challenging concepts to smaller children, college going students can benefit from explanatory videos that instruct them thoroughly without the need for a mediator. Technology helps everyone follow the norms of social distancing well by converting face to face classroom interaction to online lectures on video-based digital platforms. Such learning becomes more personalized, as students are now able to tune out distractions that are common in classrooms, learn at their own pace by replaying videos or lectures as and when necessary, and are free from peer pressure to perform well in front of others, thereby bringing back a sense of calm and genuine curiosity to learning.

 

Learning Management Systems developed by experts such as AGAM are now being touted as a one stop solution for schools and colleges alike. Priced reasonably for their end users, it offers customized software that can not only help institutes in tracking admissions, managing fees and monitoring daily attendance, but can also support educators in devising lesson plans, scheduling examinations and handling the daily work flow. It brings a host of benefits over traditional methods of teaching, as LMS based models can ensure more transparency in the parent-school interaction, and facilitate a student guided approach to teaching, that focusses on allowing students to understand concepts deeply, while moving through the pre-designed curriculum at a faster pace.

 

The biggest benefit, however, is how the world of teaching has transformed into one big platform overnight since the advent of the pandemic. Regardless of subject or region, teachers all over the world have taken to conducting classes online, while continuing to interact personally with their students. While teachers enjoy the benefits of teaching across borders or instructing the wards of their competitors, students now have access to a wider range of specialists, from whom they can pick and choose the ones most suited to them. A French student, for example, can choose to learn directly from a native teacher, sitting in France instead of attending French classes within his locality. The rising cases of Covid has encouraged educators around the world to collaborate on teaching methods with the help of technology, and to use digital solutions to refine education to suit modern day sensibilities and values.

 

In short, as our day to day life becomes more and more dependent on technology, it makes sense to digitalize the education sector as well, which is not just the most feasible solution during this global crisis, but is also hands down the best way to introduce our future generation to the miracles of the online world!

 

Coaching Class : Automate Your Fee recovery through Online Payment Gateway

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Online Payment Gateway for your students to Pay course fees

Almost every coaching class or training institute spend lots of resources in scheduling and then recovering due installments of student. Student fees are mostly collected in couple of installments as per the agreement between student and respective Coaching institute.

 

This course fee for every student might have some discount, might have different payment schedule and keeping its record and then following up for their payment recovery as per decided is decently big task. This fee recovery is most important, monotonous and non value add task for coaching class and training institutes.

Every educational institute will be happy to reduce time and efforts spent on fee recovery from student. So how do we do it.

 

Answer to this question is very simple : Automate this with online payment integration.

Automate your student due fee recover through online payment gateway

Automate your student due fee recovery through an online application like Agam Edu.

What will Agam Edu will do for you is following :

  • Easier to schedule course fee installment plan for every new admission
  • Records all this Due fee installment schedule admission by admission systematically
  • Every due fee installment amount and its date is recorded systematically
  • Reminders to students and parent for their due fee installment is automatically trigger from system itself
  • Until Due fee installment is recovered from student, Agam Edu application will keep sending due fee reminders to student and parents
  • In every fee reminder notification(SMS/Email) student and parent will receive an online link. If student only clicks on this link he will be able to pay his due installment.
  • As soon as student pays his due fee installment, Student will get his/her payment receipt cum invoice. Generation of this receipt cum invoice is automatic; No manual intervention is required
  • Student payment will be reflect in application and his balance fees will reduce appropriately and automatically
  • Student login and Admin login of application will show the updated fees with reduced balance
  • Accountant can take out report of due fees and paid fees for every date range.
  • Cancelled admission due fee installment will not trigger any notification

Biggest benefit of this online fee recovery application is that : coaching classes and training institutes will save lots of resources currently occupied in fee recovery from student. Automation will reduce all the human errors. Parents can pay fees from any where at any time as per their convenience. Transparancy and standardization will be maintained across all your centres. Education institute will reduce risk of loosing post dated cheques.

 

Online Fee collection from student is sign of implementing new technology to your Coaching class or training institute. It gives big facility to your students and parents. Agam Edu keep them well aware of all the due fee schedule. Agam Edu recovers from them on time and Agam Edu get systematic report for you; All of this automatically, without manual intervention and human errors.

 

This saves your huge cost and gives better picture of your educational institute to students,parents.

 

Mode Of Online Payment for fees

Students and parents can pay due fees online by logging into Agam Edu Application. They can also pay fees online by going in their mobile application provided by Agam Edu. Students and parents also have option of paying online through a link sent to in payment reminder SMS. All of this online transaction will result to same action and student account will be credited with this paid fees and balance fee will be reduced. Also student can instantly take print of their receipt cum invoice.

 

Challenges in implementing Online payment integration with educational institute

 

For every new facility, there comes challenges. You must be aware of these challenges. Currently no online gate, no online transaction is free. Every transaction made has around 1% transaction charges and then GST on these transaction changes applicable. This 1% transaction charges goes to your payee bank, payer bank, Visa/master card provider and payment gateway integrator. All of the above parties  have their costs and margins coming from this transaction charges applied on every online payment done by student. As per RBI circular institute is to bare these online transaction charges and not to be passed on to student.

GST for Coaching Classes, Training Institutes and Academies

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As per the recent changes in indirect taxes across India. All the coaching institute have to be extra cautious. Now Service tax has been replaced GST on all such educational institutes

Whether it is Coaching class or Training Institute or tuitions, If they are making revenue more than 20 lakhs per annum they have to get registered for GST. ANd Implement GST at their institute.

How coaching class, Training Institutes to issue Receipts Cum Invoices to Students under GST :

  • For all the collection and admissions  institute / coaching class is issuing receipts or invoices has to be with their registered GST number.
  • They have to add total 18% GST on their fees. Which includes 9% CGST and 9% SGST.
  • On their every Invoice or receipt to student they have to mention total GST amount and also what is 9% CGST and 9%SGST for that receipt or invoice.
  • They also need to mention their complete address, Registered name of their organization, Basic amount, 9% CGST and 9%SGST, date of receipt / invoice , Total amount, Name of student, Course that he is taking and Center where he will be given training
  • Agam Edu Enables you to print such a GST compliant receipts for students with no efforts

Coaching Classes, Training Institutes having multiple centers across various states

 

  • Some institute have their company owned centers across multiple states. In that case For every state where they have their centers(owned premises or rented premises), They need to register them self for every state GST separately
  • Training Institute, Coaching Class will be getting different GST number for every state.
  • Educational Institute will have to ensure they put correct GST number in the receipts belonging to that state only. Coaching Classes and Training centers will have to put GST number of given state to all the receipts and invoices issued in that State.
  • All Receipts cum invoices Sr No has to be single series for the given GST number
  • Agam Edu relieves the pressure from you. For your multi state coaching class/Training Institute; while giving receipts Agam Edu Automatically generates separate receipting sequence and automatically adds the correct State Specific GST Number

 

Course Fees to be reworked Under GST for Educational Institutes

Previously coaching classes and training institute were charging students with 15% service tax on their tuition fees, administration charges, study material, etc… But now from 1st July 2017 onwards, institutes will need to rework that and add 18% GST on all your basic taxable amount. You may have different Fee structures for your different courses, with or without installments, different fees for various centers but all of this has to be reworked with 18%.

Agam Edu help you in adjusting all of this with much reduced efforts. Almost automatic.

 

Excel Format Monthly GST returns for Coaching Classes, training Institutes

  • Coaching Classes, Training institutes have multiple admissions happening every day. There are Various old students paying their due installments
  • All this collection has to be submitted while filing monthly returns for GST
  • At first it seems difficult and horrendous task But Agam Edu helps you in this.
  • Agam Edu generates Excel sheet shown below with all the formulas and encoding required for GST Network site to be uploaded
  • This Excel Sheet created from Agam edu is created automatically from students collections, receipts cum invoices
  • The format of excel sheet that educational Institute, coaching classes or training centers has to prepare while filling their Monthly GST return is shown in image below. (This can be directly downloaded from Agam Edu)

GST for Training Institutes and Coaching classes has been explained carefully in this blog. Feel free to get connected with Agam Edu to automate and implement GST at your Educational Institute  

 

GST Input Tax Credit for Coaching Classes and Training Institutes  

 

Previously all the coaching classes and training institute use to charge service tax to student but now from 1st July 2017, All the training institutes and Coaching classes will be charging GST to their students. Because of GST there are various items on which these institutes will be able to take tax credit. Previously School bags, Stationery items, Study materials, Books and various other objects were under VAT. Now due to GST educational institutes can take ITC(Input Tax Credit)  for all such a purchases. Also various IT services, Marketing Services, Consultancy can avail them ITC. Not to forget but few coaching classes / training institute  wants their faculties,administrative staff and management to travel from one city to another city for institute purpose. All such a travels has GST in their travel fare. Ensure you provide your company GST details while booking your flights, train journey. So your educational institutes can take ITC of these expenses and Save on GST.