Enquiry Management – Your Key to Relationship Management in China

Belinda Gallaugher
Former Director, Communications

It’s no secret that China is often viewed as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with regards to prospective international students. After talking to institution representatives and visiting international directors, it’s clear that one thing that is top of mind for China is prospects, prospects, prospects! But we need to be weary of the illusion of quantity over quality.

I understand that generating prospects is important – if not vital – to institutions.  Marketing activities, international staff visits, agent networks and partnerships are all designed to ultimately generate prospects and, from that, successful students. 

I think we are forgetting the classic trade-off:  quantity versus quality.  It is all well and good to want large numbers of prospects, and it certainly helps justify international marketing expenditure.  However, what happens to all these prospects?  Who manages them?  How do institutions sift the wheat from the chaff (if I can be so crude).  My suggestion – utilising an in-country Enquiry Management Service.  Having all student enquiries channelled through one centralised management system and providing a consistent response to these enquires in the local language is critical to success in China.

Let me take a moment to explain why enquiry management is essential in China:

• Studying overseas is a life decision that requires a lot of information and poses a lot of questions
• The decision is not the student’s alone – it’s a family choice and often involves the extended family, too
• Many parents don’t speak or read English so institutions risk getting overlooked if they don’t have the appropriate information in Chinese
• Many interested students can’t visit cities or access agents, and need alternative information sources
• Everyone has an opinion and statement on studying overseas – it’s critical to stop incorrect counsel and ensure students are getting the right information!

What exactly does an Enquiry Management Service actually involve?  It streamlines and responds to all student enquiries generated from the institution’s marketing activities in China.  The aim is to increase the conversion from enquiries to COE helping to close the gap between interest and action.  In China these are critical factors to recruitment success especially in market saturated with both inquisitive students and diversified agents

Having a centralised mechanism for responding to all enquiries and control over the responses is a great way to establish a strong relationship with prospective students in a marketplace that is somewhat fickle.  I’m confident that those institutions that embrace an in-country Enquiry Management System will reap the rewards from a greater balance between quality and quantity of student enquires.