Unibuddy Discover exceeds expectations for Los Angeles City College
Challenge: Leverage Unibuddy peer-to-peer solutions through Study in the USA
As a Study in the USA partner, Los Angeles City College was hesitant to make use of Unibuddy Discover, available on the Study in the USA site, at first. Darren Grosch, Los Angeles City College’s Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, wasn’t initially sold on the idea of peer-to-peer marketing and was unsure how to make the best use of the dashboard’s various features. But with a bit of encouragement from Study in the USA, he decided to give Unibuddy Discover a shot.
Solution: Unibuddy Discover enabled more prospects to engage with LACC’s enrollment team
LACC student ambassadors readily embraced Unibuddy – after a brief and efficient training by Unibuddy’s Customer Success team. Grosch said Unibuddy empowered them to communicate with prospective students at success levels not seen before. The LACC team also found success following up with prospective students who first engaged with their team through Unibuddy.
LACC was also impressed with the non-intrusive way Unibuddy enhanced their workflow without adding additional responsibilities. For their smaller enrollment team at LACC, this took a lot of pressure away. “If you’re just a one-person department, which is the case for a lot of us at these smaller schools, and you’re wearing a lot of hats, you can use Unibuddy,” said Grosch. “It’s like having an extra staff member.”
“Often schools will say they don’t have the bandwidth to set it up, but we always tell them that it only takes the initial few hours. It’ll make your life easier and you’ll get more traction. And I haven’t talked to one school for which that hasn’t been true.”
Chelle Struve Study in the USA Account Executive
Results: Better student engagement lead to more applications
LACC’s goal was to convert one student within a year via Unibuddy, which seemed reasonable. Instead, their expectations were exceeded with one summer applicant and two fall applicants. All these applicants engaged at some point with LACC with Unibuddy.
For student ambassadors, Unibuddy became widely used – both on desktop and mobile devices. Student ambassadors who engaged with prospective students also reported the experience of speaking to people back home helped alleviate their own feelings of homesickness.
And these mutual beneficial conversations created positive impacts on enrollment. “I’m finding that my student workers are more engaged,” said Grosch. “We’re (LACC) getting more traffic, more interest, and more applicants than before.”
LACC also says Unibuddy helped their school engage with international students. While previously this student demographic were widely out of reach for LACC, Unibuddy helped create direct lines of communication.
Use Cases
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Darren Grosch wasn’t sold on the idea of peer-to-peer marketing to meet their summer and fall recruitment goals.
Results
LACC’s goal was to convert one student within a year, which seemed reasonable given the current climate. Instead, their expectations were exceeded with one summer applicant and two fall applicants, each sourced from Unibuddy Discover.
