Phone calling reaches out to college applicants

Kim Streitz, program coordinator at Shoreline Community College, helps organize employees to make phone calls to prospective students on Dec. 5, 2015. Photo gallery

On a rainy Saturday, a dozen Shoreline Community College employees gathered for a round of phone calls to more than 800 prospective students.

The Dec. 5, 2015 event was part of a months-long collaborative effort across three departments – Enrollment and Financial Aid Services, Advising Services and Public Information Office – aimed at reaching out and assisting college applicants through the process of becoming registered students.

And it’s working.

“I’ve had three calls transferred to me that I registered as students,” Alicia Zweifach, an academic advisor, said about two hours into the 8 a.m.-2 p.m. calling window. Zweifach said that on one call with an applicant and her mother, the mom liked the personal touch, comparing it to another local college where they’d been told to, “just go online.”

Staffing for the calling event included seven student hourly employees using desks and phones in the enrollment services area of the FOSS Building. Each caller had a list of people who had applied to Shoreline, but not yet registered. When a call went to voicemail, which was the norm, the callers would read a script thanking them for applying and offering additional resources.

If someone answered, the Shoreline callers asked if any help was needed and offered to answer questions.

“We have our callers with the college website on a screen in front of them so they can walk the (prospective student) through questions they may have,” said program coordinator Kim Streitz, who helped direct the event. If a question needed additional expertise, the call would be transferred to one of the full-time staff members on-hand, including Margie Pederson in financial aid, program coordinator Mary Cheung, Zweifach, or Streitz.

Streitz added that she thinks even the calls that went to voicemail can have an impact by letting the prospective student know the college is interested in them. “We get very few people who say, ‘Quit bothering me,” Streitz said. “Most people are very appreciative.”

The phone-calling session was part of a larger effort this fall focused on winter-quarter enrollment that included a targeted campaign using an email-marketing tool to track responses and follow-ups. While the phone list had about 820 names, some of the email lists used this fall have had close to 5,000 names and addresses.

The work is part of Shoreline’s Student Success Coordinating Committee and modeled on Wake Tech Community College, in Raleigh, NC, and Clarus Corp., a consulting firm that is working with Shoreline. A group from Shoreline including President Cheryl Roberts, Vice President Bob Francis, Director of Enrollment and Financial Aid Services Chris Melton and Special Assistant Jim Hills, visited Wake Tech in September.