The University of Bedfordshire is a large leading UK University.

The University of Bedfordshire.

About The University of Bedfordshire

The University of Bedfordshire is a large University based with campuses across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, London and Birmingham.

 

Clearing is the final stage of the main UCAS application cycle where all universities are actively aiming to recruit additional students. With increased competition, the University of Bedfordshire needed to ensure that our operation was effective and that the number of students lost to competitors was reduced.

 

During Clearing, the University will expect to receive in the region of 3000-4000 calls from students wishing to study at the University. These calls are of key importance to the financial sustainability of the University as such.

The Challenge

CallCare were appointed to offer a secondary call centre in the unlikely event that the University phone lines failed over this key period, in addition to delivering an outbound call campaign:

 

• Project 1 – To act as the University of Bedfordshire’s secondary call centre in the unlikely event of the internal telephone servers failing.

• Project 2 – To deliver an outbound call campaign targeting prospective students to generate additional income.

• Project 3 – To offer an out of hours solution to ensure that the University clearing lines remained open 24 hours a day.

The Outcome

CallCare proposed a dedicated seat solution to take calls on behalf of the University with additional resource being allocated to the outbound call campaign.

 

Once CallCare were appointed, the University worked closely with CallCare to define the process and the scripts which the call operators would use. Initially, CallCare visited the University of Bedfordshire to fully understand our operation and culture of the University. This meeting allowed both parties to understand the campaign objectives and to agree an action plan for moving forward.

 

The initial discussions were around the inbound contingency call solution, but following the initial meeting and the University understanding the capacity of CallCare, the request to expand their service to an outbound campaign and the out of hours call handling was agreed.

£800,000

The University of Bedfordshire set an initial target to CallCare of 10 applicants to apply and accept their offer. However, the campaign proved highly beneficial with over 30 students being recruited through this activity with an income of over £800,000 over three years.

Execution

On the day of Clearing, the University was in a strong position knowing that CallCare were available immediately if any telephone issues were to occur. However, the real success of this campaign came from the outbound telephone calls.

 

The University of Bedfordshire provided CallCare with a dataset of 4000 potential applicants who had previously expressed an interest in the University. The CallCare team started calling these applicants, with those interested in a call back, being communicated back to the University for action.

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