In the ever-evolving landscape of education, schools face numerous challenges. Two of the most pressing? Managing enrolments and handling important questions around fees.
Understanding these challenges, Green Point Christian College, a renowned K-12 institution on the New South Wales Central Coast, decided to tackle them head on. With Funnel and Feesable combined, the College was able to harness the power of technology to transform their admissions process, manage fees with simplicity and transparency, and ultimately handle their huge growth.
Their success is proof that the adoption of education technology can streamline operations for internal teams and enhance the parent experience. Meaning everyone’s a winner.
Meeting expectations and navigating enquiries
Green Point Christian College serves a diverse community of students with their comprehensive K-12 curriculum. With student numbers jumping dramatically across their campuses in the past few years, the admissions team had their hands full.
One of their primary challenges was managing the numerous enquiries and applications they received. Parents often had questions about fees, sibling discounts, and enrolment processes. The task of providing transparent information while efficiently processing applications became increasingly daunting.
To address these challenges, the College turned to technology. They implemented Funnel, a comprehensive enrolment management system, and Feesable, a fee calculation platform. This decision marked a turning point in their enrolment management in which their systems became digital.
The introduction of Feesable
Feesable has designed a platform to simplify the often complex world of school fees. Their School Fee Calculator is carefully designed to help parents make informed decisions about their child's education by delivering personalised school fee estimates. This fosters transparency which in turn builds trust between families and the school. It also creates efficiencies for the enrolments team, improves communication, and generates valuable enrolment enquiries for schools. The result? An excellent customer experience for both prospective and current families, and schools that stand out as transparent and innovative in a competitive landscape.
For Angela Sheather, Registrar at Green Point Christian College, the benefits of Feesable have been significant. "Feesable is a really useful tool, not just for us but also prospective families," shares Angela. "I'm able to direct prospective families to the fee calculator rather than personally working out fees myself. Families have told me they appreciate being able to use Feesable so they can sit and discuss fees and forward planning prior to them even making an enquiry at the College. That means when they come to us, doing a tour or considering enrolment, they already know that it will work for them."
Digital transformation with Funnel
Implementing Digistorm's Funnel allowed Green Point Christian College to make the much-needed transition from manual processes to a digital platform. For the school's Business Manager, Michael Lowbridge, Funnel offered everything the College needed. "We started looking for a digital platform to engage our enrolment process," explains Michael. "My go-to was Digistorm, and I chose not to go anywhere else at that point because I looked at the product and thought, 'This is going to be good for what we need'."
"Historically, our enrolment tracking process was very manual. There were a lot of paper-based processes, phone calls and face-to-face meetings. Very hard to search, very hard to keep track of. I have an I.T. background and so I'm particularly attracted to eliminating paper where possible; Funnel allows us to do that."
Two powers combined: Funnel and Feesable
Though the school team has been impressed with both Funnel and Feesable, it's the integration of the two platforms that has really streamlined their processes.
According to Brendan Wood, Assistant Business Manager & Marketing Manager at Green Point Christian College, the team is now in agreement that they wouldn't want to operate any other way. "Since the integration of Feesable into Funnel, we no longer have to look out for notification emails. We can just go into Funnel, bring up our list of Feesable enquiries, and look through that list. We go to Funnel for all of that information now, rather than juggling two systems," states Brendan.
"We've seen growth in the school since adopting Feesable and Funnel at the end of 2019. We've grown from 950 students in early 2020, now to around 1,150 students, and next year, we anticipate beginning with almost 1200 students. It's really those platforms that have helped us manage that growth during those few years to bring us to where we are now. We are just so thankful that we had Funnel and Feesable available online for parents to access."
Wrapping up
The adoption of Funnel and Feesable has brought about a paradigm shift in how Green Point Christian College operates. "It has been a real game changer, for many reasons, having both of those processes digitised. For parents, but also for our team," Brendan emphasises.
"Our registrar used to field phone calls trying to interpret our previous fee sheet," explains Michael. "It provides us with efficiency."
The success story of Green Point Christian College proves that seamless integration between technology solutions can drive growth, enhance efficiency, and improve the overall experience for schools, students, and parents.