David Garafola has built functional competencies for business and organization administration through years of work with universities in vice presidential and associate vice presidential roles. David Garafola has used and implemented customer relationship management (CRM) tools to improve communication with students.

A CRM program can help college administrators every step of the way, from prior to a student’s matriculation to after graduation. Some areas it can help with include admissions, billing, and alumni relations.

By using a CRM program for admissions, a school can track leads and prospective students from first sign of interest to entry. CRM programs can track how students found out about an institution, keep track of a student’s preferred course of study, and collect information for the application process.

CRM programs also excel at billing. Automated fee payment processes can reduce or eliminate human accounting errors.

In the long term, CRM programs can help a school get the most out of its relationships with alumni. They can identify networking opportunities with alumni for current students, provide fundraising contacts, and provide insights on the common threads between consistent donors.