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Year 1 Schools Feature Adoption Guide

Claire Frank
  • Updated

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Hi there! Welcome to the Finalsite Enrollment Community. We’re SO excited to have you join us. We understand that learning a new system can feel exciting with a hint of overwhelm. To help you along in the journey, this guide will advise you on the features and best practices you should focus on in your first year vs year 2 and beyond.

  • We recommend reviewing and attending our collection of learning and training resources at the top of this guide.
  • Next are some key themes and strategies to guide your success as you get started, so that you know what to focus on in year 1.
  • The third and final piece of this guide is a feature adoption checklist so that you can track your implementation of what’s most important as a year 1 school, or even as a new user to a school that’s been using us for some time.

Remember: When in doubt, reach out so that we can help you optimize your success!

In this article


Learning & Training Resources

Individualized Training

Ready to supercharge your school's performance with tailored training? Whether you prefer personalized virtual sessions or on-site immersion, we've got you covered!

  • Virtual training hours can be purchased in any amount, or you can request a discounted 3-hour or 6-hour training package. Training hours can be broken up across team members or groups, and in any time duration you prefer. As a bonus, you’ll receive a complimentary site review packed with actionable insights and best practices to elevate your workflows and make the most of our exciting features.

  • If you prefer on-site instruction, this is a great way to get everyone engaged and working hands-on over 1 or 2 days. These on-site sessions can be broken up across needs and/or team members as needed.

Ready for a transformative experience? Get in touch now by emailing courtney.single@finalsite.com

Key Themes & Best Practices

General Themes

  • Start small, and dream big! The system is robust, and you can only do so much in your first year. (Hint: You’re doing great and this is right where you should be). For everything else, keep it on your ‘wish list’ so you don’t forget it, but can revisit these items when you have time.
  • Chart Your Course and Goal Set. Document your wish list of items you’d like to incorporate into your process so that you can add them in as you have bandwidth. You need a clearly defined map and goals.
  • Have backup for key/time-sensitive tasks so that all knowledge doesn’t exist with one person.
    • Example: When possible, it’s good to have a backup person to import Inquiry and Application forms and to review/merge duplicate records so that families aren’t held up in the process. You might be out of the office or away from your desk and this will keep things streamlined.
  • Utilize your internal work calendar to set reminders of important dates/tasks for your workflows. Examples:
    • Add new Open House/Tour dates to the Inquiry Form and Website.
    • Remove events from the Inquiry Form and Website that have passed, or add messaging that the event will resume the following year or re-open at a certain time.
    • Set a date to send decision communications or generate contracts.
    • Set a reminder to create or update time-sensitive automated communication plans before the Admissions or Enrollment season.
  • Set up any APIs or Export Files you need.

Areas of Focus: Best Practices

Communications

  • Add basic branding of all communications with a pre-sized banner/logo, warm messaging, and contact information.
  • Inquiry and Application Landing Pages should include warm messaging, calls to action, website links, or social media links.
  • Customize and brand your System Emails, Authentication Emails, Recommendation Emails, and Billing Emails (if you have this module).
  • Custom Emails
    • Create information-based and interest-based emails such as inquiry touch points, an email for financial aid information, send the admissions/enrollment checklist completion reminder emails we provide, customize the enrollment/contract information email with these best practices, and more.

Events

  • Include at least one or two events hosted on the Inquiry Form, website, and/or Inquiry/Admissions Checklist.
    • Pro Tip: You can add multiple events to your Inquiry form, and then provide a link to the Inquiry form on each of these event pages on your website. This will create multiple access points to the same form.
  • Build dynamic event confirmation and reminder emails with images/links to a campus map and directions, sign-in instructions, customized confirmation or reminder banners for each event, etc.
  • Make sure every event calendar also has a checklist item created for the event and tied to the calendar for event registration and attendance tracking.

Checklist Items

  • Incorporate all of the current requirements and keep it streamlined for parents at the Application and Enrollment stages.
  • Add ‘parent explanation text’ to every checklist item to ensure families know what the requirements are, any special circumstances for the requirement to be completed, and answer any common questions upfront.
    • For event checklist items, let families know they’ll receive a confirmation email upon registration and how many days you set the reminder email to go out that they’ll receive. If you turn on the cancellation email, you can notify them about this communication as well if you’d like. You can also let families know of any special steps they may need to take to change or cancel their registration.
    • For recommendation or document request emails, you can let families know they won’t have access to the submitted materials or documents, however, they will receive an email once everything has been submitted and the checklist item will then be marked complete in their portal.
  • Create internal checklist items for your internal workflows such as ‘send decisions’ or ‘verified transcripts/schools records.’ You can have an internal ‘interview/tour notes’ form built that you fill out internally along the way.

Reporting & Data

  • Request custom filter options for your Dashboard and list pages for daily/weekly reporting and action steps like sending more targeted communications. You can request these from the Support team! Some examples include Financial Aid requested? Yes/No, Program Selection, Interests, and more.
  • Create custom-saved reports for efficiency.
  • Make sure you have all of your export templates created and up to date for your SIS or other third-party systems by working with our Support Team.
  • Make sure you have any needed APIs set up.

Feature Adoption Checklist

Inquiry Stage

  • Design a dynamic Inquiry form with event registrations and Inquiry Checklist financial assistance yes/no.
  • Branded & Customized Inquiry Thank You, Landing Page.
  • Branded & Customized Inquiry Thank You Email.
  • Inquiry Checklist with at least 3 Required Checklist Items.
    • Utilize the Inquiry checklist to track your outreach and likelihood of application conversions through required checklist items.
    • Best Practice: If you have more than one event, add them all as optional checklist items and have 1 required checklist item called "Attended at least one campus event" to track your personal interaction with them.
    • The required checklist item is a way for you to track that you got the family to campus or virtually to an event and that they completed a ‘visit.’ They may attend more than one event which is great, but for your conversion rates, knowing that they attended at least one event vs none is important to gauge their interest.
    • Setting all events as optional items, and one required checklist item to indicate they visited campus, allows you to use the “Inquiry Complete” status to indicate the families that you feel confident will apply to your school. Anyone in an “Inquiry” status would mean you either didn’t complete a touch point on your checklist, or the family hasn’t been to campus yet. See an example of how this is set up below and reach out to Support if you’d like some guidance.

Inquiry Checklist example


Event Management (Inquiry/Application)

  • Event Registration on Inquiry Form.
  • Public Calendar Event Links on Website.
    • Best Practice: Be mindful of the number of public calendar links you create, as each public calendar registration creates the attendee as a new Inquiry contact in the system. This may increase your need to review and merge duplicates in the system within your Forms Inbox.
    • Pro Tip: Using the Inquiry form for event sign-ups streamlines everything into one place and allows families to sign up for multiple events in one form. This will reduce the amount of duplicate forms in your inbox.
  • Branded & Customized Event emails.
    • Best Practice: Start small. Include your school banner or logo, key links to your website/social media or to a campus map, and a signature block.
  • Make sure all events created within your Scheduling tab have an event checklist item created and tied to the event.
    • Best Practice: Include parent explanation text to let families know they’ll receive a confirmation email with event/appointment details and how many days before the event that they’ll receive the reminder email. Please note, explanation text will be displayed at the Application or Enrollment stages only since families don’t have an Inquiry checklist.
  • Create Event Checklist Items for Applicants so parents can sign up directly within the portal. You also have options to allow families to reschedule or cancel themselves for events and to close registration within the parent portal a set number of days before the event.

Communications

  • Branded & Customized Thank you landing pages for Inquiry and Application stages. Start small.
    • Include warm messaging, contact information, and links to key pages on your website or social media.
  • Branded & Customized Thank You Emails for the Inquiry form, Application form, and submitted Contract form.
  • Automated Checklist Reminder Emails for Applicants and/or Enrolling Students.
    • Important: Don't send or create automated checklist reminders for Inquiries as they do not have a checklist or a parent portal at this stage.
  • Email Tags
    • Inquiry, Applicant, Enrollment, and Automated Communication Plan are all great tags to start with.

Search & Reports

  • Build reports to track your conversions, checklist completion, board reports, and more.
  • Create and set tags for your saved searches so that you can easily filter or find the reports you need at each stage of the process.

Application Stage

Enrollment Stage

  • Contract Form with dynamic content for new vs returning families.
  • Branded and Customized Contract Thank You Email.
  • Dual Signatures on Contracts (Optional).
  • Countersignatures on Contracts (Optional).
  • Intent to Enroll Form - For returning students and option to confirm enrollment acceptance for new families.
  • Add important links and Enrollment/Contract deadlines to the Contact Communication Area template. Work with Support to build it so they can display different information for families that are applying vs those that are enrolling (if you have both modules). They can also add additional rules for any other fields like grade, interests, and more.
  • Parent explanation text for ALL parent-facing checklist items that proactively answer any questions.

Additional Features

 

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