In March 2024, Contact Manager for Agents will be released, with some stunning new features that bring it more into line with the recently supercharged Contact Manager upgrades.
At the date of writing this article (12 Feb 2024) I can show you glimpses of what the new Contact Manager for Agents looks like, and I can even share some of the new features, but you can't log in quite yet, as it is still in under wraps.
We will launch it at the end of March so you can take it for a spin on a free trial; just ask your Account Manager to set it up for you at no charge. Try before you buy. I think you will love what you can now do, but you should trial it for yourself.
What's changed?
It's faster, easier, is packed with new features, and is a joy to use.
Applications
Applications arrive in your Applications Passive (APV) app, or your Applications Active (APS) app. In Agent Manager's Setup you simply select which APV or APS occurrences it is connected to, and you can then link applications to individual agents.
Applications Passive (APV) app: the applications automatically arrive via our API connection from your Student Record System, ie: SITS.
Applications Active (APS) app: the applications automatically arrive via your application web form built in Web Form Manager and connected to your APS occurrence and your Applicant Portal.
See below the fictitious Agency "Blue Line Educational Consultancy" and the 5 applications they have generated:
Finances
The "Finances" tab below lists the commission claimed on each application, with any uploaded invoices on each one. On a case-by-case basis you can assign each claim to an officer (these all belong to the officer "Bradley Smith") and monitor Claimed, Paid, and Balances for one or all Agencies.
You can see that Blue Line Educational Consultancy has been paid £10,650.00 out of their total £14,150.99 claimed so far, leaving a balance due of £3,500.99.
We have removed
The old Agent Portal has gone. We recommend that applicants use the brilliant Applicant Portal that ships with Applications Active (APS).
Who should use Contact Manager for Agents?
Any HE provider that is wanting to maximise their current and planned investment in their overseas agency network will be familiar with these:
You really need your single source of truth - all data (not just an Excel spreadsheet of names) needs to be stored and accessible centrally by your team.
All logged activity, from the very first application submitted, right through to enrolment needs to be available quickly straight from the agent's Contact Card.
Agents need to be categorised in Territories that you can define.
You need push reporting (email) that tells you and your team what you need to know, without you needing to ask.
You need it all to be linked together, student linked to application, application linked to agent and agency, commission claim to be linked to application, etc, etc.
FAQs
Q. Can I send bulk email and SMS campaigns to individual agents?
A. Yes, that is what the 'Segments' and 'Campaigns' tabs are for. You create a segment filtered to find just the agents you want. You then send fully tracked, branded email campaigns as well as SMS campaigns. All activity is automatically logged against each agent so you can see who received and opened each email.
Q. How do agents get matched to the correct application?
A. Incoming applications (whether from Applications Passive, or Applications Active) can be automatically matched, based on the Unique Org Code or the Unique Contact Code that arrives on the application. The code comes from your Student Records System via the API or from your Application form you built in Web Form Manager. These two codes can be imported in bulk with your agents upload via Data Manager, or manually created in Contact Manager for Agents when editing Contacts and Orgs. Codes can be text and or numbers, anything you want, such as "BULEC" seen above.
Q. Can I manually link an agent to an application?
A. Yes. On any application, click 'Link to an agent', start typing the agent's name, the agency's name or short code and select from the list that appears. Now that application appears in that Agency, under that Agent and in all reports.
Q. How do I process a commission claim from an agent?
A. This is a manual process, we do not connect to payment software so this serves as a log not a ledger. Having said that, it is really easy to use - just send your agents a link to your online Claim Form (you will build this in the Web Form Manager app) and when they complete it their claim details, and uploaded invoices arrive in your 'Leads' tab. You convert that into a Finance item and then keep update it as you verify their claim, and pay it.
Q. How can I see how an agency has performed?
A. There are a few ways: you can view the Agency Card and quickly see related Students, Applications, and Enrolments badges. For detail you can use filters to select certain applications, you can download that table data as CSV for offline analysis, and you can run a report from the Reports tab that gives you deep financial performance data across all agencies and agents.
Q. How can I email all the applicants who are linked to a particular agent?
A. Simple. Just tag those applicants with something memorable ie: "tag-500", build a segment looking for that tag, and type an email into your email Campaign and send.
Q. How can new agencies contact us?
A. They complete your "Represent us overseas" web form, and you process each one in the Leads tab.
Q. I am already using the current Agent Manager, how will this affect me?
A. We will migrate your data over to the new Agent Manager, free of charge and with no interruptions to you, and at a time convenient to you. The old Agent Manager app will be EOL'd on Mon 1st Apr 2024, but your migration can take place up to Wed 22 May 2024.