Muskegon Catholic Central is an independent co-educational Catholic school located in Michigan, USA. Catering to students from preschool through 12th grade, the school is steeped in a rich history with a Catholic school community that has thrived for over 130 years. Operating as an admissions team of one, the school’s Director of Enrollment and Marketing, Carmen Mitchell, shares her journey to discovering Digistorm Funnel and why she hasn’t looked back since.
Taking the admissions process digital
After starting her role at Muskegon Catholic Central, Carmen knew that a better admissions process was needed to boost efficiency. The first port-of-call was to upgrade paper to digital, starting with Google Forms and Excel spreadsheets. For Carmen, managing her enrollment pipeline stages was no easy feat.
For small admissions teams, time and resources are valuable and in short supply! Carmen struggled with feeling completely organized in her role while trying to balance reporting and sharing information with her board and multiple teams. As a result, there was little time left for Carmen to focus on what she does best — nurture families.
Choosing the right online admissions solution
When selecting the right admissions software for her school, Carmen had four key criteria in mind:
Ease of use. We needed a system that was user-friendly and could easily share data with our various departments.
Data collection. We needed to ensure it could collect all of the data we’d been collecting previously.
Complex reporting capabilities. Our school’s President had specific goals about what he wanted a school CRM to do, mainly around detailed reporting.
Cost-effective. I didn’t have a large budget, so I needed an affordable solution.
Why Funnel?
Carmen began searching for the right admissions solution that would fit her needs. After being referred to a G2 reviews list by her Business Manager, Carmen spotted Digistorm Funnel. For Carmen, cost played a huge factor in why her school chose Digistorm Funnel. However, after presenting Funnel to the school’s President and being initially knocked back, Carmen’s passion and belief in the product turned things around.
The next step was onboarding. Understandably, there might be some apprehension to take on a product that’s developed in Australia; however, the school’s concerns were soon eased by Digistorm's local support team that guided Carmen through every step of the way.
Most-loved Funnel features
After managing prospective students’ touch points with various spreadsheets, Funnel’s custom pipeline stages made Carmen’s most-loved features list. But, it’s not just Carmen’s department that’s benefiting from Funnel. The benefits span across multiple departments leading to greater business results for the school.
“I can pull specific reports and provide information about families. I've absolutely seen an improvement in business results by switching to Funnel — it's [Funnel] as important to me on a daily basis as my phone or computer.”
