The challenge

Lots of stakeholders, lots of meetings

As assistant director of admissions at the College for Creative Studies, Brandi Keeler juggled meetings with prospective students, high school counselors, and interviews with alumni. All the while, she kept a busy conference schedule and still had classes to teach. As she jumped between tasks, Brandi found herself spending hours per day arranging meetings via email.

As a self-described “productivity fanatic,” Brandi was always on the lookout for digital tools to automate the more tedious parts of her day. Brandi tried Meetingbird, Boomerang, and other apps. And some of them worked okay, but none offered an integrated system that let her schedule, set reminders, and easily send follow-up emails.

As the COVID-19 pandemic set in, the communication logjam couldn’t have come at a worse time. With live events canceled and students primarily engaging online, they were thirstier than ever for guidance. The more hours Brandi spent spinning her wheels on logistics, the less she could dedicate to them. Brandi had little doubt that her colleagues at the Detroit-based arts school were dealing with many of the same headaches.

The solution

Invitations that are integrated

Brandi tried Calendly and was pleasantly surprised. By the time CCA’s autumn portfolio days rolled around, she already knew how easily Calendly could integrate with Zoom. Whereas aspiring students once showed up on campus to show their work in hopes of gaining admission, this time around, CCA had students book slots on Calendly to meet with counselors and faculty online.

Along with Zoom, Brandi was able to integrate Calendly with several other programs she used: Airtable, Zapier, Google Calendar, and more. As Brandi shared her success with Calendly with coworkers, they couldn’t help but take notice. Even the skeptics were shocked by how easy it was to implement Calendly into their routine. Brandi shared her templates, and they were off and running.

“I was cobbling a system together before, whereas now the system already exists, and I can just use it,” Brandi says. “Before, there were just so many more steps. Now, it's seamless.”

The Results

More time to meet with students

The payoff was immediate. Less time scheduling not only allowed Brandi to meet more people, but conversations proved more fruitful. She recruited more top applicants than ever before.

“I was able to have more quality interactions, which we know leads to conversion,” she says.

As CCA students adapted to remote learning, anxiety increased with schooling, scheduling, and socializing all moving online. With personal connections at a premium, Calendly made it easier to set meetings with teachers and counselors. The simplified, streamlined process led many more students to do so.

In the meantime, Brandi is also using Calendly to set up Instagram interviews with alumni, customize meeting messages to high school counselors, and remind students to show up for their meetings with counselors.

“There is no way to cover all the ways that we use Calendly and all the benefits,” Brandi says. “It's just endless.”

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