Bitrix24 Implementation at a German Private School

Founded in 1949, Stiftung Louisenlund is a private boarding school for boys and girls in Germany. In 2020, the school decided to streamline its lead management process in the sales and marketing departments. This is where the Bitrix24 CRM system came to help.

Operating Since 1949, Digitally Transformed in Just Two Years

Until 2020, Louisenlund School's business processes were unsystematic: phone customer communications and transactions in word processors were prevalent, marketing was limited to publications in local newspapers. However, the school’s status required changes, as it educates children from better-off families where parents value their time and demand prompt responses to their inquiries. That’s why, efficient approach to business processes came in handy.

To optimise the workflow, Atevi experts set up the following objectives:

1. Improve the school’s customer service. Louisenlund's target audience is successful people accustomed to good service. Paying money, they are unlikely to compromise. It was essential to quickly and efficiently process leads, engage potential clients, and represent the school's benefits.
2. Automate employee workflows. Using a CRM system, we strived to relieve managers and marketers of some of their routine tasks by optimising them. This approach saves time for more effective work with potential clients.
3. Establish cooperation with parents as potential clients. Being in charge of making decisions about their children's education, they call for individual attention. In this case, the CRM system works as a helping hand for managers, reminding them to prepare documents, get in touch with parents, and interview potential students.

In general, the school had no doubt that a CRM system was needed to accomplish such tasks. Home-made CRMs were immediately dismissed, as they required constant optimization and refinement.

Systematizing Workflows with Bitrix24

At first, the school's marketing specialist independently conducted a business process audit, including sales managers interview on their client work and the deal stages. Next step was to find a professional Bitrix24 integrator that understand how to effectively build a private school's business processes. The choice turned to Atevi Systems as a reliable partner.

”Atevi Systems specialists quickly arranged an online meeting. Having listened attentively to my concerns, the company’s business analyst brought out appropriate solutions and paved the way to implement the required business objectives and achieve the school’s goals. Such an efficient approach appealed to me,” says Alexander, the school's project manager.

To enforce Bitrix24, Atevi Systems experts coped with two major challenges:

1. Build up lead and deal management.
   To ensure fully completed customer profiles and manage them step-by-step, customer communication channels were a necessity. They enabled to automise the business processes from initial contact to the child's arrival at school.
2. Enhance employee workflows.
   An automated sales and lead management system can offload routine assignments from employees when simple, clear tasks guide managers through all work processes in a coherent sequence.

The "Before They Arrive" Approach

With the Bitrix24 CRM system, the school's client service improved significantly. We organised leads in a separate funnel. Besides, there’s the opportunity to create leads both manually by an employee and automatically—through an incoming client call, email, or requests via open channels (social media, instant messaging).

All inquiries from potential clients at Louisenlund School go through the following stages:

1. New. This stage includes automatic or manual lead creation and needs assessment. A sales manager finds out contact details from parents. Once the data is enough, the employee determines whether a spot is available in the desired class and sends the parents a response along with pricing information.
2. Consultation. This is the main stage of interacting with a potential client. The manager consults the parents of prospective students on study and boarding school accommodation, gathers information about the student, requests a cover letter, coordinates the student's application with the boarding committee, and schedules an interview with school management. All the above tasks are accompanied by instructions and reminders for each step. If there is no vacant place at the school, the potential student is added to the waiting list.
3. Making a decision. Here, Bitrix24 automatically builds a Company (student profile) and a Contact (the student's contact person profile). Then, coordinating the student's application automatically starts. After receiving a notification with a link to a workflow task, the committee members review the student's documents and approve or reject the candidate. This, the lead moves to the "Suitable" or "Not Suitable" stage.

When the admissions board's response is positive, managers start working on the student's enrollment in the school right up until their arrival at the boarding school. These stages can be distinguished:

1. New student. This initial stage involves the approval of the admissions committee.
2. Agreement. The sales manager provides the prospective student’s representatives with all the necessary documents. Once the contract has been signed by both parties and the original document has been sent to the school, the manager moves the deal to the next stage.
3. Payment. The manager monitors payments. After receiving the transfer, the accountant reconciles this amount with the transaction one. Once the accountant has confirmed the payment, the manager moves it to the next stage.
4. Visa. This stage is for international clients who need a visa to study and live in Germany. Having prepared the necessary documents and sent them to the client, the manager oversees the visa process. In case of any assistance, the school is always here to help. If the prospective student receives a visa, the manager moves the transaction to the next stage. Otherwise, the manager closes the transaction, moving it to the "Visa Not Received" status.
5. Arrival preparation. At this stage of the transaction, the manager prepares the student's check-in documents and sends them to the client via email.
6. Check-in. After the student arrives, a school staff member registers them at the boarding house and assists with the paperwork. Then, the manager can close the transaction as successful.

If the student withdraws, fails to obtain a visa, or the school is fully booked, the sales manager closes the transaction as unsuccessful, stating the reason.

The Outcome

The Bitrix24 implementation went along with different reactions. Marketing specialists were more open to new technologies and expressed interest in the CRM system. Sales managers, accustomed to handling customer inquiries by phone and email, initially encountered resistance to the idea of ​​using a CRM system. However, no sooner had the staff started using this system, resistance disappeared as such CRM tools successfully facilitated their work.

With the Bitrix24 CRM system, employees stay on top of their planned activities. In other cases, the sales managers would not be able to handle the number of leads the school currently receives.

"The Atevi Systems specialists implemented the Bitrix24 CRM system a thousand miles per hour. The company's employees were polite, always attentive, and demonstrated their professionalism," Alexander shares his experience working with the integrator.