Beginning July 1, 2021, the Administrative Services Department began looking into the processes in place for handling incoming calls on the admissions phone line. We received consistent feedback from future and current students and their family members of the many challenges they faced while attempting to learn more about HACC. Some of the issues that callers experienced included:
Being bounced around and transferred to multiple phone lines
Receiving inconsistent information from multiple colleagues
Being treated poorly with a lack of empathy and respect
Leaving voicemail messages for HACC colleagues and not receiving assistance
In OCA, we’re constantly looking for ways to enhance our processes to better serve our current and future students.
Based upon the feedback, the Administrative Services Department made the various improvements, including:
Creating a phone manual to ensure consistency and accountability
Collaborating with the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and the Office of Finance to ensure relevant information was shared and follow ups were made to callers
Collaborating with the Admissions Department to establish a guideline that callers receive a callback within 24 business hours to receive support
Reviewing how we can improve our processes and guidelines
As a result of the aforementioned improvements, the number of complaints has greatly decreased. We look forward to another year of improvements and providing stellar customer service to HACC’s future students.
In January 2021, HACC’s Admissions Department moved from the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management to a new home in the Office of College Advancement (OCA). This reorganization allowed the admissions team to work more closely than ever before with OCA colleagues involved in advertising, marketing, web development and strategic partnerships.
To provide even better service to all future students, the admissions team implemented a number of enhancements, including:
Improving communications designed to recruit future students
Developing tools to ensure departmental policies and procedures are clearly in place
Creating email templates and checklists
Eliminating the campus-based service approach and adopting the One-College service model
We are excited to grow the Admissions Department and continue making enhancements that will better serve students and colleagues!
The Admissions Department is always open to new ideas and recruitment strategies to introduce future students to HACC. During the 2021-22 academic year, admissions professionals attended more virtual events, led more campus tours and scheduled many virtual appointments. Future students appreciate the option of in-person and virtual opportunities to connect with an admissions counselor. In 2022-23, we will continue to focus on recruiting students who are Black, Indigenous or people of color (BIPOC); students from historically underrepresented groups; adult learners; and military veterans. As always, the admissions team will continue to do our best to help meet the needs of the communities we serve.
Admissions team members worked with colleagues in OCA and other divisions to create 10 new videos for recruiting students. The videos cover important topics, including:
Virtual tours of the Gettysburg, Harrisburg, Lancaster and Lebanon campuses
Financial aid options
Student Access Services
The videos are an excellent way to recruit future students and inform students, parents, high school counselors and others about everything HACC has to offer.
In December 2021, the Community Engagement Department encouraged strategic, mutually beneficial and virtual community connections. The compact online form easily connects community partners with colleagues across HACC’s five campuses. This resource improves the way we respond to partners within our 11-county service region. HACC yeah!
In 2022, the fresh spring air brought fresh perspectives to the Community Engagement Department.
The inaugural Community Impact Advisory Coalition, composed of community leaders from within the College’s 11-county service region, was created to connect community resources to students. In May 2022, the College welcomed 19 new community impact advisors who will:
Bring regional perspectives to decision making
Work with College leaders for a year to provide insights into the enhancement or creation of programming needed by private- and public-sector organizations in our service region.
For more information about this initiative, please contact communityengagement@hacc.edu.
The Financial and Support Services Department manages the HACC Foundation scholarship program and the emergency assistance funds program.
As a result of these programs, HACC students receive much-needed and much-deserved funding to assist with their tuition, books and fees, and crises that may adversely impact their academic progress at HACC.
For example from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022, the HACC Foundation:
Awarded $968,845.07 in scholarship funds to 716 students.
Provided emergency assistance funding totaling $24,565.93 to 55 students.
Yet again, the Financial and Support Services Department and HACC Foundation “showed up and showed out” for our students. HACC yeah!
Did you know? The Office of College Advancement (OCA) conducted more than 40 integrated marketing communications campaigns from July 2021-June 2022. The College used a variety of advertising, branding, marketing and public relations strategies and materials to promote the College to continuing and future students. Over the past year, we continued to focus on student retention and recruitment and the outstanding experience HACC offers.
While we would love to share all of the results, the list would be quite lengthy. Instead, please enjoy a snapshot of the College’s accomplishments.
To understand the advertising terms noted below, please review our advertising definitions document, located in the OCA channel of myHACC.
As outlined in the collegewide marketing plan for 2021-22, the College has had great success highlighting students who exemplify the characteristics of a high school student, nontraditional student and workforce student since the launch of the persona campaigns in 2019. OCA continued the persona campaigns in 2021-22.
The summer/fall registration campaigns began on April 21 and concluded Aug. 29, 2021. If a future student clicked on an ad, they were directed to one of three specific webpages:
So, how did it go?
The Google Responsive Display - General ads received a 1.02% click-through rate (CTR), which is a .15% increase from the 2020-21 campaign. The education industry average for CTR is .53%.
The Google Responsive Display - Remarketing ads received a 1.48% CTR, which is a .80% increase from 2020-21. The education industry average for CTR is .53%.
The College introduced TikTok (example pictured above) to the advertising campaign in July 2021. In a short timeframe, the ads received a 1.07% CTR. While TikTok does not have an education industry average at this time, we are pleased with this result.
During the summer and fall 2021 registration cycle, the Office of Academic Affairs partnered with OCA to raise awareness of some of HACC’s phenomenal programs:
These programs were selected based on the following criteria, which were supported by data:
High demand in the job market
Low enrollment
Readiness for marketing (IMC had not previously launched a campaign)
Alignment with our future student personas (if possible)
All three campaigns concluded on Aug. 29, 2021. From February through August 2021, there were 78,178 unique pageviews to the biology, electrical technology and human services webpages. This represents an 887.47% increase in pageviews over the same time period in 2020.
OCA teamed up with the Office of Workforce Development and Continuing Education to run a digital advertising campaign from Aug. 13 to Nov. 27, 2021. A unique URL, hacc.edu/CustomizedTraining, tracked the results of the campaign, which targeted business and industry employers who could benefit from contracting with the College’s workforce development programs to train employees.
Advertising on social media platforms exceeded industry standards, with Facebook ads exceeding the education industry click-through rate average by 153%. In addition, the number of unique pageviews for hacc.edu/CustomizedTraining increased tremendously, proving that individuals were engaged with the campaign ads and visited the landing page for more information.
Shaded cells represent the months that this campaign ran (Aug. 13-Nov. 27, 2021).
At HACC, continuing student success remains a top priority. OCA works closely with the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management to distribute targeted communications like email blasts, postcards and Navigate messages to continuing students. In addition to these messages, OCA implemented a robust advertising campaign that encourages HACC students to connect with their advisor, register for classes and complete their education with us.
To ensure our marketing is tailored to the student’s goals - like transferring to a four-year school or quickly entering the workforce - OCA uses specific messaging to reach career- and transfer-program students.
Check out a few highlights from our continuing student campaigns:
In addition to the career- and transfer-program campaigns, OCA also implements advertising campaigns to stop-out students, guest students, dual enrolled and College in the High School (CHS) students.
From Oct. 26, 2021, through Jan. 17, 2022, the Office of College Advancement implemented a marketing campaign to further reinforce that HACC is staying in Lebanon. The campaign included a digital billboard, postcard mailing, newspaper ad, email blasts, television streaming and digital advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Google.
A few campaign successes, include:
More than one million impressions, representing the total number of times HACC’s digital ads and social posts were shown to users.
A 2.87% click-through-rate (CTR) for Facebook advertising. (.73% is the education industry average CTR).
To learn more about HACC’s commitment to Lebanon, please visit hacc.edu/YourLebanon.
A coherent and streamlined admissions application is important for any higher education institution. With that in mind, the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) team worked with colleagues in the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management to update the dual enrollment high school application and make it easier for students to complete.
These enhancements included:
Updated language throughout the application to ensure consistency across the College
Clarified the process of submitting additional documents
High school students struggled with this step since the College adopted an electronic version of a required signature page in 2020. To make the process easier, we updated the directions on how to complete the additional documentation and moved that portion from the beginning of the application to the end.
Removed external links from within the application
Previously, when a student clicked on an external link while completing the application, they were directed away from the application. This led to incorrect assumptions on the student’s part that their application had been submitted.
Updated the name of the tab where the student submits their application
Added a note below the “Submit Application” button to explain that the application is not complete until that button is clicked
Social media takeovers are fun and engaging opportunities for people – including HACC current and future students, employees and alumni – to spend the day running one of HACC’s social media platforms. During the 2021-22 year, the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Department was happy to facilitate some exciting takeovers of our collegewide Instagram account.
A few highlights include:
In October, HACC’s transfer services team shared important transfer information to spark interest in a virtual transfer fair. They creatively highlighted four-year institutions that would be attending the fair by using video, website links, student testimonials and scholarship information. #HACCproud
In May, alumna Naja Channell Grierson-Stephenson, HACC’s spring 2022 Commencement ceremony student representative, took our followers behind the scenes of our spring 2022 Commencement ceremony. She posted from the main stage after giving the student address and invited our Instagram followers to cheer along with hundreds of HACC graduating students and their loved ones.
Later in May, colleagues from the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management ran a takeover featuring HACC’s dual enrollment programs for high school students. The series of stories was packed with helpful information and testimonials from real students.
The IMC team provided guidance and training, but the real stars of this ongoing initiative are the people who created and shared the content! We thank Naja Channell and our colleagues for sharing their creativity and knowledge with HACC’s online community.
Have a social media takeover idea? Please contact IMCprojects@hacc.edu and share it with us!
P.S. - To see future takeovers, please follow HACC’s Instagram account.
Last fiscal year (July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022), the HACC Foundation received $1,025,669 to help HACC students! These life-changing gifts were received from individuals, organizations and grant awards.
Thank you to the donors who gave gifts of any size to help students complete their education and reach their goals. Please see the following words of thanks from students who were helped by the generosity of donors - like you!
"Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity. In this situation, words alone are not sufficient. My heart is full of love and appreciation for every person who gave generously to make my dream possible. Moving forward, I promise to continue to do my best to work hard and succeed in my academic plan toward nursing." ~ Sarah, HACC student
“I plan to utilize this degree to transition to a new career in Information Technology; a field I have greatly desired to join. Thanks to you, I am one step closer to that goal. Your generosity has inspired me to help others and give back to the community. I hope one day I will be able to help students achieve their goals just as you have helped me.” ~ Austin, HACC student
For more information about the HACC Foundation, please visit hacc.edu/HACCfoundation. If you would like to give a gift to help a HACC student, please consider supporting one or more of these critical projects. Thank you!
Several rounds of user testing on HACC’s website and internal portal began in fall 2021. User testing allows HACC to gather feedback on how different groups of people think and use our website.
We asked users to conduct card sorts for the following areas:
The entire hacc.edu website
myHACC’s Financial Aid student tab
hacc.edu’s academic programs and courses area
hacc.edu’s financial aid web area
We also distributed online surveys to solicit feedback on hacc.edu and the academic programs and courses area.
Finally, we conducted tree testing for the financial aid area of hacc.edu as well as our internal portal.
From July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022, HACC’s photographer and videographer created more than 300 videos for integrated marketing communications campaigns. Video ads reached millions of people and helped increase awareness, share information and drive recruitment. We shared videos on the following platforms:
Broadcast television
Snapchat
Spotify
TikTok
YouTube
When someone picks up the phone to speak with someone at HACC, we want them to find the right person in the shortest amount of time. That’s why a clearly organized phone tree menu is important! In coordination with the Office of Information Technology and Learning Experience, colleagues from the Website and Multimedia Resources Department updated the phone tree menu prompts to increase the sound quality and refine the language used to help direct callers.