On this page 9 sections
In short
To track an admission enquiry from first contact to enrolment, create one record for each student, save the source at the first contact, move the record through fixed stages, and note every follow up. Tag online links, ask walk ins how they heard about you, and report admissions and cost by source each week.
To track an admission enquiry properly, keep one record for each student and save the source the moment the enquiry arrives. Move that record through a fixed set of stages, note every follow up, and close it only when the student enrols or clearly says no. With this in place you can answer the question every owner asks: which channel actually brings admissions?
Why most institutes cannot answer that question
Enquiries arrive in many places: phone calls, WhatsApp, the website form, Instagram, walk ins and referrals. Each one sits in a different phone, register or sheet. By the time a student pays the fee, nobody remembers where the first contact came from. The fix is not costly software. It is a small set of rules that everyone follows.
Step 1: One record per student
Create a record at the first contact, whatever the channel. Use the phone number as the key, so that the same family does not appear three times. Keep these fields:
Student name and class.
Parent name and phone number.
Course or exam.
Source.
Date of first contact.
Stage.
Next follow up date.
Counsellor.
Notes.
Step 2: Save the source at the first contact
The source must be chosen from a fixed list. Free text creates ten spellings of "Google". A list such as this covers most institutes:
Google search or Maps
Google Ads
Instagram or Facebook
WhatsApp message or broadcast
Referral from a student or parent
School tie up or seminar
Pamphlet, hoarding or newspaper
Walk in, saw the centre
Online sources: tag your links
Add UTM tags to every link you use in ads, posts and messages. Google's help page on campaign links says you should always use utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, and that missing values appear as "(not set)" in reports. Example, with made up values: a link in an Instagram ad for a Class 11 batch could carry utm_source=instagram, utm_medium=paid_social and utm_campaign=class11_april. Your enquiry form should save these values with the enquiry.
Offline sources: ask and record
Add one line to the walk in form and the call script: "How did you hear about us?" The counsellor picks from the same fixed list. This takes ten seconds and gives you data that no tool can.
Step 3: Use fixed stages
Stages show where each enquiry stands. Keep them few and give each a clear rule.
| Stage | Rule to enter this stage |
|---|---|
| New | Enquiry received, not yet spoken to |
| Contacted | A counsellor has spoken or chatted with the family |
| Visit booked | A date for counselling or a demo class is fixed |
| Visited | The family came to the centre or attended the demo |
| Enrolled | Fee or first instalment received |
| Closed | Not interested, with a reason recorded |
Step 4: Respond fast and log every follow up
Speed matters because families compare institutes on the same day. A Harvard Business Review study of online sales leads put it plainly: most companies are not responding nearly fast enough. That research looked at companies in the United States in 2011, so treat it as a general lesson and measure your own response time.
For each follow up, note the date, the channel and the outcome, and set the next follow up date. If you need wording, use our WhatsApp follow up messages for coaching admission enquiries.
Step 5: Connect your website and ads
Two small steps make your online reports far more useful.
Mark the enquiry as a key event. Google Analytics describes a key event as an event that measures an action that is particularly important to the success of your business. Mark your form submission or thank you page as a key event so that reports count enquiries, not only visits.
Send admissions back to Google Ads. An enquiry is not an admission. Google Ads offers offline conversion imports, which let you measure what happens offline after an ad click or call. When you import enrolments, you can see which keywords bring students, not only form fills.
Step 6: Review these numbers every week
Enquiries by source.
Share of enquiries contacted on the same day.
Visits booked and visits completed.
Admissions by source.
Cost per admission by source.
Top three reasons for closed enquiries.
How to calculate cost per admission
Cost per admission is the spend on a channel divided by the admissions from that channel in the same period. Example with made up numbers: you spend Rs 60,000 on Google Ads in a month and 12 students who came from Google Ads enrol. Your cost per admission from Google Ads is Rs 5,000. Compare this with the fee and with other channels before you move budget.
Sheet or CRM?
A shared sheet is fine to begin with. It starts to fail when follow ups are missed, when two people edit the same row, or when the owner cannot see today's pending calls. At that point a CRM saves more than it costs. Whatever you choose, the rules above stay the same. For wider ideas on lead quality, read our post on how to generate high quality leads with digital marketing, and plan your season with our guide on how to plan an admission marketing campaign for a coaching institute.
Ready to move off registers and sheets? Start a free Genix One trial and set up your admission stages, sources and follow up reminders in one place.
