Choosing the Right CRM for Higher Education

Every university knows how challenging it can be to manage the complex web of relationships with prospects, students, alumni and donors. That’s why choosing the right Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform is such a crucial decision.

From improving enrolment outcomes to enabling more personalised student engagement, the right CRM can make all the difference — but not all CRMs are built for higher education.

So, what should you look out for?

Below, we outline four key considerations to help you choose a CRM that fits the unique needs of your institution:

• Ease of implementation
• Support and updates
• Total cost of ownership
• Industry-specific functionality

Let’s break each one down.

1. Ease of Implementation

Some CRMs, like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, offer huge flexibility — but that flexibility comes at a cost. These tools are built for general use, meaning they require extensive custom development to support higher education workflows.

For many institutions, this means:

• Long implementation timelines — sometimes over a year.
• Additional resource costs — often needing full-time developers.
• Steep learning curves — especially for staff unfamiliar with CRM platforms.

If the CRM has been heavily customised, training becomes another challenge. There may be no off-the-shelf guides or documentation, so you’ll have to create your own.

By contrast, a CRM built for higher education will have intuitive workflows out of the box — which saves time, reduces cost, and simplifies adoption.

‍

2. Support and Updates

Support is non-negotiable. Your admissions and marketing teams rely on your CRM every day, so when something goes wrong, a strong support team should be ready to help.

But here’s the catch — with generic CRMs, the more customisations you add, the harder it is for the vendor to support you effectively. You may end up stuck between your internal development team and your CRM provider, with neither able to help quickly.

You should also be aware of versioning. Some CRMs release multiple versions, and if your customisation is version-specific, you may be unable to upgrade without significant cost.

Look for:

• Responsive, expert support teams.
• Transparent update cycles.
• A platform that doesn’t lock you into outdated versions.

Top Tip: If you’re choosing a CRM with custom versioning, ask the vendor to guarantee support for your version for a minimum time frame.

‍

3. Total Cost of Ownership

Beyond the licensing fee, there are several hidden costs to consider:

• Development costs for customisation.
• Internal or external training expenses.
• Support or maintenance costs.
• Additional tools to fill functionality gaps.

Some CRMs charge per user, while others charge per student. If your student base grows, make sure the pricing model scales sustainably — ideally, with marginal discounts as numbers rise.

An education-specific CRM may appear more expensive initially, but will often prove more cost-effective in the long term because it eliminates the need for expensive workarounds.

‍

4. Industry-Specific Functionality

Higher education isn’t like other industries — and your CRM should reflect that. Look for features built around your institution’s unique processes.

These include:

• Admissions and enrolment tracking — to see where each prospect sits in the funnel.
• Application management — including review workflows, interviews and status updates.
• Built-in payment tracking — so you can manage tuition and deposits in one place.
• Reporting and analytics — tailored to key recruitment metrics and applicant behaviour.

A CRM built for commercial sales teams will struggle to support these needs without heavy modification — and that can introduce technical debt over time.

‍

Why Full Fabric?

We built Full Fabric specifically for higher education institutions — with a mission to simplify recruitment, admissions and student lifecycle management.

Here’s how we compare:

• Ease of Implementation: Full Fabric is ready out of the box with pre-built higher ed workflows and data migration support.
• Support and Updates: Our support team are experts in both the product and the industry. We also provide a rich knowledge base and regular feature updates.
• Cost: No hidden maintenance fees. Transparent pricing and scalable plans.
• Purpose-Built Features: From lead capture and application workflows to payment tracking and communication tools.

We’re more than just a CRM. Full Fabric is a unified platform designed to help you deliver a seamless experience to prospects, applicants and students alike.

Ready to simplify your student recruitment process? Schedule a free demo today.