Secret shopping update: Many prospective students still applying without inquiring beforehand

New data from the 2012 Student Recruitment Funnel Benchmarks Report show that the number of “secret shoppers” – prospective students who research institutions online and don’t identify themselves before applying – may be leveling off among first-year students at both private and public four-year institutions.

Despite this stabilization, the above illustration shows that secret shoppers still make up a significant portion of all incoming first-year and transfer students at four-year institutions, where approximately one-third of first-year students and nearly half of all transfer students are now failing to identify themselves before submitting an application.

In the new report, we examine secret shopper trends at four-year institutions, starting in 2005. Since 2010 the percentage of first-year students who do not identify themselves seems to be leveling off or only increasing slightly.

The percentage of transfer students acting as secret shoppers in 2012 increased at both private and public four-year institutions.  In 2012, 48 percent and 62 percent of transfer students at private and public institutions, respectively, were unidentified prior to their application. This is up from 44 percent and 59 percent, respectively, in 2011.

The secret shopper trend has many implications for enrollment teams. For example, to more accurately forecast inquiry-to-applicant conversion rates, Noel-Levitz recommends separately tracking the students who make application before inquiry vs. those who inquire before making application. Why? Because the former group obviously converts at 100 percent while the latter group converts at much lower percentages, e.g. 10 percent at the median for four-year private institutions and 22 percent at the median for four-year public institutions for first-time-in-college (FTIC) students. Please see page 5 of the report for more details.

How is your campus tackling the secret shopper challenge? Are you finding ways to “capture” the contact information of more secret shoppers before they apply? Do you know how to use the new benchmarks in our report to improve your recruitment process and enrollment forecasting?  Discuss your approach with an expert by e-mailing contactus@noellevitz.com for a complimentary consultation by phone or leave a comment below.