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Lead capture

Lead capture for higher education: forms, chat and WhatsApp

Web forms, website chat, WhatsApp and Messenger create inquiries on their own. Imports and manual entry handle recruitment fairs and campus visits, and the REST API connects your application portal. Each inquiry arrives labeled with its source and checked against the email addresses and phone numbers you already hold.

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  1. Lucas sends the inquiry form on a program page
  2. A new lead appears with Source: Website
  3. Add New Lead: a campus visitor, Source: Campus Event
  4. Create Lead: Sofia joins the list
  5. Import Leads: a recruitment fair's contact list
  6. Import Complete: 178 inserted, 6 duplicates skipped
  7. The fair's leads arrive with Source: Recruitment Fair
Recreated product screens with fictional sample data.

Program pages, fairs and your portal feed the same leads list.

At colleges and universities, the same student often arrives more than once. A graduate or international applicant might click a search ad, request details on the program page and message the international office on WhatsApp a week later. Each of those creates a lead, or joins the existing one when the email or phone number matches.

Embeddable web forms

Inquiry forms for program and landing pages, with CAPTCHA, spam protection and UTM capture.

Website chat widget

A chat window on your site that runs your admissions chatbot and creates an inquiry once the visitor shares an email or phone number.

WhatsApp and Messenger

A first message to your WhatsApp number or Facebook page creates an inquiry automatically.

Offline campaigns

Tag leads from recruitment fairs, high school visits and open houses with a campaign so they count toward the right source.

Manual entry

Add a walk-in at the admissions office, a phone note or an alumni referral by hand in a few fields.

CSV and Excel import

Fill in the import template with fair lists or legacy records and upload them in one go.

REST API

Create and read leads from your own systems with scoped keys, quotas and an IP allow-list.

Duplicate check at entry

A matching email or phone blocks a second manual record, is skipped on import and updates the lead from a web form.

Channel by channel

What the applicant does, and what admissions sees.

Pick a channel to see the student's side and the record it creates in higheredcrm.ai.

Forms that keep spam out and campaign data in

Embed an inquiry form on a program page, a school or department landing page or a graduate open house page. CAPTCHA and spam protection screen out bots, and the UTM values in the visitor's link are saved with the inquiry.
  • CAPTCHA and spam protection
  • UTM values saved with each inquiry
  • Embeds on program and landing pages
Saved with the inquiry:utm_source: searchutm_medium: cpcutm_campaign: fall-msc

A new lead opens with its first conversation attached.

A counselor calling back an international applicant can see the source and what the student already asked on WhatsApp or in the website chat before dialing.

Source, history and a duplicate check

The first message, the source and the owner, on one record.

The lead record shows where the inquiry came from, who owns it and each message since. Email and phone are checked on the way in, so a student who fills in a form and later writes on WhatsApp from the same number joins the lead that already exists.
  • Lead source shown on the record and in the list
  • WhatsApp, Messenger, chat, email and SMS in the communication log
  • Email and phone checked for duplicates at entry
  • Assigned by your routing rules the moment it arrives
See lead management and routing
Lead source: WhatsApp. Set automatically by the channel that created the inquiry.
First message kept. The conversation starts the communication log.

Source and campaign attribution

Know which channels and campaigns bring inquiries.

UTM values from web forms, campaign tags on recruitment fair and campus visit imports, and the channel behind each chat and message feed the organization dashboard, so the enrollment office can compare where leads and applications come from.
  • UTM capture on web forms
  • Campaign tags for fairs and visits
  • Leads and applications by source
  • Top performing channelsWebsite, WhatsApp, ads, fairs and referrals side by side.
  • From inquiry to enrolledThe stage funnel starts where capture ends.
See the admissions dashboards

From first click to first reply.

  1. 1

    Connect your channels

    Embed forms and the chat widget on program pages, connect your admissions WhatsApp and Messenger accounts, and issue an API key for your application portal.

  2. 2

    An inquiry is created

    A form, chat or message creates the inquiry automatically. Imports and manual entry handle recruitment fairs, walk-ins, phone inquiries and legacy data.

  3. 3

    Checked and labeled

    Email and phone are checked for an existing record, and the source, UTM values or offline campaign tag are saved with it.

  4. 4

    Assigned and answered

    Assignment rules pick a counselor, and a chatbot, auto-reply or workflow can send the first response while the student is still online.

What happens after an inquiry lands.

FAQ

Questions about capturing inquiries

What is inquiry management for universities?

It is how undergraduate, graduate and international admissions offices capture, record and answer the prospective students who contact them. In higheredcrm.ai, web forms, website chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, imports and the REST API create leads with their source recorded, and assignment rules give each one to a counselor as it arrives.

Which channels create a lead without anyone in admissions typing it in?

Embeddable web forms, the website chat widget, WhatsApp messages and Facebook Messenger messages. Phone calls work differently: a call from a number already on a lead is logged on that record, and a call from an unknown number is logged without creating a lead, so a counselor adds the caller by hand. Staff can also import CSV or Excel files, and your own systems can post leads through the REST API.

Can we embed forms on school, department and program pages without inviting spam?

Yes. Embed a form on any school, department, program or campaign landing page. Each form includes CAPTCHA and spam protection, so automated submissions are filtered out before counselors see them, and the UTM values and landing page from the visitor's link are stored on the lead.

How do we attribute inquiries to a search campaign or a recruitment fair?

Web forms save utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term and utm_content from the visitor's link. For recruitment fairs, high school visits and campus open houses, set the source, medium and campaign on each row of your import. The organization dashboard then compares leads and applications by channel.

What happens when an applicant inquires at a fair and then again online?

higheredcrm.ai matches on email address or phone number within the campus. Adding a lead by hand shows a warning with a link to the match and stops the second record. An import skips duplicates and lists them in its results report. A repeat web form submission updates the existing lead and logs a re-inquiry, and a WhatsApp, Messenger or chat message attaches to the existing lead. There is no merge tool, so the check happens at entry.

Can we load fair lists and records from our previous CRM?

Yes. Download the import template, fill in one row per contact and upload it as a CSV or Excel file of up to 50,000 rows; large files are processed in the background. Custom fields such as program of interest go in their own columns. When the import finishes, a results report shows what was added and which rows were skipped.

Can our application portal send inquiries through the API, and what will IT review?

Yes. Your portal can create and read leads through the public REST API. Each API key carries only the scopes that integration needs, has its own request quota and can be limited to your servers with an IP allow-list. Keys can be rotated or revoked at any time, and the developers page has the details your IT team will ask for.

How do responses from social and search lead ads reach admissions?

Export the responses and import them as a CSV or Excel file with the source and campaign set on each row, or have your own integration post them through the REST API. Either way, each lead keeps its source and goes through the same duplicate check.

Admissions terms on this page

Follow a program-page inquiry to the counselor who owns it.

Bring one of your program pages and a recent fair list. We'll submit a form, send a WhatsApp message and run the import together, then open each new lead to show its source, the duplicate check and the counselor it went to.

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