The Right Message at the Right Moment: How Smarter Enrollment Operations Boost Retention and Student Success

Student success starts with the right conversation. By uniting data, technology, and human connection, institutions can shift from reactive outreach to proactive engagement that strengthens trust, equity, and long-term retention.

Every Student Is a Story, Not a Segment

“On the other side of every data point, every phone number, every email address, there’s a person behind it,” says Ryan Villwok, Senior Director of Enrollment Operations & Strategy at Noodle. “Every person is looking for some type of individual approach that really focuses on them.”

Every prospective student brings unique motivations, barriers, and timelines. The more institutions understand those individual contexts, the more effectively they can communicate in ways that drive both equity and efficiency.

That means moving beyond one-size-fits-all outreach and focusing on right contact, right person, right time. Timing and segmentation aren’t marketing buzzwords. They’re core to providing fair, human-centered support.

Noodle’s Tips to Personalize Messages

• Avoid generic or mistimed outreach (like prompting an application reminder when the learner already submitted it)
• Segment communications by motivation or circumstance rather than just demographics: career changers, first-generation learners, working professionals, employer-sponsored students
• Build feedback loops between marketing, enrollment, and advising teams so data is current and actionable

Abe Perry, Senior Vice President of Enrollment at Noodle, takes it one step further. “We get asked a lot about our script,” she says. “There isn’t one. What we have is a framework that lets every conversation feel unique to that student. We train our advisors to connect program outcomes back to what that specific prospect needs—so it’s natural, not rehearsed.”

When institutions tailor communication to individual goals and stages, they create trust. And trust keeps prospective students engaged through application, enrollment, and beyond.

Technology as an Enabler of Human Connection

Technology isn’t a replacement for connection. It’s an amplifier. The right tools allow teams to deliver personal, timely communication at scale. But technology alone can’t fix fractured processes or unaligned teams.

“Technology needs to do what technology does so people can do what people do,” says Villwok. “At the foundation of enrollment is making human one-to-one connections. Technology allows us to do that at scale.”

For a deeper look at how to align data, systems, and people to make those one-to-one connections scalable, read Beyond the Nudge: How Data-Informed Strategies Drive Enrollment, Retention, and Product Growth.

Technology helps generate rich data about learner behavior and needs, which gives institutions the ability to spot trends, identify risk, and make smarter decisions about where to invest time and resources. But only when infrastructure, people, and processes are designed to serve the student’s experience. An effective foundation looks like:

• Connected systems: CRMs, chatbots, and marketing automation tools that share data and context.
• Smart triggers: Automated reminders and nudges that free advisors for higher-value conversations.
• Human oversight: Enrollment teams who use intelligent data to guide empathy—not replace it.

It’s more important to be effective than efficient. Before introducing AI or automation, institutions should ensure their data pipelines are clean and integrated. Otherwise, they risk creating new barriers instead of removing them.

Retention as a System

Institutions often treat retention as a post-enrollment concern. But retention starts with a learner’s very first interaction. According to Kevin Phang, VP of Partnership Development for Marketing & Enrollment at Noodle, “students have one experience—and it’s with the institution, not with one department at a time. Our goal is to help every handoff feel invisible so students never feel like they’re starting over.”

When marketing, enrollment, and student support teams operate in silos, learners feel it. They’re asked to repeat information or receive duplicate or conflicting messages. And those friction points can turn into attrition points.

The most effective institutions treat the learner journey as a single, unified experience. Advisors, success coaches, and marketing teams share access to the same CRM data, so learners never feel like they’re starting over:

• Enrollment teams capture the “educational why” behind each student’s goals.
• Support teams reference that same data to personalize coaching and motivation.
• Faculty and administrators gain a clearer understanding of learner needs and obstacles.

That connected journey doesn’t just improve retention. It models the kind of thoughtful, individualized attention that today’s learners expect from every service in their lives.

Aligning People, Process, and Technology

“If we have technology no one can use, it’s not impactful,” says Villwok. “Or if we have great people but not the tools they need, that’s a challenge too. The power comes from aligning all three—people, process, and technology—intentionally, based on what the partner actually needs.”

More than just aligning all three, institutions need to be able to strategically adjust them to create better learner experiences:

People:

Advisors and coaches trained to adapt (instead of reciting scripts) so every conversation feels natural, informed, and relevant.

Process:

Workflows that prevent duplication, delays, and missed opportunities. Regular debriefs between departments turn anecdotal advisor insights into institutional improvements.

Technology:

Systems that connect data across the entire learning lifecycle, so insights from marketing inform advising, and advising informs academic strategy.

When these levers work in concert, communication becomes consistent, intentional, and measurable. Institutions gain the agility to respond quickly to trends while maintaining the personal touch that keeps students connected.

Moving From Reactive to Proactive Outreach

Traditional enrollment communication tends to be reactive: sending reminders when deadlines pass or re-engaging students only after they’ve gone silent. Predictive analytics, engagement scoring, and automated alerts, however, make it possible to act before disengagement sets in.

Proactive communication is also equitable communication. By using data to identify who’s at risk and when, institutions can offer timely nudges and resources that help every learner stay on track.

“All the small stuff matters,” according to Villwok. “It’s every intentional moment, from the first inquiry to the alumni stage, that creates real results.” Start with small, meaningful changes:

• Identify “moments that matter” in your funnel: inquiry follow-up, application completion, financial aid verification, and orientation prep.
• Track where delays most often occur, and automate personalized reminders to prevent them.
• Use engagement data to prioritize advisor outreach—so no student slips through the cracks.

These small, intentional interventions compound into measurable gains in persistence, satisfaction, and institutional trust.

Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Across higher education, there’s a growing willingness to experiment and listen. Institutions are recognizing that meaningful change requires a readiness to test new ideas, challenge assumptions, and learn from outcomes. That openness creates opportunity—for innovation, for collaboration, and for deeper alignment around shared student success goals.

Perry believes “there are a lot of institutions willing to take the risk of the unknown. They may not always choose Noodle, but they’re listening—and that willingness to listen opens the door to real innovation.” To sustain that real and lasting innovation:

• Revisit communication strategies each term to identify new bottlenecks.
• Encourage advisors to share qualitative insights with marketing and faculty.
• Measure what matters: outcomes, not just activity.

When institutions treat every process as an opportunity to learn and improve, retention becomes less about crisis management and more about community care.

The Bottom Line

Every message matters. Every data point tells a story. And every student interaction is a chance to turn insight into impact. By uniting people, processes, and technology around data-informed communication, institutions can replace fragmented, reactive outreach with intentional, proactive engagement that supports every learner’s journey from inquiry to alumni.

As institutions align their data, timing, and human insight, enrollment and retention stop being separate goals and start becoming shared successes.

Abe Perry, Senior Vice President of Enrollment at Noodle, advances Noodle’s mission to lower the cost of education and drive change across higher ed. With nearly 15 years of experience in edtech leadership, she builds strategic partnerships, inspires teams, and delivers measurable growth and engagement.

 Kevin Phang, VP of Partnership Development for Marketing & Enrollment at Noodle, has over 15 years of experience in digital marketing. With roles at QuinStreet and HotChalk, he brings expertise in creating impactful solutions by balancing the needs of learners and institutions.

Ryan Villwok, Senior Director of Enrollment Operations & Strategy at Noodle, leads data-driven initiatives that strengthen performance, agility, and partnership outcomes across the enrollment portfolio. With more than a decade in higher education and workforce learning, he specializes in scalable systems, strategic planning, and learner-centered operations.

Noodle is the leading tech-enabled strategy and services partner for higher education. A certified B corporation, Noodle (founded in 2013) has developed infrastructure and online enrollment growth for some of the best academic institutions in the world. Noodle empowers universities to transform the world through life-changing learning. It offers strategic consulting to advise partners as they navigate their futures, provides services tailored to meet their growth aspirations, and deploys technology, tools, and platforms that integrate for scale, making our partners more resilient, responsive, efficient, and interconnected.