About Richard Bland College

Richard Bland College (RBC) is a two-year institution located in Virginia, offering rolling admissions and a strong emphasis on access and opportunity. As competition in higher education grows and student expectations shift toward instant, personalized experiences, RBC knew it needed to modernize its enrollment strategy.

For Justin May, RBC’s Chief Officer of Enrollment Management, that meant stepping away from legacy systems and rethinking everything — from CRM workflows to how the college interacts with prospective students.

The Challenge: A CRM That Slowed Everything Down

When Justin joined RBC, he brought over a decade of experience from the for-profit sector — where speed, service, and systems are everything. He quickly discovered RBC’s enrollment tools weren’t keeping up.

“Salesforce had been customized for us, but it was clunky and working against us,” Justin said. “The average student pipeline was 117 days. Everything was manual.”

Counselors were spending precious time cross-checking documents, moving files, and processing applications — not engaging with students. The process was slow and impersonal, and it was costing RBC both time and prospective enrollments.

Worse, it didn’t match the expectations of Gen Z students, who value high-quality digital experiences and rapid responses.

“I didn’t want us to be another school resting on name or tradition. We needed to hunt — and to win, we needed better tools.”

The Solution: Speed, Experience, and Innovation with Element451

Justin originally passed on Element451 after an early demo — it didn’t yet have everything he needed. But six months later, when an Element451 account executive reconnected, everything had changed.

“It was night and day. The aesthetics, the workflows, the roadmap — it was clear the Element451 team was serious about pushing forward.”

Justin was sold on the platform’s unique features, which led to securing a sole-source contract approval. To ensure a smooth transition, RBC adopted a phased implementation approach. The contract was signed in January, and the team spent the spring building out the system. By September 14, 2024, the platform was fully launched—just in time for Fall 2025 recruitment.

The Results: Faster, Smarter, More Personal

Reduced Processing Time

Manual tasks that took 15–30 minutes per student now happen in minutes — or are fully automated.

“An application comes in, and within moments, it's evaluated and admitted if it meets our criteria. Our counselors now get to make the fun call — not do the paperwork.”

More Counselor Impact

With automation relieving the administrative burden, RBC’s counselors were able to focus on high-impact work like recruiting and converting students. As a result, they completed over 1,000 high school visits this year—up from 850 the year before. Additionally, one part-time processing role was reassigned to support more strategic initiatives, further enhancing the team’s effectiveness.

Enrollment Funnel Growth

Application volume is “through the roof,” driven by the power of Common App Direct and improved marketing reach. Despite national enrollment headwinds, deposit trends are keeping pace with RBC’s best-ever year, signaling strong performance across the funnel.

What’s Next

RBC is just getting started. The team is now expanding Element451 beyond admissions, bringing its capabilities to departments like Student Success, Residence Life, and Student Accounts. They’re also exploring new innovations, including voice-enabled AI assistants to provide after-hours support, campaign audit tools to assess tone, frequency, and effectiveness, and smart send-time optimization to improve the timing of emails and texts.

“The platform adapts to how our students behave. That’s next-level.”