About round robin admission counselor assignment

Campus Cafe can automatically assign an admission counselor to an individual interested in attending your institution (prospect) or an applicant for admissions.

Campus Cafe offers two, mutually exclusive, automated methods of assigning counselors. 

Prerequisites 

• Counselor exists as person. Create Faculty/Staff Record.

• Person has user account and permission group. Permissions.

• Person configured as admissions counselor in STParms. Set up Admissions Counselor.

Required permissions

Option 1: Counselor assignment maintenance

This method is ideal for basic assignment based on a simple round robin assignment scheme where Campus Cafe loops through all available counselors. This method also supports assignment based on the the inquirer or applicant's zip code or the College Board's Enrollment Planning Service (EPS) market.

Turn on auto assignment

1. Go to Admin > Custom Control.

2. In Search enter AUTOCOUNSL.

3. Click the pencil.

4. In Parameter Value 1 enter Y.

5. In Parameter Value 2 enter Y.

6. Click Save.

7. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.

8. Optionally set the criteria for how assignments are made, either by zip code or EPS market.

Assign counselors by zip

1. Go to Admissions > Counselor Assignment.

2. Click Admissions Zip Range Lookup.

3. Click New Record.

4. In Zip From enter the starting number for the Zip code range.

5. In Zip To enter the last number for the Zip code range.

6. In Counselor select the counselor responsible for the range of Zip codes.

7. Click Create.

8. Repeat steps 3-7 for each Zip code range.

Assign counselors by EPS market

1. Go to Admissions > Counselor Assignment.

2. Click EPS Counselor Lookup.

3. Click New Record.

4. In EPS Geomarket enter the EPS market code.

5. In Counselor select the counselor responsible for the market.

6. Click Create.

7. Repeat steps 3-6 for each EPS market

Option 2: Round robin counselor maintenance

This method is designed for counselor assignment based on complex business processes. This method also optionally supports changing the counselor assignment to another counselor if the initial counselor does not act on the record within a defined time period. After being reassigned, the the process will not assign a prospect to the initial counselor again. If a prospect is ready for reassignment but there are no active counselors available, the lead assignment is not changed, it stays with the same counselor.

If an existing prospect has an admissions progress code of applied and submits a new application, the admissions counselor will always remain the same.

Configuration

• Prospects (leads) subject to round robin assignment are based on the lead's admissions progress code. Custom control AUTOCOUNSL, Sequence 1, Parameter Value 7 specifies the admission progress codes. Use a comma to separate admissions progress codes. For example, to have the round robin assignment apply only to the inquired admissions progress code, enter I. For the round robin assignment to apply to prospects with the admissions progress codes of inquired (I) and applied (Y), enter I,Y

• To be assigned, leads must have an inquiry date that is not more than the specified number of days from current date. The number of days before lead is considered too old for counselor reassignment is defined in Custom Control AUTOCOUNSL, Sequence 1, Parameter 6.

• Leads that do not meet any counselor rule will be assigned to the counselor specified in Custom Control WEBINQCOUN, Sequence 1, Parameter 1

• Test leads are skipped by the process. Test leads have a first or last name with the substring value defined in Custom Control AUTOCOUNSL, Sequence 1, Parameter 5. 

• Leads that have been previously assigned will be reassigned after so many minutes if the lead is not being worked. The number of minutes before reassignment is defined in Custom Control AUTOCONSL, Sequence 1, Parameter Value 4. To prevent a lead from being reassigned the counselor needs to change the progress code to something other than I.

Turn on auto assignment

1. Go to Admin > Custom Control.

2. In Search enter AUTOCOUNSL.

3. Click the pencil.

4. In Parameter Value 1 enter N.

5. In Parameter Value 2 enter N.

6. In Parameter Value 3 enter Y.

7. Click Save.

8. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.

Counselor assignment rules

1. Go to Admissions > Round Robin.

2. In Counselor Code select the admissions counselor.

3. Click Add.

   • Administrative Active: Set Yes for the counselor to be active for round robin assignment.

   • Counselor Active: This field is updated by the counselor on his or her Admission Dashboard page by indicating he or she is available for assignment. This value must be Yes to be active for round robin assignment. Counselor must be set as administrative active to see the link on the Admissions Dashboard to allow them to accept leads.

   • Default Assignment: Set to Yes to indicate a default counselor. If a lead is being assigned a counselor for the first time and there are no active counselors available, then a default counselor is assigned. The Exclude/Include values can be used to restrict default counselors to leads meeting specific criteria. The active counselor fields do not apply (active counselor, start/end hours, max assignments). There can be more than 1 default counselor. Leads are never reassigned to default counselors.

   • Last Assignment Sequence: Campus Cafe assigns a counselor a sequential value each time he or she is assigned a lead. The counselor with the lowest value will be the first counselor for assignment.

   • Max Assignments Per Day: A numerical value indicating the most leads assigned to the counselor in one day. Once this limit has been met, no more leads will be assigned to the counselor. This limit only counts current day leads assigned to a counselor. This means the lead inquiry date must match the current date. If a lead is reassigned to another counselor, the lead assignment is no longer counted toward the original counselor’s limit. To not use a limit, set the field to a high value (e.g. 99999).

   • Start Work Time and End Work Time: If using work hours, then counselors must indicate on the Admissions Dashboard they are active and ready to accept leads. Hours are used to automatically turn off the counselor active flag outside of work hours. To not use the work hours logic, set the counselors start and end times to zero. This will mean the counselor active flag will not be reset each day. The format is 24-hour notation HHMM. For example, to set work hours to be 9AM to 5PM, then use 0900 for start work time and 1700 for end work time. All time is Eastern Time zone, counselors working in other time zones will need to convert their times.

4. Tell Campus Cafe which prospects the counselor should receive:
   The Include/Exclude Logic fields are counselor specific - defining that a counselor's major code includes ACC, FIN, and ENG means that counselor will only be eligible to be assigned to that major. Other counselors with no restrictions will also be eligible for assignment to those majors as well. To ensure that a counselor or group of counselors will be assigned to a specific group of students, the include/exclude rules should be defined for all counselors. For example, Counselor 1 is only to be assigned to ACC, FIN, and ENG majors, but Counselor 2 can be assigned to ENG, PHIL, and RELG majors, both would need those lists as their respective INCLUDE majors. A third counselor who can be assigned to all except those 5 majors would need their “exclude” to include all 5 who have specific counselors defined. A counselor with no Major restrictions will be eligible for, and assigned to, any and all majors, depending upon their last assigned value (lowest last assigned value is assigned next, provided no other restriction requirements are in conflict.)

   • Exclude/Include States: Include will assign the states in the State Values box to the counselor. Exclude will exclude the states in the State Filter Values box from being assigned to the counselor. Leave blank (-- choose one --) if this rule does not apply.

   • State Values: States to include or exclude from assignment to the counselor. Use the two-digit US Postal Service state abbreviation. Separate states with a pipe | and put a | at the start and end. For example, for Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut enter |RI|MA|CT| Leave field blank for no restrictions.

   • Exclude/Include Sites: Include will assign the admissions sites in the Site Values box to the counselor. Exclude will exclude the admissions sites in the Sites Filter Values box from being assigned to the counselor. Leave blank (-- choose one --) if this rule does not apply.

   • Site Values: Enter the numerical codes associated with the admissions sites to include or exclude from assignment to the counselor. Separate sites with a pipe | and put a | at the start and end. For example, for sites 02 and 04 enter |02|04| Leave field blank for no restrictions.

   • Exclude/Include Veteran Codes: Include will assign the veteran codes in the Veteran Code Values box to the counselor. Exclude will exclude the veteran codes in the Veteran Code Values box from being assigned to the counselor. Leave blank (-- choose one --) if this rule does not apply.

   • Veteran Code Values: Enter the veteran codes. Veteran codes are set in STParm SBVTCD. Separate veteran codes with a pipe | and put a | at the start and end.

   • Exclude/Include Major Codes: Include will assign the major codes in the Major Code Values box to the counselor. Exclude will exclude the major codes in the Major Code Values box from being assigned to the counselor. Leave blank (-- choose one --) if this rule does not apply.

   • Major Code Values: Enter the Major codes, starting with a pipe | and including pipes between each code, and at the end of the list. Major codes are defined in the Major Configuration.

   • Exclude/Include Trk Templates: Include will assign the activity tracking templates in the Trk Template Header Values box to the counselor. Exclude will exclude the activity tracking templates in the Trk Template Header Values box from being assigned to the counselor. Leave blank (-- choose one --) if this rule does not apply.

   • Trk Template Header Values: The activity tracking Header ID numbers to include or exclude from assignment to the counselor. Separate values with a pipe | and put a | at the start and end. Leave field blank for no restrictions.

5. Click Save.

6. Repeat for each counselor.