Summary

William Jewell, a small private college in Missouri, had a big problem: the majority of students paid their tuition late - sometimes very late - and they did not have the technology, tools or team they needed. A complicated process including downloading and cleaning data from Colleague, mail merging and sending out paper bills to some students and unread email reminders to others meant that most students credibly claimed they didn’t even know what they owed. They knew they needed to try something different and turned to Meadow to increase on time payments while decreasing workload and after just one billing cycle, saw a 47% increase in payments compared to the previous Fall. This case study talks about the problems they faced, the solutions they found and the results they achieved.

The Challenge

Sherry Hansen, Assistant Director of SFS at William Jewell College, has a lot more time than she used to - which is good news since her team went from three people in the 2023-24 SY to only two people in 2024-25 - and she spends it on a long list of things that used to just not get done. 

Looking back, the Student Financial Services team at William Jewell definitely had a capacity issue; but they also had a technology one.  The systems and tools they had required a lot of manual work, mail merges, and time intensive activities - many of which they found to be ineffective as well as inefficient.  

‍WATCH: Good old-fashioned mail merge

When the payment deadline came and went in 2023, 80% of students still had not paid all, or any, of their tuition.  Sending bills was difficult and involved mailing bills to first year students and hoping returning students would look in self-service. Weeks and months after the billing deadline, the numbers had moved, but not by as much as they wanted.  Many students never received a bill and those who did ignored it.  No one could set up a payment plan until the first day of school and then the process was manual for both the students and the school. Parents had trouble accessing the system, making it difficult for them to pay their student’s tuition.

“Our process was a logistical nightmare,” Hansen said.”It was very manual and intense labor. It would take me 3 to 4 days to put it all together. And it just was not a feasible solution. Which is why we were actively looking for a company that could assist us with everything related to billing.”

The Solution

Hansen and Tom Stuart, Director of SFS at William Jewell College, knew they needed to modernize their approach to student billing.  They were done with mail merges and sending out bills; done with manual payment plans and done with knowing that most students would not pay until they could not register.  They wanted something that was both student-friendly and would save them time, and that’s what they found in Meadow. 

Over the course of several months beginning in Winter 2024, Meadow worked closely with Hansen and Stuart to understand their challenges and come up with a plan to solve them that included:

• Integration with Meadow Pay and Ellucian Colleague so that students would have real-time access to their account balances and be able to pay their bills at any time
• Communications based on best practices and understanding of student behavior so that each student got the right message at the right time and through the right channel - without Hansen having to do a single mail merge or write a single email
• Self service payment plans which would auto rebalance and included autodraft
• Simple way for parents to access a student’s account and pay their student’s bills - with one time passwords and FERPA compliant practices 
• Daily reconciliation reports, access to a real-time dashboard, and the ability to log-in to support students in understanding their bills or making payments

Hansen and Stuart met weekly with Amy Jenkins, COO and Gareth Dismore, Head of Product,  to focus on communications and bill configuration while members of their IT team met with Pietro Rea, Head of Engineering and Jason Pyle, a Colleague expert.  

“The implementation process went very smoothly,” said Hansen.  “I was worried about the communications since we didn’t send many out before, but Meadow had these wonderful templates and these wonderful people helping write the emails,” she paused.  “You don’t know how much I appreciated that.  I hate writing emails.”

In July, everything was ready to go.

The Results

‍Engagement

Jewell launched Meadow Pay in the summer of 2024 as part of their Fall 2024 billing cycle.  One of their earliest emails, letting students know their bill was ready, had an open rate of 88% and a click rate of 51%.  The student engagement continued throughout the Fall - their worst performing email had an open rate of 80%.

Over the course of Fall billing, Meadow sent over 6,000 emails and each was targeted and personalized. Far more than the team was ever able to do on their own.

According to Hansen, the emails have helped.  Students know when their bills are due and what they owe.  She has received great feedback from families too. “Parents like the constant communications,” Hansen said. “They like the reminders that come through. They're not waiting for something to go to their student and then waiting for their student to then turn around and send it to them because these students are 18 to 22, they are still children. They don’t always forward that email.”‍

WATCH: The reminders

‍Family Involvement

The majority of Jewell students receive support from their parents - with many parents taking full responsibility for their child’s tuition so making it easier for parents to access their student’s account was a big priority.  “With our old system it was almost like it wasn't designed for the fact that, in a traditional college, such as William Jewell, the parents are the ones paying, not necessarily the students. The parents did not have access to see what they needed to see to make the payments.  This year, parents report it is a lot easier to get in and see their students’ bills; and students are happy that access to their finances doesn’t also mean access to their grades.”

‍Payment Plan Participation

Hansen and Stuart hoped to increase payment plan participation and Meadow exceeded expectations.  Jewell had 42 students signed up for payment plans in Spring 2024 before working with Meadow.  In Fall of 2024 just under 200 students signed up - a significant increase that Hansen attributes to the reminders and ease of use.

“Before we couldn’t track payment plans and students signed up just as a way to avoid paying,” Hansen said. “Now we are able to remind them “hey, you can sign up for a payment plan,” and they do and they use it to pay over time.”

‍On-time Payments

Jewell also saw a significant increase in on-time payments. 47% more students paid by the bill due date in 2024, compared to 2023.  “Student receivables is the lowest I have ever seen,” said Hansen.  “Before families waited until they could not register for the next semester to pay, but with Meadow they are paying earlier; a lot more students are paying on time and in full.”

Hours Saved

All the hours Hansen saved translated into her being able to take on new work and make sure things get done.  “I save so much time working with Meadow,” she said.  “Some of it is not having to do the manual work and send the emails but it is also less questions about what do I owe?”‍

WATCH: Hours and hours

Conclusion

A small team, Hansen and Stuart have a lot on their plates - they have limited resources at their disposal to support their students but don’t want that to be a reason to not serve them well.  Meadow Pay came at a time when they really needed it.  They wanted to improve the student experience, and increase on-time payments and payment plan use while decreasing workload and the only way to do it was through a tech-enabled solution.  In Meadow, they found both the technology they needed and a partner to work alongside them.

“You guys have been a godsend for us,” Hansen said. “Meadow Pay has allowed us to provide a much higher quality service to [students] than we could not provide before.”

WATCH: Filling the Gap

Their to-do lists remain long; but communicating with students, manually setting up payment plans, and chasing students to get them to pay on time? They’ve crossed all of that off their lists.