1. Overview of Agencies
In today’s highly competitive education consultancy market, effective client management is crucial for driving growth and delivering a seamless experience to students. Education CRMs play a pivotal role in helping consultants manage student data, streamline processes, and enhance communication with both students and partner institutions. Two of the leading platforms in this space are Agentcis and Meritto Education CRM. Both CRMs are designed specifically for education consultants, offering an array of features to optimize operations. However, each platform has its own strengths and unique capabilities.
In this blog, we will compare Agentcis and Meritto Education CRM, examining their key features, user experience, and overall suitability to help you choose the right solution for your consultancy.
Key Features of Agentcis:
Client & Application Management: Agentcis allows consultancies to manage every aspect of the client journey, from initial inquiry to visa approval. It offers tools to track applications, upload documentation, and monitor progress.
- Visa and Compliance Tracking: Agentcis provides built-in tools for monitoring visa applications, helping consultancies ensure they are meeting compliance requirements and deadlines.
- Financial Management: The CRM also includes a finance module that helps track commission payments and invoices, simplifying the financial side of the consultancy business.
- Automated Workflows: Agentcis enables users to automate routine tasks like follow-ups and reminders, improving team productivity.
Analytics & Reporting: The platform comes with a robust reporting dashboard, allowing consultancy owners to get insights into their operations, performance metrics, and client satisfaction levels.
Usability:
Agentcis is an easy to use platform as the user interface allows both new and experienced users to maneuver around the platform. In addition, this also provides the students with extended customer support such as setup help, which makes the process of onboarding easier.
Integrations:
Unlike most automation and integrations, Agentcis can work with email providers like Gmail and Outlook, accounting systems like Xero and Quickbooks and even ERPs such as Sage 50
2. Overview of Meritto Education CRM
Formerly known as NoPaperForms, Meritto is one of the biggest CRMs in the education sector in India. It’s known by many universities, schools or education consultants, giving them a suite of features that help to speed up the student recruitment, engagement and enrolment processes.
Key Features of Meritto:
Lead Management & Segmentation: Meritto offers powerful lead management tools that allow education consultancies to capture, segment, and nurture leads efficiently. This feature helps prioritize high-intent prospects and improve conversion rates.
- Omnichannel Communication: With Meritto, consultancies can engage with students via email, SMS, WhatsApp, and social media, ensuring timely communication across platforms.
- Automation & Workflows: Similar to Agentcis, Meritto offers extensive automation features, allowing users to automate follow-ups, reminders, and drip campaigns to keep potential students engaged.
- Application Tracking System: Meritto's ATS enables consultants to track student applications, monitor progress, and flag any potential issues or delays in real time.
- Customizable Dashboards: The platform provides customizable dashboards, allowing consultancies to track key metrics like application submissions, enrollment numbers, and conversion rates.
Payment Integration: Meritto comes with an integrated payment gateway, enabling consultancies to manage application fees and other payments directly through the platform.
Usability:
Meritto is optimal for growth consultancies looking for a flexible CRM solution. It features an easy-to-use interface, but users report a steeper learning curve than Agentcis, thanks to its wider range of features.
Integrations:
With support from popular marketing tools like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other email marketing programs, Meritto simplifies the work of consultancies which emphasize digital marketing.
3. Feature Comparison: Agentcis vs Meritto
While both Agentcis and Meritto offer robust CRM features for education consultancies, there are some key differences in their approach to student management and communication.
Feature | Agencies | Meritto |
Lead Management | Basic lead management with limited segmentation | Advanced lead management with segmentation and nurturing tools |
Application Tracking | Comprehensive visa compliance tracking | Strong ATS but focused on admission progress |
Communication Tools | Primarily email and SMS | Omnichannel (Email, SMS, WhatsApp, social media) |
Automation | Workflow automation for tasks | Extensive automation for tasks, follow-ups, and drip campaigns |
Finance/Payments | Finance module with invoicing and commission tracking | Integrated payment gateway for managing fees |
Customizable Dashboards | Limited customization | Highly customizable dashboards |
Integrations | Basic (Gmail, Outlook, Xero) | Advanced (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, email marketing tools) |
4. Pricing
Pricing is always a key consideration when choosing a CRM. Here's a comparison based on the available pricing models:
In Agentcis, you’ll find flexible pricing plans are offered, tailored for whatever size of consultancy you may work with. Usually, it offers a quote-based pricing structure so that it can be scaled up whenever required. Often, if you don’t have a huge budget available, like smaller consultancies or anyone starting, Agentcis is a cheaper option.
Like most SaaS providers, Meritto offers subscription-based pricing, along with various consultation fees that depend on the size of the consultancy and specific feature needs. However, Meritto's pricing leans toward the higher end for consultancies that require advanced lead management, marketing automation, and multi-channel communication capabilities.
5. Customer Support
Both Agentcis and Meritto offer strong customer support options, but they differ in scope and availability.
Customer support from Agentcis is good with email, phone and live chat. Fast response times and beautiful personalized service make them a great option for smaller consultancies that need a little extra help.
On the other end, Meritto provides a more thorough support program that includes documentation, webinars, and a knowledge base for learning at your own pace. They come with phone and email support, but some users have complained about slower response times.
6. Scalability
One key difference between these platforms is scalability:
For small to medium-sized consultancies, Agentcis in most cases is a better fit. Sure, it scales, but not as well as Meritto when it comes to dealing with large lead volumes or carrying advanced marketing tools.
As a scalability-focused solution, Meritto can handle thousands of leads, while supporting consultancies scaling big and fast. Consultancies looking to expand in the coming years will find its advanced lead nurture and segmentation tools ideal.
7. Marketing Focus
Another area of distinction is their marketing approach:
Meritto has a good thing going with their strong focus on marketing automation and deep integrations with Google Ads, Facebook Ads and more. This is great for consultancies that have a lot of lead generating and nurturing done through many multi-channel marketing campaigns.
Agentcis though was created with basic automation capabilities, it was meant to help streamline the consultancy’s operations (visa and client management), Rather than aggressive marketing strategies.
8. Customization Level
In terms of customization:
Customization of Agentcis is more limited to process tracking and client workflows may be enough if your needs are simple for a small consultancy.
If consultancies or complex operations are needed, Meritto offers far deeper customization in dashboards, communication templates, workflow design, and so forth, and this is its strong point.
9. Which CRM is Right for Your Consultancy?
Choosing between Agentcis and Meritto depends largely on your consultancy’s size, specific needs, and growth trajectory.
If you are a small to mid-sized consultancy with weak tech resources and need an affordable user-friendly CRM with strong control over visa compliance and financial management then Agentcis is the way to go. It is priced reasonably and includes necessary functions without clashing the user with an editing system full of complex configurations.
For consultancies looking to scale or for larger consultancies, Meritto is ideal. Meritto may be better if your digital marketing integrations, lead nurturing, and omnichannel communication are important to you as a member of the consultancy. If you are a consultant dealing with high lead volumes, its powerful automation and customizable dashboards make it a strong contender for you.
Conclusion
Agentcis is great for education consultancies but Meritto is better suited for greater needs. Meritto does better in the areas of marketing automation and lead management, whilst Agentcis is strongest in client management and compliance. The decision you make should be based on how big your consultancy is now, how big you want (or need) the consultancy to be in the future, and what your budget constraints are. If you value financial tracking and compliance, Agentcis may be for you; if lead nurturing and growth are what you prioritize, & you have the budget, Meritto is probably the best option.