For Immediate Release: October 1, 2003

Parthenon Builds Customer Tracking and Relationship Tools for CEDU

Parthenon Publishing has designed and implemented a customer tracking tool to help CEDU Emotional Growth Schools and Programs improve communications with potential clients and referral sources.

This new tool helps CEDU, which runs therapeutic programs for teens, utilize the Web for two-way communications with potential clients from the time they visit the site, and continuing through when they are enrolled in the school, according to Anastasia Holdren, Parthenon's digital media director.

When a parent of a troubled teen looks for help, they increasingly look to the Web for answers. Many times they find one of the 10 CEDU Web sites. CEDU schools and programs provide education beyond the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic by addressing a teen's developmental, academic, and social needs. The schools and programs offer a blend of personal and emotional growth, challenging academics, and practical learning opportunities.

CEDU wanted to improve its referrals that came from parents who visited the company's Web sites. Before the referral database, CEDU's tracking of Web referrals was based on human reporting from various personnel, an inexact method. To help them better quantify their Web leads, and maintain high customer service, Parthenon designed, created and implemented a customer tracking tool.

The customer tracking tool allows CEDU to review client communications from 10 Web sites in a centralized administration area. The Web-based tool captures information submitted by site visitors and allows authorized CEDU personnel to review each communication and respond as requested. The tool allows CEDU to keep an accurate historical record of all online communications and measure site performance.

"Before the referral tracking tool was in place, communications from the CEDU Web sites were e-mailed to different admissions contacts," says Holdren. "But e-mails can get lost in the shuffle, and it was difficult to get an accurate numbers of responses. The new tool allows CEDU to easily track all site communications. And, it gathers information that will help CEDU better understand a prospect's issues, which can help them recommend appropriate schools or programs for the child."

As of October 2003, more than 1,500 requests for information have been collected through CEDU's referral tracking tool.

"We're proud to have worked with CEDU to implement this response tracking tool," Holdren says. "As we had hoped, the number of Web referrals was higher than they had believed, and continues to grow in number."

CEDU offers emotional growth programs that focus on improving the lives of troubled teens and their families. Founded in 1967, CEDU's Emotional Growth Schools are the leading providers of therapeutic programs for adolescents with emotional or behavioral problems.

Parthenon Publishing Inc. provides custom publishing services-the creation of magazines, newsletters and digital media-to foster stronger relationships between corporations and their customers.