How can universities benefit from live chat software?

Every year, around 700,000 people go through the UCAS system, looking for a spot at the university of their choice. More than 380 universities and colleges take part in the scheme, which has been running since 1993.

For educational institutions, matching hundreds of thousands of applicants to courses is necessary, but it puts tremendous strain on their administrative resources. Universities and colleges must dedicate entire teams to managing and processing candidate questions, requests, and applications.

Now, though, live chat for businesses is making the jump to the educational realm. Institutions are using it to streamline communication with candidates and reduce their overall administrative burden.

For example, Click4Assistance makes a live chat solution that’s suitable for college and university websites. When prospective students arrive on the homepage, the tool greets them with a simple chatbot and connects them to an agent to ask questions. Think of it as an always-on secretary, ready to meet and greet users twenty-four-seven.

The benefits of the technology are significant. One of our customers, Leanne Jackson of the University of Kent told us that “support has been amazing and there is no intermitting service, at all.”

The reason for this high praise comes down to the capabilities our live chat services offer. Institutions that use them put themselves at a distinct advantage and can navigate the chaos of UCAS and year-start application processing. They also come in handy elsewhere, such as communicating with staff and former students, and even offering pastoral care.

The benefits of live chat software for universities

Here, we look at the primary benefits of live chat software for colleges and universities and how it can help you.

Improve Communication With Prospective Students, Staff And Alumni

The first benefit of chat software is that it makes it easier to communicate with prospective students, staff, and alumni. Anyone can log onto your website and begin text-chatting immediately with a bot or agent from your administration team.

Students generally prefer this type of communication, and institutions can use it to triage enquiries. Some users will require boilerplate answers that the chatbot can provide automatically, while others need more nuanced assistance from a human agent.

Provide Personalised Support To Online Visitors

Another advantage of live chat is its ability to provide personalised support. Instead of instructing users to read a generic FAQ page, individuals can get specific answers to their questions fast, without trawling through pages of text.

Increase Conversion Rates

Live chat software may also increase college and university engagement rates. The tool could do this by:-

• Guiding students through enrolment processes
• Providing them with timely or relevant information
• Displaying promotional material and prospectuses (for instance, using Click4Assistance’s smart-cast slide-out tab next to the main chat window).
• Making your educational institution more appealing to international students or staff, driving recruitment

Enhance Satisfaction

Another benefit of live chat is its ability to enhance satisfaction. According to data, 77% of students want relevant information from colleges by text. A further 59% say they want colleges to text them first.

Live chat enables students, alumni and others to easily contact university administration for feedback, resources, and assistance. Individuals can quickly obtain the information they need without having to phone.

Collect Details Out Of Hours

Live chat software also enables colleges and universities to collect student details outside regular hours. Instead of manually listening to voice messages on an answering machine and entering details into a spreadsheet, institutions can get live chat software to do this automatically. All students need to do is write their details into the provided fields and then wait for administrators to contact them.

Foster A Sense Of Community

Another benefit of live chat solutions is their ability to foster a sense of community. Students, staff, and alumni can freely communicate with administrators whenever they want to ask questions and get clarification. This ability to text chat can have a profound impact on how closely connected people feel with their college or university. It is also useful for pastoral caregiving students the opportunity to contact you when they are in need.

Deal With Clearing And Late Applications

You can also use live chat software to manage clearing and late applications. The tool makes it easier to cope with last-minute interest in your courses and allocate students appropriately.

Streamline University Operations

Finally, live chat software can help universities streamline their operations considerably. Live chat can automate data collection and many conversations that would ordinarily consume phone time.

It also comes with the advantage that agents can communicate with more people via text than on the phone. Administrators can only speak to one student at a time while calling but can text up to half a dozen using live chat software, enabling them to get more done.

How to use chat software in a university environment

Click4Assistance’s BotBuilder lets you construct chatbots for your educational institution using a simple drag-and-drop interface. With this tool, you can easily design how you want the conversation to flow and the outcomes you want to achieve.

For instance, our tool lets you escalate chats to an agent at various points in the conversation if you believe a human can provide more assistance. Furthermore, this step is optional. If you want to keep users inside the chatbot interface, you can.

You can also set up your bot to handle admissions information for applications. Students simply click the options that apply to them to get the answers they need.

Another helpful application of university chatbots is their ability to answer commonly-asked questions, as mentioned above. Our bots can provide bespoke assistance to prospective students, providing resources such as PDFs, web pages, and videos, when requested.

Finally, Click4Assistance lets you update your bot in real-time to reflect changing circumstances. Simply go into the BotBuilder and add new steps or content to provide to students and other stakeholders, as you see fit.

Chat applications for businesses have transformed the corporate world. Now it’s time for your university to benefit, too. Start designing your chat software today and experience how it could help you revolutionise communication at your institution.