Answer Follow-Up Questions with Web Chat Software

Next up in our series of university blogs we are discussing how web chat software can be used as a support tool when sending out welcome packs to enrolling students, updates about accommodation availability or important upcoming university dates. 

Universities may even hire additional temp staff to help permanent employees during these busier periods

Every university will have documents scheduled to go out at a certain time of year and, in turn, receive feedback from students who have further questions about the material.

Training and setting up new team members can be quite an expensive and time-consuming process. For example, the admissions team may take on ad-hoc staff after sending out student welcome packs in anticipation of student follow-up questions. Not only are phone lines and email inboxes busier during this period, the university website also experiences heavier traffic – this is part of the reason web chat software is such a popular support tool for mail-outs.

Universities that subscribe to Click4Assistance have access to a range of web chat software exclusive benefits, such as being able to add more operators on the fly through the software itself. This is perfect for adding more operators during busier periods. Unlike phone support, live chat also doesn’t require a dedicated resource. This means that universities don’t need to hire less experienced temp staff – members of the accommodations and admissions team can answer enquiries alongside their other duties. Last but not least, it’s much easier to install web chat software than free up another phone line. Since there are no implementation costs and existing staff members can handle incoming chats, live chat software is a more affordable and practical solution during the busy summer months than phone or email support.

The academic calendar is constantly in flux so it’s important to implement a tool that can cope.

In previous blogs we touched on the advantages of CRM integration, but they are even more apparent when performing large mail-outs. Storing engagements with students is much easier with text-based communication than voice, saving the time it would take to write up a summary of the correspondence in the CRM. A smoother integration with your university’s CRM system allows for better organisation, which is absolutely key at the beginning of a large mail-out, when hard and soft documents are sent out and need to be tracked. Since live chat technology can recognise unique students through their ISP and IP, our live chat software can fetch notes from the CRM system so your operator knows exactly what has happened leading up to that chat. This can make it easier to determine which mail-outs raised the most questions.

The in-built reporting functionality in web chat software is also an effective means of supporting outgoing information, giving university decision makers a clear overview of subsequent questions, the number of chats taken, chats missed and whether students felt their enquiries were handed correctly. This level of transparency is harder to obtain with more traditional communication channels like phone and email.

Interested in a flexible tool that can scale up or down dependent on your needs? Contact one of our University Coordinators for a demonstration on how web chat software can help answer follow-up questions. Call on 0845 123 5871, email at theteam@click4assistance.co.uk or start a chat.