The opportunities for service improvements across various aspects of educational institutions seem endless. However, the student-to-staff ratio significantly impacts the efficiency of student support services. Even before the Great Resignation, the ratio was extremely low in most colleges and universities, meaning most students were underserved or not served at all.
Students and staff can benefit greatly from automated processes to abolish manual, repetitive tasks and improve access to support systems. Automation is the missing bridge to clear this gap. It can accomplish many tasks better than humans, allowing human staff to focus on high-value activities.
Modern students are CX-indulged, thanks to growing up in a technology-driven world. They get first-class experience with exceptional levels of speed, convenience, and personalization. For example, Amazon’s same-day deliveries and UberEats seamless offerings simplify their lives.
Similarly, students expect an efficient experience in every organization with which they interact. Higher education institutions must improve their student support services to meet these lofty CX expectations. Otherwise, they endanger every stage of the student lifecycle, from admissions to graduation. On the other hand, matching these expectations will enhance everything from student engagement to the learning experience and reduce drop-out rates.
In this article, we explore how automation improves student support services and how you can start harnessing its benefits.
Students’ Sky-High Expectations
Students hold an extremely high bar when it comes to support expectations. With accessible technology everywhere, they want to enjoy seamless digital experiences to feel the satisfaction they receive when using other platforms. Here are the top four expectations students want to achieve when it comes to support:
- Speed: Over 71% of students believe quick or instant responses can drastically improve CX.
- Convenience: 74% of Gen Z believes convenience is more important than brand.
- Customization: 61% of Gen Z wants their needs to be anticipated and offered in a personalized way.
- Valuable: 77% of Gen Z wants their unique needs and expectations to be the priority of support.
The Gap in Student Support Services
The high bar set by student expectations has exposed several gaps in student support capabilities in most colleges and universities. These include:
- Students have limited office hours or have to wait for an extended period to get replies to queries.
- Students must visit offices to get support instead of using basic phone calls or emails.
- The support staff is overwhelmed with manual processes and student inquiry volume.
- Students rely on an inconvenient channel to get support.
- The support staff lacks the necessary training to manage modern support tools.
- Security is easily compromised without the proper support systems.
Most higher learning institutions recognize these as significant gaps in their student support services. According to a recent Academic Impression survey, only 8% of higher education professionals in 79 universities and colleges feel their student support deserves an A grade.
If you are among the 92% who require better support systems for students, automation can help. Let’s see how!
Meeting Student Support Expectations With Automation
Over the years, how people communicate has changed. For example, more than 60% of Gen Z say they hate calling people. In comparison, 55% of Gen Z users use smartphones for five or more hours daily, and 74% spend their free time online.
The key digital channels and automation technology higher education institutions need to implement to meet the support expectation are:
- Omnichannel
- Social media
- Chatbots
- Live chat
Chatbots Provide Immediate 24/7 Response
Students should get the support they need anytime. Some may limit themselves to the typical customer service hours. However, you must take care of the ‘night owls’ and ‘weekend academics’ who contact support at odd hours.
Automation by AI chatbots is the perfect solution to this expectation. Whenever the support team is offline, the chatbot will step up and deliver answers to students’ questions in real time without human intervention. Chatbots are powered by AI, which understands the intent and offers the best possible response.
As the tool you will rely on for screening students’ questions, chatbots allow staff to respond to multiple queries simultaneously. For example, it will automatically send straightforward answers and forward complex concerns to real-life agents.
To choose the best chatbot for your support staff, it is essential to understand what you are looking for and what the bot can achieve. Most chatbots can handle several tasks and queries. However, they can’t handle everything. Some questions support teams face will require a “human touch.”
Automation Enhances Convenience
Modern students see the digital experience as the differentiating factor for brands, so it pays to ensure seamless interaction with support staff.
Support staff can use automated solutions with capabilities like AI and machine learning to streamline the collection, storage, and processing of students’ information and queries. In addition, the tool will automatically categorize forms, extract relevant information, and present them in an easy-to-read manner.
Getting direct and immediate access to students’ data allows for faster resolution of issues and improves convenience for staff, as well as maintains standards. Lastly, it will further decrease the costs you need for manual returns.
Automation To Deliver Helpful and Personalized Student Support Services
An automated and proactive system will identify and prioritize students who require support. As a result, a better support environment is created. In other words, preventative procedures are in place to cater to individual students.
Automation brings the data from different channels together to a unified agent console. Additionally, it eliminates data silos to empower support agents to offer helpful and personalized student support services. In fact, over 74% of Gen Z say they prefer customized services or products. However, 32% feel they get unique treatment when requesting support services.
Automation connects various channels. This means:
- Students’ live chat transcripts remain available, allowing the agent to offer email support to the same students easily.
- Agents can access SMS, live chat, social media, and email with a click.
- It is easy to connect channels, support staff, and departments.
- Operation data silos are eliminated. This creates a seamless digital journey. Ultimately, students and staff communicate via flowing and convenient conversations.
Wrapping Up
Schools that want to level up their digital support capabilities and services must implement automation. By using live chat, bots, and messaging, automation ensures your communication channels are secure, personalized, and fast.AtlasRTX Digital Workforce enables users to create 24/7 digital assistance and unforgettable experiences for customers and students through web chat and text. With our AI-powered digital assistant, you can support and empower staff and students at every point of support service. Book a personalized demo today to see it in action.
