Education Sector Focus: How an Omnichannel Contact Center Guarantees Top Marks

Leading platform provider ComputerTalk on the merits of frictionless student engagement

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Education Sector Focus How an Omnichannel Contact Center Guarantees Top Marks - CX Today News
Contact CenterInsights

Published: June 6, 2024

Simon Wright - DP

Simon Wright

In the education sector, old school no longer cuts it. 

In fact, the ability to communicate in the most modern way possible with school, college, and university students (and their families) is crucial. 

Whether students live on campus or commute to class from home each day, there are myriad reasons why slick and effective two-way engagement is a must.  

Today’s cloud-based omnichannel contact center solutions have the smarts to provide all parties with a rich and rewarding user experience – all those schools and colleges (and their IT service partners) need to do is pick one that scores top marks. 

“Typically, college and university students are taking full responsibility for themselves for the first time, and their communication strategies may not be sufficiently mature – they need to acquire and impart lots of information, which makes doing so as easily as possible a top priority,” says Mike Kraybill, US Sales Executive at leading contact center provider ComputerTalk, whose powerful ‘ice’ platform enables precisely that. 

“New students may be away from home for the first time and have lots of questions such as ‘How do I find my class schedule?’ Or ‘How do I get to a particular building?’ or ‘Where is my dorm?’  In turn, their educators and support staff may have important messages to share with them or their families or care givers. What’s for sure, with young people, the preferred method of communication is NOT going to be a voice call.” 

Indeed, most young people prefer to communicate via SMS or WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger or one of the other many alternatives. An FAQ chatbot is often an even more appealing option. All of that means the most effective contact center platform is one which integrates seamlessly with educational establishments’ student database or Customer Relationship Management application.

For example, issuing an automated outbound alert to a student via their smartphone when they are running low on funds, if they need to put more credit on their meal tickets or, if their assignment is late. In the case of US universities in particular, it may be critical to simultaneously communicate the occurrence of an emergency or an immediate danger, plus any associated instructions. 

“It makes total sense for educational establishments to want to integrate their contact center with other student databases and parent portals,” says Kraybill.  

“The ability for parents and caregivers to be able to easily provide and receive information about their kids when they are away at college is an essential component of any communication system. For parents and caregivers who are nervous about sending their child away to college, that type of approach to communication can be a real differentiator. Many of these educational establishments and institutions are businesses in their own right and need to attract students in order to make money. In such a competitive market, those differentiators are important.” 

Talking of competition and commercials: the education vertical is a massive global market for IT resellers, Managed Service Providers and System Integrators. For partners of ComputerTalk in particular, the opportunities to go to market with a high-grade solution and masses of pre-and post-sale support are compelling. 

“We have decades of experience in the education sector, and we share every bit of it with our reseller partner community in order to ensure they are successful,” says Kraybill. “We have an acute understanding of the sector and of the different sub-markets within it, be those schools, colleges, or universities. They are all different types of enterprise, and they all face different communication challenges – all of which the ice contact center solution addresses.” 

Hands-up if that sounds like an opportunity not to be missed… 

To learn more about how ComputerTalk can help your and your customers’ businesses excel in the education sector, visit the website. 

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