How a Large US College Reduced Call Wait Times by 90%
Education
Case Study
The Overview
Many colleges and universities face challenges managing the high volume of student inquiries, particularly during the fall and spring semesters. While advanced AI chatbots have helped, students often become frustrated when they can’t access human support—whether they’re enrolling, filing for financial aid, or seeking assistance while in college. A poor student experience not only damages an institution's reputation within the local community but also costs larger colleges millions in lost revenue.
The Challenge
This large college, with 70,000 students, was recently formed through a merger of several smaller independent colleges. While the merger brought many benefits, the new institution struggled to manage more than 35,000 student inquiries each month, with peak months exceeding 50,000. Abandonment rates ranged from 10% to 25%, and wait times for even simple inquiries stretched to 10 minutes. Campus staff were overwhelmed, students became frustrated with long wait times—many hanging up—and, to make matters worse, enrollment was declining.
The Solution
Our outsourcing partner was selected as a key part of the solution to reduce the workload on campus staff by establishing a virtual student services contact center. AWS Connect was implemented as the Contact Center Software platform, with trained agents from our partner handling 80% of all incoming calls.
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In addition to creating training materials, our partner streamlined processes and expanded the knowledge base. ServiceNow was integrated for tracking, and live chat and SMS features were added to enhance communication between the college and students. With support available seven days a week and extended hours across voice, chat, email, and SMS channels, students had more flexible options for assistance. The college is also expanding its chatbot service to further strengthen student support.