Whether you are an admissions team at a small 2-year community college, a large 4-year private institution, or anywhere in between, no matter the size of the student caseload you manage, the goal is to provide highly personalized experiences for prospective students at scale, and in real time. If your admission team is struggling to do so, you’re not alone. Looking for a potential solution?
Enter: the chatbot.
One way institutions can modernize their communication strategies to meet student demands is by integrating chatbots with their admissions websites to better cater to the needs of prospective students and their support networks.
Mainstay research studies show that universities who have implemented their chatbots found more students completing the FAFSA, and registering for classes early. In their admissions offices, this translated to a reduction in summer melt for traditional fall semester students accompanied by an increase in student enrollment. Further, when implemented as student success tools, chatbots have helped institutions increase student re-enrollment, reduce withdrawal rates, and improve student grades.
Element451 research indicates that institutions have seen high returns since implementing their bot, including as much as a 23% decrease in call volume and a 79% request resolution rate for inquiries for students who interact with the tool.
By this point, you might be intrigued by the potential of chatbots, but unsure where to start. After reading this article, you’ll have a better understanding of the distinctive features and capabilities of five prominent chatbots tailored for the admissions environment: Einstein (Salesforce), HubSpot, Element451, Mainstay (formerly Admit Hub), and Ocelot followed by a brief discussion of the benefits of having a chatbot, considerations when choosing a chatbot, and advice on how colleges and universities can best prepare for implementing one, based on our team’s experience.
Chatbot Feature Comparison:
Element451’s BoltBot is tailored specifically for higher education institutions and has built-in functionality that supports application management, event registration, appointment scheduling and more. It works across various channels including websites, SMS, email, and WhatsApp, while emphasizing data privacy compliance. Built in to Element451’s interface, you can also create tasks for recruiters based on chatbot conversations. Although Element451’s Boltbot does integrate with other CRM and SIS tools, little information is provided compared to other tools. We recommend exploring this option if you are currently using, or planning to use Element451 as your CRM to get the full benefit of the tool.
Hubspot’s bot is best known for its simple set up and seamless handoff from automated to live chat. It is highly customizable, and built-in to the Hubspot CRM which enables the bot to automate tasks like ticket creation, lead qualification, meeting scheduling, and more. Since this bot is newer on the market compared to others on the list, it has a limited ability to extract data from non-English messages, and does not include industry-specific pre-built communications. However, the added benefits of the tool’s robust reporting capabilities and user-friendly set up process in addition to the customer-service-like structure of the platform make this platform a solid choice.
Salesforce’s Einstein Bot offers the standard functionality across all chatbots reviewed here with an added focus on scalability. Along with Hubspot, it is extremely customizable to your university’s needs, and supports the widest range of multilingual interactions. Additionally, Salesforce has equipped the Einstein bot with comprehensive reporting features that include a robust combination of built-in templates and customizable options. The tool is also well-equipped to integrate with popular CRM and SIS platforms. The Einstein Bot is a compelling choice for institutions seeking a comprehensive, scalable chatbot solution, especially for use cases beyond standard admissions and student success.
Mainstay’s bot offers ready-to-use content tailored specifically for higher education that spans the entire student lifecycle from access to enrollment and retention, academics and stop outs. Mainstay’s main focus is providing institutions with messaging that is emotionally intelligent and proven to inspire action through researched-backed tactics designed to maximize its ability to respond to students effectively. Standard multichannel integrations via SMS and web chat plus a combination of pre-built and customizable reporting also stand out. Another key strength of this tool is its seamless integration with popular platforms like Slate, Salesforce, Hubspot and more.
Ocelot’s bot is designed specifically for higher education, and like Mainstay, it offers pre-built communications on standard topics throughout the student lifecycle with room for customization with your school’s specific content. The tool includes standard features in the realms of reporting, multichannel integrations with web chat and text, and handoffs to admissions staff, but it uniquely supports two-way texting. While Ocelot emphasizes its robust privacy controls as a differentiator in the industry, its self-serve integration does not stand out. If your university doesn’t have the resources to build custom APIs or webhooks to integrate the tool with your CRM or SIS, this might not be the tool for you.
Use Cases, Benefits, and Considerations
Colleges and universities can leverage chatbots for a myriad of use cases, including answering frequently asked questions, guiding prospective students through the application process, providing information about campus life, and offering real-time support for technical issues. Most commonly, we’ve seen institutions leveraging chatbots to reduce the load on admissions staff. Below, you’ll find additional information about the benefits, considerations and how to prepare for a chatbot implementation for college admissions departments.
Benefits of Implementing Chatbots for College Recruitment and Admissions:
Implementing chatbots can increase prospective student engagement, lead conversions, student enrollment, assistance for first time students, and retention by improving the experience students have when reaching out to your institution for guidance. The following known improvements account for such success:
- 24/7 Availability: Chatbots can provide round-the-clock support, catering to the needs of students outside of traditional work hours, international students and those in different time zones while reducing overall response time.
- Reduced Response Time: Acting as an automated assistant, universities can leverage chatbots to get common FAQ-type questions answered quickly, in the moment a student needs it. Doing so will free up time and resources for your admissions team to dedicate more time to assisting students with more complex inquiries, ultimately reducing your workload while reducing barriers to access for students.
- Efficiency and Scalability: Chatbots can handle a large volume of inquiries simultaneously, ensuring efficiency during peak admissions periods.
- Personalized Engagement: Prioritize customization options to show students who you are by aligning the chatbot’s personality with your institution’s brand and communication style. Colleges and institutions commonly personify their chatbots to represent their university mascot, incorporating slogans and other institutional artifacts where possible to give the illusion of a human-like interaction.
Considerations for Choosing a Chatbot:
If you’re convinced by now that a chatbot is the next best thing for your university, the most important step is choosing the right tool. Here are some key considerations and questions you might ask yourself to get the conversation started:
- What do you want the bot to be able to do?
- What student population(s) are you trying to target?
- Do you want the bot to answer FAQ questions based on a menu or key word recognition? – There’s sometimes a misconception that key word recognition is the standard chatbot format, even though the menu-based bot is often recommended and sufficient for many.
- How complex do you want the bot’s responses to be?
- Do you want the bot to include handoffs to admissions staff?
- Do you want the bot to create records for new inquiries or just answer questions?
- What level of customization are you looking for?
- What existing CRM or other systems will your chatbot need to integrate with?
- What data do you want to track with your chatbot conversations and what are you hoping to do with that data? Similarly, what are your reporting needs?
Preparing for Chatbot Implementation:
Building a chatbot can become complex very quickly, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Here is some advice we’ve gathered from our most recent client implementations of chatbots to ensure you’re well equipped to undertake what appears, at first, like a daunting task.
- Capture the User Experience: Consider your personal experience with chatbots in your own life. Which ones have a good or bad user experience? What do you like or dislike about them? Answering these questions will help you build a chatbot that prioritizes the user experience.
- Content Generation and Management: When generating the bulk of content for your bot, compiling a list of FAQ questions and organizing them into categories is a great way to start the process. This step is crucial to ensure you are able to build the necessary logic for your menu-based bot. Once your bot is live, your chatbot’s knowledge base must be regularly updated by your team to ensure the chatbot delivers accurate and timely information.
- Chatbot Monitoring and Iteration: Implement a system for monitoring chatbot interactions that incorporates reviewing reports, user experience surveys, and staff experience as they become relevant. Then, prioritize and make updates based on feedback and evolving needs.
Integrating a chatbot into your university’s admissions strategy can significantly improve staff efficiency, student engagement, and lead conversions in a cost effective way. By considering the unique features, use cases, and benefits of each chatbot alongside institutional goals and student needs, admissions departments can make informed decisions to elevate their communication strategies and ensure they’re meeting students where they are at, on their time, at any time.