Although education has not been a traditionally fast-moving sector, recent challenges and emerging pressures are forcing higher education organisations to adapt. Without the proper approach — for example, scalable contact centre services — these institutions may find themselves incapable of meeting internal and external demands.
Here’s a look at how scalable contact centre services can keep your institution agile in the face of today’s education challenges.
The Value of Scalable Services
A truly scalable service is one that enables your institution to leverage the right technology solutions at the right times.
For example, higher education institutions generally experience on and off periods depending on semester start dates. To operate efficiently during both these times, you must support your offices and faculty with solutions that can scale up or down as needed. This increases efficiency during peak periods and reduces resource waste during slower times.
Scalable services are made even more important by additional education sector pressures, including:
- Student expectations: Students demand more from their education than ever before, especially when it comes to communication and technology. Increased student enquiries and a shortage of staff make it especially crucial for your institution to function efficiently.
- Competition: The higher education landscape in Australia and New Zealand grows more competitive as new expectations emerge.
- Uncertainty: As events like the COVID-19 pandemic have proven, education is not immune to uncertainty. Navigating these complicated times requires a more agile operation system that can accommodate changing needs.
- Operational efficiency: building an agile IT environment and removing faculty silos are imperative to smoother operations.
Scalable Services in Higher Education
To address these challenges and deliver true scalability, you need comprehensive contact centre services. This should include:
Cloud Migration
A cloud-based contact centre enables flexibility and agility. Scalable solutions empower remote workforces and help integrate existing systems — all whilst meeting key industry standards. Ensure your processes and infrastructure can keep up with growth and sustain a high degree of customer satisfaction.
Simplification
Faculty silos make your institution slow to react and slower to improve. With a fully integrated contact centre solution, you can eliminate these silos, improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. The result is seamless student and staff experiences.
Automation
Repetitive, time-consuming tasks reduce your faculty and staff’s ability to serve students. Instead, use automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce workloads and prioritise high-value or high-touch interactions.
Expansion
A competitive landscape demands growth. Scalable services help ensure your processes and infrastructure can keep up with progress and sustain a high degree of customer satisfaction.
Benefits of a Scalable Contact Centre
Unifying your contact centre’s services will remove limitations within your institution’s silos and point-to-point solutions. Additionally, simplifying communications across faculties and areas of your business will help future proof your institution’s contact centre. You can expect key benefits like these:
Agile Updates
Scalable contact centres can make updates at a moment’s notice. This enables you to respond to student and staff needs more quickly than the competition, all whilst protecting your resources. Perhaps most importantly, these updates rarely impact user experience, which means students, staff and faculty can continue their work without interruption.
Fast Adaptation
Your institution can’t afford to be left behind by a fast-changing technological landscape. Scalable services allow you to integrate new approaches without impacting current processes. With these expanded capabilities, you can leverage technology in ways that actively improve your institution instead of ways that are only ‘manageable.’
Seamless Issue Resolution
Manage handle times in high-demand periods. Have the ability to start with 100 agents and quickly expand to another 100+ agents across multiple business units at short notice. Uplift and personalise student and staff experiences leading to higher engagement. Resolution occurs in real-time, reducing student stress and resource utilisation.
Cost Savings
Stagnant contact centre solutions cost you time and money because they can’t keep up. Improve and uplift your institution’s operations to better support students and staff. A scalable contact centre helps you choose the right response for the right need — every time. That means no more resources wasted on processes that simply don’t fit your institution’s changing requirements.
Efficiency Improvements
Automated workflows and streamlined processes make it easier for your staff and faculty to act on student expectations. Optimise information, reporting and knowledge management operations to improve the overall student experience. Efficiency and student satisfaction have a positive relationship: When one goes up, so does the other.
Start Delivering Scalable Services Today
Student expectations are only getting more complicated. When your higher education institution is also facing increased competition and new technology demands, there’s no room for contact centre solutions that lock you into a single approach. You need scalability in your contact centre’s operations.
Scalable contact centre services have a long list of benefits. From cost savings and efficiency improvements to cloud migration support and workflow automation, your institution will have the flexibility necessary to stand out from the competition.
Are you ready to deliver scalable services? Contact us today to find out how GSN can help your institution and students.