The operational changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed on all sectors have been immense. The education sector, as you well know, has been hit hard and is having to learn to deal with a completely new scenario.
Faced with this situation, many doubts and questions arise, especially on the part of students. Many of your students are lost and need help and guidance. One of the problems this creates is an overload on your service team.
Although the pandemic has accelerated the digitization of educational institutions, today the use of chatbots and artificial intelligence has become a structural part of student retention and relationship strategies. According to a UNESCO report, AI is transforming educational support by personalizing communication and automating essential processes.
That's why we believe that using chatbots in quarantine is the best strategy you and your team can adopt. Read on and understand this proposal!
Achatbot is a computer tool that simulates human communication. It is thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) that it can be programmed to do this. An AI is capable of performing various other functions, including marketing automation.
The robot can, for example, be programmed to ask what the student's question is and direct them to the attendant best equipped to answer it. Or the robot can be paired with a knowledge base to answer frequently asked questions.
The evolution of artificial intelligence in recent years has allowed chatbots to interact in a more natural, empathetic and personalized way. Modern AI platforms are able to understand context, analyze feelings and anticipate student needs, making the student journey more fluid and productive.
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During this quarantine period, your students need more guidance than usual. They have questions about the platform, subjects, activities, assessments, contact with teachers, etc.
Everything that used to be part of the university routine and has been changed due to the quarantine (in other words, practically everything in the students' routine) could be a possible question for the students.
The chatbot is there to help your team manage these problems. This automation tool is on the "front line" and receives all students on your website or in your virtual call center, preventing students from waiting for assistance.
So the chatbot works as if it were a new attendant who receives all the contacts from your side. The main advantage is that it can attend to everyone at the same time, and avoid congestion and several minutes of waiting for your students.
Market reports, such as those published by the OECD, indicate that the strategic use of chatbots in the education sector has contributed to increasing student retention and engagement rates, especially when integrated with active and personalized service policies.
However, having a chatbot just to greet students with a welcoming message and then refer them on may not be the best strategy. After all, your team is probably answering the same questions over and over again throughout the day, right?
Well, this marketing automation tool helps take the strain off this work by combining the robot with your knowledge center (or help desk, if your educational institution has specific software for this).
All you have to do is program the robot to understand the main questions that students have asked in the chat and to provide the ideal response that should be given in each case.
The important thing is to focus, during programming, on how the robot will help your team. Will it be responsible for acting as a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)? Will it segment customer service through a questionnaire?
All this can be done.
Another relevant trend is the integration of chatbots with multiple digital channels, creating an omnichannel experience for the student. This guarantees convenience, agility and consistency in the relationship, as the OEC report points out.
Imagine, for example, that your student has a specific question about how to use the virtual platform to send activities that they have already completed. The robot could have a field of alternatives that the student can use to select the options "questions about activities" and then "how to send activities".
Once this has been done, the robot shows a tutorial on how to do the submission process. It then checks with the student whether everything has been understood or whether they still need help. If your student has not been able to complete the action even with this help, the robot can refer them to a human attendant who will follow up with them step by step.
Image: Intelligent chatbots support the relationship with students, automating communication and contributing to retention in educational institutions.
Even with the visible advantages of this automation tool, is this the best time for your educational institution to invest in a new technology? Well, this is certainly the time to do it.
And we can think in two ways here: from an economic point of view and also about the quality of the service offered to your students.
In the first case, the justification lies in the fact that the chatbot is able to serve a large number of students. As a result, fewer human attendants are needed for the job. Therefore, your educational institution can avoid hiring more people to meet the sporadic demand that has arisen due to the quarantine.
From a Relationship Marketing perspective, having a robot to welcome your students and offer a good customer service experience is very efficient. It increases their satisfaction and prevents them from being subjected to stress and anxiety due to the delay in service that could be caused by too many new contacts and queues.
As you can see, implementing automation technology in your educational institution is an excellent strategy for dealing with this time of uncertainty. Your students want help and guidance, and a chatbot is the ideal tool to offer this to them and prevent your staff from having to be increased during this quarantine period.
Summary: During the pandemic, the use of chatbots with artificial intelligence has become essential for educational assistance. In addition to reducing the burden on teams, these robots speed up responses, answer frequently asked questions and improve the student experience. With omnichannel integration and intelligent automation, they offer personalized support and increase retention. Investing in chatbots is strategic and efficient.
To find out more about the subject, take a look at our Marketing Automation page.
It's a tool based on Artificial Intelligence that simulates a human conversation. It can be used to answer frequently asked questions, provide assistance and automate processes.
During quarantine, it acts as the "front line" in customer service, answering students' questions about the platform, activities, assessments and avoiding overloading the team.
In addition to receiving the student, it can be programmed with a knowledge base and automatically answer the most common questions, speeding up service and reducing repetition of tasks.
The student selects a question and the robot offers an answer or tutorial. If the problem persists, the chatbot forwards the service to a human, optimizing the student's time and journey.
Yes. It reduces operating costs with customer service staff, improves the student experience and ensures agility in times of crisis, such as during the pandemic.