Using a Cloud Contact Centre for Clearing and Beyond

Why use a cloud contact centre for clearing in the education sector? Terry Gray of Rostrvm Solutions explains the business case, benefits and features…

They say in the song, “Don’t leave me this way!” and this is never truer than on clearing day, when tens of thousands of anxious students contact universities and colleges to find a place. Everyone needs that communication to be easy, positive and successful. And it can be, with the right technology.

A cloud platform will reap results during clearing and throughout the year …

What’s the Business Case for Contact Centre Tech?

When you consider the number of calls being taken on and around clearing day, the contact centre system has to be reliable and resilient.

In 2018, UCAS reported that some 60,100 people were accepted through clearing by 20th September – a new record.

Many, many transactions happen between educational establishment and potential student on that frenetic first morning of clearing. With so much riding on it, failure of the IT is not an option!

It can be stressful – for the students and their families – and for the IT department and the people taking the calls. There is a solid business case for having an enterprise-class, quality, cloud contact centre platform for clearing that can take the strain. You can’t afford to trust your reputation and revenue generation to a system that’s a ‘cheap, quick fix’.

That’s because it can come down to how efficient your establishment is in answering calls. If you have a platform with limited capacity for queuing contacts and few call management options, you risk losing potential candidates. They’ll either abandon their call or get lost in the chaos. That’s bad news for all concerned.

What Are the Benefits of a Cloud-Based Solution?

You’re likely to be catering for a much larger number of people on clearing day than normal. A cloud solution is most cost effective, because it’s completely scalable, and you only pay for what you need. It reduces the overall costs for licensing.

Cloud is surprisingly fast to deploy too. Crucially, it integrates with existing infrastructure and back-end systems, has advanced functionality, and yet is easy and straightforward to use. It can literally pay for itself within minutes of use.

The Top 10 Cloud Features

Each of the following top ten cloud features is made available by the leading cloud contact centre providers, including rostrvm.

1. Functions can be easily switched on and off, as needs dictate.
2. Advisors and agents don’t have to be experts to use the system. It requires minimal training, reducing overheads. It offers screen popping and click-to-dial from any web-based application, including Microsoft Dynamics. To improve agents’ confidence in handling calls, it can present pop-up scripts at the right time. This helps ensure the conversation runs smoothly.
3. It’s possible to massively reduce abandoned calls using the intelligent queuing system, with interactive voice messaging to reassure callers they are important to you.
4. Intelligent contact routing allows agents to transfer calls smoothly to appropriate advisors to progress communications, say, for an offer to be made.
5. Outbound capabilities – because even if you’re taking inbound calls, there will be many occasions when you’ll need to call someone back or text or email at a convenient time. For example, perhaps to confirm an offer – (and, later, to organize graduation ceremonies etc!).
6. Control call volumes and call handling times: use an outbound dialler to text messages that a live agent doesn’t need to communicate and reduce the number of inbound/outbound calls. Use channel shift – for example, when the agent is wrapping up a call they can explain that an automated text will be sent providing all the next steps, rather than having to go through it on the phone.
7. Comprehensive management information with live dashboards provides a comprehensive reporting capability. Live dashboards and historical data give you full visibility. You’ll be able to measure and analyse your results on clearing day, such as how many calls you got and how effective your operation was, so that you can report back to the board. You can also use this information to improve your service going forward.
8. You can see the number of available agents at any time and know when to blend – you can take agents off inbound and put them on outbound, and vice versa, as traffic volumes dictate. Or set rostrvm to do it for you and you don’t have to make the decision!
9. Full call and contact recording for training and compliance purposes.
10. rostrvm enables an organization to change requirements going forward, as required.