Answering Services for Colleges: A More Efficient Way to Handle Inbound Calls
Universities and colleges receive a large number of inbound calls every day, even during the summer and scheduled school breaks. While some universities and colleges attempt to staff plenty of personnel to handle the volume of inbound calls, it is hard for them to have sufficient coverage during peak calling periods.
Why? Quite simply, if they hired the number of people they needed to make sure calls were answered right away, they would end up with excess staff during slower periods, yet still would need to pay them for their time, even when they are not answering the telephones. This is why outsourcing excess calls to an education industry answering service is more cost effective.
During peak calling times, any excess calls above what the university or college is able to handle are automatically routed to the answering service. This way, students, parents, vendors, alumni, and other callers are not left waiting on endless holds or having to keep calling back. When things slow down, then all calls revert back to the school.
The main benefit for schools that utilize this type of customized answering solution is they only pay for the calls answered by the answering service. In addition, this feature alone allows schools to extend their phone hours and leave phone lines open 24/7, so, if someone calls in the evening or on weekends, there still is a live person available to take the call and provide assistance.
The answering service can also provide support for:
- Booking Campus Tours
- Providing Directions to the School
- Scheduling Appointments for Students to See Counselors/Professors
- Routing Calls to the Right Departments and Appropriate Staff
- Answering Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Website Support
As you can see, many of these types of calls are quite common and can take your administrative staff away from more important tasks. It also keeps them from providing support and assistance to the students, parents, alumni, and vendors standing in front of them.
Additionally, the answering service can be a great resource to use for campus-wide announcements. They can send out blast texts, serve as a hotline, and more when the school has important information to share with the students and staff. For instance, at schools in the north where there can be snow days, our answering service can alert students when classes are canceled due to inclement weather.
Furthermore, if there are other types of emergencies on campus, our answering service can help provide updates to students and staff with instructions on where they need to go, what to do, where to seek shelter, what is currently happening, and so on.
With our answering services for universities and colleges, you are free to customize your solution to fit your school’s requirements, with the flexibility to make changes to reflect different times of the school year as your staffing requirements change. For more information about our answering services for your school, please feel free to contact AnswerMTI at 1-800-673-2000 today!