The Future of Higher Ed Admissions – Student Survey Reveals Overwhelming Chatbot Acceptance

The benefits of chatbots in student recruitment are abundant and clear – 24/7 availability, increased support capacity, faster response, personalized support… and the list goes on. 

However, what hasn’t been so clear is student receptiveness to these chatbots – until now. Comm100’s latest higher education survey asked current students in North America what they thought about chatbots and the service that they can provide. The pool has revealed a clear picture of students’ opinions on chatbots, how open they are to receiving them, and the support expectations they hold of prospective schools.

The survey also asked students how they want to be engaged and supported during the pre-enrolment phase, ranking top support factors, preferred communication channels, and speed expectations. You can download the survey results for free below or get a glimpse of the report from this blog. 

Higher Education Admissions Report – Student Survey

Discover what prospective students really want during the pre-enrolment phase in our latest higher ed survey, polling current students on their support and engagement preferences.

Read more

Report

1. 99% of students think 24/7 support is important 

We asked students – ‘how important it is for a school to provide 24/7 support?’ – in our higher education survey. An incredible 99% agreed that it is ‘at least somewhat important’. This comes as no surprise to us. Gen Z have been the first generation with 24/7 access to the internet. Where other generations still remember a time before modern ride share and food apps took over, these students have come of age in a time where convenience and instant gratification is the norm. 

Because this generation can receive around-the-clock communication and service from most brands, they expect a similar experience from prospective schools. Now, providing overnight support from agents is of course cost prohibitive for most institutions. However, with automation and chatbots, higher education can now deliver this experience. The very best AI chatbots can resolve the majority of student queries without any human intervention. 

Take Thompson Rivers University as an example. They introduced Comm100 AI Chatbot in 2020 within their Future Students department to help them connect with more prospective students and boost recruitment. The bot now handles 83% of all incoming chats and recruitment figures are looking strong. 

“I don’t have a computer science or programming background so finding a chatbot that was simple to build and code-free was crucial – and Comm100 Chatbot delivered on this. With a little learning and guidance from Comm100’s bot architect team, I built our bot from scratch with no technical knowledge. I think anyone who has a social media account can build a Comm100 Chatbot.”

– Lachlan Todd, Communications & Systems Coordinator, Thompson Rivers University 

2. 95% of students are open to receiving support from a chatbot 

We asked current students – ‘How open are you to receiving support from a chatbot when you have a straightforward question?’. In another revealing result, an overwhelming 95% said they were at least ‘open’ to this. Only 5% said they were not.

A key reason for this openness to use bots lies in the speed of support that bots provide. Rather than waiting for an agent to respond to them, a bot delivers immediate support at any time of the day. As more and more requests are answered by the bot, this also frees up agent time so students who do want to speak with a human face shorter wait times too. This experience improves the school’s image, helps increase engagement with prospective students, and increases support capacity without sacrificing quality. 

Cambrian College deployed Comm100 AI Chatbot to provide 24/7 support for both current and prospective students. As well as handling support for students outside of standard support hours, Cambrian’s bot opened up the possibility of connecting with prospective international students in other time zones too.

“Our AI chatbot was going to be active when live agents couldn’t be so we wanted to make sure that he could provide the level of customer service that we expected from everyone in our Recruitment department.”

– Alison Caruso, Manager of Student Recruitment, Cambrian College

Cambrian College’s chatbot now handles over 70% of incoming chats, and thanks to the success of the chatbot in their Recruitment department, another bot was launched within their International Student department for around-the-clock support. According to the Institute of International Education, 62% of institutions have increased international student recruitment. 

Wrap up 

These findings are just a sample of the insights within our Higher Education Admissions Report – Prospective Student Survey. In the full survey we asked students a range of questions about how they want to be engaged and supported during the pre-enrolment phase, including: 

• what support factors are most important to them 
• what are their preferred communication channels 
• how quickly a potential school needs to respond to their query before they bounce.

Higher Education Admissions Report – Student Survey

Discover what prospective students really want during the pre-enrolment phase in our latest higher ed survey, polling current students on their support and engagement preferences.

Read more

Report