Several industries have embraced artificial intelligence with open arms. So has the education sector. College admission chatbots are now a gamechanger as they have reduced a lot of manual labor. Since these chatbots are integrated with artificial intelligence, they have brought a drastic transformation in the entire college admission process.
Already, some renowned universities and colleges at the global level, like georgia State University (Pounce), the University of Murcia (Lola), Pennsylvania State University (LionChat), etc., have their unique chatbots to guide students throughout the admission process. Similarly, you can also create a customized chatbot for your college website and admission portal to conduct steady and effortless communication with students, both existing and prospective, at a more personal level.
Wondering whether these chatbots provide accurate information? Well, in a journal titled “Intelligent Chatbot for Admission in Higher Education,” researchers found that these chatbots are 91% accurate while the user satisfaction rate stands at 97.1%. Creating a chatbot can be a daunting task, especially if you’re unaware of the process. However, in this blog, we will provide a stepwise guide on creating a college admission chatbot along with some of the best practices you can implement for the same.
Why do colleges need an admission chatbot?
Now, every institution that wants to streamline its admission process and get more enrollments gets an interactive and user-friendly chatbot installed in its system. Indeed, students have a lot of queries. All these queries are different from one another. Now, human resources or the HR department of an institution can't respond to all. This is where a college admission chatbot comes into play.
With the rapid digitalization of the education sector, students want everything delivered in a short time. So, keeping them waiting means you’re testing their patience. Naturally, they’ll move on to a different organization that offers a better and quicker response. Through these college admission chatbots, students can get their problems solved 24/7. Besides, the mechanism of these chatbots notifies prospective and existing students about different events and collaborations accurately. One of the deadly challenges that almost all higher education institutions face is the heavy volume of student inquiries they receive every day.
Indeed, it’s overwhelming and time-consuming for a human being to go through those queries and answer them individually. To prove the worth of these chatbots, a study revealed that the accuracy of these chatbots in terms of answering almost 200 questions with the least errors is around 95%. Furthermore, these college admission chatbots gather student data from previous conversations with the students and can analyze them for future reference. Besides, organizations can integrate such interactive chatbots into their existing systems and reduce miscommunication with candidates.
A step-by-step guide to creating a college admission chatbot using Copilot.Live
Considering the modern educational landscape, a lot of higher educational institutions are installing engaging chatbots to streamline the admission and overall educational process while staying ahead of the competition. If you want your educational institution to stay ahead of the curve, here are the steps you should follow to create an amazing college admission chatbot using Copilot.Live:
Step 1: Navigate and visit the website
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In the first step, visit the official website of Copilot.Live. Worry not, as the upcoming steps are completely free.
Step 2: Sign up
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Next, check the top right-hand side corner of the home page. Click on ‘Sign Up’. You’ll find some company compliances and terms and conditions to agree with. These are just some company guidelines that keep you protected from fraudulency and cyber threats. Add all the necessary details that are asked in the pop-up form.
Step 3: Give a suitable name and design
Now, you get to the dashboard of Copilot.Live. The dashboard here is pretty interesting and different from what you normally see in other chatbot platforms. In the menus of the dashboard, click on ‘Configuration’ to set your chatbot’s personality. Here, fill in all the details that give your chatbot a uniqueness and reflect your brand image.
Step 4: Train the chatbot
To train the chatbot, go to the ‘Data Source’ menu on the dashboard and add the data sources that will feed the chatbot with all the information about the university or college. For better training, the conversations get stored in the ‘Inbox’ tab of the menu. Whenever the chatbot has any conversation with the students, it gets stored here. So, you can go through these conversations for analysis, and the chatbot can refer to them for quick answers.
Step 5: Test and deploy
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And there you go! Your unique college admission chatbot is ready. However, to be super sure about the chatbot and ensure that your students love it, you can put it to tests across your university website, WhatsApp and calls. Before deploying, make sure to enable the ‘Freshchat Inbox’ feature of Copilot.Live that allows your chatbot to transition smoothly from Copilot to a human support system.
Things to keep in mind while creating a college admission chatbot
Still, feeling skeptical about whether you’ll succeed in creating a mindblowing chatbot? To ensure that you create a college admission chatbot that helps you stay ahead of your competitors, here are some of the things to remember:
1. Define purpose and objectives
First and foremost, you have to figure out the purpose and objectives for creating the chatbot. Once this is done, you have everything sorted - you know all the functionalities and types of queries you want in the chatbot.
Generally, universities want chatbots to guide students 24/7, figure out their problems, inform and notify them about important college events, keep track of their admission applications and many more. A pro tip: For a mind-boggling chatbot, invest more time to figure out your target audience.
2. Choose the right chatbot platform
The efficiency of your chatbot depends on the platform you choose. Indeed, different chatbot platforms come up with different features. However, to pick the best, check if the platform offers integration of multiple communication channels, a user-friendly platform, easy integration with WhatsApp and the college admission portal and supreme customization.
One of the best college admission chatbot platforms is Copilot.Live. Here, you can register for free. The platform offers flexibility and customization options where you can select brand themes and message voices according to the personality of the college. Besides, it automates all tasks and reduces the use of manual labor manifold.
3. Design a conversational flow
Students now want a hassle-free and easy-going admission process. To offer this to students, creating a user-friendly and intuitive chatbot is key. When you feed the chatbot with a smooth conversation flow, it guides the candidate likewise without any confusion. For better chatbot outputs, use flowcharts and decision trees. Let’s consider an example here.
To welcome students to your college’s or university’s online platform, feed the chatbot with an inviting and positive message like: “Hey! Welcome to (University name). Glad to have you here. How can I help you?” For complex student admission queries, the chatbot can respond in this manner: “I’m sorry. This is beyond my understanding. Can I connect you with an educational administrator?”
4. Integrate Natural Language Processing (NLP)
To help the chatbot understand the complicated queries of the students, integrate Natural Language Processing or NLP. Through this mechanism, the chatbot figures out the intent of a user query. It also recognizes entities or subjects that the students want to know about.
Based on these intents and entities, it delivers a customized answer. Let’s consider an example here. Suppose a student asks, “What documents do I need for college admission?” Here, your chatbot should be powerful enough to understand the intention of the user and help her accordingly.
5. Build the backend and database
Only feeding the chatbot with relevant data is not enough. They all need to be stored safely for the chatbot to answer in the most customized way in the future. For this, use chatbot platforms that offer databases like Firebase, MongoDB, MySQL, etc.
All these databases can take care of academic course details, fee structure, college admission process, admission deadline, and student admission application processes. So, when a candidate asks, “What is the course fee for the summer MBS Programme?” the chatbot should immediately reply, “The fee for the summer MBS Programme is Rs.-----/- per semester.”
6. Train and test the chatbot
When it comes to training the chatbot, it means you have to feed it with a dataset that has all common questions and phrases related to college admission and relevant academic courses. When you test the chatbot, check if it replies with the most accurate answers. Keep on refining the chatbot until you get human-like answers.
Regarding testing, another crucial factor you should pay attention to is testing the chatbot under heavy traffic. Even when the traffic in your college or university online portal is high, the chatbot should give accurate answers in the least response time.
7. Integrate relevant communication channels
Since students nowadays are very active on social media, it’s time to integrate all communication channels and be more visible to prospective candidates. Here, you can integrate the college or university website through API integration. Besides, social media platforms can also be integrated like Facebook and WhatsApp.
Some of the other messaging apps for easy integration with the chatbot include Messenger and Telegram. Multi-channel integration of the chatbot is also possible. For deploying the chatbot on the college website, you can use a chat widget.
8. Monitor, deploy and maintain
Now that the chatbot is deployed, it’s time to monitor and maintain it for optimal performance. Keep on tracking the interactions that the chatbot has with the students and find out how the bot is reacting to questions. Monitor both Google Analytics and Bot Analytics to figure out user interactions and intent.
Make sure to update the chatbot at regular intervals to match the latest university compliances. For better performance of the chatbot, you can also gather feedback. For this, add a feedback mechanism within the chatbot and let the user give you honest insights. Your task will be to analyze these feedbacks and identify areas of improvement.
Challenges in the traditional admission process
The conventional mode of college admission is filled with a lot of challenges that question the overall student engagement and efficiency of an institution. Not only is the traditional admission process time-consuming, but also costly as it requires more human resources. Here’s why more educational institutions are shifting to digitalization, precisely integrating chatbots:
A high volume of repetitive queries causes a delay
Think of the peak admission seasons. Everyday, colleges are bombarded with heaps of admission queries. Looking into these queries individually and answering them manually is nothing short of a Herculean task. Naturally, it takes longer for human resources to respond. This frustrates the students and negatively impacts enrollment rates.
Overburdened staff reducing efficiency
Often, staff members are overloaded with a lot of work. Sometimes, they have to juggle and manage certain emergency tasks. This surely leads to a lot of errors, mishandling and miscommunication. The workload during admission season is always on the rise. At such times, it is nearly impossible to respond to student queries efficiently and on time.
Lack of 24/7 support for global applicants
Sometimes, educational institutions receive queries from international students residing in different time zones. In traditional admission processes, you won’t find anyone answering all queries around the clock. This keeps the global students waiting for a long time. Such a gap in the admission process deters students from rethinking their application process.
Poor communication leads to lower engagement and enrollment rates
Generally, students come up with queries to clear their confusion. Now, if the communication fro the institution’s side is not lucid and clear, none of their confusion gets clarity. Instead, it leads them to more confusion, leading to a lack of engagement and trust. As a result, it brings a huge drop in enrollment rates significantly.
Benefits of an AI-powered admission chatbot
College admission chatbots for higher education act as smart interactive support systems that not only help candidates and students with text but also voice support. In a report of Education Dynamics, researchers found that 38% of undergraduate and nearly 48% of graduate students used website chatbots for relevant information.
1. 24/7 Availability
The college admission chatbots are designed in a way that helps prospective and existing students of universities with instant replies. Gone are the days of waiting for answers.
Now, it’s time to embrace college admission chatbots. Besides, these chatbots are fed with relatable and relevant data. So, every time candidates have a query, the chatbot comes up with accurate answers. In a way, these college admission chatbots are a game-changer in the entire education sector.
2. Automated application tracking
We all know how tedious is the admission procedure at a university or college. The number of candidate applications an institution receives makes the admission process even more challenging. Think of the manual labor in the whole admission process of a university takes.
To reduce stress and get things done in a systematic format, the college admission chatbots automate the entire college admission process from the beginning till the end. These chatbots guide the students in every step of the admission process and solve their queries.
3. Real-time updates on admission status
It is wild to believe that many educational institutions lose prospective students only because they do not track applications. As a result, the students also do not get any notifications about the status of these applications. Indeed, it is difficult for human resources to go through every student application and help the students get on the right track.
To provide consistent tracking of the admission applications, the college admission chatbots are of great help. With such interactive AI assistance, the chatbots find the mistakes in the student applications and notify them accordingly. Besides, the chatbots also update the students with the real-time status of the applications so that the students can decide about their upcoming academic plans accordingly.
4. Improved student engagement
Well, when you employ manual labor, you have to understand that they are time-bound. Human beings cannot function as efficiently as machines. This is where you need a college admission chatbot. When you integrate a customized college admission chatbot into your university or college, the chatbot gives replies to the students immediately without keeping them waiting. As a result, the prospective students and the existing ones stay engaged and interested in the institution.
Best practices for implementing a college admission chatbot
If you have to stay ahead of your competitors, your college chatbot must have something unique that your competitors are missing. Here are some best practices that can help you achieve the number one position in the industry and amongst students:
1. Ensure a human-like interaction
First of all, understand that you’re integrating a chatbot in the college admission process to replace human labor. So, the chatbot should function like a human being. For this, feed the chatbot with common student queries and train it to deliver responses like human beings. The use of conversational AI can help the chatbot answer with empathy.
2. Offer multi-platform accessibility
To reach out to maximum students, integrate the chatbot on multiple platforms like social media channels, mobile apps, websites, and messaging apps. Make sure the chatbot has a consistent performance across all channels, even when the traffic is high. This leaves a positive impression about your educational institution in the minds of the prospective students.
3. Regularly monitor and improve performance
When you monitor the chatbot at regular intervals, you become aware of the loopholes at an early stage. For rigorous tracking and monitoring, you can use analytics tools and check response accuracy, user interaction, and user satisfaction rates. Add a feedback mechanism within the chatbot to gather insights and make necessary improvements.
4. Provide easy human escalation
We all know that the chatbot is, after all, a human-made tool. Yes, it has certain limitations, especially when it comes to solving complex student queries. At such times, the chatbot should effortlessly escalate the candidate to a human administrator through a smooth transition process. This keeps the user satisfied and maintains utmost authenticity.
5. Enable voice and multilingual support
Considering the presence and outreach of global students in educational institutions, the chatbot should be able to offer voice messages and multilingual feature. Build the chatbot with a multilingual NLP model to cater to various demographics. This helps non-native speakers get a chance to avail better educational opportunities. Now that you know the steps to create a college admission chatbot, it’s time to start the process.
After all, it’s for the benefit of your college or university as digitalization is the only means to stay relevant in the market now. However, if you do not want to take so much hassle, Copilot.Live has your back. We can offer complete workflow automation with messaging support across multiple platforms. Besides, we provide complete access to user interaction with the chatbot for better analysis and reporting.
