Five9 has introduced ‘Five9 OneStudent’, a new cloud-based contact centre solution that helps higher education institutions improve student engagement.
The solution represents a significant technological advancement, particularly for the many legacy systems it will be replacing.
The highlight from a student perspective is the ability to communicate with their education centres through voice, SMS, chat, social, video, and more.
OneStudent brings greater agility and scalability to the contact centres, with numerous opportunities gained by moving operations into the cloud.
Advisor productivity is also enhanced via omnichannel controls and data integration, while managers can enjoy expanded visibility into their performance.
Jeff Woodland, director of industry marketing at Five9, spoke about the need for more efficient contact centre solutions in higher education:
“Student expectations have dramatically shifted. They want rapid answers to conversations that cross channels of their choice. Attention spans are brief.
“For example, prospective students won’t wait for an answer about financial aid from one institution when Google can provide other alternatives in one click.
“But many institutions are stuck with legacy systems, fierce departmental rivalries over IT budget dollars, and a student workforce manning the phones and chats that insists technology be easy to use.”
Five9 OneStudent
By moving contact centres to the cloud, IT departments can transform their systems by offloading the maintenance and upkeep to a cloud provider.
Using the same cloud provider normalises student conversations, which enhances insight into an institution’s specific issues with student engagement.
Moreover, the cloud offers access to new technologies, including artificial intelligence. Generative AI, for example, can be applied to student-advisor conversation, allowing institutions to improve student engagement by giving advisors coaching cards based on the content of conversations with students, as well as immediately summarising what has been discussed.
Woodland believes the advantages of generative AI may sway some of the sceptics: