On results day, an admissions team of eight receives thousands of enquiries. Students want to know whether they got in, whether their grades are enough, whether places are still available and what to do next. Phones ring constantly. Inboxes overflow. Staff spend the day answering the same questions while complex cases, students who narrowly missed their grades or need special consideration, wait.
Admissions team workload in peak season is one of the hardest operational problems in education. The questions are predictable. The volume is not manageable by hand.
The peak periods
- Application deadlines.
- Results days.
- Clearing and late places.
- The weeks before enrolment.
Each brings its own wave, and its own mix of routine and complex questions.
Most peak questions are routine
- When is the deadline?
- What grades do I need?
- Are there still places on this course?
- How do I accept my offer?
- When do I enrol?
- How do I apply for accommodation?
These have standard answers, published somewhere. Late-night deadline questions are covered in admissions questions that arrive at midnight, and fee questions in fees and funding questions from prospective students.
Redesigning who handles what
- Published information answers routine questions before they are asked.
- Instant answers online handle routine questions at any hour.
- Staff handle complex cases: near misses, special circumstances, appeals and anxious applicants who need a person.
Answering routine questions instantly
SpideyChat for education providers answers from your published admissions information at any hour, and captures applicants who need a person with the details staff need. Individual decisions stay with admissions staff.
Staffing the peak
Peak weeks often need temporary staff or colleagues borrowed from other departments. They need briefing: which questions they can answer, where information lives and what to escalate. When routine questions are answered online, temporary staff can focus on phone calls and complex cases instead of learning a hundred standard answers in a day.
Anxious applicants
Results day and clearing bring emotional conversations. An applicant who narrowly missed their grades needs a kind, human response. Protecting staff time for these conversations is one of the biggest benefits of answering routine questions automatically.
Measuring the peak
After each peak, review what was asked, how quickly questions were answered and what staff spent their time on. The pattern shows where next year's preparation should focus. Keep a short list of questions that surprised the team, and add their answers to the website before the next peak. Each cycle makes the next one calmer, for staff and for applicants.
Preparing before the peak
Update deadline, requirements, offer and enrolment pages weeks before each peak. Test the answers. Brief staff on what the assistant covers and what it passes to them.
Seasonal peaks everywhere
Every industry has its peak season. Gyms face January, as covered in January rush enquiries and how gyms can prepare, and retailers face the holidays, discussed in handling the holiday season enquiry surge. The lesson is the same: prepare the routine answers in advance so people can focus on the hard cases.
What changes
With routine questions handled, staff spend peak season on the conversations that shape students' futures. Applicants get fast answers to simple questions and proper attention for complex ones. To see how peak questions would be handled, try an assistant on your website, or see the features.