A school or college website serves two very different groups. Prospective families want to know about admissions, fees and open days. Current parents want term dates, uniform lists and trip details. Both ask questions constantly, and both expect quick answers.
Choosing a chatbot for a school means finding one that serves both groups well and knows where its limits are.
Two audiences, two sets of questions
Prospective families ask about entry requirements, fees, funding, courses, open days and how to apply. Many ask late at night, as covered in admissions questions that arrive at midnight.
Current parents ask about term dates, inset days, uniform, lunches, trips and clubs. The standard answers are covered in parents asking the same school questions every term.
An assistant should handle both from published information.
The limits that matter most
Some questions must always reach staff:
- Anything about an individual pupil.
- Safeguarding or wellbeing concerns.
- Special educational needs cases.
- Complaints.
- Medical needs.
Ask each vendor how their tool recognises and routes these. The response should be clear, kind and immediate.
What to ask vendors
Where do answers come from? Your own website and documents, not generic education content.
Can it separate prospective and current families? Different welcome options or buttons help.
How does it handle peak periods? Admissions deadlines and results days bring big spikes in questions.
What does it cost at your volume? Flat pricing is easier to budget than per-conversation pricing during peaks.
How are enquiries delivered to admissions? With contact details and the full conversation.
Who will look after it
A school website assistant needs an owner, usually someone in the office or the admissions team. Their job is to keep the information current each term, review a sample of conversations and make sure captured enquiries reach the right person. Without an owner, term dates go stale and answers drift out of date within weeks.
Accessibility and languages
Families come from many backgrounds. Check that the assistant is easy to use with screen readers and on phones, and that it can reply in the languages your families speak. SpideyChat replies in the language the visitor writes in, which helps schools with many families who speak English as an additional language.
Budget and procurement
Schools often need to justify spending carefully. Compare the cost with the office time currently spent on repeat questions and admissions enquiries. A clear monthly price is easier to approve than one that changes with usage, and easier to explain to governors or a finance committee when the budget is reviewed each year.
Testing before a busy period
Ask the office for twenty questions from each audience. Put them to the assistant word for word. Add a few sensitive questions to check they are routed to staff. Run the test a few weeks before a busy period, not during it. Buyers in other sectors follow a similar approach, as seen in choosing a website assistant for a gym or studio.
Where SpideyChat fits
SpideyChat for education providers answers admissions and parent questions from your published information at any hour, captures enquiries for admissions staff and directs sensitive questions to people. For a general introduction to website assistants, see the complete guide to an AI chatbot for your website.
Explore the live demos, then compare plans against the time your office spends on repeat questions.