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Universities received poor student feedback about their support services, so they knew they had a problem. But they didn't know exactly what the problem was or how to fix it. The existing EdTech product user experience wasn't tailored to fill the desired needs either.
To better understand the students' pain points and the support staff's concerns, we conducted a series of workshops. We analysed student feedback, interviewed staff, and did task analysis. This helped us to identify the problems. Once we had a shared understanding of the problems, we came up with some solutions that would help the University achieve its goal of being recognised as a supportive institution.
For EdTech consistency and accessibility are some of the most important aspects of SaaS product design. The same is equally important for the University as well because inconsistent software products used by the University were a key pain point students cited. Amplifyn built a design system to counter this problem.
The Beacon design system helped the product team create a user-friendly UI design that is consistent, saving time on both design and development. The design system consists of the foundational style guide and complex components that share a compatible look to ease the student experience and improve the productivity of the support agent.
Student service agent is a key factor in improving the student experience. During the product design, we focused on allowing them to respond to student questions faster. We also designed dashboards to allow them to evaluate their performance against service quality KPIs set by the University. Not limited to that they are also provided with quick tips and on-the-spot actions to help them do better.
We designed a bird's eye view for the support agent manager which gave an overall quality of student experience. Mangers were given the data and insights to spot and take corrective measures to ensure the support team meets the quality KPIs.
You don't know when a student will need support. A student may reach for support via email or WhatsApp. Expectations for WhatsApp support are different from receiving support via email. Students want support from where they are and agents have to be where they are. This is probably one of the most demanding features of students and the hardest to fulfill.
Beacon is designed to function as an omnichannel platform that integrates with email, chat, WhatsApp other other social media channels. With queueing and ticketing based on student sentiment. So support staff agents can be available for most critical issues faster. We also designed video conferencing, and co-browsing with a scheduling feature to help support agents deliver assistance without switching between multiple systems.
Not all questions can be answered via email or chat. Sometimes students want to speak with someone about a semester payment dispute and are sometimes guided sessions to finish an application form. And with the current methods and EdTech products agents are handling these by switching between different software tools. Students aren't keen on this and the time of the support agents is consumed unnecessarily. Lowering both student experience and as productivity of the agents.
The user experience design of the Beacon allows co-browsing and remote control so without switching between multiple software scheduling for a one-to-one session or guided assistance is provided by agents. The sessions are also recorded to be shared with students for reference and used to enhance the quality of real-time guided support provided by student support agents.
We also design the product user experience so the university does not have to rely on a separate task manager software. When a student requests support on any channel an automatic task is created and assigned based on urgency and sentiment to the suitable agent with appropriate priority. Meanwhile, tickets that need no agent attention are given responses automatically.
This user experience we named "ticket magic" allows agents to attend to the next task without having to sort through support tickets that need their attention. A ticket also keeps track of all files, email and chat history, sessions and sub-tasks, and activity making it a single point of view if assigned to a different agent or escalated reducing the resolution time by an average of 67%.
Beacon user experience is available in both light and dark modes. In addition, a set of personalisation methods are available to the universities. They can choose colours to match the branding of the university as well as customise how labels and actions are displayed to the students. Notifications can also be set up to the preferences of each individual student support agent and reset back to defaults if needed.
Maintaining the quality of student support services is essential to a university's public image. However, disjointed systems and outdated EdTech products make it difficult to get a unified view of service quality performance.
Beacon offers a set of critical business insights to measure the quality of student services. It also includes a help centre module that connects agents, managers, and students to support when needed.
Since Beacon eliminates the need to switch between different systems, it can use data from interactions between students and support agents to identify opportunities for improvement. Beacon provides these insights at all levels, from individual agents to department managers. Real-time comparisons of actual vs. expected service quality KPIs (key performance indicators) allow administrators to take proactive measures to maintain a positive student experience at all levels.
Student support is one of the key elements to achieving good ratings for a higher education institution. Beacon serves as a single tool to connect with students and allows universities to proactively deliver student support.
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