University Turns to Web Self Service to Deal with Enquiries

With competition between universities to attract new students hotting up, the University of Liverpool is using AskED, a new web self service tool supplied by Transversal to provide students with the information they need simply and more quickly than traditional website browsing or search functions.

The solution was implemented recently and means that the 50,000 prospective students who enquire via email about the University of Liverpool each year can now find out fast, accurate answers by 'asking questions' using natural language through the University's website.

Questions can vary from those directly related to academic life, such as "how much are tuition fees?", to the more informal "what is the nightlife like?"

To ensure that questions can be satisfactorily answered, the Transversal solution includes an in-built knowledgebase which is continuously updated by University of Liverpool staff to field answers to the most popular questions. This provides a valuable insight into what students are looking for in a place to study and enables the University to easily 'tweak' the knowledgebase to provide relevant information.

Mark Ingarfield, Student Enquiries and Recruitment Support Team at the University of Liverpool explains:

"We now receive 50,000 email enquiries per year - this volume from UK, EU and international students was starting to become unmanageable. It was clear that in order to maintain our high levels of customer service, we needed to provide these students with fast, intelligent and accurate answers to their questions, irrespective of when they were being asked. The Transversal AskEd solution not only gives us this but provides us with new intelligence, direct from students. This will be invaluable in helping us provide the courses and learning environment they're looking for."

Davin Yap, CEO at Transversal comments:

"Self service technology has caught on across a range of customer-focused businesses and is becoming increasingly important as Universities wish to improve service and become more efficient at the same time. Ask Ed will be key to attracting students 365 x 24, both in the UK and internationally; they'll be able to ask questions and get far more accurate results than traditional key word search or by trawling through the website."


Info: www.transversal.com / www.liv.ac.uk/study.
 

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