In FY21, Enterprise Technology & Services (ET&S) implemented Salesforce Live Agent, an integrated live web chat tool, to allow admissions counselors across the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) to connect directly with prospective students, regardless of their location. In turn, Live Agent allows students to get quick answers without having to wait on hold, improves the student experience by making the admissions process less intimidating and captures critical data to ensure a student’s needs are met.
All USNH institutions use Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for their student recruitment processes and data. Live Agent has built-in integration with Salesforce, which automatically links chats with student records and logs the chat history. This implementation provided cost savings to USNH, as ET&S avoided building and maintaining custom data integrations had it chosen another product.
ET&S upgraded the Granite State College instance of Live Agent, who have used this tool in the past, and implemented new instances at Keene State College (KSC), Plymouth State University (PSU) and the University of New Hampshire (UNH).
ET&S is currently enhancing Live Agent for some USNH campuses by rolling out the offline chat function. This feature will capture a chat request when live chat is offline, create a case in Salesforce, and notify admissions staff so they can follow up.
Charlie Wynn is an Admissions Counselor at Keene State College who uses Live Agent to connect with students. “The first time I logged on I had a chat within a couple of hours!” Wynn said. “The student had a simple question about auditioning for the Music program, and I was able to direct him right to the link to sign up for an audition. Very convenient for him, and I was able to double-check that he had submitted his application while I had him there.”
Number of chats to date across all four institutions: 5,500+
Total minutes to date in chat conversations across all four institutions: 17,000+
