The education field isn’t just about teaching lessons in classrooms; it encompasses entire institutions with complex administrative and operational systems. Business process outsourcing (BPO) and education call center services make it possible for your schools and universities to serve students, teachers and parents alike.
BPO education companies handle secondary services that support the education process, from basic answering services to device management for your staff and students. By outsourcing these tasks, you can make your institution more efficient, allowing you to allocate more time and resources to improving student outcomes. Learning how BPO education call centers work and exploring how they can transform educational operations is the first step toward optimizing systems at your school.
The Growing Role of Education Call Center Services
BPO education call center services facilitate communication between students, teachers, parents and administrators. As schools look for ways to serve more students with limited resources, these call centers and education BPOs are becoming increasingly popular. Outsourcing even simple administrative functions can save your teachers a significant amount of time, increasing their ability to connect with students and their families.
Growing student bodies make it harder to keep track of each student’s course enrollment details and financial aid history. BPO organizations provide you with the infrastructure you need to keep student information organized and make it accessible to students and administrators.
As technology develops, many schools are also under pressure to provide a modern education environment and keep up with technological advancements. Many high schools and colleges are now providing online options as a standard part of their coursework, requiring educators to determine how to operate online infrastructure for their students. BPO tools allow you to offer expanded services, such as e-learning and device management, without taking on the logistical burden of figuring out online platforms and providing technical support to students. A call center can help you pioneer modern educational support and stay up to date on the latest tools and platforms so you can make student learning your top priority.
What Educational Processes Can You Outsource?
Running an educational institution involves a wide range of administrative processes, many of which you can outsource to a qualified BPO provider. Here are just some of the functions and services you can delegate to an education call center partner.
Admissions and Enrollment
Higher education call center services often have a heavy focus on admissions and enrollment, simply because there is such a high demand from prospective students. If you’re an administrator at a college or other higher education institution, you are likely constantly fielding calls from students, parents, and high school counselors to learn about your admissions process.
Call centers can accept these calls and answer questions about applications, coursework, registrations, housing, tour scheduling, and more, on your behalf. Along with answering inbound calls and reaching out to prospective students, BPO providers can update internal systems so your educators and administrators are in the know about the entire enrollment process.
Business Office Calls
Education contact centers will train their representatives on everything about your institution so they can respond to general inquiries from students, teachers, parents and others. They can answer calls to your business office, reply to emails and redirect callers to the appropriate department.
Fundraising Outreach
Anyone who works in higher education understands that fundraising is a constant effort. You may have to reach out to vast contact lists on a yearly basis to secure funding for your programming. To support this effort, you can hire a specialized BPO to handle fundraising outreach and host phone banks to connect with alumni and potential donors.
Some BPO providers can also help you set up online fundraising tools, allowing you to increase your impact across multiple channels. You’ll be able to confidently manage your fundraising needs in a cost-effective way that doesn’t eat into your overall budget.
School IT Support
Modern school systems have entire IT departments devoted to managing devices for students and staff. The need for quality IT support has skyrocketed with the advent of remote learning and bring-your-own-device options. Technical support call center and BPO services for your learning environment may include setting up e-learning platforms, coordinating AV and equipment requests, and fielding calls and tickets when issues arise. You’ll be able to make sure your entire school ecosystem stays connected and can access critical online tools to support their learning, whether they’re on campus or at home.
Application Processing
Processing applications involves managing and sorting through vast amounts of data. By working with a BPO, you can efficiently process all incoming applications based on your unique timelines. You can rely on your outsourcing partner’s data management systems to quickly find information about prospective students, process application fees, and send out updates to families throughout the application process.
Financial Services
Financial aid offices play a significant role at any school that charges tuition. Education BPOs can provide your school with comprehensive financial aid functions, from managing student invoices to coordinating scholarship distributions. They’ll be available to answer questions about your financial aid process and help each student understand the steps they need to take to fund their education.
Staff Training
Continuing education courses are a standard part of being a teacher. You can outsource certain types of training for teachers and administrative staff, helping them stay up to date on their professional development.
Bookstore Management
Campus bookstores make it possible for every student to get the books and supplies they need to succeed in class. Along with classic call center services, many educational BPO organizations will fully manage your campus bookstore. You can hire them to manage online ordering, answer questions about inventory availability, and ensure your student body has access to all required reading.
The Benefits of Using a BPO in Teaching
Educational outsourcing has the potential to transform the way you educate by allowing teachers and administrators to stay focused on their core duties. Advantages include increased efficiency, lower costs, reduced administrative workload for educators and improved support for parents and teachers.
Improved Operational Efficiency
The core benefit of outsourcing is the ability to optimize your resources and become more efficient, even as your student body grows. By having a third-party company answer calls, your admissions staff can handle larger volumes of inquiries and applications. Outsourcing IT support allows teachers to jump right into each lesson instead of dealing with device troubleshooting and technical issues. These benefits ripple throughout your organization, and you will clearly see how a BPO can improve efficiency across departments.
Lower Costs
Outsourcing has direct cost benefits for educational institutions. Instead of hiring more staff to handle increased demand during application or fundraising season, you can use scalable BPO solutions. By streamlining your staff and outsourcing secondary administrative duties, you can save on overhead and invest more of your budget in your institution.
Decreased Educator Workload
Teachers are often overwhelmed with the administrative tasks associated with teaching. If your school offloads some of these back-office duties to an outsourcing provider, you can eliminate disruptions and distractions for your teachers. As a result, they can remain focused in the classroom and spend more time refining and adjusting their curriculum. This allows for more personalized teaching and improves the overall student experience at your institution. It also has the potential to reduce educator burnout, helping you retain your most talented teachers.
Enhanced Parent and Student Support
Many parents take an active role in their child’s education, even when they leave for college. Call centers ensure that parents get the answers they need when it comes to financial aid, enrollment requirements, and more. They can handle a large volume of callers, so parents can enjoy a quick response time that builds trust and confidence in your school. Call centers also make essential information more accessible to your prospective and current students, helping them manage their courses or access campus resources with ease.
The Impact of Education BPO Services
Education call centers empower both teachers and administrators to serve the student body better. BPO in education sectors is designed to streamline administrative efficiency so teachers and administrators can focus on getting students the resources and support they need. Higher education institutions nationwide have turned to outsourcing to help students navigate enrollment, financial services, and more.
The impact of call center outsourcing is significant. You can reduce operational costs and increase your capacity to serve students. For example, your BPO can supply tools and services to support registration and enrollment, streamlining core back-office functions during a period of high demand. With just this one application, you can greatly improve the student experience during a stressful enrollment period, enhancing relationships while relieving pressure from your internal admissions team.
Outsourcing has also transformed the world of online education. Instead of dealing with the complex technical setup associated with e-learning, teachers can now focus on teaching and developing their curriculum. They can rely on their BPO provider to set up interactive online experiences that engage students and support their existing education methodologies.
These are just a few applications of education BPO services. Imagine what you can achieve when you implement these solutions across your institution.
Streamlining Education With Outsourcing
Confie BPO is an experienced outsourcing and call center provider, and we have all the tools you need to make your educational institution more efficient.
Call our team at 800-684-2276 or contact Confie BPO online today to start building smarter systems for your school.
