Why you should add live chat to your university website

Live student chat allows your prospective students to speak directly with one of your current students – with no waiting times.

Like instant messaging, this type of chat happens in real-time. Any time a prospective student has a question, they can easily get in touch with a digital student ambassador and receive a thoughtful response rather than an automated message.

Further, this element ensures students can get an answer to any question, big or small. Ultimately, this will help them discover their perfect university.

Here are our top-4 reasons why you should add live chat to your university website:

1. Live chat is more authentic

We’re currently living in an era of slick advertising and glossy materials. That’s all well and good, but people – especially prospective students – crave a more authentic experience.

Studies show that prospective students’ interest in rankings is waning. Instead, they’re increasingly turning to reviews written by current students to inform their decision-making process. That’s why universities must find a way to bridge the “authenticity” gap.

Related: How to Foster Authentic Personalization in Student Recruitment

Immediate responses have never been more important, especially in our efforts to recruit Gen Z students. Further, those responses need to be personal – automated, canned responses won’t cut it in today’s recruitment landscape.

Live peer-to-peer, student-to-student, chat marries authenticity with fast, personalized responses to bring enormous value to all of your prospects, regardless of where they are in their higher education journey.

2. Discussions happen in real-time

Prospective students want to know about what the food in the dining hall is like, which dorms have the best views (and rooms!), and what’s happening on campus at any given moment.

They have a million questions – and it’s your job to answer them quickly.

As we mentioned before, Gen Z wants – no, expects – quick, personalized responses. What better way to engage them than by offering those responses in real-time? Be sure to promote this within the messaging on your website so every prospective student can take advantage of this unique offering.

Related: Want a proven way to engage Gen Z? The magic is in belonging

Don’t forget to prep the students on the receiving end of the questions. When adding a live chat app to your university website, ensure that your student ambassadors understand how important authenticity is and are ready for the kind of communication your prospective students want.

3. Chat transforms lead generation and conversion

When universities offer applicants and offer-holders the ability to connect with a current student, they see their lead generation and conversion efforts skyrocket.

It’s no surprise, really. For prospective students, your current students and student ambassadors are among the most important resources they have when making decisions during their higher education journey. And they use them!

Just take a look at the Queen Mary University of London. When they added a “chat with a student” functionality using Unibuddy, they found that the prospective students who used it were nearly 35% more likely to enroll than those who didn’t.

This is the case stateside, too. After adding Unibuddy to their site, St. John’s University in Queens saw that 28% of users went on to put down a deposit – nearly double the institution’s 16% average.

4. It’s easy to add a chat feature

You have enough going on – adding the ability to chat with a student in real-time to your website shouldn’t be time-consuming.

At Unibuddy, we’ve made it easier than ever by creating a product that can be embedded with a single piece of HTML code. Each of our elements is easily embeddable – it’s exactly the same as embedding a YouTube video or pin from Google Maps.

Adding live student chat with Unibuddy

We created Unibuddy Chat to offer universities an easy-to-use, real-time chat platform that enhances the higher ed journey and makes the decision-making process engaging and fun. 

With its ease of use and ability to fit in with the current look and feel of any university website, Unibuddy is the greatest live chat app on the market. Interested in learning more? Book a demo to see how Unibuddy Chat can easily integrate into your higher ed website.