When a prospect reaches out and sends a message through the platform, it's really important that they feel like they are engaging with knowledgeable, friendly, and responsive individuals. Not only does this give a great impression of your institution, but it helps to keep the conversation flowing and ensures that your future students gain the information they need to take the next step in their journeys.
The quality of your ambassadors' communication skills and responses on the platform can therefore have a major (positive or negative!) influence on the results and impact you will see from your ambassador programme. Let's define what a high quality response looks like, and how you can effectively recruit and train ambassadors to perform to the best of their abilities.
What does a high quality interaction on TAP look like?
During our on-demand and optional live training sessions with ambassadors, we stress the importance of...
- Being friendly
- Being responsive
- Being authentic
This means that we expect Ambassadors to...
- Share detailed responses to questions - they don't need to write an essay to the prospect, but one word answers should always be avoided
- Use general pleasantries to start conversations and to find out more about the prospective student - we encourage Ambassadors to click on the chat menu > 'Prospect Information' when they start a new conversation to give them some insights into who they are talking to.
- Ask open ended questions to deepen the conversation and help it flow. Even if a question being asked is not completely relevant to the ambassador, they should try and find some common ground with the prospect and share knowledge that might be helpful to them. For example asking questions to find out what the prospect intends to study and why they're interested in applying to the university can be really helpful - these answers will help Ambassadors tailor their answers accordingly
- Avoid assumptions - if an Ambassador isn't sure what the prospect is asking right away, they should politely ask the enquirer to rephrase their question or ask for more details
- Create bespoke answers for every prospect. Although Ambassadors might have some templated answers they can use for more administrative questions (as an admin, you might want to draft a "cheat sheet" of common answers/webpages that your Ambassadors can refer prospects to), your representatives should try wherever possible to tailor their answers to individual enquirers (see points 2 + 3 in this list)
- Avoid using chatgpt or any other AI tools to craft responses. Prospects crave authentic insights and genuine responses from real students - this is their reason for reaching out to Ambassadors online as opposed to using AI tools to find out information. The unique experiences that your Ambassadors can bring to the table are unmatched by any AI advice - empower your representatives to find their own voice and dissuade them from sharing generic information
- Steer conversations that are becoming administrative to being more student life focussed - we have even more advice on this that you can share with Ambassadors (click here to read more!)
- Be quick at getting back to prospects - this doesn't however mean an instant response! We encourage Ambassadors to respond within 24hrs. A response that is well crafted and thoughtful is always better than a rushed reply that doesn't offer any value to the prospect
- Invite other Ambassadors into conversation if appropriate. For example, if your Business Studies Ambassador is asked a question about your university's History programs, your Ambassadors should be prepared to invite an Ambassador studying History into the chat (wherever possible)!
- Invite Admins into the chat. When your Ambassadors receive questions that are more administrative in nature, they have the ability to invite you or your TAP admin colleagues into the chat to help out in the conversation
How can I make sure that Ambassadors follow this guidance in practice?
Expectations with Ambassadors must be set from Day 1. It's much easier to uphold these standards and ensure quality conversations take place on the platform if the above guidance is shared during the ambassador recruitment process, and constantly reiterated in training sessions and regular ambassador check-in meetings.
As part of your ambassador application form, you might want to tie in these expectations or share them with your students before they set up their profiles on TAP. If you are paying your ambassadors, you should set out "contract terms" or expectations around chat quality; how quickly you expect your ambassadors to respond to messages (on average); and any expectations around weekly or monthly content creation. You are agreeing to work with your Ambassadors and remunerate them for their efforts - in exchange, your students should be ready and willing to uphold the standards you set them. After all, they are representing your university and for many prospects, they could be the first real interaction that they have with your institution. First impressions matter!
In addition, you might want to set your Ambassadors some test question(s) to respond to as part of the ambassador application form to see how they would respond to different types of enquiries. This will help you select the best people for the job, and again, reinforce the expectations of the role.
Training also plays a big part in encouraging quality responses from Ambassadors. Set clear expectations in your initial training session with your students and, in your regular ambassador check-in meetings, highlight where you've seen a great interaction on the platform. By sharing (anonymised) screenshots of your ambassadors' best work, they can learn from each other and also feel pride in the work that they are doing.
Also be prepared to call out Ambassadors who are underperforming. It's so important that your students feel engaged in the work that they are doing and are enjoying their time on the platform. If their engagement, enthusiasm, or standards start to slip, talk to these individuals about it on a one-on-one basis to address any performance issues. If any issues continue beyond this initial discussion, it might be worth reconsidering whether they are the best people to represent your university.
A final thing to consider...
We've seen so many amazing interactions happen on TAP, and when they go well, ultimately prospects turn into applicants who become enrolled students! We often hear from Ambassadors that the reason why they have signed up to the role in the first place is due to a fantastic experience they had on TAP and the amazing support they received during their application journey. Your prospects are your Ambassadors of the future, so remind your TAP representatives of this!
In previous years, the University of Adelaide have ran a welcome event in the first few weeks of term for their Ambassadors to meet new students that they've interacted with on TAP in person! It's a great way of helping their new students find friends and build on the relationships they've started online, and can really help students find their feet in those daunting first weeks of university. Why not consider running a similar welcome event for your next cohort of new students? It's also a good opportunity for you to check in with your Ambassadors and show them the impact of their work.
As always if you have any questions on this particular topic, please don't hesitate in reaching out to your Client Success Manager or email the team at support@theambassadorplatform.com for further guidance.