A few weeks ago we spoke with Mariam, head of the Digital Marketing department at Femxa , about how this area communicates with students through social media. This time it is the turn of the Student Support and Advice Area, led by Mª Carmen Valiñas . In this department they are in direct contact with students through other means, some of which are more conventional and do not have a social or public character, as they remain in the private sphere with the student.
Well, together with Carmen and her team we will explain the keys to a vital department for the success of the courses.
Good morning everyone, first of all thank you for taking the time to talk to us and let's get to the point with the interview we have prepared for you. The objective is to explain the main tasks that you manage from your department, and how the way you communicate with students has evolved over time.
1. Tell us, in broad terms, what are the main tasks that you tackle from your area?
In the department we are responsible for informing, advising and selecting participants for the training courses offered by Femxa. One of our objectives is to guide the person who calls us or contacts us through other means on the most appropriate courses for their situation, both based on their previous training and their employment situation. The ideal is to propose a complete training plan that fits with their career plan, although we do not always have all the courses available in each call for applications.
It is not just about answering the call and seeing if you meet the requirements to access the course you are interested in. We seek to offer a service that meets the learning needs and expectations of our students.
2.
We usually provide more information about the content of the courses we are teaching (what they will learn and what type of qualification they will obtain upon completion) and we also explain the access requirements that must be met, since, as they are generally actions subsidized by the administration and 100% free for students, not all interested parties can access any of the courses.
We also resolve queries about how to manage certain procedures related to your participation list of mexico cell phone numbers in the courses: scholarships and financial aid offered by the public administration, access to the Youth Guarantee program, documentation required to complete the registration process, etc.
3. What role does student experience play in implementing new means of contact?#Femxacommunity
New technologies accompany us in all facets of life and tasks that years ago were mainly carried out by phone and email now take place in new settings that allow real-time contact, such as WhatsApp and the chat on our website. These are means of communication that are gaining strength day by day, especially among the youngest members of our student community.
4. Which media have the highest volume of queries?
All the contact channels we have implemented respond to a significant volume of queries, as they bring us closer to the candidates in the way that is most comfortable for them at any given time. It is true that, typically, those under 30 years of age tend to make greater use of chat (both on the web and WhatsApp) and Social Networks at the beginning of the process, but at times when the queries are more complex, a phone call allows us to resolve them more effectively. To all this, we always add contact by email to send all our students the information that they should keep in mind if they finally take the course.
5. How many queries or requests do you manage in the department on a daily basis?
In general terms, we respond to an average of 500 queries a day directly related to the courses we are teaching, of which approximately half are already made through Webchat and WhatsApp. However, it should be noted that at specific times, such as after having sent one of our newsletters or the launch of a new course on the web, the number of queries in the following days can multiply by 4 or 5.
6. How do you measure student satisfaction with the service you provide in your area?
In the department we are always open to feedback from our students, as it is their opinion that allows us to improve and implement new and better management methods. For those who finally take a course, we always send them a satisfaction questionnaire in which they are invited, among other aspects, to evaluate our management. Our Quality department periodically analyses this data and reports the most relevant conclusions to us.
We also receive real-time feedback through chat ratings that each user can record after each contact.
7. How do conventional media coexist with social networks?
Social networks act as reinforcements and enhancers of multimedia communication and allow, in a similar way to WhatsApp and Zopim (our webchat), immediate contact through the medium in which the student feels most comfortable. They help us when it comes to publicizing new courses to be taught, to publicize events that we can also manage, such as information sessions on more complex courses or selection tests for courses that require them, such as those in ICT and Languages.
8. An important part of the student registration process is document management, which is also mandatory in order to start a course. In this regard, what changes have you introduced to speed up this process?
Indeed, the management of the documentation required to register students in subsidized courses is very important, since students must use it to demonstrate that they meet the access requirements imposed in each training call.
To try to make this process as cost-free and cumbersome as possible for students, we offer different delivery methods, from the most classic ones such as postal mail or fax, to more innovative ones, such as: scanning documents in PDF format by email, or photographs via WhatsApp.
In addition, they always have the option of delivering a copy of the originals in paper form to any of our training centres, a way for them to find out where the course will be held and to put a face to the people they sometimes speak to on the phone.
We are also working on improving our Student Portal so that, once a person takes a course with us, they can have their own personal area where they can manage all their documentation and keep a history of all the training they have taken with us over the years.
9. At this point, you have to propose another department of Grupo Femxa to be the next to go through this section.