Blog The logistical benefits of higher education outsourcing

ViaSource Solutions seeks to maximize the customer experience with every contact.

The logistical benefits of higher education outsourcing

College students are creatures of habit, and many have similar schedules when it comes to managing the administrative components of their education. This can be problematic for a number of colleges and universities that might simply lack the manpower and bandwidth to facilitate a sudden influx of inquiries from students. 

It's not that these institutions shouldn't be prepared. Typically, a school will receive a spike in call activity, particularly in its registration and financial offices, around deadlines. The last day to add or drop a class, the deadline to apply for financial aid or any other important date. But, as schools certainly don't want to take up too much of their students' time waiting to get through on busy days, outsourcing these responsibilities might be necessary, and is preferable to abandoning those calls or having excessive hold times.

According to a white paper from the Institute for Higher Education Policy, outsourcing is becoming increasingly desirable among higher education executives. This is because college and university executives are learning to separate the notion of outsourcing in higher education with that typically associated with the private sector.

"One of the difficulties of exploring this issue is that the term 'outsourcing' is controversial, both within higher education and in the business sector," the paper says. "In the latter case, outsourcing has come to be associated with the 'offshoring' of jobs, a politically charged topic to be sure. However, this is not really the concern in higher education, since most of what is possible to outsource is unlikely to be undertaken by foreign workers."

On days when you can expect a significant increase of calls, relying on outsourced call centers for your inbound requests can be extremely beneficial. Inbound call center outsourcing not only reduces the wait times for students, it allows schools to allocate their internal resources elsewhere, which ultimately helps provide a better educational experience.