BYU PATHWAY WORLDWIDE

What is student service communication?

Student service communication refers to the exchange of information between a student and a company while resolving the student's issue. 

There are so many different ways to communicate with the students and offer assistance.

• Email

• Phone calls

Excellent student service communication requires skills like speaking and writing clearly, effectively, efficiently, and politely. You need to employ empathetic listening when you’re communicating with the students.

Remember, communication is a two-way street.

Five ways to improve student service communication

Be human 

• When working with your team members, please encourage them to use language that feels natural. Contractions, slang, and even emojis are acceptable if they match the tone of the student’s original message.

• There’s another aspect of speaking humanly: Using the student’s name. Using their name conveys that you see them as a person with an identity rather than a faceless student.

Be timely 

• When a student reaches out, the time it takes before your team responds or resolves the issue can have a tangible impact on their experience. Make it easy for your team members to find the answers they need and get them across to students as quickly as possible.

• Ensuring that your team members can get answers or escalate to appropriate team members quickly means that your customers will always get responses promptly. Because of that, they’ll feel respected, prioritized, and valued.

Apologize when needed 

• The first step to fixing a problem is a genuine apology. If a student comes to your team and is upset or frustrated, take the time to hear them out and apologize.

• Just like with any interpersonal interaction, hearing someone’s complaints and addressing them directly and kindly can have a significant impact on the success of your communication with the students.

Answer all the student’s questions 

• One of the best things you can do for a student is ensure that everything they ask in their email gets answered clearly and concisely the first time you reply.

• If you recognize that a conversation is complex and has tons of questions, be sure to read the original email a few times before sending your response to make sure you’ve addressed all of their concerns.

Speak clearly and concisely 

While encouraging your team members to follow your tone and style guidelines and allowing them to find their voices, it’s still important to encourage everyone to speak clearly and concisely in your emails.

Some tips to use for concise, straightforward writing are:

• Consider breaking things down into easy-to-read lists instead of writing in long paragraphs.

• Ensure that your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are 100% accurate.

• Avoid negative phrases or judgment-loaded statements about the customer.

• Use a writing assistant like Grammarly to notify you of typos, misspellings, and run-on sentences and suggest changes.

• Send documentation and screenshots to help clarify.

• Take out unnecessary phrases like “I think” and get directly to your point.

Not only will this make your emails easier to read, but they will also take less time to write.