Struggling to keep up with endless student inquiries?

There have been significant changes in how students, parents, and stakeholders interact with educational institutions, with the main shift being the channels of communication used.

Despite these challenges in 2024, schools must assist with queries about fee structure, admission, and courses offered in a way that meets today’s standards by integrating unified communication. 

Thanks to customer support software solutions, this is now possible.

Notably, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable compared to companies that are not focused on the customer, according to a study by Deloitte. This further highlights how customer support can help your school or university provide quality services and retain your student base.

Finding the best customer support software for education can be tricky, considering only a few software are designed for this specific industry. 

In this article will discuss some of the best customer support software for education to help attract students, improve user satisfaction, and enhance customer retention.

Want to deliver great customer support for your travel business? I reviewed some of the best help desk software for travel businesses, in my previous article, where I detailed some of their main pros and cons. Be sure to check it out.

Let’s get started.

Quick Summary

1. Glassix - Best solution for all-around student communication

2. Helpscout - Best support software for medium-sized educational institutions

3. Kustomer - Best for departments in need of automation and AI capabilities

4. Happyfox - Best support software for IT support departments

5. Front - Best customer support software for email management

How to Choose a Customer Support Software for Schools, Colleges, and Universities

a) Check for Integration Capabilities

A great support system should be able to work seamlessly with other systems to ensure efficiency and unparalleled sharing of information across departments.

When choosing a customer support software for your school, ensure that it can integrate well with your existing software, such as communication platforms and student information systems, for better productivity.

b) Consider User-Friendliness

It is critical to consider the user experience a software delivers. Ideally, you want a software with a seamless user experience to save time and simplify customer support operations.

While going for a solution with a sophisticated interface might sound interesting, ensure that your users can easily send in support requests and that your agents can navigate its interface without difficulties.

c) Keep in Mind the Features

You will likely pick any software because of its features. Different vendors provide solutions with different features, so ensure you compare them before making a purchase.

Common features to look for in a help desk solution for your school that can help you redefine your customer support include automation abilities, integration capabilities, and communication services.

d) Identify your Pain Points

Identifying your school’s pain points and challenges that you would like to solve using customer support software is essential. Some common challenges include an increased volume of students’ and parents’ support requests.

Once you identify the challenges you are experiencing, narrowing down your customer support software options is easier based on their ability to handle the particular challenges your institution faces.

e) Consider your Budget

At the end of the day, choosing customer support software comes down to the budget. Even if you find an ideal help desk solution for your educational institution, it won’t matter if it is out of budget.

Keeping in mind your allocated budget also helps you stick to it and avoid overspending. However, if your budget can stretch, feel free to consider premium solutions with more advanced features.

1. Glassix 

Glassix is one of the best Omnichannel communication software.

It ranks up here thanks to its comprehensive and robust architecture. Still, Glassix’s easy-to-use interface delivers a seamless user experience and simplifies all user interactions.

But one of its most outstanding features is its unified inbox that integrates all your customers’ favorite communication platforms into one dashboard, ensuring every customer request is seen and promptly answered.

In addition to that, the software’s renowned omnichannel capabilities mean that your school customer support agents can seamlessly switch through communication channels without losing the conversation history, allowing them to provide more efficient customer support.

These features are backed by Glassix’s advanced AI capabilities that can do anything from automating routine tasks to delivering personalized responses to student queries. 

Conversational experiences can also provide personalized recommendations based on student interests and performance to enhance academic excellence and student satisfaction.

Key features:

• Glassix’s conversation routine engine allows you to assign conversations to qualified agents and to set up routine rules that ensure effective triage.
• The software lets you digitally share images, videos, and documents to improve collaborative efforts within the educational institution.
• Glassix provides conversational AI that empowers your chatbots to deliver personalized and timely responses to parents and students.
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Pricing:

Starting plan: $49 per user/month.

Verdict

Although Glassix is priced slightly higher than other customer support software for education, it delivers comprehensive and advanced features such as omnichannel communication services that ensure seamless communication across all platforms.

2. Helpscout 

Helpscout streamlines communication to empower your agents.

If you are struggling with chaotic inboxes, it may be time to invest in Helpscout, one of the best customer support software for education in 2024 that manages and organizes all your emails into one shared inbox. 

From here, you can assign emails to agents, ensuring that you never lose an email or worry about responding twice, ultimately improving collaborative efforts within your academic institution.

Helpscouts’s collision detection comes in handy in preventing duplicate replies. The feature stops a user from sending a reply to an already updated conversation, allowing your team to move on to other issues.

Additionally, you can empower parents, students, and stakeholders to find their own answers without contacting support by creating self-service resources such as a knowledge base and FAQs pages. 

This reduces the number of support requests and allows your team to focus on important issues.

Key features:

• Helpscout integrates well with several applications such as Slack, Google Apps, and Salesforce, to mention a few, ensuring increased customer service productivity efficiency.
• Helpscout’s shared email inbox enables staff and administrators to collaborate easily, respond promptly and stay organized to improve the quality of customer support. 
• The software has powerful AI capabilities that highlight important parts of an email, eliminating the need for reading long email threads.
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Pricing:

Starting plan: $20 per user/month.

Verdict

Helpscout boasts essential features such as shared inboxes and powerful AI capabilities to help colleges and universities stay productive and manage administrative work. However, it only offers a 15-day free trial, unlike Glassix’s 30-day free trial.

3. Kustomer 

Kustomer’s AI-powered CRM platform powers customer support.

While most solutions in 2024 have configured CRM capabilities, Kustomer offers more robust features that offer an all-in-one consolidated platform that handles communication, ticketing, customer information, and school data, making it one of the best help desk software for education.

Designed to improve interactions between your institution’s students, parents, or alumni, Kustomer ensures prompt delivery of assistance. 

Whether it is communicating new updates or course changes, the AI-powered intelligence paired with guest data enables you to send automated personalized communication based on students’ attributes.

In addition to that, Kustomer’s AI tools come in handy to automate manual and repetitive tasks, allowing students to self-serve, and route conversations to allow your agents to focus on important tasks.

Kustomer also provides actionable data sourced from different systems to enable you to help your students achieve their goals. 

Key features:

• The software’s proactive communication allows you to communicate with your students early before issues arise, reducing the number of support requests.
• Kustomer’s reporting tools provide your school’s and students’ data to help you deliver a personalized customer experience and make data-driven decisions to improve customer support.
• You can make simple generative AI chatbots using Kustomer’s IQ to assist with basic customer support queries, thus providing 24/7 support services.
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Pricing:

Starting plan: $89 per use/month.

Verdict

Kustomer offers a vertical solution to help schools and universities create personalized student touchpoints to enhance customer support. However, the starting plan is relatively expensive compared to Glassix, which provides just as robust features.

4. HappyFox 

HappyFox offers help desk and customer support services in one.

Right off the bat, HappyFox’s omnichannel communication feature consolidates all your communication platforms under one roof, making it one of the best customer support software for education.

It allows you to turn your emails, website requests, and calls into tickets that you can easily manage.

To help you provide instant assistance to students and parents in 2024, the software allows you to deploy the live chat to your website. This means your customers can get answers without leaving your website.

Additionally, you can create a knowledge base and FAQ page to empower your agents to deliver enhanced customer support and your customers to self-help, ultimately reducing your agents’ workload.

HappyFox is also highly customizable, allowing you to customize your help desk to fit your brand and provide personalized customer support.

Key features:

• HappyFox’s knowledge base and FAQs page empower customers to get assistance independently without contacting support.
• The software provides customer satisfaction surveys that your agents can send to customers to assess the quality of support, which can help improve your services.
• HappyFox has an easy-to-use ticketing system that lets you manage, store, and sort tickets in order of priority and responsibility to enhance the quality of support services.
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Pricing:

Starting plan: $39 per agent/month

Verdict

HappyFox offers one of the best customer support software for education, as it provides both help desk and customer support services for the price of one. However, it does not provide a free trial for customers to explore its incredible features like Glassix does.

5. Front 

Front helps support teams streamline communication.

The software understands everything required to ensure your customers are happy and provides it to you, from tools for enhancing performance and collaboration to analytics and knowledge base.

Providing a personalized customer experience to your students and stakeholders has never been easy. Contrary to the belief that this may slow your team down, Front allows your team to collaborate effectively by streamlining handoffs and creating escalation paths.

Additionally, Front’s 110 integrations and open API allow you to have everything you need under one platform, delivering a top of class help desk solution. 

This streamlines your customer support operations by allowing you to save time juggling multiple channels.

Front’s knowledge base also empowers students and parents to find answers independently without contacting support, decreasing your resolution time.

Key features:

• Front integrates seamlessly with 110 applications and open APIs, allowing you to use all your favorite tools from one platform, thus saving you time.
• The software’s live chat feature lets you meet your customers where they are and provides real-time customer support that enhances satisfaction.
• Front’s analytics provide critical insights to help you make data-driven decisions on where to concentrate resources and how to improve the quality of customer support.
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Pricing:

Starting plan: $59 per seat/month.

Verdict

Front pricing plans are billed annually and have a minimum requirement of the number of seats, which can be straining for small schools. Despite that, the software boasts powerful customer support features that can turn your team into a powerhouse. 

Conclusion

Schools can benefit significantly from customer support software.

Although academic institutions are not ideally businesses, they stand to benefit tremendously from having a robust help desk solution.

Schools and universities implementing effective customer support solutions are witnessing happier students, high retention rates, and increased profits.

In fact, a report by Zendesk reports that 60% of business leaders say that high-quality customer service improves customer retention, indicating how customer support software can help schools attract and retain students.

When choosing the best customer support software for education in 2024, identify your pain points first.

Helpscout, HappyFox, Front, and Kustomer all offer great solutions for schools. Still, Glassix stands out for its relatively affordable platform with essential features such as omnichannel communication and unified messaging that can help supercharge your customer support.

Sign up for Glassix’s free 30 day trial today, explore its powerful AI features firsthand, and learn how they can help manage customer interactions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is education customer support software?

An education customer support software provides schools, colleges, and universities with the necessary tools to manage student, parent, and stakeholder support interactions across multiple platforms.

These software streamline support operations to ensure unparalleled customer experience and enhanced customer satisfaction with the help of features such as automation tools and unified communication.

How much is education customer support software?

There is no one-fits-all answer to this. Different vendors provide different software with varying pricing plans. Some, like Glassix, provide free trials for customers to experience the software’s features.

Glassix is one of the best-priced solutions with a flexible and transparent pricing structure that caters to academic institutions of all sizes without compromising on features.

What are the benefits of customer support software in education?

Educational institutions can benefit tremendously from customer support. However, common benefits include building an excellent reputation and gaining a competitive advantage.

In the long run, having a help desk solution for your school enhances student satisfaction, resulting in productive students and better rankings.

Which is the best customer support software for education?

Front, HappyFox, Kustomer, and Helpscout all offer excellent customer support solutions for education thanks to their incredible features and capabilities, including integrations and communication tools.

However, Glassix proves to be an excellent overall communication platform with a variety of features designed to streamline agent productivity and enhance student satisfaction.

How can I choose a customer support software?

When choosing a customer support software, consider several factors to help you narrow down your options. These considerations include your institution’s pain points, budget, and features.

These considerations can help you make an informed decision. However, we have compiled this list of best customer support software to give you a starting point in your search for an excellent solution.