With growing student populations and limited funding, today's schools need efficient systems of organization that streamline their operations while reducing unnecessary expenses. Thankfully, many schools have achieved both with the help of student information management systems, by utilizing digital platforms like QLESS, schools can implement digital solutions to common efficiency problems like long wait times, poor record-keeping, and excessive maintenance, thereby enhancing their campus experiences for both students and staff at a minimal cost.
Around the world, hundreds of schools are already making the switch -- here's why.
All-In-One Web-Based Queue Management
Without a robust management system, staff often spend more time than necessary on routine tasks like maintenance and scheduling. When staff is overburdened, the quality of campus service can suffer, leading students to feel that their needs are being overlooked or ignored; however, student information management systems often include several features that help staff overcome organizational hurdles. With QLESS, staff members get full access to a comprehensive web-based command center that allows them to monitor various queues around campus. At a glance, staff can gauge queue performance in real time by monitoring forecasted wait times, the total number of students in a queue, the number of upcoming appointments, and no-show percentages.
Some metrics, such as actual wait times and service time, are displayed with minimum, maximum, and median values that change dynamically depending on queue performance. To promote further transparency, staff have the option of creating alerts for forecasted and median service times, when underperforming queues exceed the preset range, staff members are alerted with an SMS message, allowing them to assess performance and take appropriate action, if necessary.
Student information management systems like QLESS also include a full-featured, browser-based calendar view. Upon logging in, staff can visualize all upcoming appointments and sort them by day, week, or month across multiple on-campus queues.
Reinforce Data Security & Reduce Maintenance
In our digital age, data security is a high priority for many schools. Without taking proper precautions, sensitive stored student information can be accessed by unscrupulous third-parties who can expose confidential details and increase the risk of data or identity theft. When a school's data is compromised, their reputation often suffers irreparable harm; thankfully, student information management systems like QLESS are built with high-grade security standards, ensuring that all exchanged and stored data is protected from prying eyes. At QLESS, our platform is built with the following specifications:
By implementing robust security defenses, schools can safeguard their data while minimizing expenses. With more peace-of-mind and less system downtime, on-campus IT staff can devote more of their time and resources towards other, more pressing infrastructural concerns, rather than constantly attending to failing or compromised systems.
In addition, the cloud-based architecture of many student information management systems negates the need for cumbersome hardware installations and frequent software downloads. Because QLESS's software updates automatically, service is consistent and reliable, ensuring the end-user experience is smooth and seamless for both staff and students.
Enable Mobile Queuing Campus-Wide
Although many schools are dedicated to improving the accessibility of their services, many fail to embrace the mobile solutions afforded by today's hand-held technology. Some schools perceive student mobile phone usage as nothing more than a gateway to external sources of distraction. As a matter of fact, the power of these high-performance devices can be harnessed to achieve greater connectivity within schools themselves.
Because student information management systems like QLESS support mobile queuing, students can join queues in a variety of ways, including a school's website, an on-site kiosk, or their mobile phone.
Students with iOS or Android devices even get access to dedicated apps that allow them to browse campus queues, view current wait times, and identify the number of active students in a queue right from the palms of their hands. Once a student has joined a digital queue, QLESS will alert them via SMS text or phone message when their place in line is approaching. Since queue alerts are automatically sent, students can wait anywhere they choose with complete confidence that they'll have sufficient time to return for prompt service. Because student information management systems embrace mobile devices and facilitate mobile communication, schools can minimize the frequency of no-shows and drastically improve their student service experience, resulting in increased campus satisfaction.
Track Performance & Drive Data-Driven Improvements with Built-In Reporting
Without access to pertinent queue performance data, identifying areas of improvement and implementing targeted solutions can be challenging for school staff. Even if staff are aware that the performance of their queues is sub-par, a lack of real-world data metrics might stifle the effectiveness of their efforts. For instance, staff might be convinced that service duration is bottlenecking their service speed until data reveals that an increase in student traffic is the actual culprit.
Fortunately, student information management systems can provide school staff with actionable insights regarding the speed and quality of their services. Because systems like QLESS are designed to manage digital queues, all relevant queue is collected and stored automatically without any additional effort on the part of school staff or administrators. From here, data can be accessed and compared in both graphical and tabular formats from the web-based reporting interface, allowing staff to analyze queue performance and glean invaluable insights.
With QLESS, data never expires, and the available metrics include:
Once school staff members have identified potential areas of improvement, student information management systems make it effortless for staff to export their findings as Microsoft Excel, Access, or CSV files in just a few clicks.
Bolster Staff-Student Communication
Staff-student communication is a crucial element of any healthy school campus; however, its importance is often neglected, leading to a lack of clear communication between students and staff and consequently, reduced campus morale. The ramifications can appear in any number of ways: students might feel that staff members don't understand their needs, while staff might become frustrated with students who fail to understand their systems of operation.
Thankfully, many student information management systems excel at bridging the communication gaps that can often exist between students and staff. With systems like QLESS, all queue communication is bi-directional, meaning that students in active queues can correspond with staff via SMS text and vice-versa. From the comfort of their hand-held devices, students can ask for more time, request status updates, or leave a queue entirely; similarly, school staff can inform students of service interruptions and queue delays with minimal effort. Through improved communication, students and staff will find the on-campus queue experience to be more transparent, less frustrating, and more pleasant overall.
The QLESS system strengthens communication by allowing staff to solicit feedback from students soon after their service concludes. After providing service to students, staff members have the option of sending students a survey link via SMS text. Because student information management systems simplify the process of surveying students, staff can collect more valuable feedback in a shorter time frame and drive improvements to their services with greater ease.
Boost Student Satisfaction with Enhanced Appointment Flexibility
For many students, school services like guidance counseling and advisory appointments are an invaluable boon. By guiding and informing the efforts of their students -- whether academic or otherwise -- staff members can help students attain success in various avenues of life. Unfortunately, while the efforts of guidance counselors and academic advisors are admirable, their services aren't always accessible. Various factors, including poor scheduling and a lack of availability, can impair access to student services, resulting in reduced student satisfaction rates and decreased academic performance.
Thankfully, student information management systems include features that are designed to increase appointment availability and by extension, improve access to student services. With platforms like QLESS, schools can integrate both walk-ins and booked appointments into their schedules, thereby maximizing the accessibility of valuable services like guidance counseling and academic advisory.
With QLESS FlexAppointments, students have the option of pre-booking student service appointments ahead of time. When a student's appointment approaches, QLESS will automatically place them into the applicable virtual queue. Although walk-in visitors will share the same queue, QLESS automatically reserves pre-arranged timeslots for students with appointments, ensuring that they'll receive service as planned. However, if a student cancels their appointment, QLESS will automatically reorder queue participants to maximize the efficiency of your schedule.
Enhance Your Campus Experience with QLESS
QLESS is an award-winning student information management system that enhances efficiency and improves the quality-of-life on campus for both students and staff.
To learn how to improve campus operations and retention rates, read our whitepaper, Campus Without Lines.