For colleges and universities, communication is more than a phone system. It is part of the student experience.
Prospective students call with questions about programs, applications, financial aid, and enrollment. Current students need to reach advising, registration, billing, IT support, and other departments. Faculty and staff rely on communication systems to stay connected across offices, departments, and campuses.
When those systems work well, most people never think about the technology behind them. When they do not, the effects become obvious: unanswered calls, long hold times, confusing transfers, and students who cannot reach the right person.
For colleges and universities across Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, these communication gaps can affect recruitment, the student experience, staff productivity, and retention.
Choosing a college involves a lot of questions. Prospective students and their families may need information about admissions, financial aid, academic programs, transfer credits, registration, or other topics before making a decision.
For many students, getting those answers is already a challenge. According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), 50% of students who had applied or were in the process of applying said interactions with the admissions office were very or somewhat challenging.
When a prospective student picks up the phone, colleges have an opportunity to make that process easier, not add another layer of frustration.
Consider what happens when a student calls admissions and encounters a complicated phone menu. They select an option, wait, get transferred, and eventually reach voicemail. They may try again later, or they may move on.
One missed call does not automatically mean one lost enrollment. But when half of applicants already report challenges interacting with admissions offices, unanswered calls, long wait times, and confusing routing can add unnecessary complications during a critical point in the enrollment journey.
This becomes especially important during application deadlines, financial aid deadlines, and other periods when admissions teams experience increased call volume.
Students continue to need answers once they enroll. Advising, financial aid, registration, student accounts, academic departments, and IT are just a few of the resources they may need to contact throughout their education.
Sometimes those interactions involve simple questions. Other times, a student may be trying to resolve an issue affecting their ability to register for classes or continue their education.
That matters because retention remains one of higher education's most important challenges. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported that 77.1% of students who started college in Fall 2024 returned to their original institution for their second year.
Many factors influence retention, and communication technology alone will not determine whether a student stays. But difficulty accessing support should not become another obstacle.
When students repeatedly encounter unanswered calls, incorrect transfers, or voicemail dead ends, getting help becomes harder than it needs to be.
Colleges can be complicated organizations. Their communication systems should not require students to understand that complexity.
A student calling with a financial aid question should not need to know which office, campus, or extension handles the issue. The system should help get them there.
Effective call flows can route inquiries to the right team, distribute calls among available employees, provide alternatives when someone is unavailable, and escalate time-sensitive inquiries.
This becomes particularly important for multi-campus institutions. Different locations may gradually develop their own phone numbers, extensions, voicemail boxes, and processes, creating a fragmented experience for students.
Delaware Technical Community College experienced this challenge across its four main campuses. Separate systems, call flows, auto attendants, and voicemail boxes made communications increasingly difficult to manage. ThinkSecureNet worked with the college to consolidate communications into a centralized call center with custom routing, SMS, online chat, call forwarding, and other capabilities designed around how students actually contacted the college.
The technology changed, but the objective was simple: make it easier for students to reach the right resource.
Communication problems do not only affect students.
When calls routinely reach the wrong department, staff members have to determine what the caller needs, identify the appropriate office, transfer the call, and potentially repeat the process if the next destination is incorrect.
Across hundreds or thousands of interactions, particularly during busy enrollment and registration periods, that inefficiency adds up.
Modern communications can also give employees greater flexibility. Cloud-based calling can allow authorized staff to communicate without being tied exclusively to a physical desk phone, which is valuable for institutions with multiple buildings, campuses, and remote or mobile employees.
A better communication system should make the experience simpler for the people answering the calls as well as the people making them.
Calling remains important, especially when someone has a complicated or urgent question. But it does not have to operate in isolation.
Students may prefer different communication methods depending on what they need. A prospective student might text a quick admissions question but call to discuss transfer credits. A current student might use online chat for a routine question but need to speak directly with someone about financial aid.
A unified approach can bring voice, SMS, online chat, and other communication methods into a more consistent environment.
The goal is not to force every student into the same channel. It is to make it easier for them to connect in the way that makes sense for their situation.
One of the biggest weaknesses of an outdated phone system may be what administrators cannot see.
How many calls go unanswered?
How long are students waiting?
When are the busiest periods?
Which departments receive the most calls?
How many callers hang up before reaching someone?
Modern communication systems can provide insight into metrics such as call volume, answer rates, wait times, abandonment rates, missed calls, and first-call resolution.
That information can help colleges make better operational decisions. If abandonment rates spike during registration, staffing may need to change. If one department receives a large number of misrouted calls, the call flow may need to be redesigned.
Instead of guessing where problems exist, leadership can identify them and make adjustments.
Colleges and universities invest significant resources into attracting students and helping them succeed once they enroll. The systems connecting students with those resources should not become obstacles themselves.
A strong communication environment should make it easier for prospective students to get answers, current students to access support, staff to work efficiently, and administrators to understand where improvements are needed.
For institutions throughout Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, evaluating communications should go beyond asking whether the phones still work.
Can students easily reach the right department?
What happens when call volume increases?
How many calls are missed or abandoned?
Can staff communicate effectively across campuses?
Does leadership have enough visibility to identify problems?
Those questions provide a much better picture of whether a communication system is actually serving the institution.
When Delaware Technical Community College needed to improve communications across its four campuses, ThinkSecureNet helped develop a centralized environment built around the needs of students and staff.
The project reduced abandonment and wait times, decreased misrouted calls, improved staff productivity, and provided greater visibility into communication performance.