UCAS provides users with email and phone support. Our service only provides email.
Out of email, phone and online chat, our research shows chat is preferred.
We think that giving users the option to chat will:
- decrease the time to resolve any issue
- decrease the number of issues made through email
- increase the percentage of issues solved with one interaction
- result in a better satisfaction score compared to email
What we did
We made some changes to the footer to accommodate chat.
Including a chat option
When chat is available, there’s a link that says ‘Speak to an adviser now (opens in new window)’.
When chat is unavailable, it says ‘Available Monday to Friday, 10am to midday (except public holidays)’.
The status changes automatically without a page refresh. We decided not to notify users of this – visually or audibly – because it’s unlikely to be relevant to the user.
Chat relies on JavaScript to work. When JavaScript is unavailable, it says ‘You cannot use online chat because there’s a problem. Send an email if you keep seeing this message.’.
Removal of survey link
We removed the option to give feedback through our survey because:
- there’s already a link to do so at the top of the page
- it’s not related to getting support
Changing the content around email
Currently it says ‘we respond within 5 working days, or one working day for more urgent queries’
We changed this to ‘You’ll get a response within 5 working days, or one working day for urgent requests.’ to focus more on the user.
Changing and moving the link to learn about the service
Currently there’s a ‘How to use Manage teacher training applications’ link.
But as it’s not a type of support, we moved it to the bottom left of the footer.
We also changed the link text to ‘How to use this service’ to be more concise.
Changing the ‘Get support’ heading to ‘Get help’
We changed the heading to ‘Get help’ to be more concise.
Screenshots#
Offline#
Online#
JavaScript unavailable#
