The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has partnered with Qtrac to install a virtual queuing and appointment system that streamlines the process of setting up student meetings with faculty and staff.
UNSW, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is a leading research university that enrolls more than 62,000 students across a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs. In order to best serve this diverse student population throughout its large campus, the university wanted to make it simple for students to meet with faculty and staff while also guiding them through these sometimes-challenging processes before they even set foot in the door.
The Student Experience Challenge
The university already had a virtual queuing system in place but discovered that it was unable to evolve along with their changing needs.
“At UNSW, we prioritize innovation in order to continuously improve the student experience, and we never want to stop improving what we have to offer,” said Mark Chhuy, business process improvement manager at UNSW. “No one wants to wait in lengthy lines or be confused about how to navigate the university when you have an important issue to take care of. We knew that virtual queuing and appointments could help, but we wanted a partner that could tailor their solutions to our campus.”
After searching for a new partner, Qtrac emerged as the solution that would best serve UNSW. They collaborated with the intention of tackling the challenges of scheduling appointments, ensuring students were better prepared ahead of those appointments, enhancing accessibility to university services and improving the experience and reducing wait times for walk-in appointments.
The Qtrac Solution
In order to address these challenges, Qtrac worked with UNSW to develop a custom solution for its campus. The university officially started using Qtrac at the beginning of 2023 in offices including Equitable Learning Services, Future Students, Student Support, Student ID Cards and numerous academic programs.
At a basic level, the technology allows students to schedule appointments ahead of time and then check in via a kiosk or to simply check in at a kiosk for a walk-in appointment. Students then receive updates about their place in line as well as other relevant messages.
Qtrac has worked with UNSW to develop custom elements, including an integration with the CRM, appointment scheduling interfaces on the school’s website and advanced rules that help ensure students are directed to the correct department. All of these elements are designed to make scheduling a meeting a more seamless experience. With the CRM integration, for example, faculty and administrators can instantly pull a student’s information before the meeting so they have the data they need at their fingertips.
In addition, once students schedule an appointment or check in, they get a notification with information about what documents and other information they need to bring. This helps to cut through red tape and save time because students have everything on-hand and ready to go for their appointment from the start.
With Qtrac, students have a means of communicating with faculty and staff ahead of time as well. This is particularly important if they have any special needs, so the faculty or staff member they are meeting can provide necessary accommodations when they arrive.
“The queuing and appointment system that we have set up at UNSW speaks to the flexibility of the Qtrac platform,” said Steve Covate, vice president of sales at Qtrac. “UNSW made it clear that they didn’t want a static product, but rather one that can evolve with them and their students. Using our full range of features and working with us to develop custom elements when necessary has ultimately benefited a diverse range of students across the campus community.”
During peak times, more than 4,000 students per month use Qtrac both for walk-ins and to schedule appointments. UNSW has seen improvements in the efficiency of this process and received feedback that Qtrac has made setting up and conducting appointments a smoother process overall.
University administrators receive detailed reports on a weekly basis so that they can monitor wait times and identify any areas that might need adjustments. Some of these adjustments can be handled by UNSW, while others require development work from Qtrac. Looking forward, in addition to these regular tweaks, an integration with the university’s calendar system is in progress.
“Qtrac has helped us make vital student services more accessible and easier to navigate,” said Chhuy. “As we move forward, supporting students and reducing barriers for them will continue to be the cornerstone of this partnership.”