Immediate Application Start Acknowledgment: Deploy welcoming outreach immediately upon application start, before any abandonment occurs. Once a student begins an application, enroll them in a Bolt Agent Job where an agent acknowledges the application start, provides encouragement, and offers assistance if needed. This proactive approach establishes support from the beginning rather than waiting for problems to arise.

Abandonment Response Timing: For students who abandon applications after starting, deploy follow-up contact within 24 hours. Many students abandon applications not due to disinterest, but because they encounter technical difficulties, don't understand submission requirements, or simply don't know how to complete the final submission steps. Quick response provides technical guidance and procedural clarification while the application process remains top-of-mind.

Graduated Escalation: Structure follow-up sequences with increasing specificity and support. Begin with gentle encouragement, progress to specific assistance offers, and escalate to direct counselor intervention for high-priority prospects who remain incomplete.

Positive Framing: Position outreach as helpful assistance rather than pressure tactics, with messaging tone tailored to each touchpoint. For initial application start acknowledgment, use encouraging language like "Exciting! We see you've started your application—you're on your way to joining our community!" For abandonment follow-up, shift to supportive assistance: "We noticed you started your application—we're here to help you finish." Incorporate these tone guidelines directly into your Bolt Agent Job instructions so agents understand the appropriate messaging approach for each scenario, avoiding deadline-focused urgency that may create additional stress.

Completion Level Targeting: Segment incomplete applications by Application Status Percentage (25%, 50%, 75%) to deploy contextually relevant messaging. Students who have completed 75% require different assistance than those who stopped after entering basic information.

Time-Since-Start Analysis: Adjust messaging intensity based on time elapsed since application start, using the Application Registered Date. Recent abandonment (24-48 hours) warrants gentle encouragement, while longer delays (1-2 weeks) require more specific barrier identification and resolution.

Completion Status References: Acknowledge specific completion progress in outreach messages. "We see you've provided your academic information—the next step is uploading your transcript." This demonstrates system awareness and provides clear direction.

Program-Specific Guidance: Reference intended major or program interest to provide relevant context and assistance. Nursing program applicants may need different document guidance than business students, requiring tailored completion support.

Institutional Connection Points: Highlight previous engagement touchpoints (campus visits, information sessions, recruiter conversations) to reinforce relationship continuity and demonstrate institutional investment in their success.

Barrier Prediction Modeling: Analyze historical completion patterns to identify common abandonment points, enabling proactive assistance before students encounter typical obstacles. Address known problematic application sections with preventive guidance.

Collaborative Family Outreach: For traditional-age students, consider parallel communication tracks acknowledging family involvement in application completion while maintaining student agency in the process.

Completion Incentive Strategies: Offer meaningful completion incentives like priority processing, scholarship consideration, or early housing selection that provide value without compromising admission integrity.

Strategic Foundation

Target Audience Definition

Data and Content Preparation

Use Segments to group contacts based on the criteria that matter for your goal. Keep segments as simple as possible—this makes them easier to manage and gives the agent room to personalize. Examples include “Application started, not submitted,” “Admitted, no event attended,” or “Students with GPA below 2.5.” Add Triggers so that new contacts who meet the criteria (e.g., submit a form) are automatically enrolled in the job. Segments and triggers can be used together.

Determine the goal that signifies job completion. Examples include encouraging application submission, registering for an event, scheduling an appointment, or joining a segment.

Then choose actions (usually one to three per job) that the agent can use to achieve that goal—such as “Promote Application,” “Promote Form,” “Schedule Appointment,” or “Provide Information.” Actions are attempted in order, so layer them strategically: start with the most direct call to action and follow with supportive actions.

Write General Instructions describing the purpose, audience, tone, and communication cadence. Include channel preferences and strategic guidance—how to handle questions, reference relevant programs or services, and use soft urgency around deadlines.

Then draft action‑specific instructions that tell the agent how to promote the application, event, or form. Use conditional logic when appropriate (“If the student is from our state, highlight in‑state tuition benefits; if out of state, mention scholarship opportunities”).

Determine whether each action should require human approval. Enable self-approval for low-risk communications and require approval for first contact, payment, or other sensitive tasks. You can set guidelines, such as requiring approval after multiple unsuccessful outreach attempts.

App Start Acknowledgement: Celebrates students who have just started an application and offers support as they continue through the process.

App Abandonment Follow-Up: Encourage students who started an application but haven’t submitted it to complete and move forward.

Activate the job and monitor its performance from Engagement → Bolt Agents → Jobs. The All Jobs page provides high‑level counts for active jobs, completed goals, and estimated hours saved. The table lists each job’s name, status, total people enrolled, approvals needed, and last action date. You can search for jobs, filter by status, open a jo,b or duplicate/delete it. When viewing a job, remember that the goal cannot be changed after creation; changes to instructions will apply to future actions, but may create inconsistencies if made mid‑stream.

Use the Insights Dashboard to analyze job activity over time, goal completion rates, approval patterns, and time savings. Regularly review your approval queue, respond promptly to agent queries, and refine instructions based on performance. If you need to make significant strategy changes, consider duplicating the job to avoid confusion.

You can manually add or remove people from a job at any time. To view all conversations tied to a specific job, use the Advanced Filtering feature in the Conversations Inbox; this helps you spot patterns, common questions or areas where students need additional support. Use these insights to refine instructions, update your knowledge base, and improve the overall student experience.

Pilot Phase: Select 100-200 recent incomplete applications to test Agent effectiveness, timing optimization, and barrier identification accuracy before broader deployment.

Measure + Optimize: Track completion rates, response rates to different assistance offers, and staff intervention requirements to refine automated approaches.

Scale Successfully: Once the pilot demonstrates improved completion rates, expand to all incomplete applications while maintaining message quality and personalization effectiveness.

Getting Started with Applications

Getting Started with Bolt Agent Jobs