Overview
Bolt Assistants for Students have skills designed to help students get information and complete tasks conversationally. They enable the Assistants for Students to assist with applications, event registrations, inquiries, and more.
We will explain the details of each skill below. To enable/disable skills, navigate to Engagement > Bolt Assistants.
Access to Skills
The Bolt Assistant skills available to your team depend on the Element451 package you have. For example, if your plan does not include application management, your assistants will not have access to application-related skills. Expand the sections below to see which skills are available with your package:
Element Bolt
Element Bolt
Human Team Member Handoff
Common App Knowledge
Financial Aid Knowledge
Element Ignite
Element Ignite
Human Team Member Handoff
Common App Knowledge
Financial Aid Knowledge
Inquiry Flow
Element Engage
Element Engage
Human Team Member Handoff
Start an Application
Get Application Status
Application Status Checklist
Register for Event
Schedule Appointments
Common App Knowledge
Financial Aid Knowledge
Inquiry Flow
Student Assistant Skills
Human Team Member Handoff | Assistants are intelligent enough to transfer conversations seamlessly from one Assistant to another based on the student’s needs. However, Assistants can also transfer the conversation to a human agent on your team if the student requests it or if the Assistant cannot resolve the student’s inquiry.
Explore more on handoffs in this article. |
Start an Application | Guides the student through starting and completing an application. |
Get Application Status | Provides the student's current application status. |
Application Status Checklist | Retrieves the status of the student’s application checklist. |
Register for Event | Assists the student in registering for an event. |
Schedule Appointments | When enabled, Assistants will guide the student through scheduling an appointment. |
Common App Knowledge | Utilizes data from Common App to provide relevant information. |
Financial App Knowledge | Uses data from FinancialAid.gov to help with financial aid queries. |
Inquiry Flow | The Inquiry Flow skill gathers key information from prospective students and submits an inquiry on their behalf. Think of it as a digital form.
Explore the Inquiry Flow skill more in the next section. |
'Schedule Appointments' Skill
How it Works
The student selects the appointment type and time.
The Assistant finds all users available for that type and time.
The Assistant checks if the student has an assignee in that list of available users.
If yes, the appointment is booked with that assignee.
If not, the Assistant moves to the next step.
The Assistant counts all appointments in the next 30 days for the users in the list of available users.
The Assistant books the appointment with the user who has the fewest appointments.
'Inquiry Flow' Skill
How it Works
When an Assistant detects that the user intends to inquire about studying at your institution, it will initiate the Inquiry Flow. Phrases like these trigger the intent:
I am interested in studying at Fire University.
I am interested in studying Biology.
Can you send me more info about Biology?
The Assistant will then ask the student to provide the following information:
Intended major
Intended term
First name
Last name
Email address
After gathering the information, the Assistant will take the following actions:
If the student has an existing record, a prospect milestone is added.
If the student record does not exist, a user will be created with a prospect milestone.
Inquiry Flow In Action
Inquiry Flow In Action
Important Notes
Important Notes
The Inquiry Flow skill must be enabled for the Assistant to launch the flow. Ensure the Inquiry Flow skill is activated in Assistants Settings.
When enabled, Assistants can also list available majors and terms.
The inquiry submitted by Assistants does not authenticate the user via the email address provided. The inquiry flow behaves the same as submitting a form.
Majors are matched using machine learning, which can result in some mismatches, especially for majors with similar names.
Pro Tip: Convo Starters + Inquiry Flow
Pro Tip: Convo Starters + Inquiry Flow
Combine Conversation Starters with Inquiry Flow
Make the Inquiry Flow even more effective by using conditional Conversation Starters to prompt students to kick off the flow. For example, set up a Conversation Starter on your biology program page that says, “I’m interested in studying biology.” When a student clicks on it, the Assistant will initiate the Inquiry Flow.
Benefits of Combining These Features:
Drives more inquiries by prompting students in relevant contexts.
Collects more qualified leads by targeting key pages like academic programs.
Gathers more accurate major information since the major is directly prompted.
Provides a smoother experience by initiating the flow from a student prompt.