5 Ways Going Contactless Can Engage Students and Improve Campus Life

By offering contactless experiences, colleges and universities greatly decrease the likelihood of transmitting COVID-19. These efforts increase the overall safety of everyone on campus and provide peace of mind for friends and families. But contactless campuses can also further engage students and improve their overall experience by utilizing apps such as TouchNet OrderAhead.

The OrderAhead app brings kiosks directly into students’ hands by allowing them to browse, choose, and order menu items from their phones. Meanwhile, administrators can manage reservations by setting space limits on certain facilities to adhere to social-distancing recommendations. Similarly, push notifications can be sent to alert customers that their order is taking longer than expected, for example, which can further reduce the number of people waiting for orders on premises.

Here are five ways going contactless with the OrderAhead app can further engage students and improve campus life:

1. Gamifying actions and activities

The loyalty program, an optional component, provides a gamified experience that can increase engagement with the OrderAhead app. Schools can utilize the robust loyalty solution to allow users to level up or gain badges based on certain actions, such as ordering or leaving feedback a certain number of times.

2. Rewarding students with redeemable points

Similarly, the OrderAhead loyalty system allows administrators to award points based on certain actions or activities and choose rewards students receive for reaching certain thresholds. Students who acquire a certain amount of points could, for example, get a free beverage or another menu item. Some schools have given away gift cards, AirPods, and even bikes when certain point thresholds are achieved.

3. Encouraging student feedback

OrderAhead provides the opportunity for students to rate the app as well as specific locations where transactions take place, such as food courts and dining facilities. Students can also rate experiences such as a recent order, for example. Having the ability to see their review in real-time shows students that their institution is actively trying to meet their needs. Predefined comment fields allow students to expand their reviews. Using this feedback, schools can pinpoint changes that tangibly improve the student experience.

4. Interacting with student reviews

Administrators are encouraged to tailor these experiences further by directly interacting with student reviews. For example, using the OrderAhead inbox schools can send targeted messages to students who rate a service or live in a certain residence. Schools also can communicate changes that the institution makes in response to submitted reviews. This strategy not only increases overall satisfaction and proves the school listens, but could also encourage students to interact with the OrderAhead app more, which provides more actionable data to improve customer service. Schools can gauge the effectiveness of their messaging strategies by tracking whether students engage with these messages.

5. Streamlining order time with “popular” options

Students can save their favorite meals and refreshments by clicking “reorder” in OrderAhead. For example, students who frequent the on-campus coffee shop can save settings for their favorite drink by size, type, add-ons, flavors, toppings, and more. Then, when students order from that coffee shop, they can add their favorite personalized drink to the shopping cart in as little as two clicks.