Is Your SMS Inbox Hurting Student Engagement?

Most institutions handle inbound SMS response through a combination of shared inboxes, individual staff accounts, and separate texting platforms. While this approach ensures messages are accessible to multiple team members, it also creates operational friction.

Every unanswered message or delayed reply to a student's message is a missed opportunity to build trust and move a prospect or current student forward in their journey. Traditionally, responding to inbound SMS messages has relied on staff availability, resulting in delays, inconsistent answers, and missed follow-ups.

Step 1: Configure SMS Channels

◉ Purchase phone number(s) in Element451 for SMS if you don't already have one or wish to purchase additional numbers.

Step 2: Onboard or Select a Bolt Agent to Handle Inbound SMS

◉ Onboard a new agent (like the QA Chatbot) or configure an existing agent.

✨ Pro Tip: If you need to create a new agent to manage conversations, consider using the Bolt Agent Creator Agent.

◉ Enable the SMS channel in Conversations Settings > Bolt Agents.

◉ Enable skills for the agent as needed (e.g., register for events, schedule appointments, check application status).

🧠 Good to Know: For each texting phone number, be sure to configure the forwarding settings. When a student calls your SMS number, you can opt to route the call to a voice-enabled Bolt Agent or to a staff line.

Step 3: Add/Update Knowledge Hub Sources

◉ Populate your knowledge hub with FAQs, program pages, policies, and deadlines, etc, so that the agent has a repository to use when assisting students, parents, etc.

✨ Pro Tip: Once knowledge has been added, you can return to step 2 and scope the agent's access to specific knowledge sources, if needed.

Step 4: Add/Update Brand Writing Style Settings

◉ Element451's Brand Writing Style settings offer a powerful way to ensure that the content generated by Bolt Agents resonates with your brand’s unique voice and communication objectives.

✨ Pro Tip: Customizing aspects such as tone, voice, and structure allows you to create content that aligns with your brand’s personality and effectively engages your audience.

Step 5: Assign Your Agent to a Team

◉ Assign your agent to a team that’s scoped to the SMS channel so only that team responds to incoming texts.

◉ This ensures students get replies from the right agents for SMS conversations.

✨ Pro Tip: Use the “limit SMS to a segment” option within Bolt Agent settings to restrict Bolt Agents to reply only to individuals within a defined segment.

Step 6: Configure Handoff Rules

◉ Create a Conversation Rule using a "bolt agent handoff intent" condition to route conversations to staff when the agent is unable to answer the student's question or the student requests to speak to a staff member.

Step 7: Bolt Agent Content Moderation

◉ Bolt Agents scan inbound messages for harmful or inappropriate content. You can configure flag preferences in Bolt Agent settings and use Conversation Rules to add additional automation when flags are raised.

Step 8: Agent Responds

◉ The agent replies instantly, drawing on conversation history, your curated knowledge hub, and enabled skills.

✨ Pro Tip: Bolt Plugins extend the capabilities of Bolt Agents by enabling direct, real-time access to your Student Information System (SIS) or Learning Management System (LMS). This means agents can respond to students with live information about their academic records, registration, financial aid, and more, without storing any SIS data inside Element451.

Step 9: Handoff or Staff Joins Conversation

◉ If a handoff occurs or a staff member joins a conversation, they can use Copywriting Agent and other writing tools for efficient, high-quality replies.

✨ Pro Tip: Bolt AI, Element451's AI platform, automatically evaluates outbound SMS messages in Conversations for potential spam, possible phishing attempts, or SHAFT content before sending. If a message is identified as potentially containing SHAFT content, it is blocked to protect you and Element451 from restrictions imposed by carriers. In these cases, a warning icon will appear, indicating that the message cannot be sent. If the message is deemed compliant, it is sent as usual.

Step 10: Monitor + Optimize with Insights

◉ Use the Conversations Insights Dashboard in Element451 to track Bolt Agent and Knowledge Hub performance.

◉ Review metrics on knowledge gaps, top-performing articles, and agent activity to identify improvement opportunities and prioritize updates.

✨ Pro Tip: Schedule regular reviews (monthly or quarterly) to stay ahead of emerging trends and address gaps before they affect response quality.