School admissions software FAQ

Oliel is AI school admissions software that works like a 24/7 admissions coordinator. It answers family inquiries by website chat, text message, phone and email, qualifies each family, schedules campus tours, and keeps up the follow-up — then hands families to your admissions team when it matters.

Private schools, Christian and faith-based schools, preschools and early learning centers, Montessori schools, academies and K–12 schools. If families inquire, tour and apply before enrolling, Oliel fits your admissions process.

A chatbot answers questions in one window. Oliel runs the admissions journey across every channel: it captures the family as a lead, remembers them whether they text, call or chat, books real tour times, sends reminders and post-tour follow-up, nudges unfinished applications, and keeps your team informed in one inbox and pipeline.

Families are often lost because a call went to voicemail, a form wasn't answered, or nobody followed up after a tour. Oliel responds within seconds at any hour, turns missed calls into text conversations, and runs consistent follow-up — so fewer interested families slip away between inquiry and enrollment.

No. Oliel answers only from information your school provides — your handbook, tuition sheet, calendar, FAQs and website. Every answer is matched to a source and given a confidence score. When Oliel isn't confident, it tells the parent your admissions team will follow up, rather than guessing.

Yes. You choose whether Oliel discloses tuition and fees or invites families to speak with your admissions team about them.

Whatever you choose. You set the assistant's name, greeting and tone — for example, "Grace Academy Admissions Assistant" — along with your logo and colors in the website chat.

Yes. Oliel detects whether a parent writes in English or Spanish and continues the conversation in that language. You choose which languages your school supports.

Yes. Faith-based schools can add their statement of faith, chapel, Bible instruction and church affiliation to the knowledge base. Oliel explains your approach respectfully, using only your school's own words.

Oliel can send an immediate text — for example, "Thanks for calling — sorry we missed you. I can answer questions or schedule a tour." — so the conversation continues instead of ending at voicemail. You write the message.

No, it doesn’t have to. Most school admissions offices are understaffed, and Oliel takes on the first responses, scheduling and routine follow-up a stretched team can’t always keep up with. Where Oliel does take over work someone was doing, that staff member can be pivoted to a different role — personal outreach to families, leading tours, re-enrollment, or other needs across your school. Admission and enrollment decisions always stay with your team.

When a parent asks for someone, raises a complaint or billing question, mentions accommodations or complex circumstances, is an existing family, or the situation requires immediate follow-up. Oliel lets the parent know someone will help, pauses itself, and notifies the right staff member — or books a callback if nobody is available.

Yes, at any time. One click on "Take over" pauses Oliel so staff can reply directly; "Return to AI" hands it back. Staff can also ask Oliel to draft a reply, then edit it before sending, and add private notes parents never see.

Yes. In the AI Test Center, administrators ask questions as a parent would and see each answer, the source it came from, its confidence score and whether it would be escalated — before anything goes live.

You set tour days, times, length, buffer time, families per slot, staff, campus and blocked dates. Oliel offers families only the times that are actually open, books the tour, and sends a confirmation with your address, directions and a reschedule link.

Oliel sends a friendly note — "We missed you today and would still love to show you around" — with a link to choose another time.

Oliel includes limits on how many automated texts and emails a family receives, quiet hours, and automatic stops when a parent replies, submits an application, enrolls or opts out. STOP and UNSUBSCRIBE are always honored.

Yes. Oliel sends your application link, tracks status from your application platform (or lets staff update it), and checks in when a family stalls, offering to answer whatever is holding them up.

The materials you already have: your website, parent handbook, tuition sheet, calendar and common questions. Our team guides you through school details, branding, connecting your phone, text, email and calendar, testing, and installing the website chat.

With a single line of code that your web person or website platform can paste in. The chat loads in the background so it won't slow your site down, and it works on phones, tablets and desktops.

Yes. Tour availability can come from Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. Oliel also connects with Zapier, Make and webhooks to send leads and tour updates to the other tools you use.

Yes. Upload a CSV of current leads and map the columns — names, email, phone, student, grade, status and source. You can export your data as CSV at any time.

Yes. Staff can read and reply to conversations, call or text a parent, move a family to the next stage, add notes and schedule tours from a phone.

Every school has its own isolated workspace — no school can see another's families. Access is role-based, activity is recorded in audit logs, data is encrypted in transit, and administrators control retention, export and deletion.

Yes. Oliel uses HIPAA-compliant servers for the delivery of documents.

Oliel is designed with FERPA- and COPPA-aware safeguards — access controls, audit logs, minimal data collection, data export and deletion — that help your school manage admissions information responsibly. Compliance also depends on how each school uses the platform, so we're glad to walk your team through the details.

Oliel is designed to talk with parents and guardians. If it suspects it's speaking with a child, it asks them to have a parent or guardian contact the school, and it does not ask children for personal information.

No. Oliel collects only what admissions needs — like names, contact details, age, grade and start date. It doesn't request medical or educational records unless your school deliberately enables a specific workflow.