About Northcentral University (NCU)
Founded in 1996, NCU is a leading private university offering online doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees for working professionals around the world. With headquarters in San Diego, CA, NCU is accredited regionally by WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). The university is also affiliated with the private, nonprofit National University System based in La Jolla, California.
The Challenge
NCU administrators faced challenges with an increasing number of queries on their website. The organization wanted to educate prospective students on the opportunities the university provides, resulting in more enrollments to its courses. To simplify the process, NCU decided to implement a chatbot that will help students with their various queries and aid their sales team capture and nurture promising leads.
The Solution
We used our proprietary chatbot platform ZOE to help NCU with their challenges. The chatbot was designed to be a one-stop shop for students where they could get all their questions answered, at any time of day or night. The chatbot was aimed to be conversational with a focus on the following features:
• Conversational flows for new inquiries, alumni & current students – From enrollments to course details, career services and even grants and scholarships, ZOE NCU offers instant responses to repetitive and the most frequently asked questions of new, current and previously enrolled students.
• Collect leads data – ZOE sets up a series of questions to collect data from prospective students, create segments and pass promising leads on to the sales team for taking the process to the next stage of lead nurturing.
• Integration with CRM – ZOE transfers all lead data directly to cloud-based CRM platforms like Velocify and Sparkroom so that NCU’s sales team can quickly retrieve customer data without the hassle of manually sorting through leads and losing the all-important timing between a bottom-funnel request and a sales response.
• Schedule Appointments with Education/Enrollment Advisor – Whether a new student needs advice on which courses to consider or a former student wants to re-enrol for a course, ZOE helps them schedule an appointment with an education/enrollment advisor conveniently with just a few clicks.
• Live Education/Enrollment Advisor – For complex and specific queries that need the expertise of an education/enrollment advisor, ZOE helps students set up a live chat/call seamlessly without leaving the chat window. Any consultation booked outside normal working hours is scheduled as an appointment.
3 Core Benefits
Conversational Flows for Capturing Leads – With customized conversational flows, ZOE automates customer service by providing valuable information to prospective students, capturing lead data and steering them towards the next round of sales funnel.
Dynamic Appointment Scheduling (Helps Schedule Appointments With Different Time Zones) – Students who need help with decision making to enroll in a new program or have questions about tuitions or admissions can schedule appointments with education/enrollment advisors directly from the chat window based on their preferred date, time slot and time zone.
Seamless CRM Integration – ZOE is seamlessly integrated with leading CRMs like Velocify and Sparkroom so that it can deliver personalized information to prospects, log the conversations for further actions and capture prospect data for NCU’s sales team and remove friction from their sales process.
The Impact
ZOE provides information to hundreds of prospects and offers round the clock, real-time assistance even during non-working hours. It helps students schedule appointments with NCU’s education/enrollment advisors conveniently, captures leads and pushes them to the sales team for further nurturing. ZOE automates routine queries and speeds up customer service to let the customer support team focus on more complex issues. Therefore, NCU administration does not have to extend their customer support team.
Conclusion
The turnaround time from conceptualization to launch, the NCU ZOE chatbot was ready only in 1.5 months. The NCU admins were delighted with an AI-powered assistant for their customer support and sales team.
