3 ways HBCUs use chatbots to support Black students

3 Ways HBCUs Use Chatbots to Support African-American Students
Lauren Panaswich

February 12, 2021

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have played a vital role in shaping the landscape of higher education. Not only do these institutions provide opportunities for Black students to earn undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees — but they also promote intellectual growth, social equality, and culture.

Over the years, HBCUs have made many notable breakthroughs in higher education. For example, they outperform non-HBCU institutions in graduating first-generation, low-income, Black students. However, they also face a number of challenges with enrollment and retention. 

Many HBCUs are tapping into chatbot technology to impact student success. AdmitHub is currently working with nine HBCUs and partnering with them to achieve a variety of their goals. Let’s explore some of the priorities a few of these HBCUs are addressing, and how they’re actively solving challenges with behaviorally intelligent chatbots

How HBCUs Combat Summer Melt  

Like many higher education institutions, HBCUs encounter a series of enrollment challenges. One of the most critical issues is summer melt — when a student accepts an institution’s offer of admission, and then fails to enroll. 

In 2017, North Carolina Central University was determined to decrease their instances of summer melt. Using AdmitHub’s student engagement platform, NCCU launched a campaign to engage more than 11,000 students. In just one year, they increased overall enrollment by 1.35% and increased new student enrollment by 4.5%. By proactively communicating with prospective students to understand the reasons why they choose to enroll or not, NCCU became able to provide more relevant, timely support to students moving forward. Now prospective students can access the information they need, when they need it — on the channels they prefer to use, like texting, social media, and web chat — enabling NCCU to initiate and simplify the enrollment process

How HBCUs Drive Retention With Behaviorally Intelligent Chatbots

While HBCUs make up only 3% of higher education institutions in the United States, they graduate more than 20% of Black students nationwide. However, at an institutional level, on average HBCUs have a graduation rate of 35%. The national average graduation rate for colleges and universities is 60%.

A contributing factor to this challenge is HBCUs historically admit a higher-than-average population of underserved and first-generation college students. Administrators need technology solutions that enable these students — who are traditionally among the most at risk of leaving an institution before graduating — to develop persistent behaviors and support their long-term success. 

In 2017, Winston-Salem State University originally used AdmitHub’s platform to increase incoming freshman yield. After experiencing undeniable success with a 2% increase in overall enrollment, WSSU introduced a retention-focused chatbot to engage with their entire undergraduate student population, all the way through to graduation. 

Their retention bot’s behaviorally intelligent communication led to record-breaking engagement levels. WSSU experienced a 74% increase in bills paid on time, 36% fewer inbound calls, and a 37% increase in immunization compliance. This technology is not only removing the guesswork for students, but it’s also eliminating a significant amount of work that would otherwise take administrators away from the high-value interactions with students that they excel at. 

How HBCUs Foster Meaningful Student Engagement 

Enrollment and retention are driven by understanding what students are saying and thinking. Developing an engaging communication strategy is proven to establish trusting relationships with students, which leads to higher graduation rates. 

There is a gap in the way many higher education institutions communicate with this generation of students. That’s why several HBCUs have already tapped into the power of behaviorally intelligent chatbots to proactively and reactively text students to actively listen to their needs and concerns at scale.

For example, Hampton University Online was struggling with the volume of calls and questions in the admissions office. To assist students and relieve stress on their staff, HU Online implemented Booker T., their campus chatbot, in 2020. To their delight, 99% of students’ messages were handled automatically by Booker T. through AdmitHub’s student engagement platform. This collectively saved their staff more than 61 hours of time — providing them opportunities to focus on student challenges that required a human touch. As a result of students’ increased engagement with the bot, HU Online was able to listen to students at scale and gather more information  — like insights about students’ intent to enroll, and feedback on areas that needed improvement.

Support Student Engagement at Your Institution

What is an empathy engine?

Behaviorally intelligent chatbots are proven to help HBCUs streamline success. To explore how other higher education institutions use empathetic communication to foster student success, check out our free white paper, “Building an Empathy Engine for Meaningful Communication”. 

Read the whitepaper

Share on social

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Subscribe for free

Sign up to receive Mainstay's latest insights on engagement trends and Behavioral Intelligence — right in your inbox.

Book a call with us:

Get a guided tour of Mainstay’s Engagement Platform

Mainstay’s Engagement Platform uses Behavioral Intelligence to help businesses build meaningful relationships, optimize insights, and drive action.

Sign up for your personalized demo to find out how Mainstay makes it easy to spark conversations with your employees and guide them toward positive results.

Channels

Instant support — anytime, anywhere

Mainstay’s behaviorally intelligent chatbots make it easy to engage with employees on the channels they prefer to use:

SMS text messaging
Live chat
Web chat
Social media

Let's talk

Get a guided tour of Mainstay’s Engagement Platform

Mainstay’s Engagement Platform uses Behavioral Intelligence to help schools and businesses build meaningful relationships, optimize insights, and drive action.

Sign up for your personalized demo to find out how Mainstay makes it easy to spark conversations with your students or employees and guide them toward positive results.

Channels

Instant support — anytime, anywhere

Mainstay’s behaviorally intelligent chatbots make it easy to engage with students and employees on the channels they prefer to use:

SMS text messaging
Live chat
Web chat
Social media

Let's talk