A person on their phone

Allegheny College

As a member of the Colleges That Change Lives organization, Allegheny College is committed to providing students a personalized and transformative collegiate experience. Staff wanted to find a way to increase student engagement on campus while maintaining this strong level of personalization at scale.

At the same time, the school needed to respond to the challenge of an increasing competitive admissions landscape.

Allegheny embraced an innovative approach by communicating via chatbot to reach admissions goals, improve communications and boost engagement.

Jason Andracki, Associate Director of Marketing & Communications at Allegheny College, manages their chatbot, “Chompers.” (Learn more about the role of a chatbot manager with this blog and webinar.)

Andracki noted one of the most effective uses of their college chatbot was asking students if they’d like to be contacted. The chatbot sent a message via text, and students were able to reply with what kind of contact they wanted. This way, staff could focus more on who ‘raised their hand’ for help, rather than making cold calls.

In regards to the geographic representation of 41 states in the incoming class, Andracki said “the immediate nature of the chatbot helps with out-of-state students since those in different time zones can get faster replies, just like those within our time zone.”

Students (and staff) love the chatbot so much, that Allegheny is starting to use it for retention and persistence towards graduation, so students don’t have to say goodbye when classes start!

Aleghany College logo

Allegheny College

Type of institution
Liberal Arts College
Location
Meadville, PA
Student population
1,920 Undergraduates

More success snapshots

Get a glimpse into our engagement platform in action with these quick partner success stories.

  • 70% Enrollment increase in the Fall 2020 freshman class, a record-breaker for VSU
  • 12,300 Total students enrolled for fall 2020 is Valdosta State University's largest enrollment level in eight years
  • 9% Increase in retention over the past two years, bringing it to 74% in 2020
  • 85% Increase in orientation registration
  • 1,000 More students enrolled in 2020 freshman class than 2019
  • 26,000+ Students reached from December 2018 to January 2021
  • 90% Student opt-in rate
  • 40% Of students are actively engaged with the bot
  • 16,000 Messages from students sent to the bot from December 2018 to January 2021
  • 630+ Hours of staff time saved
  • 80% Of messages handled automatically by the bot
  • 2x Increase in virtual recruiting meetings for prospective students

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

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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