The Full Story
During the spring of 2020, Arapahoe Community College (ACC) faced an unprecedented crisis. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the college had to shift its services, admissions, Welcome Center support, campus tours, from in-person to fully online formats on short notice. Staff continued to work remotely, but student employees, who provided up to 160 hours of frontline support per week, could not. With budgets frozen and resources stretched thin, ACC needed a solution that preserved service quality despite reduced manpower.
Within weeks, ACC implemented Gecko’s COVID-response chatbot for free. They gathered FAQs from all student-facing departments, about 100 in total, and launched the bot on April 2, 2020. Suddenly, students had 24/7 access to reliable information, even when nobody was available to pick up the phone.
The results were swift. Fall 2020 enrollment rose by 3% compared to the previous year, significant in a period where community college enrollment nationally saw steep declines. The chatbot maintained continuity of service, reduced load on the understaffed admissions team, and helped ACC maintain momentum in student engagement when other colleges struggled.
As Kayce O’Brien, Director of Admissions, notes: “The crisis created a sense of urgency and students were looking for answers but we couldn’t be there 24/7. Now the Chatbot is an essential part of our team and being available 24/7 customer service doesn’t have to be sacrificed when there is a staffing shortage.”