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Lamar University expands the use of Chirp Bot with GeckoEngage 

Home to more than 15,000 students, Lamar University is among the fastest-growing universities in Texas. One of the challenges that accompanied such rapid growth was that the admissions team and Welcome Center were constantly getting inundated with emails and calls as well as physical visits to the office.

 

The solution: a GeckoEngage chatbot

Lamar University first launched Chirp Bot on February 13, 2020 with the main objective of developing a chatbot to handle frequently asked questions on the admissions website and as well as other departmental websites to aid the Admissions team and Welcome Center’s administrative workload so they could focus on higher-value conversations with students.

And then things changed

Campus-wide updates, safety information and frequently asked questions have become increasingly prevalent across campuses due to COVID-19.

With campuses closing and moving to online learning for the remainder of the semester, Lamar University needed to figure out new ways to keep in touch and share accurate information with students scattered across the country. This is where Chirp Bot stepped up.

Tracie Craig Lamar University
Gecko
Our chatbot, Chirp has proven to be one of the most valuable members of the Enrollment Management division at Lamar University.  We implemented the bot in mid February with one account for each department in our division. We thought it was wonderful from Day 1 but its true value was revealed last week when many of our staff were encouraged to work from home. With the support of the outstanding team at Gecko, we were able to expand the platform to provide access to many more staff members.  We now have multiple agents within each department who are available to chat in real-time with students who would normally call the offices. Because of Enrollment Management's success with Chirp, we were contacted by the College of Engineering to add the bot to their pages. It's no secret that being available to students is critical and nothing is more effective or convenient than the chatbot.  It's superior to a phone call because attachments and hyperlinks can be shared through the chat and the guest never has to pick up a pen!  The conversation can be downloaded and sent to the student as documentation of the exchange and contact information is collected before the chat even starts.  It's an absolute game-changer. Questions are answered and problems solved with just a few keystrokes while everyone is safe at home. I don't know where we'd be without it.
Gecko
Tracie Craig
Director of Welcome Center and Campus Experience at Lamar University