Western Governors University (WGU), a leading online education provider, has improved interactions between students and faculty, increased productivity, and saved costs since implementing Genesys Cloud.
WGU adopted the flagship Software as a Service (SaaS) solution from Genesys, the global leader in omnichannel customer experience and contact centre solutions, for its proven stability, scalability and continuous release of new features.
WGU has nearly 4,500 faculty members and more than 120,000 students. Its goal is to help students earn degrees by providing a flexible and affordable education online with personalised instruction and support whenever they need it.
“Genesys offered the chance to build the experience we always wanted,” said Adam Davis, director of operations at WGU. “We want every student to feel their learning experience has been personally designed for them. That means making it very easy to connect with mentors, advisors, faculty — whoever the student needs to talk to. Genesys Cloud is the perfect platform to do that.”
A cloud-enabled contact centre transformation
Like many organisations, WGU’s journey to the cloud has been multi-faceted. The first step was to move from an on-premises contact centre system to a hybrid cloud solution, which enabled the university to improve both students’ and faculty members’ experiences. Then, the university wanted additional flexibility best served by a high-velocity innovation platform, which led them to Genesys Cloud.
With its public APIs, Genesys Cloud enables WGU to power new connections between applications and easily integrate critical systems, including its customer relationship management (CRM) solution. The university’s Program Mentors – faculty members who instruct and guide students at the program level from enrollment through graduation – now have better visibility into what’s happening with students and can use multiple tools like click-to-dial directly from their CRM.
“Now, with Genesys Cloud, students can call one number and be routed straight to their Program Mentor or Course Instructor,” said Davis. “Or, if they’re not available, they can be routed to the next-best staff member. So, maintaining student connections during times like vacations or sabbaticals is easy.”
Since implementing Genesys Cloud, WGU has experienced a 20% improvement in call response times. Additionally, WGU has already seen a positive impact on service levels. For example, within the university’s financial services department, over 80% of calls are answered within 30 seconds.
Efficient in more ways than one
Not only does using Genesys Cloud allow seamless relationships between students and mentors, it also enables staff to be more productive. Thanks to a seamless integration, WGU staff no longer waste precious time toggling between applications and screens. Additionally, instead of being tied to a terminal, supervisors can walk around with tablets and sit alongside colleagues, coaching and solving problems as they occur. Staff also can work from home — all they need is an internet connection.
Looking ahead, the university plans to expand its use of Genesys Cloud, onboarding 1,000 employees from other departments, plus another 1,400 new users from its faculty community. In addition, it plans to add support for new channels such as email, text and chat. WGU is also considering how artificial intelligence automation can make basic transactional tasks more efficient.
About Genesys Cloud
Genesys Cloud is the customer experience platform that delivers rapid innovation across the Genesys suite. It provides businesses with a fast, easy way to connect and optimize customer and employee journeys across any channel — all through a single technology platform and provider. Genesys Cloud serves as the foundation for the company’s leading SaaS product, PureCloud.
About Genesys
Genesys® powers more than 25 billion of the world’s best customer experiences each year. Our success comes from connecting employee and customer conversations on any channel. Every day, 11,000 companies in more than 100 countries trust our #1 customer experience platform to drive great business outcomes and create lasting relationships. Combining the best of technology and human ingenuity, we build solutions that mirror natural communication and work the way you think. Our industry-leading solutions foster true omnichannel engagement because they perform equally well across channels, on-premise and in the cloud. Experience communication as it should be: fluid, instinctive and profoundly empowering.
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