Impact Snapshot:
Orange, California
Private 4-Year
10,000 Enrolled
Founded in 1861, Chapman University is a nationally ranked private university in Orange, California, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles. Chapman serves nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, with a 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio. Students can choose from over 100 areas of study within 11 colleges for a personalized education. Chapman is categorized by the Carnegie Classification as an R2 “high research activity” institution.
Students at Chapman learn directly from distinguished world-class faculty including Nobel Prize winners, MacArthur fellows, published authors and Academy Award winners. The campus has produced a Rhodes Scholar, been named a top producer of Fulbright Scholars and hosts a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honor society. Chapman also includes the Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine. The university features the No. 4 film school and No. 66 business school in the U.S. Learn more about Chapman University: www.chapman.edu.
“Every interaction a current or future stakeholder has with us is an invaluable opportunity for Chapman to build and strengthen brand loyalty. By consistently and intentionally delivering an exceptional experience, we aim to foster a deep sense of belonging and pride among all members of the Chapman Family. This includes our students, staff, faculty, alumni, donors, board members, and friends.”
—Michelle Sypinero (Assistant Vice President, Information Security) and Sarem Yadegari (Manager, Communications and Training)
In 2020, Chapman University needed a rapid digital transformation. But what started as a quest to virtually and efficiently answer student questions quickly grew into an initiative aimed at delivering on Chapman University’s brand promise to students: a tailored higher education experience from application to graduation and beyond.
Chapman’s IT and Communications team knew that the solution they were looking for must support the Chapman student experience by connecting their campus: unifying data across Chapman’s various systems, allowing administrators to reach out to students with relevant information, enabling students to connect with the university about urgent needs or questions, and empowering students to connect with each other and the greater Chapman community.
At first, different departments thought of creating or setting up their own chatbots, but it quickly became apparent to the IS&T team that a bot alone could not do the job. To truly connect their campus, the team needed a solution that would serve as a central connection point between students and various departments. Only then could they get the insight they required to understand needs across the student lifecycle and fuel student engagement, enrollment, and retention.
After forming a buying committee and exploring vendors, it was clear that Ocelot One was the solution for Chapman University.
With Ocelot One, Chapman University found exactly what they were looking for. The Student Lifecycle Engagement Platform truly enabled the university to consolidate student support into one central communication hub, removing any confusion for students about where to ask their questions. This centralized cross-campus support gives students the confidence and guidance to navigate their higher education journey at every stage.
Ocelot One also makes it easy for the IS&T team to work closely with the university’s Strategic Marketing team to maintain Chapman’s signature brand across support channels. The communications the students receive are also carefully monitored and customized by staff to ensure that the tone of voice embodies Chapman’s purposefully crafted identity, creating a sense of familiarity and comfort for students when they need support. Chapman’s logos, fonts, and colors are also consistent across channels and communications.
The departments utilizing Ocelot One review the knowledge base monthly, which helps them stay aligned and ensure that all questions are being answered the Chapman Way.
Michelle Sypinero (Assistant Vice President, Information Security) and Sarem Yadegari (Manager, Communications and Training) explain in their own words.
For our students, this means providing a supportive and enriching educational environment that nurtures their academic and personal growth. For our staff and faculty, it involves creating a collaborative and rewarding workplace where their contributions are recognized and valued. Our alumni should feel a lasting connection to Chapman, knowing that their achievements are celebrated and that they are always welcome back. Donors and board members should experience transparency and appreciation, understanding the significant impact of their support. Lastly, our friends and community partners should see Chapman as a beacon of excellence and a trusted ally.
By using tools such as Ocelot One, we can focus on these relationships and ensure every touchpoint is positive and meaningful, we can cultivate a loyal and engaged community that proudly represents and supports Chapman University.
Ocelot One’s impact at Chapman cannot be understated. The IS&T team intentionally rolled the platform out for one department at first, looking to perfect their process and scale from there. And once other teams saw the difference Ocelot One made, they wanted to be a part of the transformation! Ocelot One is a truly campus-wide solution at Chapman, serving 14 teams and departments across the university.
The team at Chapman categorizes their success with Ocelot One into three major pillars. Firstly, Ocelot One enables Chapman to provide brand-consistent, 24/7, and one-on-one support to each and every student. No matter what a student’s individual journey looks like, they are always able to get the answers they need at Chapman.
Secondly, the solution empowers the university to provide truly personalized experiences at scale. For Chapman, it’s not enough for students to simply have a generic answer. The University wants students to have personalized answers — as personalized as the educational experience they provide at Chapman.
Finally, Chapman is able to leverage Ocelot One’s data and analytics to actively optimize the student experience. The team at Chapman leverages Ocelot User Feedback to identify low-rated responses so they can audit and improve them to better serve students.
The analytics within the platform also allow Chapman’s team to identify areas of friction or confusion for students, which then empowers them to reach out to specific teams and help them optimize web content.
Additionally, Chapman leverages Ocelot’s Automatic Content Generator to efficiently create new content with little to no effort from administrators. Chapman has been able to optimize their support content so much that in the last year, the institution has only a 1.5% rate of unanswerable questions within Ocelot One.
With their partnership with Ocelot, Chapman University’s students not only receive the personalized education they were promised, but they are supported in a way that reflects Chapman’s mission and values, ensuring long-term academic, personal, and professional success.
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Chapman University leverages Ocelot One to engage students and centralize cross-campus support, giving students the confidence and guidance to navigate their higher education journey at every stage!
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