ABOUT
Kaplan is a global education provider. It prepares international students for admission to degree courses globally with its 40+ partner universities.
INDUSTRY
Higher Education
CRM
Salesforce
About the company
Kaplan is a leading global education provider consisting of 17 companies worldwide. Every year, Kaplan prepares over 40,000 international students from 150 countries for admission to language, higher education, and professional training programs at its 40+ global partner universities.
In 2023, the team began exploring AI solutions for student enrollment. They first implemented Havana in Singapore, and following strong results, are expanding Havana to other offices.
The challenge
Untapped leads at scale
With thousands of new student inquiries every month, student advisors had to prioritize leads they considered the most likely to convert: those that responded quickly and expressed interest.
Meanwhile, leads that were unresponsive after one or two tries were marked “dead” and left behind. Over time, this grew to 12,000 dead leads. Kaplan didn't think these were worth a human contacting again.
Marketing dollars were being poured down the drain.
“We were sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars of leads,” Managing Director of Kaplan Singapore, Alex Chevrolle, recounts. “This was a large pool of leads that we’d already paid for, but we weren’t doing anything with.”
Kaplan was stuck: it would not be cost-effective to get an advisor to find the “needles in the haystack” among the dead leads. Still, not having more comprehensive follow-up for dead leads meant they risked missing opportunities.
The solution
Automated multi-channel outreach to dead leads
Kaplan wondered if an AI tool could solve their problem. They started exploring AI tools already bundled in their existing software, but soon realized these tools were only “bolt-ons, not the core business", Alex says. These tools did not have what they were looking for.
After more exploration and an extensive evaluation, Kaplan chose Havana for its specialized focus on student enrollment.
Kaplan’s strategy? Havana would handle the initial outreach and qualification of dead leads, then hand over only the best leads to student advisors. This was the process automated by Havana:
Multi-Channel Outreach. Havana retrieved the list of 12,000 dead leads from Salesforce and began multi-channel outreach via phone and email—these were channels Kaplan prioritized, while other customers also use Havana to text or WhatsApp students.
Follow-up. If students didn't pick up the phone, Havana sent personalized follow-up emails referencing the attempted call. Havana would attempt calls again at different times.
Natural Conversation & Qualification. Havana conducted natural conversations on phone calls, answering student questions and qualifying leads.
Intelligent Routing. If a student was no longer interested, Havana would automatically update their status in Salesforce. If a student expressed interest, Havana would walk them through booking an appointment with a human advisor and update Salesforce accordingly.
Seamless Handoff. Human advisors received qualified, interested leads with full context of past conversations. Advisors would continue assisting the student all the way till they sent in an application.
"Havana is very clear about the niche that they’re operating in. Instead of diversifying and trying to get across absolutely every sector and every industry and every solution, they’re focusing on what we need right now, which is agentic solutions targeting specific use cases within our business."
Group CIO for Kaplan
Results & Impact
9% of dead leads revived; $2M+ in tuition revenue generated
Tracking ROI was easy. "Havana really made sure the results were tracked well," shares Andrew Loy, Director of Marketing at Kaplan Singapore. "Marketers could easily access and share the results with the rest of the organization."
These were the results Havana delivered:
9% of dead leads were revived and expressed interest in meeting with student advisors.
$2M+ in tuition revenue generated from the 12,000 dead leads that would have otherwise been abandoned.
An Empowered Sales Team. Advisors now focus on high-value enrollment conversations, letting Havana handle repetitive outreach and initial qualification.
Conclusion
Expanding Havana's implementation
Excited by the strong results, Kaplan has since added WhatsApp and other channels, and expanded Havana's role from reviving dead leads to handling fresh inquiries. Kaplan is also expanding their use of Havana to more offices.
For educational institutions or other organizations facing similar challenges, Kaplan's experience shows how Havana is able to turn dormant inquiries into real conversations and revenue.
"We’ve actually made it happen. We’ve brought it to fruition. It is working. We are moving to the next phase and are very excited to be working with Havana.”
Alex Chevrolle
Managing Director, Kaplan Singapore
