Meet Irving, the Strayer Chatbot That Saves Students Time

When you’re juggling school, work, and family responsibilities, your time becomes very precious. Students often spend a lot of time on administrative tasks for school—choosing courses, using the IT helpdesk, and looking for library resources. Hunting for answers can be time-consuming. If the school’s support staff is only available from 9 to 5, students often have to cram these admin tasks into their workdays, which can be stressful.

To help our students save time and decrease stress, Strayer University developed Irving, a student service chatbot. He’s named after the university’s founder Dr. Irving Strayer.

This virtual helper, launched in 2017, offers on-demand administrative support 24/7. Strayer students can access Irving from any page on the Strayer student portal. Simply click the chat box at the bottom of the screen, and Irving will pop up. Take care of admin tasks at your convenience, even if it’s late at night or on the weekend.

IRVING CAN:

• Answer frequently asked questions
• Recommend courses
• Help you conduct research
  
• Help you resolve IT issues
• And more…
   

EXAMPLES OF QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK IRVING:

• What’s the status of my financial aid?
• What courses do I need to take to complete my degree?
• How do I register for winter quarter?
• Where can I find a tutor?
  
  

IRVING IS ACTUALLY HELPFUL.

Maybe you’ve used chatbots before and haven’t been impressed. We’ve had that experience, too! We knew that Irving had to be genuinely helpful, or nobody would use him. Irving combines artificial intelligence (AI) technology and natural language processing (NLP), so he can handle your requests in a conversational style. A random survey of student users revealed that Irving is good at his job:

• 81% strongly agreed that the Irving chatbot helped resolve their issue easily.
• 93% said it was “extremely likely” or “very likely” that they would use Irving again.
   

IRVING GETS SMARTER OVER TIME.

New questions from students help the development team update Irving’s knowledge base. They recalibrate Irving to respond even more accurately and efficiently.
 

WHEN YOU NEED HUMAN HELP, IT’S AVAILABLE.

Irving can’t resolve everything—he’s a virtual assistant, after all. When a student needs help from an actual person, Irving can connect them to a staff member. You can also reach out to your Student Services Coach. Because Irving now handles most of the basic admin tasks and questions, our staff has more time to help students with the complex issues that require a human touch.
 

You can always talk to a real person if you like, but you might not need to. As of September 2019, only 7.42% of all conversations with Irving resulted in a transfer to a live support agent.

Irving helps students efficiently complete administrative tasks whenever it’s most convenient. He saves students valuable time and helps students quickly get back to the important stuff—studying for a degree, working, and spending time with family.

Thinking about going back to school? Strayer University offers convenient online learning, or you can take courses at one of our 70+ in-person campuses. Explore degree programs »