2U

Improving student experiences with Slack and Salesforce

Built by Robots & Pencils, 2U’s Slack app lets 2U provide fast, high-quality student support, with data tracked via a Slack-Salesforce integration.

Human Need

2U wanted to find a way to utilize their existing Slack and Salesforce technology to deliver high-quality support to students in their boot camps. Through the use of these systems, they sought to facilitate quicker, more efficient responses to student requests and to demonstrably improve the overall student experience.

With our new Slack app, we centralized a large segment of our processes and reduced the workload of our support teams, which was a big efficiency win. When we integrated our custom Slack app with Salesforce, we were able to get a holistic view of the student experience end-to-end. It really was the perfect pairing.

Amanda Powers
2U Platform Product Manager

Digital Solution

Robots & Pencils teamed up with 2U to design a Slack app that lets students easily ask for help about curriculum topics or assignments while they are using Slack. Once a student requests help, the Slack bot alerts a 2U learning assistant. The learning assistant then can respond rapidly inside Slack, providing the student with the option to discuss the issue via chat or video call. After a learning assistant marks a student issue as resolved, the bot immediately prompts the student to give feedback on the support provided.

Data about each support request and interaction is tracked in Salesforce. 2U uses this data to track response time, monitor support quality and volume, identify common student needs, inform course improvements, adjust staffing plans, and more.

A Far Better Way

In the first 9 months alone, Learning Assistants helped students with 45K+ issues in Slack. Students are receiving the support they need in under 30 minutes, with an average satisfaction rating of 4.5 of 5 stars.