How Riverside University Reduces Administrative Load 62% with Chatref

Riverside University, serving 18,000 students across diverse programs, struggled with overwhelming inquiries to admissions, financial aid, registrar, and student services offices. With thirty-two administrative staff answering repetitive questions about applications, deadlines, transcripts, and campus services, response times exceeded two days during peak admission seasons. After implementing Chatref's university chatbot, Riverside now handles eighty-three percent of student inquiries automatically, reduced administrative workload by sixty-two percent, achieved ninety-one percent student satisfaction, and saves seventy-three thousand dollars monthly.

Prospective and current students flooded offices with questions about admission requirements, financial aid deadlines, course registration, housing applications, and campus resources. During application season, admissions staff couldn't keep pace with inquiry volumes, causing delays that cost enrollments to competitor schools. International students needed support across time zones, and parents sought information about costs and campus safety. The university needed a knowledgeable assistant that could answer admissions questions accurately, guide students through complex processes like financial aid applications, operate twenty-four hours in multiple languages, and scale during peak periods without hiring seasonal staff or extending wait times.

Riverside selected Chatref after a semester-long pilot across multiple departments showed strong results. The chatbot integrates with student information systems, admissions platforms, and course catalogs to provide real-time information. Multi-language support serves international students and families in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Training involved all administrative departments: teams uploaded policies, deadlines, forms, and thousands of previous inquiries. Within eight weeks the bot launched on the university website, student portal, and mobile app, answering questions about admissions, academics, campus life, and services while routing complex cases to appropriate departments.

Administrative workload dropped sixty-two percent, allowing staff to focus on high-value student interactions instead of repetitive questions. Student satisfaction reached ninety-one percent, and applications increased thirty-one percent due to better prospective student experience. Automating support saves seventy-three thousand dollars monthly, paying for Chatref in six weeks.

Riverside University shows how higher education institutions can use AI chatbots to scale student support, reduce administrative burden, and improve student satisfaction—without expanding staff. Chatref's education expertise makes student services automation accessible for any university ready to modernize their student experience.