ABOUT
University Canada West (UCW) and University of Niagara Falls Canada (UNF) are higher education institutions under Global University Systems, offering business and technology-focused degrees in Vancouver and Ontario.
INDUSTRY
Higher Education
CRM
Salesforce
Challenge
The recruitment team faced a "black hole" of unresponsive leads and wasted hours calling candidates who did not meet entry requirements.
Despite generating thousands of inquiries, the recruitment team struggled to maximize their return on ad spend due to manual limitations:
Wasted Ad Spend on "Dead" Leads. If a student didn't respond after 4 attempts over 4 weeks, the lead was closed forever. The university had no scalable way to re-engage the massive pool of leads that had gone cold.
Inefficient Manual Outreach. Advisors spent hours manually dialing international numbers with low pickup rates. When they did connect, many candidates did not speak English and were thus unqualified for enrollment.
Staffing Challenges. When the team size was reduced by 60% due to shifting priorities, they lacked the manpower to handle incoming volume, risking a drop in enrollment numbers.
“The two biggest problems we had were leads that don't speak English and leads that don't respond at all. It’s a lot of wasted time and opportunity cost. You would rather be investing that into students who are actually responding to you and who are in that nurturing phase.”
Sindhujan Nadarajah
Senior Manager Student Recruitment, University of Niagara Falls Canada & University Canada West
Solution
Havana acted as an "always-on" filter, automating the qualification and outreach processes and shielding the team from low-quality administrative work.
UCW and UNF deployed Havana to automate the initial contact and qualification for both new and dormant leads:
Reviving "Dead" Leads at Scale. Havana re-engaged the massive pool of dormant inquiries, uncovering value that had previously been written off.
Automated Qualification. Havana engaged leads instantly and filtered out those who did not meet English language requirements, ensuring advisors only spent time on viable candidates.
Automated Reminders. Havana followed up with leads throughout their application process, sending timely nudges at critical milestones.
“We've used other systems before, but they're always very complex. Havana is very plain and simple. It makes life very easy.”
Sindhujan Nadarajah
Senior Manager Student Recruitment
Results & Impact
Havana drove a 2X increase in applications and revitalized the recruitment team’s morale.
By letting AI handle the initial outreach, UCW and UNF turned a staffing challenge into exponential growth:
4,700+ Qualified Prospects. Havana identified over 4,700 qualified students from a pool of over 155,000 conversations.
2X Increase in Applications. Despite the team’s headcount being reduced by 60%, Havana's automated nurturing doubled application numbers.
Higher Value Work. Advisors stopped doing administrative "chasing" and focused purely on relationship building with students who had already booked appointments.
“The team size was reduced by almost 60% and priorities were moved to something else, but with Havana getting into qualifying and educating leads, application numbers grew by 200%. The results were really complete. Very impressive, to be honest. It's raining applications.”
Senior Manager Student Recruitment
Conclusion
UCW and UNF’s experiences prove that you don't need a larger team to get better results. Havana’s AI was able to provide a smarter way to work.
“The team really loves Havana. It takes the low-priority work off them and lets them focus on relationship building. If I ever had to tell them, ‘We no longer have Havana,’ they'll be very sad.”
Sindhujan Nadarajah
Senior Manager Student Recruitment
