How Buena Vista University Added $135,588 in Net New Tuition Revenue With Web Chat

Download the full case study

Buena Vista University’s admissions website had a live chat tool, but prospective students could barely find it. After BVU added Mongoose Web Chat to its admissions pages, chat generated 234 new student inquiries. Twenty of those students enrolled, adding $135,588 in net new tuition revenue.

BVU is a private four-year university in Storm Lake, Iowa, serving nearly 2,000 full-time students with a focus on personal attention. It already used Mongoose Text, connected to Jenzabar, before adding Web Chat.

Why BVU’s website wasn’t answering students

BVU’s existing live chat was easy to miss on the website, and prospective students struggled to find key information. Meanwhile, admissions staff answered the same questions over and over.

How BVU added admissions chat with one snippet of code

Because BVU was already a Mongoose Text partner, Web Chat was a natural next step, and the team chose it based on that relationship and the support it had received. BVU added Web Chat to its admissions pages with a snippet of code, and Mongoose set up answers to the questions staff heard most. When a prospective student needs more help, a staff member joins the conversation.

• Live with a single snippet of code on the admissions pages.
• Answers to the top admissions questions BVU staff used to field again and again.
• A staff handoff whenever a student needs a person.

Results: new inquiries, new students, new revenue

• 234 new student inquiries from Web Chat.
• 20 additional students enrolled.
• $135,588 in net new tuition revenue.

Routine admissions questions now get answered without staff, so the team can focus on tougher conversations and relationship building. BVU delivers the personal attention students expect without adding staff.

What other admissions teams can take from BVU

Put chat where prospective students already are, on your admissions pages, and start with the questions your staff answer most. Then make sure a person is one step away. That pattern holds across Mongoose’s 2026 data, where 43 percent of Web Chat conversations happen outside business hours, and it’s what human-in-the-loop looks like in practice. If you’re sorting out how chat differs from AI agents, this FAQ on AI agents and chat for higher education walks through it.

Other colleges have seen what Web Chat can do. Northwestern Oklahoma State pairs Web Chat with staff follow-up to support students at any hour, and Gwinnett Tech supports 13,000 students with Web Chat trained on its own website.

Download the full case study

For a one-page summary of BVU’s results to share with your admissions team, download the Buena Vista University case study (PDF).

Want to see what Web Chat could do for your admissions team? Book a demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Buena Vista University add $135,588 in tuition revenue?

BVU added Mongoose Web Chat to its admissions pages. Chat generated 234 new student inquiries, 20 of those students enrolled, and they added $135,588 in net new tuition revenue.

How hard was Web Chat to set up?

BVU added it to its admissions pages with a single snippet of code, and Mongoose set up answers to the questions staff heard most.

What happens when Web Chat can’t answer a question?

A BVU staff member joins the conversation, so students get a person when they need one.

Did BVU need to add staff?

No. Routine admissions questions now get answered without staff, so the team can focus on tougher conversations and relationship building.

Does Web Chat work alongside texting?

Yes. BVU was already a Mongoose Text partner, connected to Jenzabar, before adding Web Chat.