The challenge
A tier-1 Indian B-school running PGP, MBA and executive MBA programmes had 18,000 prospects in HubSpot at any point across an 11-month admissions cycle. Drop-off was savage — 60% of prospects who started the application never finished because document collection (CAT score, transcripts, work-ex letters, recommendations) was a manual back-and-forth over email. Interview no-shows were 22%.
How we deployed
- Built an 11-month nurture clock per prospect inside HubSpot with lifecycle-stage triggers.
- Sequenced touches around CAT-result week, application open, document deadline, GD-PI window.
- Deployed an AI document-collection agent on WhatsApp — checked transcripts, work-ex letters, recommendation status weekly.
- Auto-validated uploaded documents (format, signed, latest version) before submission to admissions office.
- Scheduled GD-PI interview slots via Google Meet with auto-reminders T-48h, T-24h, T-2h.
- Routed any reply or upload event back to the assigned admissions officer with full context.
What changed
- Admissions cycle compressed by 38 days end-to-end across the cohort.
- Application completion rate lifted 47% — 4,800 net-new completed applications.
- Document collection time dropped from 14 days to 38 hours on average.
- GD-PI no-show rate fell 58% with WhatsApp reminders and re-confirmation.
- Admissions office reallocated three full-time staff from document chasing to candidate evaluation.
"We used to spend February emailing applicants asking for a clear copy of their work-ex letter. Now the bot does it on WhatsApp and we spend February actually evaluating candidates."
— Director of Admissions · Tier-1 B-School