The Challenge
Meeting Educators’ Needs in a Growing Environment
For over 50 years, Kaplan Early Learning Company has fostered a love for lifelong learning by equipping childhood educators with tools to engage and enrich children. In today's educational landscape, where personalized learning and early childhood education are crucial, Kaplan aims to prepare childhood educators for teaching successfully.
Supporting these childhood educators involves timely, consistent service across multiple channels—phone, email, and chat. As Kaplan’s customer base grew, so did the volume of inquiries. However, as the business expanded, Kaplan’s service team struggled to keep up with the growing number of customer requests. “The last couple of years, businesses have been challenged with growth and being able to support their customers. It really has impacted Kaplan as well. One of our biggest challenges is maintaining staff and getting them up to speed when they onboard” Jennifer Cummings, Senior Director of Customer Engagement, shares.
The result was delayed responses and inconsistent messaging. Educators were left waiting for crucial guidance, slowing down their ability to serve children. Kaplan knew they needed a scalable solution to meet customer demands without compromising quality.
The Solution
Embracing Innovation to Transform Service
Kaplan needed to quickly scale its support offering, and fast. Ben Simon, Kaplan’s HubSpot Administrator, saw AI as the solution for streamlining workflows in Service Hub. “Our customers have unique needs and we constantly try to support them. The service team knows the answers, but we use Breeze to help us provide that information quickly to customers in a way we feel confident about”
Enhancing Internal Efficiency with Breeze in Service Hub
Kaplan began using AI internally to streamline onboarding. Jennifer Cummings was impressed by how it helped new hires get up to speed: “HubSpot has made it easier for us to quickly train service team members, enabling consistent messaging and quick access to customer information.”
Kaplan has incorporated AI across seven departments, including merchandising and collections, to manage requests and emails more efficiently. AI now helps summarize customer histories and relationships, giving Kaplan employees easier access to key data without sifting through years of records.
“For Kaplan, HubSpot is the core of managing the customer journey. Having everything in one system allows everyone to stay informed.”
Ben also introduced Content Hub's AI email writer feature to assist with copywriting and improve daily communication. “I was standing in front of a group of 20 people going over the new feature, and everyone was amazed by how fast it was. It was one of those moments where people who had only heard about AI and what it could do could finally see it click. It gives them confidence to feel really powerful about what they’re writing,” he recalls. HubSpot’s user-friendly design further boosted confidence in using AI across teams, “I think HubSpot is incredibly easy to use at any experience level with technology. If you can turn on a computer and use email, you should be able to use HubSpot.” Ben says.
Elevating Customer Support with Breeze in Service Hub’s
To build customer confidence through timely, consistent responses, Kaplan introduced three AI features:
- Breeze Customer Agent: This AI-powered feature provides quick, automated answers to common customer questions, reducing support calls and emails while ensuring consistent messaging. The chatbot enables customers to find answers to their questions on their own, without the need for human assistance.
- Reply recommendations in help desk: Kaplan leverages this tool to create standardized responses and templates for customer inquiries, streamlining communications and maintaining brand consistency.
- Customer sentiment analysis: Although still in its early stages, Kaplan has started leveraging AI to collect feedback and gain insights into customer satisfaction. The goal is to personalize support and ensure Kaplan meets their customers’ needs more effectively.
Transformation
Kaplan’s Service Evolution
Before adopting HubSpot, Kaplan struggled to build confident teams capable of managing customer inquiries efficiently, resulting in frustration and slower response times. The lack of streamlined processes made it difficult to scale the team’s output as demand increased. Today, Kaplan has transformed its customer service experience by equipping employees with the AI features they need to succeed. This has resulted in a faster and more consistent experience for their customers.
- Increased Efficiency: 25-30% of customer inquiries are now resolved without human intervention, allowing Kaplan’s support team to focus on complex cases.
- Reduced Response Times: Kaplan has reduced average response times by over 30%, even with a higher ticket volume.
- Unified Customer Experience: HubSpot’s centralized platform offers full visibility into the customer journey, empowering teams to provide personalized, efficient support.
- Improved Customer Satisfaction: Fast, AI-supported responses have led to more satisfied customers, who appreciate timely and consistent communication.
Breeze features help Kaplan “get to the low-hanging fruit quickly, consistently, and easily,” Ben remarks. Kaplan’s adoption of HubSpot’s AI features has resulted in a more streamlined, personalized customer experience, allowing Kaplan to focus on what matters most—supporting educators and empowering lifelong learning.
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