ARTIFICIAL vs. NATURAL INTELLIGENCE IN TEXTING James L. Coker, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ARTIFICIAL vs. NATURAL INTELLIGENCE IN TEXTING

James L. Coker, Ed.D. Senior Associate Director of Admissions Operations East Carolina University

Who loves automatic response systems?

The chatbots are coming!

Higher Ed and Chatbots

https://chatbotslife.com/higher-education-chatbot-chatbots-are-the-future-of- higher-education-51f151e93b02

Communication — that improves with time. prospective students flock to colleges and universities with applications or

enquiries about specific courses, fees and scholarships

Higher education chatbots eliminate all these issues. Potential applicants find the one-on-one, IM-style interaction familiar and

convenient.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2018/09/28/heres-how-to-boost-enrollment-

with-chatbots/

AI technology to personalize admissions support for incoming students a knowledge base with answers to more than 2,000 anticipated questions. there are times when the bot hasn’t yet learned the answer to a specific

question

Pounce delivered more than 200,000 answers to questions asked by incoming

students

But are they right for recruitment?

Potential applicants find the one-on-one, IM-style interaction familiar and

convenient.

there are times when the bot hasn’t yet learned the answer to a specific

question

Navigating the complex student enrollment process can be intimidating for

anyone

students are generally open to engaging in two-way conversations with

colleges via text, with 76.1% of teens saying that they would like to be able to text colleges with questions

Impact on Costumer Service

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherelliott/2018/08/27/chatbots-are-

killing-customer-service-heres-why/#2cb9587813c5

annual Global Consumer Customer Service Report many consumers still prefer human agents to chatbots for their customer

service engagements

Only about half of all respondents said that they would turn to a chatbot for a

quick customer service need.

many consumers still prefer human agents to chatbots. Nearly 50 percent of

U.K. respondents and around 40 percent of U.S. respondents

Why Natural Intelligence texting?

https://www.sms-magic.com/blog/recruit-students-with-text-messaging/ a recent study by Cappex found that 77% of students want to receive relevant

information from universities via text messaging

Texting is a natural conversation Bulk texting is not welcome or appreciated, but transactional messages and

confirmations are preferred

How do we move forward?

Evaluate websites to effectively answer the redundant questions a chatbot

might answer

Use territory management for targeted communication with prospective

students

Utilize the Cadence group feature to bulk message and have multiple staff

respond

Talk to students AND their parents via text Adapt communication plans to include a text message campaign plan Remember that at our core we are Admissions Counselors!

Questions?

Thank you for attending! And don’t forget to tellxt all your friends! James L. Coker, Ed.D. Cokerj@ecu.edu East Carolina University