June 21, 2022

Live Chat: Creating Better Accessibility for Greater Outcomes

Live Chat: Creating Better Accessibility for Greater Outcomes

In higher ed marketing, it is important to stand out from everyone else and create a sense of belonging for prospective students. One of the best technological tools for accomplishing this are live chat systems.  

In this episode, Ben Congleton, CEO and CoFounder at Olark, talks about his journey to live chat systems from the early days of website chat providers and how they create a more accessible, seamless journey for prospective students. 

Join us as we discuss:

  •  How live chat differs from chat bots, automation, and AI
  •  Where on your website to deploy live chat systems
  •  What are best practices for staffing a live chat system 

The Higher Ed Marketer podcast is brought to you by Caylor Solutions, an Education Marketing, and Branding Agency.

    

 

Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:06.440 The High Red Marketer podcast is sponsored by the ZEMI APP enabling colleges and universities 2 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:12.240 to engage interested students before they even apply. You are listening to the Higher 3 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:17.600 Ed Marketer, a podcast geared towards marketing professionals in higher education. This show 4 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:22.359 will tackle all sorts of questions related to student recruitment, donor relations, marketing 5 00:00:22.359 --> 00:00:26.760 trends, new technologies and so much more. If you are looking for conversations 6 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:31.280 centered around where the industry is going, this podcast is for you. Let's 7 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:40.840 get into the show. Welcome to another episode of the Higher Ed Marketer podcast. 8 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:45.119 My Self Choice Singer from thing patented. Each week, partners with Bart 9 00:00:45.159 --> 00:00:51.359 Kaylor of Kaylor solutions to bring you conversations with higher ed marketers that we feel 10 00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:57.320 the entire higher ed marketer community can benefit from. Today we talked to Ben 11 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:03.120 Conglington from O lark about live chat solutions for Higher Ed Marketing and how it 12 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:07.079 can work for your college. Yeah, Ben does a great job of kind 13 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:11.079 of explaining the benefits of of live chat. I think we all have experience 14 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:18.000 with customer service and and doing different things online and leveraging live chat solutions, 15 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:21.400 whether you're doing an order with lands end or, you know, any other 16 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:25.359 ecommerce platform. We're pretty familiar with that. But live chat is something that 17 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:27.959 a lot of schools have implemented. Yet a lot of, I think, 18 00:01:29.079 --> 00:01:33.920 misconception about it are out there, and so ben does a good job of 19 00:01:33.959 --> 00:01:37.959 kind of deconstructing some of that, helping us to understand a little bit about 20 00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:41.640 what the what the common allees between those solutions are, as well as just 21 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:44.480 to kind of De mystify a little bit the difference between, you know, 22 00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:48.760 live human chat versus what what's being known as chat bots, and so I 23 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:52.879 think this is a great episode for anyone who's looking at ways to better service 24 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:57.159 their their audiences, whether it's enrollment, whether it's development, whether it's, 25 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.599 you know, internal students. There's a lot of really good conversation around that. 26 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:06.719 Today here's our conversation with Ben from O Lark. It's our pleasure to 27 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:10.800 welcome been congleton to the High Reed Marketer podcast. He is the CEO of 28 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:17.120 o Lark, which is a live chat solution for Higher Ed marketers and before 29 00:02:17.159 --> 00:02:23.360 we get into the advantages and some of the best use cases for live chat 30 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:28.159 solutions, would love for you, been, to introduce yourself in. How 31 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:31.840 did you come up with this wonderful solution for higher in? Yeah, absolutely 32 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:37.560 so. I'm I'm been congleton. See You and cofounder old Ark. I've 33 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:43.560 been sort of building software, and this is entrepreneur for about thirteen years. 34 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.840 I've started all ARC basically leaving a PhD program at the University of Michigan. 35 00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:52.520 So I have I don't know, I have a deep, deep higher ed 36 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:55.080 roots. It's exciting to it's likely to be here. My Dad's professor, 37 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:59.639 my sisters a professor, my brother in law's a professor. So, like 38 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:02.639 a I read, is a place that I feel very comfortable in and so 39 00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:06.360 I guess your question was sort of like how do we how do we get 40 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:08.800 this thing moving? How do we get this started? Yeah, and maybe 41 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:14.840 you're beginnings. Yeah, yeah, sure. So the beginnings, the early, 42 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:16.360 early beginnings, is, you know, I actually, you know, 43 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:20.719 used to run, used to run a webhost and company like in the in 44 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:24.599 the in the early and the mid S, and back then the best way 45 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:29.400 to communicate with the customers on our website was via chat. And in the 46 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:34.080 mid S, you know, company kind of bought our our live chat provider 47 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:36.960 and then sort of shut down the SB product and moved it do a fortune 48 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:39.199 five hundred product, and we searched around in serf and searching, search, 49 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:43.800 and we could not find anything that really worked for sort of our small teams. 50 00:03:43.879 --> 00:03:46.080 You know, there wasn't designed for like fortune five hundred call centers. 51 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:51.599 Fast forward two thousand and nine. You know, I'm working on this PhD. 52 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:57.240 I'm sitting, I'm sitting in a PhD seminar class, reading a reading 53 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:01.159 article by Shosama Zubrav I remember this about this intermediation and your thinking, thinking 54 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:04.960 like you know what like if everyone's going to start selling and you know, 55 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:10.360 moving all commerce to the web, how are we going to going to communicate? 56 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:14.840 And and I look back at my time and in two thousand, you 57 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:17.399 know, the Earl in the mid S and you know, thought like okay, 58 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:19.560 like, you know, chat work pretty well for us, but it 59 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:24.319 seemed to just go fortune, fortune hundred one to like att and comcast, 60 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:28.480 like what happened everyone else. And I looked around and there wasn't really a 61 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:33.240 solution out there, like for non giant call centers. And you know, 62 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:36.120 as a learned a lot. You know, I've got a computer science degree 63 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:39.959 at a business degree. Was Work on this PhD and I was like, 64 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:42.639 you know, I think we could maybe build the thing that like we needed 65 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:46.959 ten years ago, and we started building it. Some of our earliest customers 66 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:50.680 were university libraries and university professors. That wasn't never this lie the best use 67 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:54.959 case, but it we start off there and then started seeing a lot of 68 00:04:54.920 --> 00:05:00.279 e commerce businesses use US, governments and software companies and the company kind of 69 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:03.160 exploded and grew from there. Isn't that fascinating that, you know? You 70 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:05.519 know, I talked to you in the pre interview a little bit about the 71 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:09.160 idea that I remember back in the S, you know, we were using 72 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:12.240 ICQ, I think it was some kind of little, you know, messaging 73 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:14.839 software, and that was kind of you know, people are using AOL and 74 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:17.399 all kinds of things at that time, and it's funny how, you know, 75 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:19.160 it kind of went away for a while, as you said, kind 76 00:05:19.160 --> 00:05:23.639 of went big corporate and now it's coming back and it's funny that, you 77 00:05:23.639 --> 00:05:26.399 know, my son who he's twenty two now, he wasn't born until one 78 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:29.240 thousand nine hundred and ninety ninet two thousand. You know, I think that 79 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:31.519 messaging is kind of their natural, natural way of going about things, and 80 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:35.040 so I think it's fascinating. It's kind of come full circle. But now, 81 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:39.199 especially post pandemic, I mean talk a little bit about that. I 82 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:42.160 mean I'm sure a lot of things have happened during the pandemic that kind of 83 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:46.439 required even more of this type of need. Yeah, it was was pretty 84 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:48.639 fascinating, right like. I think a lot of us kind of grew up, 85 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:53.759 my generation grew up like SMS, texting, friends, etc. Now 86 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:58.480 you have facebook Messager, you know. Now you have people using instagram messaging 87 00:05:58.519 --> 00:06:03.160 on the side. You know, ticktock, like short rapid text communication right 88 00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:11.279 like, is happening constantly, having everywhere. And what's interesting to me is, 89 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:13.959 you know, we've worked of highed for many years, but you know, 90 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.759 around the beginning of the pandemic we started to see like a lot more 91 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:19.800 demand for this kind of solution. I think a lot of it was that 92 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:25.720 there's a lot of systems it were built for in person communication. The just 93 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:30.319 broke down when everyone was was remote, and so we see a saw, 94 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:33.480 you know, quite a few universities reaching out to us, probably early two 95 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:38.360 thousand etc. And some of our existing customers were say like hey, how 96 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:41.040 else can you help us. Like we know, we've been working with you 97 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:45.399 got for for a while and and through that process I looked at the space 98 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:47.560 a lot more. I started, you know, talking more deeply to our 99 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:50.920 higher ard customers and understanding, you know, some of the challenges they were 100 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:55.959 facing. And I don't know, I got excited because, you know, 101 00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:01.560 I now could go kind of bring those Thanksgiving dinner time conversations back to, 102 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:04.360 you know, what I get to do every day. And so we saw 103 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:09.079 people like, okay, like, you know, we aren't doing campus stores 104 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:13.319 anymore, like how do we how do we engage with with students who are 105 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:17.399 browsing our websites is maybe their first interaction with us as a school? Or 106 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:20.639 like, okay, we have some admitted students, but they're not on campus 107 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:26.759 right now. For example. You know, university organ start off using US 108 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:30.240 in both admissions and housing, and what they learned is basically, when someone 109 00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:33.399 gets there, their housing set up there, they're going to show up, 110 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:39.120 like the summer melt is like not a factor once they have a place to 111 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:42.720 stay. And so they started putting our a's and some of their housing groups 112 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:46.959 on chat and so it's been interesting to kind of watch, you know, 113 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:51.839 this sort of customer service focus that we saw happen in e commerce and in 114 00:07:53.439 --> 00:08:00.079 service businesses move into universities when most of the interaction is happening via the website, 115 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:03.319 like the basically your enrollment yield funnel has a huge fees of it. 116 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:07.279 That is people interacting with the website, not picking up the phone, and 117 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:11.399 that's been kind of exciting problem to work on because I've been working on that 118 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:13.839 problem and in B tob for a long time and now it's kind of come 119 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:18.560 full circle. It's it's pretty exciting. It is really exciting and I think 120 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:22.639 it's interesting. We've you know, we've got a guess coming up in a 121 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:26.160 couple weeks with Stephenie guy are from. She used to be at RNL and 122 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:30.560 so she was kind of the author of e expectations report and their most recent 123 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:31.919 one last year. was saying that, you know, the website is the 124 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:35.559 number one place a students go to find out information about starting a college and 125 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:39.279 it's a number one place two people go to decide on the content. Is 126 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:43.720 What that drives them and make their decision, even beyond you know, the 127 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:46.480 counselors and everybody else, and so I think it's so important to realize what 128 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:50.559 tools can we put on that website where everybody's already going to make that as 129 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:54.039 frictionless as possible, and I love the idea that chat is one of those 130 00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:58.320 tools because we're so used to it. I mean we go to any other, 131 00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:01.519 you know, ecommerce platform and like Oh, I've got a problem, 132 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:03.960 I'm going to click on the chat and I'm going to type and talk to 133 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.320 somebody and get it solved, because I don't want to I don't want to 134 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:11.600 hang out on hold for three hours and I don't want to not get my 135 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:15.000 problem solved and I'm not going to I'm not going to email somebody and wait 136 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:16.279 three days. I just want to get it taken care of and and I 137 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:20.360 love the fact that human chat can do that. Yeah, absolutely, in 138 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:22.799 genes. He's not going to pick up the phone when have question, like, 139 00:09:22.840 --> 00:09:24.919 you know, browsing your website. They're not going to they're not going 140 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:28.399 to post a message in your facebook group right, and they're unlikely going to 141 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:30.879 send you an email. So I think like the point is you need to 142 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:33.759 be there where where the person is, whether they're on a mobile device or 143 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:37.879 whether they're, you know, sitting in front of their computer on a tablet. 144 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:41.159 You need need, you need to be there so you're not interrupting flow, 145 00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:43.320 so that you can just sort of help people move through, right through 146 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:46.639 that journey. I think you're exactly right on that. With that, there 147 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:52.279 are a couple of different chat solutions out there. Your platform is a live 148 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:56.080 chat solution, but they're also what people commonly refer to as Bots, and 149 00:09:56.120 --> 00:10:01.120 I'm sure their advantages and disadvantages to them both. But if you can kind 150 00:10:01.159 --> 00:10:05.879 of help us think do that and point some of those out and go into 151 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:11.000 this discussion for others that are maybe contemplating making a decision of a chat solution 152 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:15.720 and then your future. Yeah, I think that's that's a really good question 153 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:20.639 and I think there's a big trend right of seeing seeing chat bots like kind 154 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:24.919 of a I would call it, basically just adding automation to some sort of 155 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:30.320 workflow. We saw this happen in kind of calling up comcasts or eighteen team 156 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:33.519 many years ago, when you got these deep phone trees and had a lot 157 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:37.559 of questions. You're starting to see more of this happen on websites in the 158 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:41.000 reason this happens is because in general, sales people are very good at selling 159 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:46.519 a solution that's like hey, Ai will answer all your questions, you don't 160 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:48.639 have to staff this, you don't need people anymore. And it's a lot 161 00:10:48.679 --> 00:10:52.320 easier for someone to say yes, give me that thing, I don't need 162 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:54.320 to spend money on people, I don't need staff, I don't need to 163 00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:58.080 staff it. Then it is to say, okay, let me figure out 164 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:01.600 the system. This is going to provide incredible service to the people that that 165 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:05.159 are that I'm trying to serve. So if you're like, you know, 166 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:07.639 a small liberal arts college and you're thinking like okay, like, I can 167 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:11.639 just put this little Bot thing on here and I'll answer everyone's questions, that 168 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:13.679 seems a lot easier than figuring out, you know, how you work with 169 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:16.480 marketing, how you work with your admissions team, how you work with other 170 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:22.960 parts of your school to actually provide incredible service and answer questions that the students 171 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:26.440 might have. So it's so like the story is compelling about why people might 172 00:11:26.519 --> 00:11:31.879 choose that. The challenge, I think, with bought only or peer bought 173 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:35.360 is that most of the reason, most of the time that people reach out 174 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:39.600 and want to communicate with some of that institution it's when they have an exceptional 175 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:45.159 case and it's when, like they are trying to get something deeper than a 176 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:48.440 question that they could ask Google or a question that they could ask Sirie. 177 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:52.399 And you could think about Siri is kind of like some of the best ai 178 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:56.840 out there, or Alexa or you know these virtual assistants, and imagine how 179 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:03.080 much money like Amazon and Google will and Microsoft for spending developing these personal assistants 180 00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:07.919 and think about all their shortcomings. So I think you know, bots butts 181 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:11.679 are useful and we do some of that that natural language processing. You know 182 00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:16.159 bought automation stuff, but my story is always been as a school, you're 183 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:20.720 basically trying to create belonging and you're trying to stand out from everyone else that 184 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:24.879 is in that in that playing field. So you're not trying to commoditize the 185 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:30.799 interaction with your institution viewer website. We are trying to do is automate away 186 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:33.799 some of the really simple things, maybe some of the simple Google query style 187 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:39.159 questions, and then get over to someone who can deal with the nuance and 188 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:46.120 really express to that student or the perspective student what makes you guys different. 189 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:50.279 Like you know how you're able to help someone move through a complicated financial aid 190 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:52.919 process or how you're able to, you know, answer a couple questions, 191 00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:56.960 you know in that application process, that reassure them that you know you're going 192 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:01.399 to be there for them once they show up at the institution and you're not 193 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:05.159 just handing them a Bot that refers them to a phone tree or an email 194 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:09.679 address, which I've seen done so many times and it's just disappointing. It 195 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:15.039 really is. And I find myself, I know I've I love Amazon. 196 00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:18.279 I've been an Amazon. You know, they now tell you Amazon you know 197 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:22.080 customers, since for me it was like nineteen ninety five thousand nine hundred and 198 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:26.399 ninety six, and I really like it. But the thing that frustrates everything 199 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:31.279 of about it is that when I have a question about something and I go 200 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:35.879 to their customer support, it does do the automated bought and half the time 201 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:39.120 I've already done all the research to figure out what I need. I'm going 202 00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:41.840 to the Bott I'm going to the chat because I can't find it on my 203 00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:46.080 own. I mean most people, I think, are pretty self sufficient and 204 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:48.799 I think the challenge in customer service, whether it's Amazon or whether it's anybody 205 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:52.759 else is is making it so that the customer feels good about their experience with 206 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:56.120 you at the end of the day, and right now, I never have 207 00:13:56.120 --> 00:14:00.919 felt good about the experience that I've had with Amazon because I just goes in 208 00:14:00.960 --> 00:14:03.960 circles and you'll finally you might get someplace where you get down to somewhere that 209 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:07.440 you actually get a human on there, but it takes forever. And I 210 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:11.840 know that they do that because call centers cost money. They charge based on 211 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:15.000 the minute, based on the engagement, and so I understand that. But 212 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:18.080 from a college standpoint, like you said, from a liberal arts, small 213 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:20.279 medium size school, we can't afford to do that. I mean we've got 214 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:24.639 to be we've got to be living our brand out all the way down to 215 00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:26.720 the way that we do chat and if we are selling, you know, 216 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:30.679 if we see on the page, Hey, we're all about community, you're 217 00:14:30.679 --> 00:14:33.960 not a number here all this, but yet click on this chat bought and 218 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:37.720 we're going to make you a number. We're kind of against the brand on 219 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:41.799 that. And so I love the idea that you guys are leveraging ai when 220 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:46.039 it makes sense, but it's not replacing that human relationship and I think it's 221 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:50.519 one of the dangerous and I'm guessing you do too. Yeah, absolutely, 222 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:52.399 I mean it's I think, you know, we think about, you know, 223 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:56.399 old arks philosophy and how we sort of approached Bots, for example, 224 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:00.440 like we've always, you know, we've been thirteen years and and the live 225 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:03.200 chat industry and the live chat business. So we've built the you know, 226 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:07.440 very robust, very robust solution to help that, you know, route to 227 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:11.320 the right person. So, for example, we've done work with slate recently 228 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:16.960 and that's been pretty exciting, where where we can route to the admissions counselor 229 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:20.320 assigned to the person, the student when they come on ask a question or, 230 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:24.639 you know, really really thinking about like that, that you know, 231 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:28.240 complete experience of like, you know, knowing other communication that someone has with 232 00:15:28.279 --> 00:15:31.279 the student when they come in, come into chat. I think there's a 233 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:37.360 lot of options to sort of think about this holistic experience for the student that 234 00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:41.879 really is trying to trying to create that that belonging, and Ai Automation is 235 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:45.480 a piece of that, but it's not it's not the full solution. I've 236 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:48.600 called maybe twenty percent of the solution. Yeah, well, and I like 237 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:50.200 what you've saying there, because I mean, let's let's talk a little bit 238 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:54.320 about some of the features and accessibility that go into into chat solutions and I 239 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:58.440 think that, you know, I full transparency. I've partnered with O Lark 240 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:03.679 and a couple clients and and have helped them implement a live chat solution and 241 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:07.000 been very pleased with that. And I know that I was part of a 242 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:11.840 Beta test group on on your mobile APP, I think, you know, 243 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:15.679 eighteen months ago or so. And so just help people understand, because I 244 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:18.639 think sometimes there's misconceptions that well, if we have a chat, somebody got 245 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:22.240 to be tied to their desktop, you know, two, seven. Let's 246 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:25.320 talk through that a little bit of what does that look like for an admissions 247 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:27.759 team? Yeah, so I think what you're talking about like, in particulars 248 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:33.200 maybe staffing, and I think staffing as ultimately like one of the one of 249 00:16:33.240 --> 00:16:37.159 the biggest objections, like how am I actually going to going to staff this? 250 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:40.440 And I think there's a couple things to keep in mind. Like many, 251 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:44.039 many places already picking up the phone when people call. They don't get 252 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:47.120 very many phone calls, but there is people whose job it is to answer 253 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:49.159 the phone when the phone rings, and you can think of. Chat is 254 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:53.399 sort of in a similar way, like if you have staff or even a 255 00:16:53.879 --> 00:16:59.159 like a small call center of any form. Chat's a good option there because 256 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:02.879 you can imagine that now, rather than just doing like one phone call of 257 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.400 one person, you can chat with maybe two or three people at the same 258 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:11.200 time be fairly responsive. Generally speaking, we see a lot of like work 259 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:18.039 study students used here kind of, and admissions counselors are a's sort of more 260 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:22.599 kind of student employees, I think are very common to sort of work on. 261 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:27.759 That medium gives you flexible hours, it lets you kind of design around 262 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:32.359 people's schedules in a way that like some of the other you know, on 263 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:36.519 campus jobs also do, but maybe not as much into the evenings. But 264 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:40.799 additionally, like when someone's not there, you don't need to staff at seven. 265 00:17:40.839 --> 00:17:45.200 You don't staff much of anything seven at a university, right. And 266 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.319 and there's no reason you need to staff chat. I mean you can hide 267 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:51.759 it when you're not there, you can make an email contact form. There's 268 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:56.119 many options and that's pretty industry standard. Right. Very, very, very 269 00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:02.000 few places that are not normously large or staff things seven. Let's talk a 270 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:03.799 little bit about that idea. Of using students, because sometimes, and I'm 271 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:07.759 just kind of reflecting back to you things I've heard about it when I've talked 272 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:10.480 about life chat, it's like, well, students really don't know they answers 273 00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:14.440 to those questions. But I think your tools and a lot of tools, 274 00:18:14.440 --> 00:18:19.279 you can actually pre kind of preconfigure some some typical answers to the typical questions 275 00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:22.960 so that there's at least a something to get started on. Is that? 276 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:26.200 Is that accurate? Yeah, well, I think, yeah, you can 277 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:30.279 obviously have shortcuts and hints and things like that, but I also, you 278 00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:33.079 know, I think thinking about it in two ways. Right. One, 279 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:36.200 there are some basic questions where you're just building trust, right. These are 280 00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:40.039 basic questions where, like a human is going to be better at engaging and 281 00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:44.359 having that backforth dialog than, you know, a Bot. And then there's 282 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:47.519 also the opportunity to sort of transfer between departments. So, for example, 283 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:51.200 if you are, you know, having a conversation with admissions, in many 284 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:55.759 cases admissions is not understand all the intricacies of financially and even like, you 285 00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:00.160 know, the employees into emissions team, the counselors like that, are that 286 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:03.799 are trained and do this stuff every every you know, enrollment period. So 287 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:07.000 so the ability to kind of transfer over to an expert another department, I 288 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:11.720 think, is a key the key feature to kind of help continue to conversation 289 00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:17.480 and get questions answered. And you can imagine that happening within moving from, 290 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:19.880 you know, admissions to housing or moving from you know, kind of a 291 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:23.839 cross cross organization. Yeah, and I speaking of that. That's been another 292 00:19:23.880 --> 00:19:26.240 one of the concerns that have been brought up to me as the fact of 293 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:30.200 you know, I might be talking to the admissions team about how important is 294 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.880 to have chat from an enrollment standpoint. I mean, I'm a big believer. 295 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:37.119 If you've know anything about me, you'll hear me talking about everything in 296 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:40.519 your marketing needs to be from an enrollment focus first, and so the the 297 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:42.720 website needs to be enrollment focused and all that. So I would even say 298 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:47.720 chat needs to be enrollment focused as much as possible first. But then I 299 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:49.799 always hear people say, well, okay, we'll do that, but as 300 00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:52.759 soon as I put, you know, the chat on the home page for 301 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.960 enrollment, I'm going to get six people asking me about their red about their 302 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:00.720 transcripts. What do I do? And and so tell me. I mean, 303 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:03.680 obviously you've got bigger schools like University of Oregon. Well, how are 304 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:07.119 they handling that type of thing? Yeah, I would say generally speaking, 305 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:11.200 small schools might put on their home page and kind of look at it as 306 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:15.119 sort of like you know, so often times you'll staff out of registers office, 307 00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:17.720 like University of Montana, for exam, not not a small school, 308 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:22.480 but they started off using all our primarily in their registers office and their Dina 309 00:20:22.519 --> 00:20:25.200 students had, you know, a lot of good things to say about you 310 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:27.279 know, just using it as a way of like getting things done a lot 311 00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:34.359 quicker than in person visits. But generally speaking, because the Jack can be 312 00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:37.880 targeted right, you can. You can deploy it in a particular piece of 313 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:42.240 your enrollment funnel that you're trying to optimize. And I and that's that's why 314 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:47.680 I always like talk to most schools that have have trafficks, like think about 315 00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:51.839 what your goal is. Right, are you trying to increase your inquiries? 316 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:55.400 Well, let's look at kind of the pages on your on your website that 317 00:20:55.519 --> 00:21:00.279 sort of lead towards that inquiry funnel and let's like maybe make it a little 318 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:03.799 easier to get that first touch point kind of help you guys stand out a 319 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:07.920 little bit. You have an online campus tour option like, for example, 320 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:11.960 we recently partnered with student bridge, you know online the campus tour provider, 321 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:15.200 to, you know, make sure that they could, you know, answer 322 00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:19.759 questions in real time via that that platform that they've built. So I think 323 00:21:19.799 --> 00:21:26.000 thinking about your funnel, thinking about the pages in that funnel where you're trying 324 00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:32.240 to move someone through it. So you know, inquiries, high high intent 325 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:37.759 pages on the website that that lead towards inquiries application completion. You know, 326 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:41.079 obviously you can, you can bet it inside of the slate application experience if 327 00:21:41.079 --> 00:21:45.319 they're use if they're not using common APP. You can also imagine like, 328 00:21:45.319 --> 00:21:48.440 okay, like post Sedman. Okay, what are the sort of resources and 329 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:52.799 website materials that people are navigating post admit? Let's let's embed chat there, 330 00:21:52.920 --> 00:21:57.559 let's, you know, try to understand the questions people are asking and move 331 00:21:57.559 --> 00:22:00.160 people through that piece of the funnel. And you can kind of even look 332 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:03.960 at that. And the student success side, for example, we had UVA 333 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:08.519 using US for their career so center for just like career advising, because it 334 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:14.039 was a way of like simplifying the ability for people to ask quick questions, 335 00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:17.839 get resume reviews and sort of do that type of activity. So you can 336 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:21.839 kind of think about chat as like, yes, like we all communicate, 337 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:23.319 we all talk. Well, you know they're but but I think you can 338 00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:27.279 think about it more strategic way of saying, like, okay, like let's 339 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:33.200 look at the student, the entire student in journey from perspective to alumni, 340 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:37.119 and let's look at the pieces inside that journey where we could, we want, 341 00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:40.759 we might want to like gain some information, like we want, want 342 00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:44.519 to understand what's going on at that stage or a place where we're trying to 343 00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:47.880 move a number, like trying to accomplish something, and let's deploy chat there, 344 00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:51.599 run some pilots, run some tests and learn something, and I think 345 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:53.680 that's you know, that's generally where I like people to start. Is just 346 00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:56.599 like with a goal and we're trying to learn something. You can deployed everywhere 347 00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:00.000 and you will learn something as well. Right, right. That's a great 348 00:23:00.039 --> 00:23:03.039 point and I love the fact that one of the things that I learned about 349 00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:04.839 Oh Lark is that I can I can kind of turn it on and off 350 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:10.200 on different parts of the website or have multiple accounts on different parts so that 351 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:14.400 there's there's some consistency with that, and so I think that's a I think 352 00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:19.920 that's a great solution. I also know that your platform has provided accessibility solutions 353 00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:25.160 customized for some of your colleges that you work with. When that comes to 354 00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:30.440 mind is Galu debt university. Could you explain that and how that might affect 355 00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:34.160 how you move forward with solutions for other institutions? Yeah, that's a really 356 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:37.559 good question. I appreciate you bring that up, Troy. So one thing 357 00:23:37.559 --> 00:23:41.720 you should know about old ark is, you know, what we are in. 358 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:42.640 This be to be a space for a long time. You know, 359 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:48.400 as a as a company, we're incorporated as a public benefit corporation around accessible 360 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:51.240 technology and this is sort of an area of passion for us. And is 361 00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:55.119 therea why we really like working with the universities, because universities are some of 362 00:23:55.119 --> 00:24:00.200 our customers who care the most about accessibility, both from like the rational sense 363 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:03.160 that they want everyone to have access to their university to like kind of the 364 00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:10.720 more like cultural like benefit of Likedi wanting to to, you know, expand 365 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:15.559 their enrollment based. So that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about 366 00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:18.720 higher ad but to get more more specific, you know, when I think 367 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:22.799 about design and building building solutions, I think it's good to understand all of 368 00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:26.960 your all of your constraints. And in one of our customers is gallet at 369 00:24:27.079 --> 00:24:33.319 university, and Galia University as a lot of students who come in who their 370 00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:37.799 primary language is American sign language. And so even though you know you can 371 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:41.200 type back and forth using chat, if you're hearing impaired, you still like 372 00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:45.400 might have a better time expressing yourself using a different medium. And so one 373 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:49.079 of the projects we're doing with them is, you know, really thinking about 374 00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:55.440 chat as a medium that sort of let you escalate to video conversations. So 375 00:24:55.440 --> 00:25:00.599 we're working with them to let you leave messages in American sign language to sort 376 00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:04.160 of escalate chats into realtime video conversations as well. And so I think, 377 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:07.680 you know, these are the kind of kind of benefits you get when you 378 00:25:07.799 --> 00:25:11.759 kind of try to bring everyone under the same tent. Is it helps you 379 00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:18.359 build solutions for everyone, right, because that that kind of solution benefits you 380 00:25:18.359 --> 00:25:22.720 know, regardless of your ability, regardless of what university we're working with like, 381 00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:25.519 these are solutions we can bring to them to them as well, like 382 00:25:25.559 --> 00:25:30.119 a synchronous video messaging escalation to video call have but I think if you look 383 00:25:30.119 --> 00:25:33.400 at through the lens of trying to bring more people into the tent and working 384 00:25:33.480 --> 00:25:37.599 with, you know, assists of technology offices, working with, you know, 385 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:40.880 kind of the the assist of technology at community there's there's a lot of 386 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:45.960 room to not tack on accessibility and build it in and just make it part 387 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:51.519 of the core of how you how you solve problems, and that's one thing. 388 00:25:51.559 --> 00:25:53.920 It's been super fun working at all Ark and been more exciting for us 389 00:25:53.960 --> 00:26:00.200 and working more high right institutions recently. That's great. Are there any other 390 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:06.759 similar solutions that you've provided for other schools? So from accessibility standpoint, I 391 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:11.039 think generally speaking we build like a, you know, the the customer facing 392 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:15.880 chat experience, the experience that you see on every website. That's something that's 393 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:22.759 been heavily worked with with accessibility offices from Berkeley, Harvard and, you know, 394 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:26.200 variety of others. You know some of our corporate customers care a lot 395 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:30.880 about that that as well. And so just get back from the assists of 396 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:36.839 Technology Conference in Anaheim called CSIGN A, California State Northridge and it was pretty 397 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:40.559 exciting to see, you know, talks up there about accessible conversational Ui and 398 00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:44.519 like little little and little oh Ark Logos up there on and to its talk 399 00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:48.119 about how to build this and you know, it's I think it's it's an 400 00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:52.160 area that's been quite fun for us. It's really something that I think gets 401 00:26:52.200 --> 00:26:56.400 gets everyone. The team look pretty pretty excited working. We're getting that space. 402 00:26:56.440 --> 00:26:59.920 I've seen, like you. It's funny because it's a little bit sad 403 00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:04.160 ad because if you kind of walk around like a see Sun, this is 404 00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:07.960 big as kind of like the biggest assists of Technology Conference. You sort of 405 00:27:08.119 --> 00:27:11.680 when we exhibition booth there. And if people that kind of walk around, 406 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:15.319 there's all these people that do accessibility auditing, like that's there's a lot of 407 00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:19.240 auditors there and it you know, and people stop by your booth they're like 408 00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:22.680 yeah, you like your guys, your guys stuff is pretty good. Like 409 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:25.680 we get flag of all time. But the funny thing is everyone says they're 410 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:30.119 accessible. So it's like the sad state of affairs. Were like, because 411 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:33.279 you're selling in the high ad or selling a government like everyone's like, Oh 412 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:36.200 yeah, like we're accessible. We have all the sort of Cations, but 413 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.880 I think that in general, once you you dive deeper into that, like 414 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:45.160 a lot of people are approaching accessibilities a sort of a check the box functionality 415 00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:51.519 and not like let's actually build something that's incredibly usable for a lot of people, 416 00:27:51.599 --> 00:27:55.119 and I don't know, I say it's I think there's a big opportunity 417 00:27:55.200 --> 00:28:00.279 out there for technologists and universities to embrace that a little bit more and make 418 00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:03.279 it easier for people to get in there, not just make it like kind 419 00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:07.880 of like Oh, we don't want to get sued kind of standpoint, but 420 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:11.599 more of a like let's let's figure out how to actually make this thing easier 421 00:28:11.640 --> 00:28:15.720 for everyone, because I think that, you know, like a curb cut 422 00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:18.119 right like on a sidewalk. Yeah, it's great for someone in a wheelchair, 423 00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:22.160 but you know, if you're pushing a stroll or you're biking around your 424 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:25.960 kids, like, you know, these types of enhancements benefit everyone and they're 425 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:30.759 not just like something. You know there's a risk assessment problem. Good, 426 00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:36.039 we talk a lot about it on the show. Schools are really struggling today 427 00:28:36.119 --> 00:28:40.240 to make the same ads been work. Cepms are up eighty nine percent you 428 00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:45.160 over year on facebook and instagram. Our College clients are no longer looking for 429 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:48.720 rented audiences. They're looking for an owned community where they can engage students even 430 00:28:48.759 --> 00:28:53.319 before they apply. This is why Zemi has become so crucial for our clients. 431 00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:59.400 With over one million students, close to tenzero five star ratings, consistently 432 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:03.799 ranked as one of the top social lapps and recently one of apples hot APPs 433 00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:06.960 of the week, there is simply isn't anything out there like it, and 434 00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:10.839 we have seen it all. Zeemi not only provides the best space for student 435 00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:14.839 engagement, but the most unique in action will data for their one hundred and 436 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:19.160 sixty college and university partners. We know firsthand from our clients that Zeemi is 437 00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:23.920 a must have strategy for Gen Z. Check them out now at colleges dot 438 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:33.240 Zee mecom. That's colleges dot Zee m eecom, and yes, tell them 439 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:38.119 Barton Troy sent you. We close each episode by asking our guests, related 440 00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:44.559 to their industry and the solutions that they provide, would there be a quick 441 00:29:44.599 --> 00:29:48.400 tip or a piece of advice that they could give our marketing audience that they 442 00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:56.640 can implement soon after listening or immediately. Do you have any secrets that you've 443 00:29:56.680 --> 00:30:00.559 been holding back that you can share? That's a that's a your questions. 444 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:04.160 So I would say, you know, with Ol arc live chat or any 445 00:30:04.240 --> 00:30:08.240 any solution like that, it does not take that long to deploy and start 446 00:30:08.319 --> 00:30:11.720 learning. Like it's a simple as adding like a little piece of code to 447 00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:18.160 your website. Like we put together a checklist for enrollment folks. You can 448 00:30:18.200 --> 00:30:23.559 get at alarcom s e D checklists or Etu checklist and that will kind of 449 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:26.440 go through some of the things I talked about, like helping the fine goals 450 00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:30.599 and figure out staffing and, you know, some sort of walking those those 451 00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:36.319 problems through. And and I think that it's often often adding some of the 452 00:30:36.359 --> 00:30:40.519 website feels a little bit daunting. Often sort of experimenting within your Customer Journey 453 00:30:40.559 --> 00:30:42.839 feels a little bit daunting, and especially inside these big institutions, was so 454 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:48.880 many different, you know, people that control different little pieces of that funnel. 455 00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:56.559 I think that one way of thinking about just doing business on the Internet 456 00:30:56.599 --> 00:31:00.920 and connecting with Gen Z is it like you gotta be there, you got 457 00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:06.400 to be like where where people are right during that process. So if you're 458 00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:11.839 you know, sitting in your office, you're on campus office right waiting for 459 00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:15.160 the phone to ring, or you know, you know obviously amission councilor got 460 00:31:15.160 --> 00:31:18.680 doing all these events all the time. But when people are in that application 461 00:31:18.759 --> 00:31:23.119 process and that consideration phase, they're on their phones, they're looking at websites, 462 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:27.960 they are at their home filling out applications, and I think you know, 463 00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:32.119 if you want to learn, learn what that experience is like from their 464 00:31:32.200 --> 00:31:34.000 perspective, like the easiest thing to do is make it very easy to get 465 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:40.079 in touch and and and start like experimenting, and I think that I would 466 00:31:40.079 --> 00:31:42.440 recommend that anyone listens this, you know, whether you're using US or some 467 00:31:42.519 --> 00:31:48.680 other provider. Like the ability to communicate with someone as they are moving through 468 00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:53.119 a process that you've designed and they're trying to optimize its incredibly valuable, especially 469 00:31:53.119 --> 00:31:56.880 when they're in the moment of doing that process, not like Hey, let 470 00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:00.640 me send you a text message to cry to move you through the process, 471 00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:05.200 but like they're literally on your site, evaluating your university and trying to figure 472 00:32:05.200 --> 00:32:07.759 out this is a place that they want to go to. Like if you 473 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:10.559 can be there and build that relationship and create that sense of belonging and show 474 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:14.720 them why you're a little bit different than some of the other institutions that also 475 00:32:14.759 --> 00:32:19.319 have web pages and build like a little bit of a connection can be incredibly 476 00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:23.960 valuable to that one individual, but also incredibly valuable to your insight into what's 477 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:29.799 happening in that process. So that that would be my main take is it's 478 00:32:29.839 --> 00:32:32.839 it's not that hard to run a little test and start learning. Thank you. 479 00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:37.200 Been Love that response. For our listeners who would like to reach out 480 00:32:37.240 --> 00:32:42.079 and contact you may have questions. What would be the best way for them 481 00:32:42.119 --> 00:32:45.440 to contact you? Yeah, well, I'm super easy to get in touch 482 00:32:45.480 --> 00:32:50.640 with. If you can email me, just bannettle arkcom probably. If you 483 00:32:50.680 --> 00:32:52.160 want to ensure like I get, I get a lot of email. If 484 00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:54.839 you want to ensure that, like I'm, I'm on it and I get 485 00:32:54.839 --> 00:32:58.480 back to you. If you just want to old OCOM and chatted with someone 486 00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:00.480 on our team, like it just hey, like you know, I heard 487 00:33:00.559 --> 00:33:06.960 this podcast. I want to, you know, challenge them more like those 488 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:09.359 guys. Have a really good controller of my calendar and I listen everything our 489 00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:14.720 customer service in our customer facing teams. Flag. You can also ping me 490 00:33:14.759 --> 00:33:17.920 on Linkedin. I'm very responsive on Linkedin. Email is probably the place where 491 00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:22.640 I get may not be the best way, but I've I'll yo'll do my 492 00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:27.839 best. I'll do my best to find it enough. Very good. Thank 493 00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:32.279 you been I've loved this conversation and I think lied chat is very valuable for 494 00:33:32.319 --> 00:33:38.519 the higher rate community at this time. Bart, any last party words and 495 00:33:38.759 --> 00:33:42.720 or thoughts from you? Yeah, I just wanted to kind of I always 496 00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:45.319 like to take and tease out a little bit of some things that I heard 497 00:33:45.319 --> 00:33:47.640 that I just think are really kind of it's like taking a highlighter to it 498 00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:52.720 or just underlining something that we've talked about. And so couple things, especially 499 00:33:52.720 --> 00:33:57.079 just this last comment that been made about the idea of being willing to try 500 00:33:57.119 --> 00:34:00.440 some things out, trying to learn something. I'm reminded of a quote by 501 00:34:00.440 --> 00:34:04.440 Alvin Toffler that says the litter of the twenty one century will not be those 502 00:34:04.440 --> 00:34:07.800 who cannot read, but they'll be those who cannot learn, UN learn and 503 00:34:07.840 --> 00:34:12.239 relearn again, and I think that's so true. When we talked about technology, 504 00:34:12.239 --> 00:34:14.920 when we talk about all kinds of things, is that it's very dynamic, 505 00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:16.880 is very fluid. A lot of things are changing and I think that 506 00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:21.440 being successful means that you've got to be willing to kind of get out there 507 00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:25.199 and and and and take advantage of things when they're going on. Too many 508 00:34:25.199 --> 00:34:29.440 times, especially in higher education, we do things because we've always done it 509 00:34:29.480 --> 00:34:32.119 that way and we can't do that with generation Z. We can't do that 510 00:34:32.199 --> 00:34:36.280 with millennials in the way that we mark it to them. And so I 511 00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:37.760 think that, you know, part of what Ben talked about is so critical 512 00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:40.119 in there, and I also really liked what he said about, you know, 513 00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:43.719 be where they are. You know, we've talked to so many other 514 00:34:43.719 --> 00:34:47.800 people on this podcast, whether it's Adam metclaff at at Zee me, you 515 00:34:47.840 --> 00:34:52.400 know, with the idea of being able to have conversations with students, having 516 00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:57.519 peer to peer conversations on their APP, you're you're basically putting your school where 517 00:34:57.519 --> 00:35:00.280 they are there in social media APP in that in that particular thing. You 518 00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:05.679 know, we've also talked with with Ethan Beaut at at bombomb you know, 519 00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:08.119 the idea of having video email, and you think about the different ways that 520 00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:12.519 we it all comes down to relationship. Is what I'm trying to point out, 521 00:35:12.559 --> 00:35:15.400 is whether you're using you know, Buddy Zee me, Oh lark bom 522 00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:20.199 bomb. It comes down to relationship and being able to do relationship where people 523 00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:22.719 are and I think that we all know that facetoface is probably the most effective 524 00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:27.559 relationship. And then it gets to you know, video conferencing is kind of 525 00:35:27.599 --> 00:35:30.880 a second place area. But then you start getting down into chat, there's 526 00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:35.800 going to be much more personable than a live chats can be more personal than 527 00:35:35.840 --> 00:35:38.920 the email and video emails more personal than email. Email is kind of the 528 00:35:38.920 --> 00:35:42.639 default now, but I think there's a lot of other ways that we can 529 00:35:42.679 --> 00:35:45.960 really get more relationship and a lot more trust building with some of these other 530 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:50.360 tools and these other technologies, and so don't don't take them for granted to 531 00:35:50.400 --> 00:35:52.159 just say, Oh, we don't need that. It's another tool in your 532 00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:55.119 arsenal that I think you really need to look at and I really appreciate been 533 00:35:55.159 --> 00:35:59.079 being on the show today to talk a little bit about that. Thank you 534 00:35:59.079 --> 00:36:04.599 both for those wonderful parting shots. The High Ed Marketer podcast is sponsored by 535 00:36:04.639 --> 00:36:09.440 Kaylor solutions and education, marketing and branding agency and by thing patented, a 536 00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:16.599 marketing execution company combining printing and mailing for higher ed outreach solutions. On behalf 537 00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:21.159 of my co host, Bart Kaylor. I'm Troye singer. Thank you for 538 00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:28.079 joining us. You've been listening to the Higher Ed Marketer. To ensure that 539 00:36:28.119 --> 00:36:31.920 you never miss an episode, subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player. 540 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:36.280 If you're listening with apple PODCASTS, we'd love for you to leave a 541 00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:38.840 quick rating of the show. Simply tap the number of stars you think the 542 00:36:38.840 --> 00:36:42.320 podcast deserves. Until next time,