You’ve probably interacted with a chatbot at some point or another. And maybe you’ve interacted with a conversational AI assistant for recruiting. The terms “chatbot” and “conversational AI assistant” are often used interchangeably (honestly, even here on the Sense blog), but in all truth they’re actually quite different.
Actually, that brings me to why I chose this topic to discuss. Because when things get a little too “in the weeds” tech-wise, or when terms and meanings become jumbled is when it’s most important to hop in and demystify them wherever possible.
Demystify is a cool word to use, but really it means defining as much as possible in simple terms.
And to help you decide whether a conversational assistant makes sense for YOUR staffing firm, let’s take a stab at demystifying this topic a bit.
I mentioned earlier that you’ve probably interacted with a chatbot before. Depending on where you interacted with it, you may have had a, well, less-than-impressive experience.
Many chatbots are programmed to follow a set “script” or “workflow.” If you’re looking for something outside of that “script,” you may end up frustratingly trying to get the chatbot to understand you, or to give you the information you’re requesting. These are often referred to as “rules-driven chatbots.”
The most effective conversational recruiting assistants today are also referred to as AI-driven chatbots. These chatbots use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) backed by powerful machine learning (aka Artificial Intelligence or AI for short) to understand your users’ Intent and engage them in “conversation” to both provide information and gather information for your company.
The experience between rules-driven and AI recruiting chatbots is vastly different -- you’ve seen this for yourself if you’ve ever interacted with one or both technologies. When implemented correctly, you’ll feel as if you had a real conversation (or as close to one as possible) with an AI-driven chatbot.
At the heart of your conversational assistant is, well, you! When choosing a technology partner to deliver your conversational assistant, it’s important to choose someone who understands your industry and your company. A Conversational Assistant that works well in customer service doesn’t work well in recruiting, and a Conversational Assistant that is trained well for corporate recruiting likely doesn’t work as well for staffing.
Flexibility is essential here. Putting “you” into your recruiting assistant means you need control over your conversational builder. You need flexibility to operate over both text and email so that different audiences are able to interact seamlessly regardless of their preferred method of communication. And you need both the right technology AND the right partner, who can understand precisely how your conversational AI assistant will contribute to and integrate with your overall engagement and recruitment marketing workflow.
When you pair chatbot technology with the right strategic partner, you’re able to fully leverage your conversational assistant to deliver a seamless, positive candidate experience between your chatbot, texting communications, emails and one-on-one interactions with your team. The chatbot essentially becomes a part of your team.
With the Sense Recruiting Chatbot, our technology is built by staffing experts, for staffing firms. As engagement and communication experts, we have gathered and examined a LOT of data to understand what candidates are seeking, how they want to communicate and what will make them feel positively about your staffing firm.
All of that has gone into a conversational assistant that becomes an integral member of your team. When they interact with your conversational AI assistant, candidates will feel like they’re talking to one of your recruiters. And most importantly, the Sense recruiting chatbot “knows” when a candidate does need to speak with someone! And it will be able to automatically schedule a call with members of your team.
No one chooses conversational assistant technology just because it’s there. It comes down to your business objectives. And for company -- especially in today’s economy and reality -- there are some critical benefits of leveraging conversational assistants and their powerful AI technology:
Of course, delivering on these “whys” while also reducing candidate acquisition costs, shortening time to fill and leveraging a 2x faster response time, offers some tremendous ROI on your recruiting tech stack.
It’s especially potent when your conversational AI assistant is integrated seamlessly with your additional recruiting tech. Our Sense recruiting chatbot, for example, is built on our own platform, working seamlessly within your texting and engagement platforms, and integrating with your ATS. It’s a game changer for sure.
And when you understand how everything works together to make your life simpler, reduce costs AND deliver better talent, faster all while building stronger relationships, it feels pretty exciting, doesn’t it?
Choosing the right strategic recruiting technology partner leads to better results and stronger ROI on your tech investment. We’re super proud here at Sense of our technology, and the results we’ve helped our clients achieve.
Are you ready to accelerate your hiring with a 24/7 digital recruiter? Sense and Talent Board teamed up to survey 400 staffing and talent acquisition leaders around the world to understand how they are coping with the pressures of engaging qualified candidates in today’s volatile talent market. Download the insight-packed report here!
And we’re happy to walk you through some of those real-world examples to show you how Sense technology -- including our conversational assistant -- can help YOUR staffing firm. Shoot us a message to schedule a short demo today.
