College Administrators Win Praise from Plexuss Inc for Use of Texting to Improve Student Engagement

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - Aug. 7, 2017 - PRLog -- Studies suggest texting is more popular than emailing among college-age students. Administrators at institutions of higher learning are noticing this shift and have begun stepping up their student engagement efforts by texting more extensively. Some schools have in fact put texting to optimum use, a development that prompted Plexuss Inc. to today thank them for their forward-thinking.

WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA– Prompted by Pew Research Center findings earlier this year indicating that roughly 95 percent of college-age students now own some type of cell phone, the top official of Plexuss Inc. today publicly commended U.S. and international institutions of higher learning for their embrace of message texting as a primary avenue of communication with prospective and accepted enrollees.

Plexuss CEO and Chairman JP Novin said college and university administrators have been wise to incorporate texting into their student engagement efforts. He noted that many students today like the idea of being texted by their schools any time administrators have important and relevant information to share.

Schools that send text messages have done so most often in times past to warn students of unsafe conditions abruptly materializing on- or off-campus. However, administrators increasingly utilize texting for other purposes, such as to issue reminders about upcoming activities, events, deadlines, and obligations, Novin said.

"If you consider the body of evidence that's been amassed over the years, you discover that texting is how most students now prefer to interact with their school's administration," he offered. "Students like the immediacy of texting. Indeed, research suggests that students will on average reply to a text message within a minute and a half after reading it."

Using Plexuss Global Text Message Services

Novin explained that many colleges and universities are texting their prospective and enrolled students with the help of his company's Plexuss Global Text Message Services.

According to Novin, Plexuss Global Text Message Services is a highly customizable platform that allows for texting to one or thousands of students at a time and permits administrators to send 160-character messages with greater efficiency and deeper savings compared to other texting services.

The popularity of texting in general is rising among administrators because "schools are seeing how successful a communications tool texting is," he said.

"For example, if you send a text message to a student, research shows that in more than nine times out of 10 he or she will open it within three minutes after it lands in the phone's inbox. That's dramatically better than the results emails are capable of. In fact, that's one of the big incentives for colleges and universities to integrate texting into their communications strategies – to improve engagement with students."

Texting Has Some Advantages Email Lacks

Novin observed that many schools still choose to make emailing the centerpiece of their communications strategy. He thinks, however, that texting will eventually emerge as a strong companion to emailing as those colleges and universities realize how the two communications channels can complement one another to excellent effect.

"There are things that you can't do with texting that you can with email, and vice versa," he relayed. "For instance, you can't send a long letter via text – email is the right channel for large correspondences. But, on the other hand, it's hard to beat texting for engendering student response and action."

The Plexuss Global Text Message Services platform permits U.S. and international schools to be in contact with students anywhere in the world. Novin contended that schools utilizing it are able to communicate with state-of-the-art ease, efficiency, and economy, while eschewing the need for in-house IT support.

"Schools are very interested in engaging their students in ways that the students appreciate, and clearly texting is the way to go," added Novin. "I think we'll see a great many more schools get onboard with texting before long. I believe that all administrators who do deserve applause for their willingness to be innovative and bring about beneficial change."

Plexuss Global Text Message Services is one of five primary products offered by Plexuss to students and schools. The other four are: Plexuss International Recruitment Services; Plexuss International Calling Services; Plexuss University Chatbot Services; and Plexuss College Live Chat Services.

ABOUT PLEXUSS INC.

Headquartered in Walnut Creek, California, Plexuss Inc. (https://plexuss.com/b2b-info) is a technology company that provides indispensable tools for better, faster, easier, and more cost-efficient communication between students and institutions of higher learning. Plexuss was founded in 2011. The company's name is a play on the word "plexus," which means a complex structure made up of an intricate network of many parts (the extra "s" added at the end is meant to represent the first letter of the word "success," symbolic of what customers can expect to experience when they use Plexuss products). The company offers five primary products: Plexuss International Recruitment Services; Plexuss Global Text Message Services; Plexuss International Calling Services; Plexuss University Chatbot Services; and Plexuss College Live Chat Services.

For more information about Plexuss Global Text Message Services (https://plexuss.com/b2b-info/communication), visit the company's website at https://plexuss.com/b2b-info or email collegeservices@plexuss.com.