To capture interactions with prospective students outside of Slate, create custom interactions in the Activity & Interactions Codes section of the Database. Before creating interaction codes, organize all interactions into main categories (parent codes) and subcodes. Categorizing interaction codes ensures easy navigation and maintenance. For example:
| Category (Parent) | Interaction (Subcode) |
|---|---|
| Mailing | Sent Viewbook Sent Postcard Sent Poster |
| Contact | Call with Student Call with Parent Call with Counselor |
| Telerecruiting | Spoke with Student Spoke with Parent Left Voicemail Wrong Number |
Best Practice
Use this opportunity to reorganize current interactions to make them more efficient and intuitive. Avoid creating unnecessary and outdated interactions.
Less is More! Remember that Slate already adds many interactions automatically. There is no need to create additional interaction codes for the items automatically added.
- Select Database on the top navigation bar and select Activity & Interaction Codes.
- Select Insert.
- Enter the following Interaction configurations in the dialog box:
- Status: Set the status to Active.
- Folder: Keep your codes organized by putting them in a folder. Select Other to create a new folder.
- Type: Select the proper Type depending on the anticipated use case:
- Interactions: These are entered and displayed on the person record, and are used for recording person-level interactions.
- Activities: These are entered and displayed on the application tab, and are used for recording information specific to the application.
- Interaction/Activity: These can be entered on the either the person record or the application, and appear on the tab where entered.
- Code: Set a code that is clear and easy to understand. Use lowercase letters and no spaces.
- Parent Code: Leave this setting blank.
- Label: The label is the display name of the interaction.
Slate supports numeric, alphanumeric, and descriptive text-based codes for easy identification and maintenance.
- Select Database on the top navigation bar and select Activity & Interaction Codes.
- Select Insert.
- Enter the following Interaction configurations in the popup window:
- Status: Set the status to Active
- Folder: Keep your codes organized by putting them in a folder. Select Other to create a new folder.
- Type: Select the proper Type depending on the anticipated use case:
- Interactions: These are entered and displayed on the person record, and are used for recording person level interactions.
- Activities: These are entered and displayed on the application tab, and are used for recording information specific to the application.
- Interaction/Activity: These can be entered on the either the person record or the application, and appear on the tab where entered.
- Code: Set a code that is clear and easy to understand. Use lowercase letters and no spaces.
- Parent Code: Select the Parent Code (if applicable.)
- Label: The label is the display name of the interaction.
Once all sub-codes have been created along with their parent codes, they will appear as in the example below:
- Select Lookup on the top navigation bar, and search for a record.
- Select the Timeline tab of the Student Record.
- Select Interactions link > New Interaction and enter the following interaction configurations in the dialog box:
- User: This defaults to the user name.
- Code: Select the parent code of the interaction.
- Subcode: Select the subcode of the interaction.
- Timestamp: This defaults to the current time, but the value may be overridden.
- Subject: The Subject appears on the Student Record. If the interaction code is sufficient, leave this blank.
- Private Comments: Private Comments are only visible administratively.
- Public Comments: Leave this setting cleared. If selected, comments here will be publicly visible.
If a link is entered in the Subject or Comments of an interaction, a Links section appears in the interaction record to display the included links.
Tip
When saving an active link with an interaction, be sure to include the correct https:// or http:// prefix in the URL to ensure a functional hyperlink.
Use the Search Interactions box or toggle on the interaction types by using checkboxes to easily find specific interactions on the Student Record. A list of interactions based on Parent Codes may also be displayed.