Communication is the bedrock of business. Whether that’s with your team or your customers, communication is key in forming a successful work environment for your business.
However, it won’t do you good to stay limited to older technologies such as e-mails, fax, and phones. For the fast-paced world of today, your business needs a messaging platform.
Compared to the relatively slow feedback of emails, chat apps are much simpler and intuitive. Today, let’s talk about the benefits of using messaging apps in your business.
Real-Time Communication
The truth is that people don’t check their emails regularly. For the most part, constant checking of email is an exercise in futility. In fact, some people consider checking email all the time as highly unproductive.
Real-time communication is the best reason to implement a messaging platform, as it allows for quick resolutions to ongoing problems. Email chains are just too messy for internal communications. Emails are just impractical nowadays for extended interactions. Messaging apps let teams communicate as things happen, and it’s honestly much less stressful.
For instance, when things go wrong, you can just ask and get a response quicker through chat. This is especially useful for small but crucial concerns.
Real-time communication also cuts down on unnecessary meetings. Instead of holding meetings that halt productivity, management can instead send important announcements through group chats.
Group chats may be slightly less formal, but that small bit of informality helps workers be more honest with their team leaders.
Increased Productivity
Additionally, most messaging apps offer a lot more than emails and primitive text messages do. Specific channels for teams, data organization, and file sharing are things that messaging platforms are capable of.
Real-time communication resolves menial problems much quicker. More complex problems are also easier to work through. If something is unclear, either party could just send a picture of what’s going on through chat.
For work such as customer service, the time saved from real-time communication is key to customer retention.
There is also the use of roles. These roles are mainly used for notifying a specific group of people. If there is something the sales team needs to know ASAP, it only takes a few seconds to ping them all. Roles also help newbies in the chat find out what everybody on the team does specifically.
Mobile Capabilities
Almost every professional messaging app has a mobile equivalent. Any benefit we discuss in this article also applies to the mobile version of your app.
Messaging platforms are inherently faster than any other communication platform and are not severely affected by things such as poor connection.
If you are out on the field, you can still keep in touch with your team or customers even if they can’t email or video call you.
Chatbots
Instant messaging is the most convenient way to communicate with your customers. Chatbots make that even more so. Before an agent even starts to chat with a customer, a chatbot asks the customer for basic information.
Names, numbers, and their problems with your service fall under that umbrella. Once an agent takes over, they can read the information the customer provided to the chatbot.
Alternatively, the chatbot could answer the question themselves. A chatbot provides a list of the most frequently asked questions to the customer. From there, the customer picks their question and the chatbot follows a flowchart for solving the issue.
Customer engagement is key to customer retention. An immediate response, even if it’s from a chatbot, helps customers feel that their voices are heard.
Cost Reductions
Most messaging platforms are incredibly cost-effective. A single call costs your business $3 to 4, and that can reach even higher costs for extended calls. In comparison, messaging platforms such as Rake provide a monthly flat rate of $6 per active user.
Consider as well that phone calls are limited to one on one conversations. Universal messaging platforms, on the other hand, allow for several ongoing conversations at once. Obviously, this saves a lot of time and allows for more work to be done. Time is money after all, and more time used for productive things is good for business.
Employee Engagement
Messaging apps are more engaging than emails by a long shot. The benefit of real-time communication is that there is nearly zero downtime in a conversation.
There is no more need to constantly refresh your inbox to see incoming replies, and vice versa for the email’s recipient.
Additionally, filtering is much easier through a messaging platform than it is on any other form of communication. For example, instead of several folders of emails, you can just have a channel dedicated to a specific subject.
For example, when your co-workers wish to provide important but personal news such as wedding invitations or a new baby, a group chat titled “Personal Chats” could be made.
It’s also handy for specific team projects and makes things much more organized for real-time cooperation. An informal yet professional rapport is built in such group chats.
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