Don’t Be Left Behind – Take Advantage Of Instant Messaging Apps To Improve In-Office Communication

When you say the words “instant messaging,” people would immediately think of a communication tool for personal use. These include Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, Google Hangouts, and more. Lately, businesses and organizations have integrated instant messaging (IM) into their daily operations to streamline in-office communication.

Instant messaging does not only improve communication in (and out) of the workplace. It can also be a platform for sharing files and updates. In other words, IM apps can help bring together organizations and businesses to meet deadlines and achieve common goals.

What are its advantages?

You might be wondering whether an instant messaging app is necessary for your business. Here are some compelling reasons to prove that IM is an important tool that offers many benefits.

1. Keeps your employees connected

Your employees will be able to have flawless communication as they can conveniently access the messaging app through their mobile phones or desktops. They can instantly update each other whenever they want to, which is especially helpful if they are working on a task together. The more connected your employees will be the more productive they will become. While email marketing is valuable for engaging your customers, IM apps ensure your employees will be able to collaborate in real-time even when they are not in the office.

2. Encourages camaraderie

The key to productivity in the workplace is efficient communication, which is only possible if there is a strong bond between employees. While email is an effective medium of communication, whether it be to customers, clients or within the team, it does not foster camaraderie between your staff. With instant messaging, your workers can easily establish relationships that will help them work harmoniously to achieve a common goal.

3. Helps you save money

Being able to call or chat with employees in an instant can save you a lot of money on overhead and operating costs. Even if your workers are all working remotely, you can still communicate efficiently with an instant messaging app. This keeps you from paying for expensive mobile phone plans just to be able to communicate with your employees outside of the office.

4. Provides fast resolutions

There are people who are too shy to ask questions about a new project or update. With the help of IM, those employees will be able to ask any question and get the answers almost instantaneously. This allows your team to provide speedy resolutions that will also improve productivity in the workplace. Aside from that, new hires will have access to higher-level employees who can provide guidance. This is also quite useful when resolving customer issues since staffers can easily send a quick chat to their seniors to ask for advice.

5. Packed with useful features

As workflows evolve digitally, workplaces need high-performance tools and features to increase productivity. IM has features that help you meet complex requirements and make workflows more streamlined, saving you a lot of time and resources.

One of the most useful features of an IM app is screen sharing. Even if you and your employees are working remotely, you can easily discuss crucial matters, provide visual demos, and more through screen sharing. With just one click of a button, your team will be able to view a presenter’s screen so everyone will fully understand whatever your discussion is.

6. Increases transparency

With IM in the workplace, regular communication and approachability are encouraged. Supervisors and managers can easily provide feedback, support, and acknowledgments to their staff through IM. Updates and important announcements can also be disseminated right away through IM. This keeps everyone on equal footing, allowing new employees instant access to more experienced employees for guidance and advice. All of these can help boost people’s morale.

7. Enhances security

While free IM apps pose serious security risks in the workplace, business instant messaging apps provide a more secure space for efficient communication. This is because IM apps for businesses have end-to-end encryptions, peer-to-peer communication channels, closed networks, anti-virus integration, and individual data security features that will help protect your company from data or privacy breaches.

What are its disadvantages?

There are always two sides to a coin, which means that instant messaging apps also have their fair share of cons.

1. It can be distracting

Because this app can be an avenue for informal conversations, employees might get tempted to indulge in useless banters, which can affect the team’s productivity.

To prevent your team from engaging in non-work-related conversations over instant messaging, you need to create a healthy culture around your IM app. For example, you can develop guidelines on using the app. These can include rules on the hours of use, appropriate content, and the like. You should also work with managers and other superiors to establish a good example of how to use the app properly.

2. It comes off as cold and impersonal

Yes, instant messaging can keep your employees connected, but it can also make people feel distant. This is especially true if it’s the only way you communicate with your staff.

To combat this feeling among employees, you should treat every IM chat like personal interaction, rather than a transactional exchange of information. You should create nonverbal immediacy by using cues that translate to warmth and engagement, like using the person’s first name and sending emojis or GIFs. This gives conversations over IM a bit of personal touch to avoid alienating the person on the other end of the line.

3. You don’t know when you’re going to get a reply

Because chat makes messaging instantaneous, employees can get a barrage of messages that they don’t get to reply to immediately. This can also delay the response of urgent messages that need a quick reply. This is because, in IM, you and your team members are not synchronized as you are on a telephone call. While this means that you can communicate without interrupting other people, it can be hard to determine whether a message needs a reply ASAP or not.

What you can do to solve this issue is to make it a standard for employees to indicate whether a message is of high or low priority. That way they will know whether they need to respond to it immediately. For example, you can start messages with “Urgent response needed” if it needs to be prioritized.

Is instant messaging right for your business?

As you can see, instant messaging can do a lot of good for your business. It’s quite an effective tool that can help streamline communication in the workplace and improve productivity. This is why more and more businesses are embracing IM.

You don’t have to be a digital marketing company to leverage on digitalization. Just like any other new social media platform or digital tool, if you’re not sure about integrating IM into your business, you can experiment with an app yourself and see if it can help make things easier for you. That way you’ll be able to check the features that will be most useful to you and your employees.