Chat rooms have progressed from being used purely for entertainment purposes, to becoming a legitimate business tool. Once, a domain of teenagers and niche interest groups, they’ve expanded into professional territories, creating a much needed channel for instant exchange of information. Live chat owes its success to the fact it’s a simple, yet a powerful tool, usually available at an affordable price, or even for free. Keep on reading to learn how group chat for business can positively impact your workplace environment and create lasting value.
Chances are, you might have used a one to one chat already, especially in the e-commerce setting, if you were a client yourself, or to provide customer support at any stage of the sales funnel, as a part of your own business operations.
Group chat for business, however, opens up a whole new real time communication dimension in front of you.
It helps you link with clients and business partners, facilitates internal communication among employees, and allows you to provide customer support. It’s hard to think of a business that couldn’t find any use for live chat. What makes group chat for business so valuable though is the immediacy and convenience of instant messaging combined with its team collaboration facet.
Efficient workplace communication is essential at all times. What does ‘efficient’ mean, you may ask, and where does a group chat widget fit in here? Well, in this context, efficiency is about the speed and convenience of team communication, as well as the accessibility of the medium – a chat room can be entered from any device with an Internet connection.
Group chat for business has multiple internal applications, excluding the obvious customer support feature. I will argue that any team at any office can benefit from using group live chat in their daily operations. So, with that being said, what exactly could a business use a chat room for?
Day to day communication
The devil’s in the detail. It’s the everyday small things, that affect your company’s performance in the long run. The quality of your employees’ day to day communication has a significant impact on how fast and well projects get done.
A group chat for business can be a great alternative to good ol’ email. In fact, we’ve seen an example of a huge company that banned the internal use of email altogether in favor of instant messaging.
Why on Earth would they do that? Well, live chat is even more instant, a claim supported by the fact that if you see someone available in the user list and contact him, he’s more compelled to reply to you ASAP, instead of leaving a message unread in his inbox, waiting for a ‘better’ time. On top of that, a chat room allows for sending links and files in-app, so there’s no need to leave for any third-party solutions.
Completing professional tasks is one thing, but why not loosen up a bit, especially if it’s Friday afternoon, and arrange a joint pub visit or lunch using means provided to you by live chat?
Brainstorming
This application of group chat for business is similar to the facilitation of daily communication, but probably a bit more formal.
You may find live chat particularly useful for brainstorming if you consider the growing trend of remote workers. A chat room creates a platform for employees spread across various geographical locations to pick each others brains and exchange ideas during brainstorming sessions.
Another strong advantage of chat is that it allows for multitasking – people may contribute to team meetings even if they’re currently busy with some other higher priority job.
Client conferences
A big part of your operations may involve working with clients on a continuous basis, instead of just selling products, for example. In such case, a group chat for business may prove to be convenient mode of communication for all parties concerned.
It can be an excellent information exchange platform on its own, or serve as an extension to video presentations. Importantly, transcripts of everything that’s been said can be downloaded and provided for future reference, should any of the parties require them.
Here’s where the multitasking aspect also comes into play. With some good planning and practice, you can hold multiple client conferences simultaneously, saving time and money.
Employee support
One final application of group chat for business I’d like to discuss is employee support. Obviously, customers bring in money, but it’s your team that makes generating revenue possible in the first place. Making them as fit as possible for performing their duties should be no less of a priority to you.
A chat room can serve as an internal helpdesk, where employees can come to solve their IT issues, for example. They may have some HR-related questions as well, and using live chat, there’s no need for them to leave their desks to make an inquiry.
Group chat for business also makes internal trainings easier. Having a chat room set up surely is a more affordable alternative to arranging multiple sessions with experts at the office. Live chat also makes follow ups to these sessions easier.
Another instance where live chat could be used to provide employee support are business trips. Your representatives may have some questions to ask while being away from the office and so turn to whomever is available in the group chat and able to help faster.
Group chat for business – the takeout
Texting as a communication method is here to stay. It’s insanely popular in the informal context and, with the use of group chat for business, makes its way into the more professional setting.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as live chat has a number of advantages that are hard to disregard, including:
- Easy setup and maintenance – being cloud-based solves a lot of issues on the user end.
- Cost efficiency – less phone lines, reduction in long-distance calls.
- Increased productivity – less movement, no need to leave your desk so often, less distraction.
- Accessibility combined with privacy – you can install your group chat for business on a password-protected page, or make it so that only logged in employees can see it.
Chatwee will help you excel in the areas covered in this post. It’s an instant messaging and a group chat for business all in one. The app is highly customizable and even comes with a Free-forever plan for mini businesses.
Efficiency goes up, operational costs go down – what else can you ask for as a manager?
