7 Best Practices For Enterprise Messaging in 2022 (and one extra)

With more than half of smartphone users reporting that they prefer to contact businesses via texting and other messaging platforms – and that percentage even higher among Millennials and Gen Z – it’s time to empower your business with the right tools to streamline interactions with clients and give them the lightning-fast responses they crave.

But in order to make the most of enterprise messaging in your business, you need to develop and implement strict standards around compliance, set clear guidelines for communications, and leverage all data at your disposal. Read on to learn more about the best practices for customer-facing enterprise messaging in 2022.

1. Security first

While specific regulations vary by industry, it’s likely that your business is legally obligated to be in compliance with standards around both safeguarding customer data and keeping a clear digital record of internal communications and discussions about clients’ accounts. Failure to comply with those standards could lead to major issues, like personal accountability, heavy fines, and a serious hit to your brand’s reputation. Fortunately, you can leverage your enterprise communication app to create a (virtual) paper trail, which can be easily accessed in the event of an audit or dispute in the future.

Enterprise messaging tools can help you monitor all aspects of your business’ communications, particularly with clients, and ensure that your organization is staying compliant. You can use these solutions to create a permanent record of virtual interactions, even if individual users delete conversations or leave your organization. A complete, big-picture overview of the communications between your teams and customers can give you both peace of mind and solid protection for your organization.

2. Prioritize mobility

One of the top reasons customers prefer to reach out to businesses via instant messaging is the speed factor. People want answers, fast, and they no longer have the patience to sit on hold and suffer through various “press 3 for this” menus. Give your customers what they want with quick response times. Consider using shortcuts – like drop down options within the chat window that cut to the chase about what your clients need help with – to get things moving faster.

But it’s critical to keep in mind that data protection rules, privacy standards, and other regulations still apply to these casual conversations. While it’s easy to get caught up in the thrill of lightning fast interactions between your business and customers, remember that the same rules governing email, phone calls, and other more “formal” types of communication also apply to enterprises engaging in instant messaging with their clients.

 

3. Stay consistent

Devote the same level of planning, forethought, and strategy to your customer service voice that you would to any other aspect of your branding. Develop clear standards around the voice that your employees will use when communicating with customers. That could mean keeping conversations business-casual, permitting the liberal use of emojis and encouraging playful communication, or something in between. Whatever you decide, it’s important that your team understands how to speak to customers in a way that’s the right fit for your brand’s identity.

4. Keep it simple

One of the top reasons that your customers are reaching out to you via instant messaging is because they want lightning fast answers while they’re on-the-go. Be sure that your teams and employees are able to give clients what they want on messaging apps. That might require you to go through your communications strategy and UX design with your IT teams. For example, if your employee sends a link through SMS or instant messaging, that page should be perfectly suitable for mobile viewing and use.

5. Get social

A chatbot on your site isn’t going to cut it. To make the most of your customer-facing enterprise messaging solution, embrace integrations across all your social media channels – think Whatsapp, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or any regional platforms that are popular with your clients. Make it as easy as possible for your brand’s fans to reach out to you.

If you’re introducing client-facing messaging services for your brand, consider sending out an email blast to let your customers know. Include a chat icon at the bottom of purchase emails, newsletters, and of course, make sure it’s featured prominently on your site. When customers do decide to call you, mention in your intro message that they can hang up and reach you via messenger for faster response times.

6. Make the first move

You don’t have to wait for the public to reach out to you. As long as you don’t overwhelm them with spam, you can use enterprise instant messaging services to proactively approach customers. Before the holidays, you can send festive greetings, or alert your customers to upcoming sales and special offers. People who have used a messaging solution to reach out to you are clearly interested in interacting with your business, and you shouldn’t be shy about keeping that connection alive.

7. Observe trends

Be sure to connect the dots when it comes to the content of the messages you’re getting from clients. Notice a deluge of questions about a specific feature of your product? Or consistent complaints about products or services? You’re getting valuable raw feedback, the kind that you can utilize to better your business, for free.

Analyzing the content of the messages you’re receiving from multiple inputs, and being able to formulate a strategy based on that data, is tricky. Considering the sheer amount of information your customer success or other teams are contending with, and the fact that the data is scattered throughout different mediums, gauging feedback and carving out a coherent message can seem like an insurmountable challenge.

We asked our partners and friends at Shield to provide one bonus bullet:

8. Monitor monitor monitor

If there is one clear message from the recent JPM $200M fine is that you should never rely on the good faith of employees, your compliance efforts or the regulator’s grace. The new workplace has expedited the increasing use of enterprise messaging platforms bringing on new surveillance challenges essentially leaving compliance powerless and vulnerable.
Establishing a clear surveillance function and applying advanced technologies to detect possible breaches and misconduct is becoming essential in 2022.

In order to make the most out of your enterprise messaging, you should:

• • Tailor your messaging strategy to your customers’ needs – meaning that you should prioritize speed and convenience.
  • Make sure that links sent within instant messaging communications are supported by mobile-friendly UX on your company’s site.
  • Leverage the data coming in – both in terms of customer feedback and your team’s performance.

From Whatsapp to WeChat and Telegram, your business needs a solution that tracks conversations across various channels and makes it easier to monitor for both quality and compliance. LeapXpert provides a responsible business communications platform that keeps track of business conversations across multiple apps in one place.

The solution maintains a complete record of all messaging conversations between your employees and your clients, no matter the platform, giving you unprecedented insights into user behavior and customer communication preferences, as well as ownership of critical data.

For more on how to best leverage enterprise messaging for your business, get in touch with us! We’d love to show you how client-facing instant messaging can be the perfect fit for your business’ unique needs, as well as a powerful tool for remaining in compliance and building a solid digital record of external and internal communication.