Lightning fast messaging platforms are a boost for businesses, helping them quickly connect with customers and easing internal communication. But what about the downsides?

From WhatsApp to WeChat, a diverse array of communication platforms for business mean that organizations can engage in real-time conversations with both clients and team members. Whether it’s outreach to customers, fielding queries from clients, or discussions between colleagues, corporate communication has never been easier, and along with that convenience come a number of benefits to businesses, like stronger relationships with clients and quicker decision making. But lightning fast messaging platforms do create challenges for businesses, and it’s up to company leaders to understand those risks and take steps to mitigate them.

How instant messaging helps your organization

Smoother collaboration between teams and across the company

By its very nature, instant messaging for business is a more casual medium than email or phone calls. Employees can pepper their messages with emojis, pics, or even GIFS, to inject a little more personality and familiarity into business communications. 

It’s far less intimidating to send a message to a boss or a colleague in another department when the conversation takes place via a “friendlier” platform. Making communication amiable means that colleagues can connect more easily with each other, easing everything from collaboration to brainstorming to the implementation of new cross-company policies and even the execution of day-to-day tasks.

Stellar customer experience that fosters loyalty

Customer expectations have skyrocketed, and a bad experience where a consumer has to wade through a labyrinth of options with a chatbot or wait forever for email replies is simply not going to cut it anymore. Offering your customers a way to reach out via the familiar channels they know and love — whether it’s Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or WeChat — provides your clients with the lightning-fast responses they love. 

A superior customer experience is the differentiator that determines whether your brand is leading the pack or limping behind, and instant messaging apps for business are a critical part of setting the bar higher and meeting shifting consumer preferences.  

Convenient communication for quicker action

Business instant messaging solutions enable both customers and colleagues to hold real-time conversations, paving the way for matters that may have required extended back-and-forth emails over the course of several days to be resolved within minutes. 

Instant messaging software for business provides agility, a key factor for success in 2022. Enabling companies to instantly respond to everything from client queries to misunderstandings between teams, creates the groundwork for forward-looking, future-minded approaches within a business.

The downsides

Better customer service, greater collaboration between teams, increased productivity, and an agility boost all sound great, right? It’s clear that mobile-first, instant messaging platforms have tremendous benefits to companies, but there are also some downsides you should consider.

Potential compliance issues

The pandemic created a major shift in the way we think about business communications. Fortunately, instant messaging software for business was there to fill the gaps and help companies continue to share information, hold meetings, and make important decisions. These apps ensured that colleagues could stay connected, even when it was impossible for them to meet face-to-face.

The problem is that when employees are using their personal devices for work-related conversations, oftentimes the line between business and casual gets blurred. People who regularly scroll through their favorite messaging platforms and delete inactive or old conversations may continue their usual routine without thinking about it, and end up inadvertently violating your industry’s record-keeping regulations.

Just one deleted exchange could be enough to trigger an investigation from your industry’s regulatory body, which could be accompanied by everything from multimillion dollar fines to irreparable damage to your brand reputation.

Data leaks and privacy concerns

While instant messaging tools for business allow customers to connect with employees across a greater range of platforms, the flexibility and versatility that they love can also pose unique challenges to a company. 

Whether it’s a customer’s personal account information, a trade secret, or news about future products, there are plenty of matters which a business needs to keep under wraps. The risk of this kind of information becoming public is exponentially increased as communication flows more easily, especially from personal devices that may not be under the company’s watchful eye. 

The days of company-only business email accounts accessible to an admin with just a few clicks are long gone, and organizations must take robust action to stay abreast of work-related conversations.

Fortunately, there are tools which can help you reduce the risks of instant messaging for your business, so you can sit back and reap the benefits with peace of mind. LeapXpert, a responsible business communications platform, keeps track of all your company’s conversations — whether they’re internal or client-facing — in one place. This single source of truth gives you invaluable visibility and control over what’s being said, and you can monitor for specific keywords or phrases that are problematic. 

Having a comprehensive digital record of your business conversations not only protects your organization from regulatory crackdowns, it also serves as a crucial insurance policy in case of future litigation or a dispute. A complete record of conversations from start-to-finish helps you support your side of the story with factual data, and prevents others from manipulating the narrative.

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