When it comes to communication, everyone's got their preference, and sometimes the boundary between when to use them can get really blurred.
Email used to be the one solution for all kinds of business communication, and by increasingly relying on email for things that it was never designed to do, our email has become overwhelmed with information overload.
Fast forward 20 years later, post-social media era, we are all very familiar with different styles of communication with synchronous methods such as real-time chats and asynchronous methods such as posts and replies on Facebook/Twitter.
In this article, we're going to explore what we've learnt in terms of best practice using these different methods of communication within Claromentis Digital Workplace.
1. Real-time chat
Real-time synchronous communication.
Your company or organisation may have this type of software available outside Claromentis. We at Claromentis have some experience using popular messaging applications such as Slack and Rocket Chat.
Chat is a synchronous communication, meaning multiple parties are participating at the same time and wait for replies from each other.
What it's great for:
It's great to discuss things in one to one or in within a group in a real-time when face to face meeting or a phone call may not be suitable, but you need an answer or response within 5-30 minutes.
Often a chat solution has native mobile apps allowing people to participate on the go, and answers are discussed in real-time, leading to a faster outcome.
What you need to be mindful of
Chat can be counterproductive, and the discussion can easily be drawn into shallow conversations. With multiple simultaneous conversations happening inside a single Chat channel, users can easily lose track of ideas proposed; they discussed for a bit and then lost.
Whichever supplier you choose, this wil be a third-party application that sits outside Claromentis, meaning integration options could be limited.
2. Discuss
A Claromentis app to share ideas and spark a discussion.
Discuss is an app within Claromentis designed exactly for well.. a "Discussion".
It's asynchronous communication, meaning answers aren't expected right away.
Just like Twitter or Facebook, the easy nature of posting allows a user to post status updates (what are you working on), ideas, opinions, in a discussion which later can be commented or replied to by other team members.
Discussion can also be categorised and divided into topics, allowing better organisation.
What it's great for:
It's great to post things which are not really time sensitive. (Respond needed within 24-48+ hours or no response required - just as a reference).
A great example is posting ideas, new information or opinions that don't require an answer immediately.
Discuss is available as standard in Claromentis; it is also integrated with the main global search meaning it's growing knowledge and the content of discussions are fully indexed and searchable.
In our experience, Discuss is perfect to share ideas or initiatives which later can be turned into a Project should the company decide they need to turn it into action.
What you need to be mindful of
Discuss requires users to know the topic or find the discussion; in our experience, this might be the biggest barrier since users always want the easiest way.
We encourage having the discussion topic placed onto relevant Pages of your site to provide the users with contextual engagement.
3. Communication
Claromentis' internal messaging app.
It allows send direct messages to other user or to a group of users.
What's is great for:
This is particularly useful in the context of Managers sending messages to their subordinates or as a communication manager sending a bulk message to everyone without having to send individual emails.
In an Extranet environment, often users' email addresses aren't exposed to protect users' privacy. Using communication, it allows members of an extranet to send messages to each other without revealing email addresses.
What you need to be mindful of
Sending bulk messages to a large number of users can be 'spammy' so always check the context of the message and ensure they are relevant to the recipients.
Push Notification
Push notifications can be configured using OneSignal API. This means direct messages can be relayed to the user's device via push notification.
