In this post we will take look at some of the key features around Salesforce Chatter, and why your team should be using it as a collaborative tool within your Salesforce instance. First, let’s identify specifically what “Chatter is”? Chatter is an enterprise collaboration tool on the Salesforce platform, that is quite similar to Twitter or Facebook. Through Chatter, you and your sales team can interact internally and can bring others to the conversation, if necessary. You can easily follow groups, information, and people through Chatter, that too within your company’s network.
Let’s take a look at some of the key benefits of using your organization:
1) Easing the reliance on Email
Not every conversation needs the structure of an email, but requires quick simple responses – this is where Chatter comes in. You can get quick answers to questions from people from departments other than Sales. That’s because Chatter connects you to everyone in your organization. Through Chatter, you
can also get feedback and collaborate with individuals or groups to solve problems without creating email chains. This can also reduce email clutter!
2) Limit the need for meetings
There is sometimes a tendency to throw a meeting on the calendar for anything and everything. With chatter, teams can collaborate much easier & solve problems quicker – limiting the reliance on meetings. Salesforce reports that using Chatter results in 27 percent fewer meetings. In Chatter, form a group and invite everyone connected to a specific project, then use the group forum to brainstorm ideas, share files and links, post project updates, recognize performance, and more. Salesforce Chatter becomes a virtual focus group where you can easily test ideas on coworkers. It gives everyone a voice, which means everyone participates and brings ideas to the table.
3) File Sharing
Files can easily be uploaded, shared, & downloaded through Chatter – where sometimes email will struggle.
4) Share meaningful material
Post interesting articles, videos, websites or other content relevant to your industry to keep everyone up-to-date on news and trends that can impact their work and make a difference to your bottom line. People are always looking for content that can help them do better in their jobs, and by sharing this content on Chatter, the ensuing discussions can bring meaningful change to your organization.
5) Chatter with Customers
Chatter External is a feature that will allow customers to participate in Chatter groups. Although their access will be limited, it provides a direct line to servicing your customers.
6) Privately Collaborate on sensitive projects
Using public social network tools to collaborate can leave important proprietary information out in the open. Fortunately, Chatter allows companies to collaborate privately and securely with the same ease of use and accessibility of public social networks. All collaboration takes place in Salesforce’s secure cloud, which tens of thousands of businesses already trust with highly sensitive information.
As you can see, there are several benefits to rolling Chatter out to your internal teams to boost productivity and collaboration. One consideration to keep in mind is that you need a Salesforce license to leverage the full capabilities of Chatter. There are however, other options such as Chatter Plus & Chatter Free licenses that can give employees access to a portion of the features. To get a better understanding how your Org can get the most out of Chatter – contact us today!