Since waking up this morning, I have sent seven WhatsApp messages, made ten voice notes, answered my Teams notifications, received an SMS appointment reminder. All that before checking my email inbox. It’s only 9am.
While we all try and find the balance between connecting and disconnecting in our personal lives, this chaotic way of communicating has leaked into the workplace. Something I happen to think is fantastic for business. Instant messaging for business is well and truly here to stay, here’s why.
A typical employee we monitor sends up to 260 messages per day on their mobiles and uses up to seven separate platforms to negotiate a single trade. These conversations are taking place of workplace chat aps such as Bloomberg or ICE and we are increasingly seeing other instant messaging aps like WhatsApp being used to discuss business matters.
“A typical employee we monitor sends up to 260 messages per day on their mobiles.
Where before we were shouting across the trading floor or glued to our inbox, we are now sat in our home office or trading from the kitchen table with an array of communication platforms freely and readily available. We now have more ways to communicate with one another than we care to imagine and with increasing numbers of remote workers, both ourselves and our clients are more accessible than ever before, yet also more impatient for answers. The immediacy of instant messaging applications appeals on every level.
People crave convenience, you may argue this is a side-effect of modern life or just basic human instinct but all the signs are pointing towards how we can get answers in the fastest, easiest and most convenient way possible. It’s no different with business. Recent events have taught us many lessons but one of the most important for me has been seeing the difference between resilience and disaster recovery.
“People crave convenience, it’s a side-effect of modern life.
For many markets firms, the mobile phone has always been considered out of bounds or only as a last resort, but it’s been fascinating to see mobile usage among our clients skyrocket during recent months. Not only calls but instant messaging.
We talk a lot about our mission to set the global standard for communication surveillance and as we have seen among our client base, even within our own business, we are using mobile phones for business-as-usual, we are using instant messaging and we are doing it all without even thinking anymore. We see our clients using our technology to monitor all aspects of their business, from sales and support functions to internal communications.
“The next generation will expect a different kind of connection with the companies they choose to work with, one that is immediate, effortless and suited to how they want to work.
I doubt anyone mourns the time you would stand with one arm in the air and a firm grasp of your mobile phone as you hang yourself out of the only window in your house that gave you a single bar of reception. Technology caught up with our desire to be in the loop, which has given us the luxury of instant gratification and we do not want to give that up.
The next generation, who know nothing of our struggles with dial-up internet, expect a different kind of connection with the companies they choose to work with, one that is immediate, effortless and suited to how they want to work. It’s our purpose to make sure that demand is met without sacrificing the efficiency and the integrity of the markets we operate in.
If you found this interesting, download the full report on the trends VoxSmart has seen during the global pandemic.