Persistent chat today: standard but still beneficial

Email remains a trusted means of official communication. However, instant messaging enables real-time collaboration critical for swift updates. Instant messaging complements email's reliability with the immediacy of today's work demands.

In this scenario, persistent chat has emerged as a standout solution, offering versatility and convenience, especially in workplace interactions and customer service scenarios. Widely viewed as a unique utility that distinguishes itself from both voice communication and non-persistent messaging, as well as the enduring email, this has proven its worth.

In this article, we delve into the concept of persistent chat, unravel its benefits within the workplace, and explore its pivotal role in enhancing customer service. 

What is persistent chat?

Persistent chat is a communication platform that allows you to create permanent, topic-based conversations around specific projects, departments, or even general company announcements.

Persistent chat rooms allow you to communicate and collaborate with those who possess similar interests. You can share thoughts and information by sending messages in real time, and you can find them by searching or browsing the chat history. 

This feature is particularly valuable for ongoing projects, as it allows team members to revisit and build upon past conversations.

With persistent chat, you can search for content within and across chat rooms and create alerts, and topic feeds to track conversations in particular rooms and about specific topics. Gone are the days of searching through endless email threads or losing vital information buried in private messages. 

Persistent chat provides a central hub for team discussions, knowledge sharing, and decision-making, making it more or less a standard feature in most modern workplace communication tools.

Benefits of persistent chat in the workplace

Beyond just being a cool gadget, persistent chat offers several tangible benefits for businesses, especially in terms of:

1. Staying connected

One of the main benefits of persistent chat is the ability to stay connected with your team. This is especially useful for remote teams and corporations with global offices. It eliminates the need for lengthy email chains or scheduled meetings for brief discussions. Instead, team members can just enter the appropriate chat room and participate in the topic right away. 

As a result, it's simple for remote teams, shift workers, and absentees to catch up on significant conversations and announcements, which promote inclusivity and shared context. Employees who feel connected and can communicate properly with their coworkers are 25% more productive and more likely to provide a good review of their employer.

2. Collaborating on projects

Persistent chat is also a great tool for project collaboration. Firms that use these chat systems experience an improvement in team cooperation. 

Dedicated chat rooms for individual projects improve collaboration by allowing team members to brainstorm, share files, and provide feedback in real-time, potentially increasing their productivity by 32%. It also allows team members to exchange ideas, share updates, and coordinate work, boosting effective collaboration and increasing efficiency. 

This not only speeds communication but also improves project management by giving a detailed and easily accessible record of the project's progress.

3. Regulatory compliance

In industries where data security and regulatory compliance are paramount, persistent chat offers a valuable solution. The chat history is saved and instantly accessible for inspection, ensuring compliance with industry laws. 

For sectors like healthcare and banking, where sensitive data needs to be safely kept and easily accessible for auditing, this capability is very important. 

Persistent chat and customer service

Persistent chat apps are game-changers for customer service, offering dynamic interaction between businesses and clients outside the workplace. Here is how persistent chat shines as a customer service tool:

Meeting customers where they are instantly

Persistent chat is not limited to internal communication; it is also a powerful tool for customer service. Live chat options incorporated in webpages or applications provide clients with fast assistance exactly where they need it, avoiding the need for phone calls or lengthy email threads. Customers can have real-time chats with customer support agents to resolve issues quickly and efficiently. 

According to J.D. Power, a study shows that 42% of customers prefer live chat help. It also helps firms to have an increase in customer satisfaction.  

Tracking conversations better

One of the primary benefits of persistent chat in customer support is the ability to track discussions. This chat allows customer service staff to easily examine previous encounters with specific consumers, offering more personalized and educated support. This removes the need to repeat information and provides a more consistent client experience. 

Customers can quickly resort to their chat history for context and continuity while dealing with a technical issue or a product inquiry. This tracking feature enhances customer satisfaction and improves internal communication. 

As a result, companies that leverage customer history for personalization see an increase in customer retention.

Contextual messaging

Through the tracking of user data, persistent chat enables businesses to create contextual chat rooms. These rooms are made to specifically cater to the requirements and tastes of each client, offering effective and individualized customer care. Companies that know the past and preferences of their clients can offer more specialized and pertinent services. 

For example, if a consumer browses a specific product category on a website, a chat room can be instantly launched to provide assistance with that area. This tailored approach improves the client experience and boosts the chances of conversion.

Secure persistent chat for team collaboration and customer communication

Rocket.Chat is a secure chat solution built for privacy-conscious organizations that want one central hub for team collaboration. A myriad of integrations enable you to fit in the chat in your workflow seamlessly.

You can use direct messaging and group chat capabilities, as well as discussions and topic-based channels to better align with team members and track tasks.

Rocket.Chat functionalities go beyond team communication with omnichannel capabilities, meaning that you can also centralize all internal and external communication.