Chatiquette - Salesforce.com Chatter
We get asked quite often about how to use Chatter within Financial Services organizations. This will be the first in a series of posts about Chatter use cases, guidelines, and best practices. We will start with Salesforce Chatter Etiquette - or "Chatiquette."
Chatter is a very powerful tool - it's like Facebook for your team and organization. When people talk about the benefits of Chatter phrases like 'breaking down silos', 'increasing communication', 'fostering collaboration' are frequently heard. As part of a Chatter roll out at a Financial Services company your employees should be given guidance and some training on the things that you can do, and can not do, through Chatter.
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Chatter can be used to replace email provided all intended recipients are logged into Salesforce.com on a regular basis. If it is an urgent issue it does not help if your users do not log in until the next day.
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We have come across some companies that are just using Salesforce for the Chatter micro blogging service. Financial companies prefer to use a trusted company like Salesforce rather than some of the nascent services like Yak and Yammer
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Don't use Chatter in addition to email. People get frustrated with getting the same message via different communication avenues. Most don't have time to read things once, never mind multiple times.
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Provide examples of language that is off-limits. You may already have this as part of your email policy. We often see companies use their email use policies as a starting point
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Financial companies can't take the risk of employees 'self policing' Chatter behavior. As you roll our Chatter keep in mind that this electronic communication needs to be retained and archived for regulatory purposes
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Start slow. Like any new application there will be some learning curves.
We'd like to hear about some of the best practices you use at your company.