Do you have what it takes to win the annual National Texting Championship? 17-year-old Austin Wierschke has the texting speed, dexterity, and accuracy to be crowned the most recent texting champion, an accomplishment accredited to sending 500 texts a day for training! This is a major achievement for young Alex, but does it translate to a hirable skill? National champions usually make a nice asset to your team, but a texting champion may not be good for your office environment. As convenient as texting is, it lacks what businesses need in a communications solution. Here are three reasons why texting should not be used for work.
Texting is convenient and fast. Moreover, in the BYOD (bring your own device) to work environment, it’s often the go-to form of communication for many employees. In fact, as increasing numbers of people own smart phones, texting is quickly becoming a preferred mode of messaging. Nevertheless, in spite of its ease and efficiency, texting may not be the mode of communication you want your staff to employ for the following three reasons. Although your staff may continue to text for personal purposes, there are good reasons for them to avoid texting one another regarding workplace topics and they should certainly refrain from texting clients or customers of your organization or business.
Texting Assumes Too Much Familiarity
Texting is associated with personal communications. Your employees likely text their partners to say when they’ll be home for dinner or to remind their children to start their homework. They email their friends about social concerns and possibly may even receive texts as convenient alerts about weather or news. As a fast form of communication and as an alternative to talking, the text message has evolved as a viable form of communication complete with its own lingo made up of abbreviations and misspellings–its own slang, if you will. Yet it’s texting’s inherent informality that makes it inappropriate for the workplace environment.
In addition, many professionals might be insulted to receive work-related messages via the texting format. Proper communication with perfect language and grammar usage is a mark of respect among professionals and definitely so for clients whatever their education level happens to be. SMS messaging is still within the realm of the private individual, the college student, and the teenager. Its lack of formality makes it an unsuitable form of communication for an endeavor that requires professionalism.
Texting Undermines Workplace Communication Systems
Good communication is a cornerstone of any successful operation. No business or organization can overlook the importance of effective communication between all levels of staff and between staff and clients. To that end, it’s important for businesses to standardize communication forms and to stipulate how employees should communicate about work-related projects. While a quick text to a fellow employee about where to meet for lunch is fine, a text between those same employees about a contract adjustment is certainly not suitable.
One reason that it’s preferable to stimulate that company email, for instance, should be that standard form of communication for work is that it is traceable. Texts made to clients from personal mobile phones cannot be traced by the leaders of the business or business teams that may also be working with the client. Moreover, by providing the communication strategy, you can also hold employees accountable to those communications and everyone involved may access the same communication system without deviation.
Text Messages are Difficult to Track
Email remains the most viable form of workplace communication because, as a written form of discourse, it can easily be archived and tracked for later use. Emails can easily be retrieved by date, sender, or even keywords. Texting, particularly texts on personal devices, are not so easy for the company to manage or retrieve. This makes text messages clumsy and ultimately ineffective for workplace communication. Their lack of formality leaves them prone to error and miscommunication, for instance.
Professional communication still requires the more formal approach that email affords. While it may take a few extra moments to construct full sentences, that proper articulation leads to less confusion and ultimately enhances professionalism. Keep in mind that you probably do have some avid texters on staff; you might consider providing them or the rest of your group with instant messaging that is a unique hybrid form of messaging that can be used from their phones; while it feels very much like texting, the end result is still a formal message that is appropriate for the workplace environment.
Our company can provide your organization or business with an instant messaging solution by installing VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). VoIP is a leading method for unifying workplace communication; since it harnesses your company’s internet access for instant messaging, phone, video conferencing, and more at a fraction of the cost of more traditional systems, it is quickly becoming the most celebrated business communication system. Learn more about VoIP and our other communications solutions by calling us for a consultation; we will help you streamline your operations and provide you and your employees with the solutions you need to thrive in today’s workplace setting.
Quikteks can provide your business with an instant messaging solution like this built for your business by installing VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). VoIP is the ultimate unified workplace communications solution because it utilizes your company’s Internet lines for instant messaging, phone, video conferencing, and more at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional phone plans. To learn more about VoIP and other great communications solutions that will help streamline your operations, give Quikteks a call at PHONENUMBER.