Bright, Quick, & Flexible

To chat or to email? That is the question…

Chat has been around for years. Initially it was always limited to a personal computer. Yahoo, Facebook, AOL, the list (at least from the US) goes on. With the entrance of the smartphone, chat became more mobile and convenient with mobile telecom operators and their ‘texting’ services between mobile numbers or ‘Message’ between iPhone users. But chat didn’t end on the mobile device or the personal computer. It has continued into the office space. With email already well adopted, where does chat fit into the enterprise?

Email is really the best way to talk to your customers and team to confirm details. Nothing beats the phone for really seeing where things are at. When should you use chat instead of email?

  • With your company or organization team mates (probably less with your customers)
  • To confirm quick little details (times, places, dates, thoughts)
  • To save time of both your associate and yourself

When should your chat really be an email?

  • When confirming important details about a project
  • To document great performance (or performance issues) with the team you manage
  • For a first time connection- to explain who you are and what you do

Every business tool has its place. At this point, there is no tool that can replace basic communications such as email, phone, fax, document sharing, or chat. There have been many attempts to tell us that we can all eliminate email by using a task management service (such as Todoist, Microsoft Todo, Evernote, Nozbe or some other). You could make the same attempt with chat. That chat will eliminate the need for email, but it’s just not true. Task managers are mostly best for an individual or a small team. In short, different tools for different situations. If you aren’t sure the best time to use chat over email, keep the above items in mind.

A great response came from one of the readers of email versus chat. They commented, “I think chat is better for quick, informal communications and group chats. I think it’s also more secure as it’s encrypted and you can edit / delete messages following sending. Email still has a use case as being more formal and also better in terms of leaving a record of something. It feels more authoritative to produce evidence/a record of what was communicated via email.” Great points!

If you’re using a phone and need a secure way to chat with your team then you should definitely look at CIRCLE. With nearly 5 million people around the world using the platform, you will be very pleased. In the end, the absolute most effective way is in person.. if you can’t do that, pick up your phone.. your CIRCLE phone.

Contact CIRCLE Partner Service here or by calling our new user sign up hotline in Japan at +81 3 4520 8639.