How the right messaging service can improve your team’s communication and build more productivity.
Within the direct sales and marketing industry, teams utilise messaging platforms to communicate performance, availability, and internal announcements. Understandably, many new managing directors do not have the time to explore different messaging platforms when incorporating and tend to stick with a platform they have used in the past or the first one that comes up on the app store. Today we will explain why Autop has a favourable messaging platform, the features that improve business processes, and how to transfer your team to this platform!
Before highlighting which messaging platform Autop favours, I wanted to touch base on the messaging app that ranks highest on the App store. WhatsApp was initially released in 2009, where it saw great success as it allows users to message and call each other without being charged for SMS or call fees. By eliminating wildly expensive international phone calls, the WhatsApp user base significantly grew and caught the attention of app giants like Facebook, Viber, and WeChat. Eventually, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for 21.8 billion in 2014 and now has more than 2 billion users (Jan 2022). During the WhatsApp rise, many more messaging platforms began to evolve and in late 2013 a new market challenger entered the industry: Telegram. Telegram had rapid growth attracting many users to their platform with new favourable privacy policies. Using this growth as momentum, Telegram has arguably innovated its app the most to accommodate every type of chat, channel, or group imaginable. I believe a quote that describes telegrams innovation is by Henry Ford; "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses".
So why is Telegram better than Whatsapp and other messaging platforms? WhatsApp missed the mark for the direct sales industry with one big mistake, username visibility. Unlike Telegram, when new users are added to a WhatsApp group, they are welcomed by messages sent by random phone numbers. The only way to set usernames is to manually select a user's phone number and add a name associated with the account. Considering the industry churn rate, this creates difficulty and confusion for new starts. Not only will users need to manually pair each phone number to a name, but any new users added to the group will also need to be accounted for. Telegram's simple approach implements usernames when creating their account and is displayed in group chats and private messaging.
Telegram’s use of usernames also gives an additional benefit, letting users use the platform independent of their phone. This makes it easier to log in on other devices such as an Ipad, computer, or work Phone. Multiple sessions allow users to log in on multiple devices simultaneously and receive messages across all their devices.
The drafts feature will show you unfinished messages in the chat list. Suppose you typed a long paragraph and decided to send it later. The draft message will be synced to all your devices, meaning you can jump onto your laptop and send the message from there!
The pinned messages and file-size features on Telegram are A massive help for team leaders, admins, or managing directors. Suppose you have a big announcement or a file/message your team will need to refer to in the future, the pin feature all existing users in the group and the new ones to join will be able to see your message at the top of the chat. The best part about it... you can pin multiple things!
Unlike WhatsApp, which limits file size (16MB for media files and 100MB for documents), Telegram allows for any file type up to 2GB in size! So, if you do have a video, voice recording and/or documents to be sent through, there is no need to worry.
These features are just the tip of the iceberg. Telegram showcases countless features which can all improve your business operations and increase communication in your team! While Telegram remains the best choice for D2D and events-based MCs, larger scale communities can try the Slack platform for even more helpful features. In my opinion, Slack only starts to become beneficial for a team above 100+ sale representatives across many campaigns. However, even with the wide array of benefits from Slack channels you will still be missing out on many of the Telegram specific features which make it the top performing messaging platform for direct marketing companies!
Unfortunately, changing from one messaging platform to another does require some internal communication with your team. However, with all the benefits listed above, converting to the Telegram platform will save countless hours and improve how your team interact with each other. Whether you want to learn more about Telegram groups, or how to utilise Telegram as your main internal communication, let us know!