Did you get the memo?

We recently surveyed over 1,000 smartphone users who are professionals to better understand how people are using mobile messaging in the workplace.

Email vs. Text
While making and receiving calls remains the most popular form of communication in the workplace — 80% of the sample population — texting and emailing were tied for second place — 72% of the survey population reported doing each.

Consumer messaging apps such as Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger remain more popular than dedicated enterprise messaging apps such as Slack, reaching 18% and 14% of our sample respectively.

We also saw mobile messaging happening in a surprising array of workplace applications, from task tracking to CRM and beyond. 9% of our survey population reported messaging in an app with a different primary functionality.

All in all, that adds up to more written communication happening in more casual, fast-paced messaging channels than in more formal emails. Which opens the door to a lot more potential misunderstandings and mistakes.

Go where the customers are

Users who reported messaging outside the organizational boundaries were using significantly more channels to communicate than those who were messaging within organizational boundaries. Survey respondents who reported talking to clients and customers, reported an average of 3.1 separate mobile communication channels, while those who only spoke within the organization reported a more modest 2.5 communication channels used on average.

These multi-platform, multi-channel customer-facing employees are increasingly the face of organizations, and the tools provided to them need to give these ambassadors better control over their message and image.

Users want a solution

Users overwhelmingly want a solution beyond “be careful” to give them more control over their professional messaging. 87% of users reported they would use a feature that allowed them to take back mistaken messages before recipients saw them, and 22% reported they would use the feature on a daily basis.

42% of users also reported they would be more likely to use a service that allowed them to take back messaging mistakes, over a competitor.

Kind of a big deal

Next week we’ll dig into exactly how much messaging mistakes are costing companies…and how important a solution is for the bottom line.