In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, business communication is undergoing unprecedented transformation. Technological advancements and ever-changing customer preferences have reshaped the way organizations connect with their stakeholders. The rise of messaging apps and social networks has created a paradigm shift in the way businesses communicate with customers and vice versa. While the new channels of communications bring enormous opportunities for brands to connect and exchange information with their stakeholders, they have also triggered a set of compliance challenges, often forcing many organizations to either ban or restrict the use of such apps among their employees.

However, restrictions imposed on modern communication apps not only hinder productivity, but also bring detrimental impact on the future of business communication, says Dima Gutzeit, Founder and CEO, LeapXpert, the provider of responsible business communication platforms. "Rather than banning these apps outright, organizations should focus on establishing suitable digital communication guidelines and promoting the best practices among their employees."

The dynamic impact of technology on business communication

Over the past decade, technology has played a pivotal role in shaping the evolution of business communication channels. Traditional methods, such as phone calls and emails, are still relevant, but they have evolved alongside new digital solutions. Unified communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack as well as consumer messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and WeChat, have gained prominence. These platforms offer real-time collaboration, lower costs, increased flexibility and enhanced features. The rise of Whatsapp as the top messaging platform with over 2.4 billion active users (as of 2022) has transformed it into one of the leading choices for building customer engagement, even among B2B users. On the other hand, iMessage, which has around 1.3 billion active users as of 2022, has also emerged as a strong business communication option. These apps provide fast and convenient communication, facilitating seamless collaboration within teams and enhancing customer interactions.

"With so many channels available, businesses are now able to use multiple channels together to create a more seamless and integrated customer experience," Gutzeit added. "For example, a customer might start a conversation with a business on social media and then move to email or phone to complete a purchase. This fluidity of channels has made it possible to create more personalized and engaging experiences for customers."

However, the proliferation of unofficial or unapproved channels, known as "shadow communication channels" poses significant challenges for organizations in maintaining control over critical business information. To address this challenge, businesses need to proactively identify the communication channels that are the most important to their employees and customers, and then work to transform these channels into approved ones, says Gutzeit.

(Photo : LeapXpert)

Compliance requirements for business communication

Compliance plays a crucial role in shaping the business communication landscape. It is important to note that communication misconduct includes not only the use of unapproved communication channels, but also some inadvertent activities, such as deleting WhatsApp messages in a conversation. In regulated industries, such as finance, government, healthcare, and legal, organizations are expected to adhere to strict guidelines regarding data retention, privacy and security. Regulations often require the recording and archiving of business communications, including phone calls, emails and now messaging apps. Regulators do not define a given channel as approved or unapproved, but what matters is that whatever channel is used, the communication is retained.

Failure to comply with these requirements can lead to significant penalties as well as reputational damage. It is reported that more than $2b in fines were levied against large financial institutions by American regulators for not recording and archiving business communications carried out over WhatsApp and other channels. More investigations and actions in similar lines are likely to be followed in other countries.

Non-regulated industries generally have fewer compliance requirements concerning phone and email communications. However, businesses must still prioritize data privacy and security. This entails implementing measures such as creating robust passwords, encrypting sensitive data and adhering to best practices for data retention and disposal. By doing so, these organizations can safeguard their information and ensure the protection of sensitive data.

Adapting to new compliance requirements

Along with implementing the compliance strategies for modern business communication channels, organizations must also educate their employees on what constitutes communication misconduct, how they can avert them and how they can build responsible communications practice. Instead of outright banning, a comprehensive approach involving guidelines, training and technology should be adopted to approve and regulate these communication channels.

For example, businesses whose employees use personal phones to communicate through such platforms are at risk of losing critical conversation at any time. To avoid this, they need to gain permanent visibility and access to work-related information across all communications channels. They should ensure that business-related conversations across the messaging apps and social platforms can still be accessed and used by the businesses after the employee is gone. This is more crucial for regulated industries that are largely subject to industry-specific regulations and at greater risks of missing the compliance mandate.  They must ensure that employees' conversations are recorded and governed as per the industry's requirements.

The need for a single professional number for all channels

In the wake of the evolving phase of business communication, organizations must embrace unified solutions to streamline their communications. Today, a mobile phone number is becoming a unique corporate identity for communication purposes. But numbers are often pooled between employees and some employees need to use several numbers (mobile and desktop, one number for approved SMS and voice, another for approved WhatsApp). With the right unified technological platform, each employee can be designated a single professional number, for a corporate device or as a second number on a personal device. This single number can be used to carry out phone calls, SMS text messages and rich messaging over any approved channel. This allows businesses to govern the use of dozens of communications channels from a single platform and thus maintain control and real-time visibility over client conversations across voice and messaging channels as well as the employees' BYOD/COD devices.

Furthermore, adopting a unified platform guarantees a smooth and seamless experience for both customers and employees. Integrating multiple communication channels that uphold privacy and security will help simplify procurement and management of communication needs. Additionally, it enhances client interactions by offering a unique employee identity across voice and messaging channels, enabling personalized and straightforward communication for both external and internal engagements. Meanwhile, it is also important to safeguard the privacy of employees. With a modern unified approach, employees can ensure privacy by establishing a clear demarcation between personal and work-related connectivity and communications within a BYOD setup. Moreover, it supports the hybrid work model by facilitating a dedicated and secure work environment on BYOD devices, fostering productivity and flexibility while maintaining the necessary security and privacy measures.

LeapXpert helps enterprises adopt responsible business communications

LeapXpert  is one technology platform vendor that allows organizations to embrace customers' preferred mode of communications with peace of mind by offering industry-leading compliant and secure communication solutions, Gutzeit said. The LeapXpert Communications Platform, which is used by Fortune 500 companies and tier 1 banks globally, enables employees and clients to communicate on all popular consumer messaging applications, such as WhatsApp and iMessage, and voice channels in a compliant, governed, and secure manner. It supports 1 to 1, group and broadcast conversations on a single platform.

The platform also features built-in monitoring capabilities to gain clear visibility and protect the information exchanged with clients. With built-in security, it prevents security risks including identity threats, viruses, malware and data loss. Also, with role-based access control (RBAC) and an ethical wall, LeapXpert ensures responsible business conduct even in BYOD and remote working scenarios.

LeapXpert serves enterprises, financial institutions, law firms, and other other businesses. Their employees rely on the LeapXpert platform to communicate externally in a responsible manner, thus eliminating the exposure to fines and reputation damage. The solution is compliant with global and local regulations for financial services, legal, healthcare, public sector and more.

To sum up, in today's competitive business landscape, it is crucial for organizations to stay agile and embrace innovative solutions that pave the way for effective interpersonal communication in the digital age. Business communication policies should be designed by accommodating user behaviors in mind, rather than focused on a restrictive approach. Responsible business communication ensures that employee communications are safeguarded but their experience is not affected.