Instant Messaging Tools and Compliance

 Instant Messaging Tools and Compliance

Discussing the growing importance of instant messaging for consumers and employees and its part in regulatory compliance

With a whopping 280 billion emails being sent around the world every day, most people on the receiving end are bound to be overwhelmed, lowering the open rate over time. As a result, organizations adopted other forms of communication such as instant messaging (IM) to make it easier and more natural for employees and consumers alike to communicate with each other.

With 95% mobile phone users, texting is now the most common means of communication, with a 93% open rate for text messages in the United States. Consumers are also more attentive to text messages on their phones than emails, with up to 82% of individuals opening a message from a business within five minutes or less. Therefore, it is fair to say most people spend more time texting than calling or responding to emails sent by a business today.

So, surely instant messages like social media can result in fast-paced two-way communication, but as more and more businesses are conducted by messaging, the requirement to record and archive these exchanges is becoming more apparent. An early case assessment for an eDiscovery, a Freedom to Information request by the client, audit requirements, compliance regulations and records management requirements are just a few reasons to do so.

Compliance

It may not feel as if IM chats with a client bear the same weight and responsibility as an official letter or an email, but it does. Many organizations need to capture and store IM conversations for various reasons, the most common being for FINRA compliance, SEC 17 a-4, GDPR, SOX compliance and other regulations. Meanwhile, government agencies also require such practices commonly for the Freedom of Information Act request and different records management reasons. These rules apply to email, social media channels, workplace chat systems, and text messages, among other forms of modern digital communication. Therefore, IM chats must be captured and archived if a corporation is sending them out and is subject to records retention rules.

Litigation

Even if a corporation isn't required to follow any specific rules or regulations, another compelling reason to capture and store mobile text messages is litigation readiness. IM chats, like emails and recorded phone calls, can be entered into evidence and used in legal processes, so it's critical for businesses to have access to them, especially when fighting against false claims and eDiscovery and compliance reasons. Messages should also be preserved in such a way that their validity can be verified and proven by a thorough audit trail, that they can be easily searched and identified, and that they can be promptly appended to specific case reports.

HR Intervention and Training

Businesses must know precisely what discussions employees have with coworkers and customers, whether they're communicating via phone, email, social media, or mobile text messages. Is a coworker harassed, or is an employee making unreasonable promises to a customer? The company should be aware of it, and there should be a single location where new and old messages can be investigated, and their legitimacy established. A policy can be prepared for any disciplinary actions that may be required by having these complete records. Even if no red flags are there, instant messaging compliance records can be beneficial when it comes to training staff on how to communicate more effectively. Managers can see where messages are often imprecise or poorly stated by reviewing archived content and assisting employees in generating better communications.

Marketing

IM chats can be significantly more effective than emails in terms of sending marketing material to clients, but that doesn't mean that messages shouldn't still be carefully designed; there's always room for improvement. A decent IM archiving tool will be able to tell you when messages were sent, delivered, read, and responded to. Marketing teams can identify the messages, deals, and times that work best by studying the content of captured messages and when messages were opened and answered and refine the marketing campaigns even further.