Do you remember the days when Salesforce Chatter Messenger was one of the best ways to communicate at work? Is this an application that you relied on, day in and day out?
Unfortunately, the millions of people who relied so heavily on Salesforce Chatter Messenger are no longer able to do so. Here’s why: Salesforce decided to do away with its popular messaging application, noting that it will focus “development efforts on other user productivity experiences to improve the overall user experiences.”
If you don’t yet know what’s going on (or what happened over the past couple months), this excerpt from the Salesforce website explains everything:
“Salesforce is retiring Chatter Messenger on March 30, 2018. At that time, you’ll no longer be able to use the feature, and Salesforce will not provide any support for it.”
So, if you’ve tried to access Chatter Messenger since March 30 of this year, you came to find that you were unable to do so. However, if you’ve yet to sign in since that date, this may be the first you’re hearing about the change.
Are You Out of Luck?
There is no denying the fact that Salesforce Chatter Messenger was a powerful force for users of this platform. It gave them everything they needed in regards to communication, such as with other members of their team.
While you’re out of luck in regards to using Chatter Messenger, there is some good news: there are plenty of other applications to consider, some of which are much more powerful and full of additional features.
Salesforce has its own opinion as to what you should do next, sharing the following:
“We encourage you to migrate to Skype for Salesforce which integrates Salesforce and Skype for Business®, so your sales and service reps can send and receive instant messages and see colleagues’ availability without leaving Salesforce. If Notes is enabled in your org, reps can also save IM chats as notes and attach them to Salesforce records. Skype for Salesforce is available only if your business has a Microsoft Office 365® Enterprise plan that includes Skype for Business Online, or a Skype for Business Online license.”
Although this is a viable option, it may be time for you to step away from Salesforce altogether in regards to its communication tools.
This brings a variety of other options to the table, including but not limited to Brosix Instant Messenger and Google Hangouts.
These applications are not associated with Salesforce in any way, but they both offer the functionality salespeople need in order to work in an efficient, productive, and effective manner.
Things to Look for in a Replacement
Even if you were a big fan of Salesforce Chatter Messenger, it’s not coming back any time soon (and probably not all). For this reason, you need to move on before you put your career in jeopardy. After all, you need a high quality messaging tool in order to do your job.
Here are a few things to look for in a replacement:
- Security, security, and more security. There’s nothing more important than secure communication, so make sure you take this into consideration when making a decision. Don’t overlook this detail, as doing so could cost you time and money down the road.
- Mobile capabilities. In today’s day and age, more salespeople are on the road than ever before. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out of town. It simply means you’re not working from the same location every day. This is why mobile functionality is so important, as you must have the capability of communicating from anywhere and everywhere.
- Voice and video chat. There are times when text based communication is good enough. There are also times when you need to go above and beyond, such as by chatting with a coworker in a face to face environment. With voice and video chat you have access to many forms of communication.
For millions of people, Salesforce Chatter Messenger was a way of life. They used this tool, day after day, to communicate. Even more so than phone and email, it was their go-to technology.
Now that Chatter Messenger is no longer, you must turn your attention to finding a solid replacement that offers everything you need.