Guide: How to use work chat effectively

Workplace chat apps are essential for communicating with people across your organization, whether they’re in the cubicle next to you or in another time zone. Real-time messaging platforms create a collaborative atmosphere where employees can chat one-to-one or in groups and freely exchange information outside of scheduled meetings and calls. 

Most work chat apps are straightforward to use, making it easy to send a message to a colleague or start a group channel without much experience or training. But when you dig into additional features like AI capabilities and organization tools, work chat can transform how you communicate. It provides a central, organized space for effective collaboration, one where you can easily search through conversations and files to find the information you need, and keep team members in the loop on projects large and small.

If you’re new to business chat, here’s a guide to help you learn the ins and outs of basic chat organization and etiquette. We’ll explore: 

• Ways to organize your work chat space
• Tips for communicating effectively using chat for business
• Essential features to look for in a chat app
• How a work chat solution like Zoom Team Chat can help your teams collaborate better

Whether your team is fully remote, hybrid, or in person, employees today often find themselves collaborating with colleagues who aren’t in the same location. An organized work chat space helps bridge that distance and fosters effective team collaboration. Here’s how to create a productive environment in your team chat app.

Establish naming conventions for channels

A chat channel typically refers to a group chat space in a messaging app like Zoom Team Chat, Slack, or Microsoft Teams. Channels can be created to bring people together around a specific topic of discussion. As such, we recommend creating clear naming conventions for channels to make them easily identifiable and searchable. For example, using prefixes like “proj-” for project channels or “team-” for team-specific discussions helps everyone find what they need more easily. 

Creating specific channels for different groups and teams across the organization helps build a sense of community while keeping conversations focused and relevant. 

• A company-wide announcements channel can serve as the primary source for important updates. Depending on the size of your organization, you may consider restricting posting permissions to maintain clarity. 
• Team-specific channels support focused discussions within departments, while project channels facilitate collaboration on specific initiatives. 
• Cross-functional team coordination benefits from dedicated channels that bring together members from different departments. 
• Additionally, social or “watercooler” channels provide a space for casual conversation and team building, helping to maintain company culture in digital spaces. 

You can differentiate these different types of channels using emojis and icons, so they’re easier to find in your chat list.

Keep everyone in the loop with shared spaces

Shared spaces are a chat feature that enables teams to stay in sync more easily. In Zoom Team Chat, for example, you can create a shared space that encompasses several group channels that all members should have access to. Inviting a person to that shared space will automatically add them to all those group channels. This is helpful if you’re managing a team and want to onboard a new hire by adding them to the company-wide announcement channel, department-wide channel, and your team channel at one time. Not all chat apps have this feature, but it’s a useful way to maintain a list of essential channels for teams.

Create your own organized space with folders and stars

While things like channel names and shared spaces help keep the broader group organized, you can also create your own organizational structure using features like folders and starred items. Stars are often reserved for your most important channels, ones you refer to every day or want to open in an instant. You can create as many folders as you’d like to organize your chats into different categories — by department, by project, or social channels. In Zoom Team Chat, you can expand or collapse the view of those folders to maintain a neater space and focus on only the channels that you need to.

Along with organizing your chat space, developing a few essential ground rules or best practices for chat will help your team communicate with ease. 

Give channels clear names and descriptions

When setting up work chat channels, give them clear and descriptive names that help teammates easily locate conversations and find specific information like social groups, project updates, or support channels. Be sure to clearly define and communicate each channel’s purpose in the description to maintain focus and keep discussions on track. 

Consider who has access to information

Chat apps usually have features that allow you to control access to certain channels. When creating a channel that may include sensitive information such as confidential news, make it a private channel where only admins can add new members. Also, think about whether you want any member to be able to post messages, or only certain authorized individuals. 

Along those lines, take note when adding people who aren’t in your organization to a channel, and the information they’ll have access to. You can usually control who can add external contacts and quickly view at a glance whether an external contact is present in the chat.

Use (and respect) status messages to communicate availability

Status indicators show whether a contact is available, in a meeting, in a calendar event, or offline. Setting a status message gives team members even more insight into your availability. If you’re out sick, on vacation, or traveling for work, type up a message letting teammates know when you’ll return to manage expectations for response times. On the flip side, if you see that a colleague has a do-not-disturb status, try checking in later or scheduling your message for when you know they’ll be around. 

Be polite and concise

Workplace chats are meant for efficient and instant communication, so be clear and concise with your messages to maintain effectiveness. Keep conversations organized by using threads for discussions, using @mentions to alert specific contacts within a channel, and avoiding unnecessary @all channel mentions to keep notifications to a minimum. When using Zoom AI Companion to compose chat messages in Zoom Team Chat, you can provide guidance on the length and tone to keep things short and to the point.

Keep messages tidy with formatting

Using text formatting like bold, bullets, and headings makes your messages easy to scan and understand. This improves readability and helps important information stand out. When sending a resource, such as a link, file, image, or video, be sure to give it a title and indicate what the resource includes — this makes it easier for people to find it using the search function.

Know when to schedule a meeting

Work chat channels help avoid unnecessary meetings and move projects along faster. They’re great for keeping teammates informed, asking quick questions, brainstorming ideas, and sharing relevant information or resources. However, it’s just as important to know when to move more complex discussions to phone calls or virtual meetings. Zoom AI Companion can help with this — from the side panel in Zoom Workplace, just ask when you and your colleague are available and it can find times and dates, and even schedule the meeting for you.

Maintain a tidy workspace

Keep your chat space tidy and efficient with regular cleanup activities. Archiving old channels and creating folders to organize direct messages and channels makes information easier to find and reduces digital clutter. With Zoom’s customizable sidebar, you can choose which tabs are at your fingertips and hide the rest for a neater view.

Evaluating chat apps often involves comparing a laundry list of features. But the truth is, more features don’t always make for a better experience — it’s all about how employees use the features to make their chat communications more effective. Here are the features that can make the biggest difference in your day.

AI summaries and insights

While a strong work chat culture encourages real-time collaboration, it can also lead to a lot of unread messages. Cut down on the time it takes to catch up with an AI tool like Zoom AI Companion, which can summarize unread messages in Zoom Team Chat. You can manually ask AI Companion to do this if you have a particularly busy day, or set up an automatic workflow that pulls unread chats into a daily briefing in Zoom Docs. AI Companion can also summarize whole documents straight from the chat window without you having to open the file. After you have your summary, ask AI Companion to identify action items or create a meeting agenda or project doc based on the information.

Mobile app to check your work chat on the go

Get greater flexibility with an app that’s optimized for both desktop and mobile experiences. The ability to easily manage notifications allows for seamless communication regardless of where team members are working, and you can use AI Companion to compose a response even from your mobile app.

Scalable settings for internal and external collaboration

A workplace chat app needs accessible user management capabilities to add new team members as your organization grows. Look for external collaboration features that allow internal team members to work with contacts outside the organization while maintaining appropriate access controls.

Document collaboration that’s easy and seamless

Chat apps that allow you to upload files or share links to documents elevate their status from messaging tool to collaboration space. Zoom Team Chat, for example, makes it easy to upload files from Dropbox, Google Drive, and more, and link to collaborative documents like Zoom Docs. These shared files then become searchable in Zoom Team Chat so you can find and resurface the info when needed. Chat channels also have a resources tab where you can pin relevant docs, files, and links for easy access.

Integration capabilities to save you time

When you have access to all group communication apps in one platform, it can help you work more efficiently. Integration capabilities with popular tools and custom options, combined with unified communications features, create a seamless workflow by connecting your workplace chat with other business applications. When you’re chatting with a team member in Zoom Team Chat, for instance, you can use integrations to create a Google Doc or share an issue in Jira, without leaving your chat app.

Security features you can customize and count on

Using chat for business means sensitive information is often shared over messages. Comprehensive security settings and compliance features, including data encryption, access controls, and retention policies, help enable you to protect sensitive communications and comply with specific industry regulations.

Team Chat is a part of Zoom Workplace, which means you have access to all your communication, collaboration, and productivity tools in one app. From video conferencing to cloud phone calls, you can start or schedule time with team members right from your workplace chat app. Plus, Team Chat allows you to communicate asynchronously with features like voice messages, screen recording, scheduled messages, reminders, and more.

Team Chat is included with all Zoom Workplace plans with no additional costs or contracts required. Looking to switch from your existing chat app? See how Team Chat compares to Slack and Microsoft Teams. 

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