When we discuss Salesforce’s internal communication called ‘Chatter’, there’s always the same question asked from most NFP’s

• Why should we use it?

Followed by:

• I have a small team and cannot see the benefit when we can talk to each across the room.
• It’s just another application to manage and keep control.

So let’s look at these questions to explain why Chatter should be used to NFP’s.

Using Chatter can:

• Encourage collaboration within the team
• Store conversations with the record (not lost in an email)
• Reduce meeting times
• Adopt users to Salesforce
• Control what you want to hear about your organisation.

Let’s look at these in detail.

Collaboration

Nearly everyone within an organisation will perform a variety of roles some of which are within their position description and others that are not. So by allowing users to view, share and communicate easily within a database and ask for feedback/help with click of a button is going to help relieve each staff member the stress as they feel like they are within a community.

Conversations stored with record

How often have you had to delve into your email to find important information relating to an account/contact or a campaign? By using Chatter, the information is stored within the record. When you click into that record, you can view the information and search upon it too.

For example, Chatter is used when a donation has been made and there is a discussion on whether the donor requires special attention. The conversation is within the record and can be viewed by the manager when looking up the financial aspects. The communication and decision making process can be analysed and a decision on protocols and tasks can be made.

Meetings

Meetings and reports on dashboards happen on weekly basis, but not everyone is able to be there. Why not start the meeting discussion using Chatter on the dashboard you have created about the teams KPI’s or the amount raised within the last month. When the meeting actually takes place, it can be quick and down to the point of the discussion.

New user adoption

When new users log into Salesforce, they can be directed to the Chatter tab to upload a photo and a little information about themselves. They can then learn about others and join in the conversation within the organisation. Users outside the organisation, such as volunteers can also be assigned their own free Chatter licence so they can be kept in the loop about events and campaigns.

 

 

News feed control

You can control your news feed for your organisation by viewing information that only you follow, or people you follow, posts directed at you or all public conversations, keeping you update on the organisation, even you were out of the office for the day or week.

Now to answer questions from before:

• I have a small team and cannot see the benefit when we can talk to each across the room. Not everyone (and particularly within small organisations) is in the room at the same time and the conversation can be lost because no record is kept. Chatter post it and it’s saved.
• It’s just another application to manage and keep control of. If you build your community and collaboration then users will answer each other questions making it easier to manage!