Putting Clients In Our Team Group Chat? (Slack)

[GetShitDone]

We're a digital marketing agency and we are considering a new initiative where we allow our Clients to be in our Slack Channel (We have a slack channel/group for each specific client campaign that we work on).

Meaning the client can have instant chat communication with the entire team that's working on their company (instead of just email communication).

To be completely transparent, my only concern is that some clients may bombard each team chat with too many messages/questions and micromanage us.

Additionally, I don't want clients getting too cozy with the freelancers that I assign them to who will be in the group chat.

Has anyone ever put their Clients in an instant chat communication group (eg. text/slack/whatsapp/etc) and seen a boost in efficiency?

Just weighing out the pros and cons.

 

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[Jon L]

I used to work with a lady who was the accounts management team manager. She had a great line she used with customers, 'We had some issue that we had to work through, be we got it all done and here are the results. I'll spare you the details on it - they're not pretty. Its a bit like watching sausage being made.'

There are quite a few things that go on in a company that would needlessly freak out a client, even though that client has their own things at their own company that are just as ugly. Its just part of life.

If you're going to open up the slack channel to clients, you probably need to create a separate channel just for internal communication.

 

[GetShitDone]

I used to work with a lady who was the accounts management team manager. She had a great line she used with customers, 'We had some issue that we had to work through, be we got it all done and here are the results. I'll spare you the details on it - they're not pretty. Its a bit like watching sausage being made.'

There are quite a few things that go on in a company that would needlessly freak out a client, even though that client has their own things at their own company that are just as ugly. Its just part of life.

If you're going to open up the slack channel to clients, you probably need to create a separate channel just for internal communication.

That may be a good idea.

The reason for the slack channel (w/client in it) is that our team usually needs to have ad-hoc responses from the client in real time to make things more effecient.

Maybe every time I have a client, I can go into Slack to make 2 channels:

1) Client Channel (External) - WITH Client

2) Client Channel (Internal) - WITHOUT Client

And to only use the external (w/client) slack channel if the client has a question OR if we have to ask the client something.

 

[Jon L]

That may be a good idea.

The reason for the slack channel (w/client in it) is that our team usually needs to have ad-hoc responses from the client in real time to make things more effecient.

Maybe every time I have a client, I can go into Slack to make 2 channels:

1) Client Channel (External) - WITH Client

2) Client Channel (Internal) - WITHOUT Client

And to only use the external (w/client) slack channel if the client has a question OR if we have to ask the client something.

Thinking about this further: for me with my team and type of work (software development), this would be the makings of a complete mess. Typically, only I and my lead developer know enough about the full project to make decisions that affect the customer. Allowing customers direct access to developers would cause things to happen like, 'Hey, can you rename this field to x, change this color to y, add this little feature over here, etc.' Those kinds of things need to run through me because I may need to charge for them and/or they may not make sense with the rest of the application.

 

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[DaRK9]

RIP to billables. If anything make a Slack channel for them to talk to someone in charge, not freelancers.

I already run into this with text messages with me being the person in charge.

"Can you add X, Y, Z?"
"Let me look into that, but it seems doable."
"What this contract update you emailed me?"

 

[GetShitDone]

Thinking about this further: for me with my team and type of work (software development), this would be the makings of a complete mess. Typically, only I and my lead developer know enough about the full project to make decisions that affect the customer. Allowing customers direct access to developers would cause things to happen like, 'Hey, can you rename this field to x, change this color to y, add this little feature over here, etc.' Those kinds of things need to run through me because I may need to charge for them and/or they may not make sense with the rest of the application.

Agreed for your situation.

I wonder how it would be for my Digital Marketing Agency. "Can you change the wording here, target these prospects, etc" maybe.

RIP to billables. If anything make a Slack channel for them to talk to someone in charge, not freelancers.

I already run into this with text messages with me being the person in charge.

"Can you add X, Y, Z?"
"Let me look into that, but it seems doable."
"What this contract update you emailed me?"

We don't charge by hour if that's what you mean by billables.

But you have a point.. might turn into a shit show.

Not sure if my situation as an agency it would be ok or not. Will have to see.

 

[DaRK9]

We don't charge by hour if that's what you mean by billables.

But you have a point.. might turn into a shit show.

Not sure if my situation as an agency it would be ok or not. Will have to see.

I don't either but I'm not going to risk someone I am paying doing extra work not in contract.

In contact with a decision-maker or rep, I don't see any issue with but direct with the work not so much.

 

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[Phikey]

What are the advantages and disadvantages for your agency?

I run an Ecommerce marketing agency (might be similar to yours). We just do email and calls once per month. For email we use frontapp so the whole email can share an inbox, draft emails for each other, and be across their clients.
Slack would be a nightmare for us. We're really careful about letting the team get deep work done - times in the day where they know they can just focus on their work and not need to respond to messages that can pull them out of that flow state. If a client has access to slack then I imagine they might expect an answer ASAP - even though it might take a day to formulate the proper response.

 

[Andy Black]

We use Basecamp. We open a new discussion thread each week where we tell the client what happened last week and try to get feedback from them for that week.

I personally prefer to have communication from clients regularly as any sniff of info can inform the campaign optimisation. I even categorise clients in a “Communication” column in my customer dashboard (Google Sheet). No communication is typically bad for the project.

If a new task comes out of those chat threads then I either create a new task in that week’s To-Do list, or encourage the client to. I suppose this works because we don’t have too many clients and I see every single communication.

Of course we have our internal communication area or to-do lists for each client, although clients can see most of what is going on.

I discourage communication via email.

I encourage team members to “go dark” when they have deep work to do.

I find that clients don't communicate enough rather than ask too many questions. No clients to date just raise loads of tasks of me or my team.

I don’t like Slack. I find Basecamp much better. I can record a video of how we use it if you want.

 

[Jon L]

We use Basecamp. We open a new discussion thread each week where we tell the client what happened last week and try to get feedback from them for that week.

I personally prefer to have communication from clients regularly as any sniff of info can inform the campaign optimisation. I even categorise clients in a “Communication” column in my customer dashboard (Google Sheet). No communication is typically bad for the project.

If a new task comes out of those chat threads then I either create a new task in that week’s To-Do list, or encourage the client to. I suppose this works because we don’t have too many clients and I see every single communication.

Of course we have our internal communication area or to-do lists for each client, although clients can see most of what is going on.

I discourage communication via email.

I encourage team members to “go dark” when they have deep work to do.

I find that clients don't communicate enough rather than ask too many questions. No clients to date just raise loads of tasks of me or my team.

I don’t like Slack. I find Basecamp much better. I can record a video of how we use it if you want.

I'd like to see a video of it ... that would deserve its own thread, honestly. For two reasons: 1) to see how you work and 2) to see Basecamp. I used it years ago and I'm sure its changed since then.

 

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[Andy Black]

I'd like to see a video of it ... that would deserve its own thread, honestly. For two reasons: 1) to see how you work and 2) to see Basecamp. I used it years ago and I'm sure its changed since then.

Here's an INSIDERS post: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/how-we-use-basecamp.94732/

 

[Tom.V]

If you want clients pinging you and your team 24/7 and taking advantage, do it.

We use Teamwork Projects and have clients communication only through there. Expectations are set from presales conversations. No email. No instant messenger. Phone only at designated times according to deliverables or for sales/setup related issues.

Don't let someone else guide your ship into an iceberg.

 

[Andy Black]

I have the communication channels open, but it doesn’t mean I respond immediately. I think it’s who you work with, how you set expectations, and how you communicate with them.

 

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