What is a Slack Connect Channel?

Slack Connect Channels are an innovative feature offered by the popular communication platform, Slack. This feature allows companies to create shared channels with external clients and partners for smooth and efficient real-time collaboration and communication.

Unlike traditional communication methods such as emails or phone calls, Slack Connect Channels provide a dedicated space where users from different organizations can collaborate as easily as they do with their internal teams.

Best Practices for Using Slack Connect Channels

Decide on Your Goals and Use Case

Effectively using Slack Connect Channels requires strategizing. First and foremost, you need to set channel-specific goals. Decide what you aim to achieve from this collaboration, and how you will measure success.

When setting channel-specific goals, it is important to consider the overall objectives of your organization. Are you looking to streamline project management, enhance client collaboration or provide B2B customer support? By aligning your goals with the broader vision, you can ensure that Slack Connect Channels serve a purpose and contribute to the success of your team.

Onboard Your Customers

Now that you have decided the purpose of your Slack Connect Channels, it’s time to onboard your customers and/or partners. This involves sending an invitation to an external organization. Once the invitation is accepted, both you and the invited organization can start messaging each other.

It’s always a good idea to send a welcome message to the invited organization to lay the ground rules early on. However, remember that each organization retains control over its own data and can manage permissions, including the level of access and who can join the channel.

Implement Slack Channels’ Maintenance Routine

For businesses with over 20 Slack Connect Channels, maintaining cleanliness and organization is crucial for effective customer-facing interactions. Therefore, consider doing the following:

• Implement a channel maintenance routine to keep the workspace clutter-free and organized.
• Archive old and inactive channels to prevent confusion.
• Use naming conventions to improve channel organization, including project names or team affiliations for easy identification.

Leverage Slack Apps and Additional Functionalities

Lastly, to enhance collaboration and keep everyone in sync, use Slack’s additional features or install extensions or third-party apps.

One example is Slackbot, which proves invaluable for automating repetitive tasks and offering useful information to channel members. Configure Slackbot to send regular updates and reminders for crucial deadlines and meetings.

For customer service via Slack Connect Channels, try Thena, a customer engagement platform designed for Slack. Thena effectively monitors shared Slack channels, identifies customer requests, and converts them into support tickets. This setup allows your support team to efficiently handle tickets within Slack, saving customers and staff from navigating away from the platform.

3 Blind Spots when Using Slack Connect Channels

Though Slack Connect Channels provide immense benefits, there can be some potential drawbacks if not managed adequately. Let's delve into these a bit further.

1. Important Information Falling Through the Cracks

Multiple clients, multiple channels, and rapid conversations… A perfect recipe to overlook important information. While Slack Connect is far superior to email, customer messages containing important information can get easily lost, too.

This challenge can be mitigated by pinning critical messages, maintaining a standard message format for key points, or delegating someone to oversee proper communication flow. Though, all of these efforts can be costly to implement while also requiring man-hours to work properly.

2. Messages and Customer Requests Getting Lost

Slack Connect Channels become the place for prospects and customers to get prompt answers about your product or service. But, if you manage lots of clients, their requests and specific messages can easily get lost in the clutter.

Poor customer service can make or break the relationship, as more than 65% of people have higher expectations for customer service than 5 years ago. And, although Slack undoubtedly facilitates fast and nearly instantaneous customer service for brands, the influx of critical messages in client workspaces can lead to noise and difficulty in identifying urgent requests.

3. Chaos and Difficulty in Prioritizing Important Messages

Finally, in the event of receiving several messages at once, managing and prioritizing them can become daunting. After all, you want to use your Slack for customer support as productively as you can, right? That said, Slack Connect doesn’t have a built-in ticketing system; therefore, it can be challenging to track, prioritize, escalate, and assign tasks efficiently.

How Does Thena Help Optimize Slack Connect Channels?

1. Use AI to Pull Customer Requests from All External Slack Channels

Thena's AI capabilities bring order to chaotic Slack Connect Channels by effortlessly consolidating customer requests into a single timeline. It automatically detects requests, measures sentiment, monitors trends, and tracks service metrics from Slack conversations. 

Handling customer inquiries becomes effortless, no matter the number of customers or departments involved. Even if inquiries are scattered across channels, Thena promptly identifies and converts them into actionable requests for swift resolution by the right staff member.

2. Remove Silos Between External Systems

Furthermore, Thena streamlines external system integration for effortless customer request management in Slack. You can manage, assign, and resolve requests without leaving the platform, eliminating the need to switch between platforms.

If your team already uses a customer support tool, Thena seamlessly integrates it with Slack. Customers can report issues via Slack, while agents continue using their familiar system. Thena also works with popular tools such as Notion, Clickup, and Jira. This creates a comfortable environment for your team and clients.

It’s a Wrap

With these practices in place, Slack Connect Channels can be a highly effective tool for inter-organizational communication and collaboration. Being aware of potential pitfalls and adopting strategies to avoid them can greatly enhance your channel use.

For a hassle-free experience without the risk of losing customer messages, consider using Thena. This comprehensive solution not only automatically detects and converts customer requests into tickets but also offers valuable data insights, allowing you to track trends over time and at scale.