For remote teams, collaboration is the key to productivity and success, but it’s not always easy to work together when you can’t see one another in person. To overcome this challenge, companies have started using business chat apps to make communication with coworkers easier and more convenient, no matter where they're located or in what time zone.
So how do you use a business chat app to communicate effectively and set yourself up for success?
Here's how.
One of the most useful features of a business chat app is channels. These are used to separate conversations by topic, department or project. For example, you might have a channel dedicated to social media strategy or one used with your accounting team. While teams of all sizes can benefit from having clear lines between different types of conversations, it's a must-have for remote teams who don't share an office space. Whether you're trying to organize client questions in real time or have a place where everyone can access company policies, chat apps and channels can help you get things done faster and more efficiently than ever before. Let's look at the different ways you can organize your channels.
In most chat apps, channels can be used to discuss different projects or areas of focus. You might have separate channels for each project your remote team is working on, or you could have a channel to discuss ideas and products. Either way, organizing discussions by projects is an efficient way to keep track of discussions without scrolling through a single mass chat or, even worse, endless amounts of emails.
It’s easy to view a chat app as nothing more than a place to conduct random discussions. But, given that your entire team is in one place at any given time, you can use channels to organize discussions by department and topic. This makes it easy to tap into useful discussions while sidestepping unnecessary noise. For example, you can use a marketing channel to capture discussions related to marketing efforts such as analysis and budgets to see what's going on without distracting other channels or people in the company.
Even if you work from home, you need a digital workspace to collaborate with clients. A client channel can be used to discuss everything from budgets to processes and even more sensitive topics like feedback and complaints. This gives you a central overview of how your clients are feeling.
The business chat app can be used to direct specific questions to individual team members and cut down on email clutter by using simple commands to direct their queries. For example, if you want to ask your web designer if they’ve received a client request for new pages, you can send them a direct message to get an update without disrupting anyone else's focus. Your designer gets an alert and can directly respond.
Keep in mind, direct messages should only be used to ask specific questions to a team member, or for short updates ("I can't join the client call / What did I miss last meeting" etc.). If you find the right balance, these tools can be used to keep the universe in order.
Several chat tools only allow users to talk to people within their own company or team. While this is great for team members to chat about projects and deadlines, it can make it complicated when needing to discuss with partners or clients outside of your chat tool. Messages can get lost, and users may not report everything accurately back to the team.
A well-developed chat app (like Desktop.com) allows users to invite anyone to join a chat - even if they don’t use the tool themselves! You can discuss strategies with partners, communicate new products and features to resellers, and even update your clients on a single platform. No longer will you have to hunt down messages on various tools; instead they’ll all live in one place.
Organize & Preview
Some chat apps even allow you to pin your most important chats at the top of your list. So rather than having to scroll between different channels or 1-on-1 chats all the time, you can pin your most commonly used ones to the top for quicker access so you never miss out on any important details.
When you do need to access your chat to review links, having the ability to stay in context and limit switching between too many programs is important. Your focus should be a priority. By utilizing a link preview mode, you can quickly look at links without opening a new tab and reduce the time spent scanning information.
At Desktop.com, we know how important it is to stay on top of your projects and businesses. With our SaaS platform, you’ll have more oversight and reducing the time spent switching between accounts, content and conversations. Communicate instantly with your different teams, share all of your resources with a click, and facilitate faster well-informed decisions all in one place. Create a flexible, manageable workforce with Desktop.com for free today!
