Workplaces around the globe are looking for ways to continue project management and communication in today’s digital and increasingly remote environments. Slack is one of the most popular tools for this purpose. The following will explore some nifty features of Slack you might want to use if your workplace is using Slack.
SMS and Texting Capabilities
Similar to installing an app on your phone, there are add ons you can include in your use of Slack. If you want to use Slack just like a regular text messaging service, you can enjoy the benefits of Clark as indicated at Clerk Chat, in addition to all of the other Slack benefits. You’ll be able to have one on one chats as well as using the entire system like one shared cell phone for your team, meaning customers can send in inquiries or messages, and anyone can jump on and answer.
Multiple Communication Lines
Communication is crucial for any business, now more than ever. Millennials and those younger (and honestly, in many cases, those older, too) are interested in quick and easy communication methods. In Slack, it’s easy to designate different threads for different purposes. For example, you might want one thread for people having technical difficulties with their workplace devices. Within that thread chat, your IT team and anyone who coincidentally has had the problem before. You would be surprised by how often non-IT colleagues can be of use when it comes to personal device issues. Messages like, “The same thing happened to me, I switched this setting and reloaded and it started working again,” will take your staff seconds to write and can save hours of productivity. You can also have threads for different time zones if you’ve got workers spread out, threads for company-wide announcements, and threads where customers and those handling customer service can chat. You’ll be able to designate different access to different people depending on which threads they need to be involved in.
Mark Yourself Available Or Unavailable For Chat
One of the most spectacular elements of Slack is the ability every person has to mark themselves as available or unavailable (with explanations allowed if they need that too). This means people aren’t wasting time messaging someone who has stepped away from their device for an hour to attend a meeting. You can see when someone is online as well as the time where they are located, which makes being polite and respectful a lot easier. No one likes waking up to a message that was sent at 3 am.
Conduct Polls
One often underused element of having Slack is the ability to run polls for either your customers or your staff. Polling people is a quick and easy way to make some of the tougher decisions you might need to make while managing a business. Anything from which of these four flavors would you like our next product to have to what evening works for the work party for everyone who wants to attend.
The above uses are only a few of the wonderful features of Slack. Take some time to peruse the official Slack site for tutorials and how-to guides.