Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Five Best Chat Programs For Your Small Business

pexels-photo-177707If you work with a small business team, you know the importance of communication. Oftentimes, you quickly need to get an idea across to someone who’s not in the room. Rather than relying on calling, which is time-consuming, and texting, which some can see an invasion of their personal digital space, many businesses now rely on an internal digital chat system. There are many to choose from, depending on your team’s needs. Here are the most effective chat solutions for your team.

Skype: The Old Standby

Of all the apps and programs on this list, Skype is the most established, having been one of the big players in online communication for more than a decade. With all that time to refine their product, Skype offers a consistent experience across nearly all platforms, including adaptability with many enterprise systems. While Skype specializes in international voice calling, video chats, and group chat, there aren’t many other killer features. Still, these functions should be just fine for small businesses that are looking for a no-frills chat client.

Google Hangouts: The New Standby

While Google Hangouts doesn’t offer many more features than Skype, it should be the preferred chat client for businesses that have gone Google. Besides compatibility with other Google products such as Calendars, and Google Docs, Hangouts does have one pretty cool feature: Hangouts On Air. With this feature, users can broadcast live to the public or even host a talk on a private channel. If you’re looking for a new way for your business to connect with its customers, you might want to take a look at this feature.

Slack: Making Waves in the Chat Solutions

Slack is a relatively new mover and shaker in the digital communication sphere, but it’s quickly winning over hearts and minds with its setup. Rather than having your team focus all their communications on one or two chat groups, Slack suggests making separate channels for each project you’re working on. Channels can be set to viewable by everyone or made private for certain members. If you’re willing to change the way you do messaging, your team may just find this option more efficient.

Basecamp: Tons of Features for Getting a Project Done

Live chat is a huge part of Basecamp, but that’s not the only thing this platform has going for it; Basecamp is also a full-fledged project management system. Among its features are a message board for posting announcements or ideas, automatic check-ins that pose regularly-scheduled questions to team members, and boards for documents and other files.

Kik: The Up-and-Comer in Chat

You may not associate this chatting app with business use, but if you’re part of a team that’s looking for less distractions and more communication, this may just be your option. By default, Kik is available for mobile only, but this can be inconvenient for businesses that don’t rely on mobile communications. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t use still use Kik from your computer.

The post Five Best Chat Programs For Your Small Business appeared first on Blogtrepreneur — For Busy Entrepreneurs.

Blogtrepreneur – For Busy Entrepreneurs

Five Best Chat Programs For Your Small Business

No comments:

Post a Comment