Slack is equally good but as we went for ZohoOHO CRM it made sense to go in for Zoho Cliq to benefit from the integrations. Zoho Cliq is intuitive and user-friendly with no extra learning required. Google Chat had very limited capabilities and was not very user-friendly.
Notion is good for a plethora of use cases. The templates that it offers give just a few established pages for common uses but these are some of my favorites:
Kanban board: we use it a lot in my company to manage tasks and meetings
Note taking: whether in a professional or academic environment, Notion is well suited to take notes of everything regardless.
Software documentation: the "code" component to insert code snippets is perfect for creating tutorials and documentation for software development.
Finance control: I use the "my finances" template to have a proper following of my monthly transactions, which allowed me to be more responsible with my money.
Inventory management: Since I own multiple peripherals and general equipment, being able to have a portable inventory of all of it that includes their original value, warranty length and current state has been perfect to know when clean, maintain or straight up replace everything.
It is very well suited as a messaging tool, where one needs to communicate quickly to a colleague the status of a particular task or an update to the work. This is especially useful for field work where the field team can report the work done and any additional resources required. We have faced issues when virtual meetings are held for a team of 10+ members with a lot of drop-offs and poor quality of reception (audio & video). While some may be attributed to poor internet connection, we do not face the same issue when using Zoom meetings. This area requires strengthening
Team Collaboration. In Notion's software is the ability to see precisely who is working on a project and where. This eliminates any confusion when on calls or when working on the same project simultaneously. It is easy to tag co-workers to precise moments and build conversation streams.
Text Coding. When transitioning text from our Notion ideation and drafting boards to our website backends, the coding holds on all of the text.
Organization. Whether it's utilizing a "pin board" set up or nestling pages within pages, it is possible to keep everything organized and easy to find for every member of your team.
The increase in integrations with third parties will always promote the adoption of the platform in companies.
Personalization with logos and corporate colors sometimes makes the difference when selecting a tool in a corporation.
Having multiple functionalities for working in manufacturing companies and with devices developed by third parties encourages other companies to select Notion as their flagship tool to offer implementation packages under alliances that favor its use.
Initial set up can be a little daunting if you aren't a tech-savvy person. For large organizations, this might not matter since you would have a dedicated IT team that will handle it (as we did) but if you are a small business owner looking to set this up yourself, I imagine it would take some trial and error to get working.
Zoho Cliq has become an integral part of our daily business. Every single member of our team who has a job involving a computer has an active Zoho Cliq license and uses the tool continuously throughout the day. It cuts down on meetings and allows the team to feel very connected to one-another even though we are distributed geographically.
Ease of use! It's easy enough to open chat, start audio sessions, screen shares, or even sending files. The fact that individual "emojis" can be applied to normal chats is wonderful. Allows to "acknowledge" without lengthy back-and-forths. Automation via CRM turns Cliq into a productivity tool beyond communication. Simply put, I don't how you could improve the system (save for a few UI boosts). As it stands, it's a powerful tool that is easy to pick up and play with.
Trello only has the Kanban board feature and is great for task management, while Notion has a vast array of features, is easier to use, and has a more visually-appealing interface. I choose to use Notion over Trello due to its increased versatility and greater customization capabilities.
Functionality wise Zoho Chat fairs pretty well against the other options. I still use all the other options as I need to be flexible in how I communicate with clients. It is the integration into the ZohoCRM & Cliq that puts Zoho Chat above the others and is why I try to encourage clients to move across to the app
