Revamp your communications: chat with steroids
April 02, 2018
Revamp your communications: chat with steroids
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Slack
Slack is used by every member of our company: warehouse, logistics, sales, marketing, everybody uses it. We removed emails internally (unless you need to communicate with somebody outside of our company) and encouraged everybody to use Slack, so things can have visibility and communication be faster. It has worked great so far. We send files, comments, and separate topics in channels. We connected some APIs to give information and it is our primary communication tool.
- It is very easy to use. The interface is extremely intuitive. You can see that these guys have thought of everything.
- It is very flexible. You can send files, videos, pictures, integrate with any API... you name it. Almost anything you would like to do, you can do it.
- Free version gives you great value! At least we use free version for now and, of course it has restrictions, but it's very useful anyway.
- Great mobile apps. At least for Android, it works very well.
- There is a search feature but sometimes it is not that useful. It could be improved. You will eventually find what you're looking for, but after some time.
- Shortcuts are good but not perfect. I love shortcuts on almost any software I use (Gmail, HelpScout, Windows, etc) but this is not as intuitive as it could be.
- Communication is way faster, which has obvious implications.
- There is no duplication of information (emails replied over older emails but then somebody replies too, so you have 2 threads). This centralized everything and you're able to chat, send files, etc. giving you scale quickly.
- Beware of people using it as a regular chat and wasting lots of time in here. This has to be carefully managed. At least for us, it's just chat for work. There are channels for random topics, but you need to be careful that people take this seriously.
- Gmail
We tried other management tools, but to be honest, the real competition to Slack was Gmail or real-world interruptions.
Email has more disadvantages compared to Slack: slower, duplicate of information, version conflict, and harder to administrate. In Slack, you're chatting, so you can quickly get the benefits. Integrating with APIs changes everything, because it's not only chat, but a work chat with steroids, where you can add cards to Trello quickly (based on the conversation), save bot chats to alert things, give updates on other apps... you get the idea.
Compared to real world interruptions, the benefits are also clear. You can buffer topics until you can check them (so nobody interrupts you every time). We have a rule where you don't interrupt unless it's urgent. If it's not, then use Slack. People check Slack a couple times every half an hour, so you will get an answer.
Email has more disadvantages compared to Slack: slower, duplicate of information, version conflict, and harder to administrate. In Slack, you're chatting, so you can quickly get the benefits. Integrating with APIs changes everything, because it's not only chat, but a work chat with steroids, where you can add cards to Trello quickly (based on the conversation), save bot chats to alert things, give updates on other apps... you get the idea.
Compared to real world interruptions, the benefits are also clear. You can buffer topics until you can check them (so nobody interrupts you every time). We have a rule where you don't interrupt unless it's urgent. If it's not, then use Slack. People check Slack a couple times every half an hour, so you will get an answer.