Item: Slack
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Slack

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Slack as our primary internal communication tool. Dedicated channels are created for teams, projects, and emergencies where appropriate, and we heavily leverage integrations within Slack to send routine notifications on different events across our tech stack. Examples include sales activities in Salesforce, updates on JIRA tickets, and project updates from Asana, just to name a few.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Threads. The ease in which you can manage conversations via threads makes it easy to manage multiple conversations simultaneously
Integrations. Slack's easy to use API and deep set of integrations makes it a very powerful tool
The ability to create internal/external workspaces that can allow us to interface with customers and external stakeholders all through the same platform

Cons

While the Google Calendar integration is nice, it would be more optimal if it could also share details of the kind of meeting the user is in through a hover cue, or something like that
It would be nice to some AI functionality added to the message composer for scripting routine kinds of messages
Having a repository of messaging templates that you could also leverage when needed would be a real quality of life improvement

Return on Investment

Slack has facilitated greater communication between teams and an overall reduction in project silo'ing
It has had a positive influence on our average handling time for customer inquiries by allowing agents and reps to get the help they need when they need it
Slack has also facilitated upsell opportunities that have contributed directly to our revenue team closing opportunities they would have otherwise missed

Usability

Extremely intuitive. The layout of Slack is easy to understand with clear visual cues for all of the most commonly used tools. I've never felt like it was confusing to use. Menus are not overly cluttered, and so long as you manage your channels well (I divide my various channels into sections for easier management), then it's quite a powerful tool. I'd also appreciate the ability to prioritize certain DMs so that you can respond most readily to priority contacts.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams and Discord

Microsoft Teams is one of the other tools that I've evaluated in a professional context. Compared to Slack, it feels a bit clunkier and bland. Slack feels vibrant and full of personality that can vary from workplace to workplace. Teams is also a far more expensive solution to utilize and ties you to the Microsoft tech stack, which comes with its own set of challenges. Discord, while great for the more fun/social use-cases, also involves having to pay for subscriptions like Discord Nitro to be able to fully leverage all of its chat related features. Which is an annoying user tax that just doesn't exist with Slack.

Key Insights

Do you think Slack delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Slack's feature set?

Yes

Did Slack live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Slack go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Slack again?

Yes

Other Software Used

PandaDoc, Fin by Intercom, Asana, Articulate 360

Likelihood to Recommend

I can't think of a more effective and versatile tool to use for internal team communications. Slack has a track record for reliability that competitors like Teams can match. It is also relatively easy to use, quick to learn, and has a lot of features that can scale with your team over time. I've used Slack at many companies over the course of my career and I have yet to find a case where it hasn't been able to meet the needs of my team.

Slack Feature Ratings

Comments

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Slack - Tried tested and reliable to a fault