3 Useful Tools for Managing Teams Remotely

Due to recent events, the workforce landscape is changing rapidly. As COVID-19 precautions require most of us to shelter in place, more and more companies are now seeing their entire staff working from home. 

This has also led to many company owners recognizing the value of hiring remotely, even after the pandemic passes. Not having to worry about a person’s proximity to the “office” enables hiring managers to cast a wider net and search a larger talent pool when seeking to fill a vacancy. 

Regardless of whether your company is working from home because of Coronavirus or has a permanent remote set-up, there are several tools that can enable more effective teamwork, project management, and internal/external communications. In a recent webinar, Replyco CEO Artem Verovenko, CGO Jodi Gaines, and product manager Alex Mazurov offered their favorite tools for managing teams remotely. 

Slack

When it comes to communicating with your colleagues, planning projects, discussing content strategy, or conducting any other facet of team-based business management, Slack offers one of the most convenient and easy-to-use platforms on the market. 

Slack is an instant-messaging-for-business platform that allows you to send your teammates chat messages. You can have one-on-one conversations with individuals that are only visible to the two of you (or whoever you invite to the chat), but you can also set up channels. For instance, you can arrange channels for marketing, content, sales, general information, design, etc., and then invite the applicable staff members to the channels they need to see in order to get work done effectively. 

Slack also integrates with other platforms such as G-Suite, enabling you to share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and the like quickly and easily. Starting at $6.67 per user, per month, Slack is fairly affordable as well. It is compatible with Mac, Windows, and iOS, so users of any device can share information and communicate. 

Loom

Companies often need to communicate information that might be complex or require a degree of explanation that would be very time consuming via text, chat, or email. Loom screen and video recording software allows users to create short videos and instantly share them with customers, teammates, or anyone else. 

Replyco product manager Alex Mazurov loves using Loom to provide quick answers to customer questions. Instead of spending endless amounts of time typing long emails to explain certain facets of the Replyco platform, he can record a short video that conveys everything he’s trying to say, complete with a screen-recorded product demo. 

From external communications such as answering feature-related questions and providing bug fixes, to internal communications with design and engineering teams, Loom can be used to communicate or demonstrate any information quickly and easily. It is also a simple browser add-on, and requires no installation. 

While the affordable paid versions of Loom include features such as video editing and advanced reporting, the free version offers the tools most users need for simple screen and/or webcam recording, audio recording, and video sharing. Loom is compatible with Mac, Windows, and iOS. 

Replyco 

For eCommerce sellers who need to respond to a flood of customer inquiries each day, we believe there’s no better tool than Replyco. This is especially true in today’s landscape, as more people than ever before are ordering online. Sellers, however, face many challenges outside of their control, including shipping delays, supply issues, and more.

Replyco enables users to set up advanced sorting, labeling, and prioritizing of incoming customer emails and questions. It also eliminates the need for you to ask for specifics such as order numbers, as all of a customer’s order information is pulled up on one screen for you. 

But in addition to offering a powerful way to keep up with customer inquiries, Replyco is also a great tool for remote working. Replyco was built from a team-based perspective and allows administrators to configure users and assign them roles either in bulk or manually. 

You no longer need to worry about not knowing who is doing what. By utilizing Replyco functions such as internal notes, you can easily let your colleagues know what you have done with regard to a particular customer inquiry. Whenever a teammate pulls up that customer, they will see any notes that have been made, so there is no more risk of duplicating efforts.  

Providing your staff with access to Replyco is also simple. As the admin, you can just click on “Users” and enter the information for anyone in your organization who needs access. They will then receive a registration link at the email address you provided for them. You can also invite users to join by sending them the registration link directly. 

Replyco makes it easy to bring as many teammates as you would like onboard, because we do not charge by user. This means you can create a large email response team, while still paying the same low monthly rate. Starting at just £25 per month ($35 USD), there’s a Replyco plan for any sized business. 

Most online sellers take two to three days to help a customer. With Replyco, you can do it in six hours or less. To learn more about how Replyco can help you improve customer service while reducing your manual workload, contact us or start your free trial today!