Tools for Shared Communication and Correspondence
If time is money, then you definitely don’t want to waste either one! And now that you’ve seen some examples of document management tools and how they can help you manage your business better, let’s take a look at some more advanced options.
Some of the biggest time sinks in business correspondence are collaborations, business emails, and customer service-related communications. While each one of these items has an important place in your business, you can save yourself some time and heartache with better organization and even automation.
Read on to learn about some more cool tools for staying on top of everything. Then, try out some of these tools today to see how much time—and stress—you can save yourself and your business!
Tool Type: Business collaboration platforms
Examples: Slack (free plan or $6.67/month)
The Pitch: Collaboration platforms are immensely useful because they let people work together more effectively—here, users can manage projects, information, and communication all in one place instead of a separate tool for each! One of the most popular examples, Slack, is channel-based, which means that it offers users chat room-like spaces that are organized by topic: you can create channels for new teams, new projects, or new contracts, and invite any other user to each one. Slack also supports calls and direct messages, and can integrate easily with other tools, like Google Drive for cloud storage and Office 365 for more traditional options. Save time by reviewing multi-user communications in real time or accessing the history of any project, even when it’s over!
Tool Type: Inbox management tools
Examples: Mailstrom (free trial, $9/month after) and Unroll.me (free)
The Pitch: Is the number of unread emails in your inbox stressing you out? Does it take you more than 15 minutes to go through your inbox before you even answer anything? If so, it might be time to try out some inbox management. These kinds of tools will give you an eagle-eye view of all the different kinds of emails you receive and help you keep the important ones while sweeping up and deleting the rest. From there, you can take advantage of your sparkling clean inbox to set up some new email filters for next time!
Tool Type: Customer service communications
Examples: Hiver (free trial, $7/month after) and Drag (free plan or $5/month)
The Pitch: Customer service communications tools are designed to help you reach customers from the same inbox as the rest of your emails, instead of opening up another workspace every time you get a question or concern. Save yourself the time and stress of checking four different emails every day by finding everything about your business all in one place! Most customer service communications tools also let you add additional users, so you won’t be alone in managing the flow.
Tool Type: Email scheduling
Examples: Boomerang for Gmail (free plan or $4.99/month), inbox-specific tools such as Gmail’s (free), and Hubspot (free trial, $40/month for all-in-one marketing software)
The Pitch: Sometimes you only have time to answer emails outside of business hours, but that doesn’t mean you need to send them then too. With email scheduling tools, you can write your important emails whenever it is convenient for you and then schedule them to be sent automatically at a later time! Email scheduling tools often have other functions built in too, like automatic reminders about unanswered emails and follow-up inquiries if your recipient hasn’t answered after a few days. You can schedule yourself to look perfectly pulled-together, even if you’re answering after hours!
Tool Type: Virtual meetings
Examples: Google Meet (free plan or $10/month per user), Zoom (free plan or starting at $14.99/month), Crowdcast (starts at $20/month)
The Pitch: When you need a few more meeting controls than FaceTime or Duo can provide, there are several popular, affordable tools on the market that you can start using right away. Virtual meeting tools such as Google Meet (formerly Hangout), Zoom, and Crowdcast give you the ability to have multiple participants with video, recording, polls, and screen sharing. In today’s climate, it’s impossible to run a business professionally without a virtual way to meet with clients and teams. If you are not sure which meeting tool you want to use, try them all since they are either free or offer a free trial.