Face-to-face meetings and phone conversations gave way to emails which remained as the primary messaging choice for corporates for the last 2 decades. Unfortunately, emails soon became a productivity barrier with a typical employee spending over 2.5 hours a day, sending and receiving over 200 emails.
This turned out to be a colossal waste for large companies that employed hundreds and thousands of employees. So, companies started looking for workplace messaging solutions to reduce time spent on emails and the market was soon flooded with tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Flock, RocketChat, Google Chat etc. Most of these tools focus on instant messaging letting teams collaborate in real-time, enabling them to get more done faster by reducing their dependence on email. Unfortunately, soon these instant messaging tools started flooding users with messages and notifications overwhelming them and leading to loss of important information.
Despite separating chats in channels based on some work categories, it is time-consuming to go back and refer to old conversations and understand them without proper context. This leads to miscommunications and sometimes several iterations before everyone in the team is on the same page. A study points out that on average, each employee spends more than 200 Slack messages per week and there are power users who send 1,000 messages per day. In short, users are now spending more time in never-ending group chats instead of emails.
In this article, we will analyze how these workplace messaging tools can rob you of your time, and how Clariti can help you improve productivity through context-based messaging.
1. Reduce chat noise
Most of the group chat happens through channels that are rigid. Once a channel is created and group members added, all the group members see all the chats whether it pertains to them or not. As a result, users are overwhelmed reading a constant stream of messages peripherally related to their day-to-day work. Managing this multi-channel communication ineffectively often leads to miscommunication and confusion.
With constant notifications from the channels, you will be inclined to check messages and respond to them in real-time to impress your colleagues. In some of the tools, even if you click the “Do not disturb” option, the sender has the option to bypass your preference and still send the message by flagging it as important. According to a Microsoft study, it takes about 25 minutes to get back to the task you were working on, after being interrupted. Another study says on average employees get 45 Slack messages in an eight-hour workday. You can do the math.
How Clariti allows you to work in peace
Clariti is one of the best workplace messaging tool that lets users communicate asynchronously, without the compulsion to be online all the time. In Clariti, there are no ‘chat channels.’ There is no need to constantly track all the chats in the channels.
When you use Clariti, you can start a group chat with multiple Clariti users on a specific topic. Any Clariti user can start a group chat and add members as needed. However, unlike channels Clariti group chats are not rigid. Group members can be added and removed on the fly. Clariti provides an option to add or remove participants from conference chats based on a need for their presence.
Existing members can be removed and new members added based on the conversation flow. Your teammates have the freedom to include you in group chats when needed and remove you when your contribution is over. This way users are alerted to join a chat only when necessary. This ensures that you are never distracted by irrelevant messages throughout the day. Consequently, group members only get chat alerts on issues that are important to them. This helps you avoid unwanted messages from multiple groups. So, you are not overloaded with too much unnecessary information.
Clariti also provides an option to turn off notifications whenever you are busy with something else.
2. Bring context to your messaging
Communication has no meaning without context. This is especially true when teams connect with each other & customers via multiple channels – such as email, social media, chat, etc. Information that is related across different communication medium stands isolated and context gets lost. This can get even more stressful as chat messages in channels can mix up many related topics making it hard to understand the context of the discussion. Without context there is no understanding leading to miscommunication or multiple iterations to get the message across.
How Clariti helps you to retain context
In Clariti, there are no channels and all the group chats are based on topics. Every topic is based on some context and all the related conversations are grouped in one TopicFolder. For instance, when you receive an email in Clariti, you can immediately start chatting from the email and the recipient will understand the context that you are talking about – without you having to forward the email! Later, you can save both the email and related chat in a TopicFolder preserving context for later referral.
3. Avoid multiple apps for messaging
Workplace messaging is not only about chats. Many organizations use multiple apps to fulfil team messaging needs. If you are working in a multi-national company, there are chances that you might be using different apps for email, chat, social feeds, meetings, events, reminders, cloud storage etc. This creates communication silos as information will be spread across multiple apps. Due to this, every team member spends most of his/her time in searching for information rather than doing productive work. Given the level of information being generated daily, this is highly inefficient. A survey points out that almost 20% of the business time – the equivalent of one day per working week – is wasted by employees searching for information to do their job. Without a way to organize it all, eventually, things will start to fall through the cracks. You are most likely to miss an important email or group chat, resulting in missed project deadlines. Even if you do stay on top of everything, toggling between all those apps takes time and zaps your productivity, especially if you have to log in and out of each app.
How Clariti makes your messaging meaningful by combining all communication
A modern intelligent instant messaging tool like Clariti combines email, chat, calls, social feeds, online documents and uses the concept of “TopicFolder” to store all the related information in one place based on some context. This information can be easily retrieved and acted upon when needed. With TopicFolders, organizing messaging and managing multiple communication becomes much easier and less complicated. By simplifying the ability to store and retrieve any information when needed, TopicFolder speeds up the decision-making process and team productivity. Why settle for an instant messaging-only app, when you can do so much more with Clariti. Clariti is free and you can sign up with your email id.
If you’re a business looking for an alternative to Microsoft Teams, there are many apps out there.
After all, collaboration and productivity are essential to your business moving forward.While it’s hard to debate that Microsoft is a powerhouse in the IT industry, there are other options, especially if you’re not savvy using Microsoft tools or products.
Fortunately for you, Clariti is an excellent alternative to Microsoft Teams.Why it's Essential to Consider Alternatives to Microsoft TeamsNot every app or product will be suitable for everyone.
There are even more reasons, including cost amongst others.
The app is the best alternative to Microsoft and Slack, thanks to the integration of email, chat, calls, cloud storage, and to-do features under one roof.
It is the perfect tool to choose when you want to promote team messaging and replace the delays caused by emails.Clariti goes the extra mile to provide links between new communications and existing emails or messages.
Team collaboration can take place both on a single cross-functional team and between different specialized teams.
Check our blog post to learn more.Team collaboration tools enable a business to connect their entire team from top to bottom by providing channels for communication at both the individual.Visit our website to learn more.
As a marketer, you may find it challenging to collaborate with multiple teams especially during a remote work environment.
However, it is imperative for marketers to work across different teams to drive the desired outcome with team collaboration software.Here, you may raise the question- how do marketers improve cross-team collaboration even when teams work remotely?
Let’s find the answer to this question in this blog.
We will start with sales because marketing and sales teams go hand-in-hand.How to collaborate with sales?Sales enablement strategy is useful for the sales team as it involves both resources and content necessary for them to sell effectively.
Marketers can help the sales team implement this strategy by writing engaging content, case studies, FAQs, email templates, and other necessary material.What’s more, the marketing team can brainstorm ideas to keep leads progressing and promoting the business online.
Sales and marketing teams can work together to improve the user or visitor’s experience.
Find out how we built 9mCollab - a collaboration tool aspired by the forum-like organization of topics and using conclusions to capture relevant information.
From one-on-one messaging to video calling (the best alternative to physical meetings), online collaboration tools can help businesses streamline workflow and break silos in the organization.
Let’s see how: For More info: 7 best online collaboration tools for productive teams
