With the COVID-19 outbreak, there are a lot of businesses that have instilled a temporary work from home policy. Perhaps your company is one of them, and you’re currently sitting on your couch or at your home office desk reading this blog post, looking for tips.
While your priority is probably dealing with the consequences and improving communication with your customers, you’ll also want to make sure your teams are set up for success while they work remotely. Luckily, we live in an age with tons of digital tools and enabling software that help us not only be better at our jobs but are also designed for bringing teams together and creating simpler processes.
Here are seven tools that are sure to help your team work remotely during the COVID-19 outbreak:
Having marketing automation and a CRM tool, like Hachbuck, will assist your sales and marketing teams with eliminating redundancies in their day-to-day tasks. As your team works from home, having a tool like Hatchbuck ensures they don’t drop the ball when it comes to adequate customer management and nurture. Your teams can email numerous prospects with ease, informing them of any protocols your organization has in place regarding COVID-19, and ensure them that you’re still available should they need you. They can also continue to send personalized content so that business can continue as normal.
Working from home sounds like a luxury, and in many cases, it usually is. But given the circumstances, working from home can be daunting and disorganized, primarily if your team is used to working directly with one another. Utilize Slack, a messaging tool, to quickly touch base with one another regarding a project, or to share files quickly and easily. Instead of booking tons of meetings, Slack enables you to message or call one another quickly so you can get back to your projects and not miss a beat while you’re working from home.
We’re definitely not too afraid to mention our own product. Time and time again, we’ve seen our email marketing software enable our clients to stay top of mind with their prospects and effectively track the success of their messaging. Just because your environment has changed, doesn’t mean your outreach has to. Create campaigns geared towards providing special support and communication to your customers and prospects during this trying time, and use Benchmark Email to get the job done.
You’re probably no stranger to Zoom and it’s many benefits. When it comes to bringing numerous people together from various different locations, it’s pretty perfect. This video communication tool is a necessity for remote teams. You can easily set up meetings, and since there’s a video element, it’s almost as if everyone is in the same room together. What’s more, it has chat and the ability to set up from conference rooms, desktops, and mobile devices. It’s super-efficient, which is something we can all use right now.
In times of emergency, the need to work from home is rather sudden. Forgetting supplies at the office shouldn’t hinder your workflow. Evernote is great because it helps you take notes from any location and share your ideas with whoever you need to (without a notebook or pen). You can also create to-do lists that help you segment base on priority. So even though you’re working from the confines of your home, you can easily organize and tackle individual tasks or projects.
Don’t neglect your social publishing just because your environment has changed. Use Buffer to schedule all your social posts so that your company can maintain an active social presence. It’s essential that you continue to tap into your audience where they’re active, and that you don’t let your strategies change if you can help it. Keeping up with your social engagement will continue to benefit your company, and Buffer is a great tool to help.
Yes, we’re dealing with a bit of a global crisis right now, but certain projects must continue. To keep your team aligned and to help ensure everyone knows who is managing what, use Basecamp. Basecamp is a great project management tool that enables you to log activity, pass off projects between team members, and keep everyone updated and on-task.
Use these seven tools to keep your team moving and your business thriving during this difficult time. Each will help employees stay organized, manage their time, and communicate effectively while they work from home.