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If you’re not living under a rock, then your day starts and ends with communication: let it be with your family, co-workers, friends, or the taxi driver.
Most of those conversations are face-to-face, which means the chances that you’ll have an effective communication are higher.
However, communication also occurs virtually all the time: whether it is chatting with family abroad, constantly texting with your friends, or communicating with team members, online communication has become an essential part of our lives. Virtual communication has shown to be particularly critical for teams because it’s as much a part of new business models as anything else. It helps every member share thoughts, ideas, and explain their vision on projects.
What do companies do to make those collaborations more effective? They use team communication tools. The truth is, every company is different. Therefore, every team is different. For one team, it’s essential to have a file-sharing system to which everyone can have access. In another team, it’s important to have daily group chats. The saying “one size does not fit all” goes well here. This is the main reason why, as a business owner, you need custom team communication software that will fit your company’s needs.
First, what are custom communication solutions? Surely you can acquire premade communication tools – these provide the same features to all clients. Great examples of packaged software are Slack and Ryver. The biggest disadvantage of these chat apps is that they lack custom features that could accommodate any of the business-specific requests you might have. And then, there are custom communication solutions – with those, you get a solution that is fully adapted to meet your specific needs. A great example of a custom team communication app is Kreo. Wondering why your team will need one? With a custom team chat app, you’ll be able to streamline your business processes and performance will be more efficient. Let’s check out the main benefits of custom communication solutions.
Personalization: your team needs it
Tables, chairs, computers, projectors: these are the essentials every company has in their office. Those can be bought from any shop and don’t need to be custom made. However, when it comes to business operations and software development, your company needs personalization. Why? Chances are packaged solutions that won’t meet your team’s needs seamlessly. You don’t have to build a communication app from scratch for it to be custom, there’s another option: Kreo.
You can use Kreo as the base and create exactly what your business needs. With it, you can choose the features you want your communication software to have. If you want your custom chat app to have features like individual and group chats, voice calls, and video conferences, but don’t need the screen sharing feature, then it’s your call. The bottom line is that you can pick the features that will best serve your team to connect in real-time and be more efficient in their work. Let’s also not forget about your budget – you’ll cut costs by paying only for what you’re using.
Moreover, personalization of your custom team chat app can be achieved through white labeling capabilities, which allow applying your own branding to the software – your team will have a stronger sense of identity with it.
We’ve identified that personalization is one of the benefits of collaboration tools in the workplace. If you decide to create a custom communication solution, you will ensure that your team’s chat app will be able to handle all your daily processes. Imagine having a tool designed to meet your specific company needs – it will make your day easier, won’t it?
Scalability: prepare for the future
Today you have a team of 20 people, tomorrow, you might have more than 50 employees, and in the future, you’ll expect to grow even bigger. What will you do when your team communication app is not able to accommodate the upcoming changes? One thing is for sure: if you decide to change your communication app, then you’ll have to go through the trouble of training your whole team all over again.
Luckily, you can prepare yourself for the future and choose to build a custom team chat app – with it you make sure the software scales to support your company’s expected growth. Moreover, if you design a custom communication solution that fits your team as it is right now, you can always add more features, make updates and changes.
Integration: help your team accomplish more in less time
Moving on to other benefits of having team chat apps – the ability to integrate with other software systems can be tricky when using a packaged communication app since they may not have the right set of integrations for you.
Your team uses at least a couple of different software programs daily, for sure – what you want most is for your internal processes to be cohesive and efficient. Your custom team communication app can be customized so you can integrate it with other software systems. The latter will help your team accomplish more in less time and with less stress. For example, you can integrate your custom chat app with a CRM to share contacts through chat – it can be very helpful to your team and save everyone’s time. Another example of a software system that can be integrated with your custom communication app is Google Docs: so your team will get immediate notifications of feedback, review and resolve comments in the app. The options are endless!
Security: keep your company information safe
An essential part of a team chat app is its security: after all, private data and information about your company goes through the software. Let’s also not forget about your employees’ privacy, which you, as an employer, should guarantee. If you choose to build a custom team communication app, you can add more protection by taking security measures both on the back-end and the front-end of the software.
Cost-Effectiveness: win in the long run
If you can’t make up your mind about building a custom communication app or going for a packaged one, perhaps this is the time where you should consider the costs. Packaged team chat apps will cost you less at first while developing custom software will be pricier in the short term; however, building an app that fits your needs proves to be worth it in the long run. Here are a couple of facts about custom communication software to keep in mind:
- Won’t require constant changes,
- Won’t include additional costs with licenses,
- Will grow as your company grows,
- Can be used without any significant investment for a long time,
If you think about it, the other benefits of custom communication solutions, like its scalability and the fact that you can integrate it with other software, will make your investment worthwhile.
Wrapping up: benefits of communication apps
By now, you know about the main benefits of communication tools for remote teams and office-based employees. Let’s conclude – with custom communication apps:
- You can start with the essential features and add more advanced ones along the way,
- Your software will be tailor-made for you and will match your business needs, processes, and security requirements,
- You and your team will save valuable time,
- You can integrate the solution with any other software your team uses daily,
- You will own the software,
- You will save money in the long run.
What will you choose: packaged team chat app or custom communication software?
