What’s great about the ongoing evolution of home-based businesses is that everyone now has access to digital tools that meet work requirements. It doesn’t matter where you are, geographically speaking; you can run and manage your business from anywhere. Now to make the operational tasks easier for your remote team and your distance shoppers or clients, you’ll need to focus on the proper use of certain digital tools.
The rise of remote work is penetrating all corners of the globe through internet access. However, when managing your team remotely, you have to rely on the use of common platforms, systems, software, and third-party apps that all contribute to a more organized workflow and business process. With their valuable features and functions, everyone can work productively while collaborating to achieve your business goals.
Here’s a list of digital tools that can benefit your remote team:
1. Team Chat Applications
Work chat apps provide a way for employees to communicate, which is reliant on each company’s culture. For this reason, there has been a rise in communication apps available in the market today. The modern remote work office relies on team chat apps. That’s undoubtedly true for teams working remotely, but the benefits extend well beyond that. A chat room is an avenue for everyone to share their thoughts, announcements, opinions, and ideas. This makes it a vital digital tool for your home-based business.
When choosing the right app for your company, consider the following factors:
• Audio And Video Features
Conversations are sometimes smoother if people use the video feature. However, this only applies on a case-to-case basis, which mostly depends on the individual preferences of team members. Consider this function when selecting the proper communications app for your team.
• Easy Navigation And User-Friendly Interface
Users should be able to navigate the interface without having too many distractions. Desktop shortcuts should also be available, as well as gesture-based navigation on mobile devices.
• Flexible Yet Organized
Most team chat apps allow users to adjust what they want to see and don’t see, enabling them to customize their experience. This also refers to channels that team members can join, or opt-out, if they wish to.
2. E-Signatures
Your sales team will improve the company’s workflow process once you adopt an electronic signature
system. More importantly, you’ll be able to quickly access the information you need within the same system if your paperwork becomes digital.
In the e-signature age, customers can sign off on contracts directly from their devices without printing, scanning, and transferring documents. Imagine the convenience it’ll give to your clients, business partners, and employees. As a result of this digital transformation, virtually every aspect of the business becomes more efficient.
Sales and marketing teams can use e-signatures for their deals and transactions with their clients. The HR department can hand out contracts to employees and acquire their electronic signatures, eliminating the need for paper and the unnecessary exchange of documents back and forth.
Business activities rely heavily on signatures, so having an e-signature system rightly replaces conventional ones.
3. Screen-Sharing Software
When discussing with your team online, it’s sometimes challenging to keep speaking without showing slides. Screen sharing enables you to share your desktop and show others which apps and files you have open while you work. This allows you to make more effective presentations and reports. Thus, virtual team members can see each other’s screens without having to be physically present in one place. Check out some software, tools, and apps that include this digital feature.
4. Team Management Software
After you decorate your home office, it’s time to manage your team efficiently with software support. The purpose of this tool is to facilitate teamwork and collaboration and make task management more effortless. An integrated tool like this can dramatically improve your workflow, whether your teams are distributed or in-house. Managers typically use team management tools to facilitate team coordination, boost collaboration among team members, and improve their productivity.
Team management tools usually have a communication feature and a task management system as their core functionalities. Hence, when selecting the best team management software, choose a platform that offers many features and functions that are useful for your team. Consider the following features to be present in your team management software:
• Video conferencing
• Team messaging
• Task management
• File sharing
• Integrations and synchronization with other apps
5. Cloud Storage Apps
Using cloud storage, users can access, manage, backup, and maintain their data online on remote servers. When granted permission, any device can access the data on the cloud at any time. One great thing about this digital tool is its assurance of security and safety, even if there are many members granted access to it.
Some more advantages of using this digital tool include the following:
• Convenience
Cloud storage providers handle all management, maintenance, and support for your data. Thus, you’re liberating your employees from handling the tasks necessary to keep your data safe, allowing them to focus on much more important tasks to achieve your business goals.
• Improved Security
Because your data is stored on multiple servers, your data remains safe in case of a server failure. In addition, by keeping data in redundant locations, you minimize the likelihood of hardware malfunctions.
• Affordability
The cost of cloud storage is generally lower because providers share infrastructure and service costs across several companies.
6. Time Management Tools
To be successful, you need to manage your time effectively and apply powerful time management tips. Incorporate this efficient digital tool into your remote team, and everyone can improve their productivity as a result. There might be team members who don’t have good time management skills, and with this tool, they can better organize the flow of their tasks based on priorities and schedules.
Time-management apps can help you manage your time well. It comes with to-do lists features where you can write down all your tasks and meetings for the day. Then, when you have a guide or reference, it will drive you to finish the job and proceed to the next one.
7. Quick Feedback Tools
Remote feedback and collaboration are equally important when you manage your business from home. As a brand, you can improve all aspects of your business by getting customer feedback. Putting the customer at the center of your business and focusing on improving their experiences are good starting points for success. To achieve this success, you can maximize the benefits that customer feedback tools can offer.
Here are some tools to gain feedback from customers:
• Online Survey Tools
An online survey tool is a great option for collecting customer feedback. A popular form of online survey is a feedback button that can be accessed through the website or via an email invitation. You can incorporate this on your website or execute a survey email campaign.
• User Testing Tools
As for user testing tools, these involve every aspect of the user’s interaction with your products and services. It’s only by using user testing tools that many businesses are able to provide good user experiences.
• Online Review Tools
Online review tools are different from online survey tools. While a survey is done on your end as the business seeking customer feedback, the online review comes from the customers’ opinions about your products and services. Building trust among your visitors online is made easier by using this tool.
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Conclusion
Working remotely already gives remote workers a productivity boost, like having lesser distractions while working and having the flexibility to work anywhere. You can further optimize remote work arrangements by incorporating and taking advantage of the digital tools mentioned in this article. All of them will help boost productivity, employee motivation, support, and work efficiency.
