7 Slack Bots to Look Out For in 2020
In order to improve communications and establish a healthy work environment where everyone’s up-to-date on current tasks at all times, many teams have started using various tools. Among these, one of the most popular is Slack, a real-time messaging app for teams.
These days, however, Slack has become so much more than a simple communication tool. Featuring an increasing number of integrations, teams can now use the popular messaging app for the completion of various tasks.
From document sharing to vacation scheduling, Slack has become a one-stop app for everything a team needs. Whether you have teams in multiple locations or not, it can help you increase productivity and improve your business right away.
The Slack Experience: Where to Start?
The Slack App Directory is the designated place to browse and discover Slack integrations. With so many new apps launching daily, chances are you will find at least one app that will help you simplify your processes.
On the other hand, it can be a little bit overwhelming to find the perfect one. That’s why we’re here, offering a helping hand. Instead of spending hours on the Slack App Directory searching for the ideal tool, we’ve come up with the list of 7 Slack bots you need to look out for in 2020. Take a look!
Vacation Tracker is a simple yet powerful tool to manage vacations, days off and other leaves in your organization through Slack. The entire set-up process takes just a couple of minutes, and your team will adopt the software even faster.
Vacation Tracker has many perks for both team members and administrators/managers. As a team member, you can:
- Request and receive approval for any type of leave
- See how many days off you have remaining
- Manage absence requests
- See who from your team is (or isn’t) at the workplace
As a manager or administrator you can:
- Set the number of vacations and days off globally or for each team member
- Set-up custom leave types for your organization
- Create teams, set holidays, working days, notifications, export detailed summaries and statuses for your company or for each team
One of the most important benefits that Vacation Tracker offers is the possibility of accurately road mapping future work by knowing who’ll be out of the office and when — thus establishing appropriate communication schemes within your team.
The leave management system is ideal for small businesses, or future unicorns looking for ways to improve their processes and save valuable time.
Given its popularity and widespread use, Slack is a prime space to strengthen team spirit, knowledge and collaboration — and that’s exactly what Donut does.
Donut helps you create an automated coffee or lunch roulette program instantly through Slack. After you add the Slack integration in a channel, it will randomly pair people who might not know each other and encourage them to arrange a coffee meeting. This way, team members who don’t work in the same team will meet and bond.
In addition, Donut helps with the onboarding process. As you know, onboarding processes are extremely important in every company, and by using Donut you’ll be able to connect new hires with other team members (“onboarding buddies”), making sure the process goes smoothly.
Chances are you already know about Trello, the web-based, kanban list-making application. It helps teams keep track of absolutely everything — from small tasks to large projects. Trello’s boards, lists, and cards enable teams to organize and prioritize projects in a fun and flexible way.
Trello is also available for Slack: you can create new cards without ever leaving your favorite communication app, taking your team’s productivity levels to the next level.
The Trello Slack App will help your team have a full overview of current and pending tasks, as well as organize projects and daily tasks, without losing track of what needs to be done.
Geekbot is a Slack integration that allows teams to run asynchronous standup meetings. One of the main benefits the tool offers lies within its transparency, as it will keep everyone focused on the real tasks, regardless of whether your team is in multiple offices or not.
It’s ideal for project managers, as they can now automate
- Standup
- Daily scrum
- Retrospective meetings
This way, the entire team will be up-to-date on what needs to be done, and will be able to focus on other aspects of the Agile methodology. The software is flexible, so you can set up meetings at any frequency as long as it works out for you and your team.
In order to have a great business, it’s important to give constant feedback to your employees and vice versa. With Geekbot you can set up feedback and employee surveys, and allow team members to get to know each other through random, customizable questions.
If you are looking to develop a team culture, Geekbot is the Slack app you need!
While we’re on the topic, it’s good to mention another tool that makes team culture its primary mission: Disco.
When everyone in your company is aware of your vision and values, it becomes much easier to run the business smoothly and make the company’s vision come to life. Disco helps you bring company culture online by making your mission and values visible.
The app will recognize people in real-time when they live by your company’s values and broadcast them on TVs or monitors in order to amplify what matters by making your values work for you.
Employees that feel valued by their company are more likely to be engaged, and weekly interaction with company values increases employee retention by 30%. By using Disco, you’ll make sure you’re on the right path to success by sharing your values with your team members in the best possible way.
Statsbot is an entirely new approach to data analytics using Slack.
With Statsbot you can easily connect your database or Google Analytics to Slack, and easily track metrics, build funnels and cohorts — even if you don’t know SQL.
It can take up a lot of time if you have to go through all your metrics manually, so Statsbot will save you valuable time. You can schedule reports to check metrics on a regular basis, or easily ask Statsbot data-related questions.
Another great thing about the app is that you can share your data insights with the whole team through Slack. No more need to go through emails and reports as you can have it all in one place.
Whether you’re a customer support agent, a business owner or a team member, it’s always fun reading what other people are saying about your product online.
With Slaask, you can supercharge Slack to function as a customer service app and share valuable customer insights with your team.
It also channels emails, questions, and feedback from your Facebook page or Twitter to go straight to your Slack account. Team members can still use Slack the same way they’re used to, but know they can chat in real-time with possible leads and customers as well. How cool is that?
In addition, the app offers a delayed mode for those moments when you’re out of office. User questions can be forwarded to dedicated email addresses so you can get back to them as soon as you’re available.
With Slaask, communication with your leads and customers has never been easier. It will increase your user satisfaction levels like never before.
Cool Bots for Slack
You can think of Slack bots as virtual members of your team that are there to help you run tasks, schedule vacations and more.
They are created with one thing in mind: teams. A Slack bot’s main goal should always be to help you automate your tasks, save time and improve the way you do business.
The 7 Slack bots we’ve mentioned do that — now it’s up to you to choose the best fits for your team.
This Guest Post was written by Janja Jovanovic.
Janja is a Marketing Specialist at Vacation Tracker. She helps startups develop and execute digital marketing strategies, optimize their online presence and apply SEO strategies.
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