The best work tools for remote teams

Having a successful remote team requires skill and a lot of effort. Remote teams have to deal with both physical and time differences while trying to stay on the same page. Fortunately, there are some reliable tools that help. Here are some of the best work tools for remote teams.

Slack

Keeping in touch with your colleagues at any time of day is possible with this messaging app. It provides an interactive platform for team members to chat, share files, make calls, and more. Each Slack profile conveniently displays the local time of that person, which is essential when you need to find out where someone is located. Slack can also be used to receive important announcements. Essentially, it’s crucial to workflow and helps keeps everyone in the loop. Plus, you can share GIFs right in the app.

Help Scout

With Help Scout, you can interact with your customers through email. You can also add notes, content tags, and even tag your colleagues in a note. It also allows you to create your own inbox as well as share an inbox with multiple members. Help Scout makes it easy to communicate with your customers in an organized way and also works as an internal knowledge base to keep your team informed.

Intercom

Intercom is an instant messaging app that you can have on your website. You can ask visitors if they need help and direct them accordingly. Users can also return to their previous conversation whenever they visit your site. Plus, you can choose where you think Intercom would be most beneficial and feature it in one area of your site, such as a landing page.

Dialpad

The cost of calls can really add up when you’re working with people from all over the world, which is why Dialpad comes in handy. Each team member is given a personal US number for work calls. You can also assign the entire team to the main line to ensure that someone will always be available to take customer calls.

Podio

Podio is a vital project management tool. It helps you stay on top of everything that’s happening by allowing team members to create and share tasks accordingly. If several members are working on the same task, you can tag your teammate and comment on the task to provide instant updates.

Trello

Trello is a versatile tool that can be used for scheduling, task management, categorizing, a knowledge base, and more. It’s useful for organizing and scheduling content, preparing meeting agendas, and anything else you need to keep tidy.

Google Drive

Many remote companies use storage apps so each team member can access and share files from any location. Google Drive does just that and can be a convenient place to store team schedules, meeting notes, internal documents, and invoices.

Buffer

Buffer is an app that understands what a remote company needs, which makes sense since it happens to be a successful remote company. It allows you to schedule your social media posts and analyze their performance. It can also be used to respond to comments and messages that come from various social media platforms.

Each of these tools and apps has a specialty that makes them valuable for remote teams. Even though they don’t necessarily work together, they combine to create an entirely scalable system of record. Naturally, it takes time, practice, and effort to keep a remote team working efficiently, even if you have the right tools in order.