Sometimes, what makes a company more successful than its competitors is not the quality of its products or services but how productive they are in the long run. According to Wrike, teams that use collaboration tools are 64% more productive than others.
Forbes showed that 35-40% of remote workers are more productive than people who work with traditional office setups. Using productivity tools will always help small and big teams enhance collaboration and get better results than people who work independently, but it’s not only about using these tools but rather finding the right ones.
In our experience, tools such as Klutch, Chataway, Asana, Slack, Clockify, Google Drive, and Zoom have proven effective in improving productivity and offering workers clear communication channels to work together. Do you want to know more about them? Keep reading to learn what each of these collaboration tools can do for your team!
Why are productivity tools that helpful? In a nutshell, they allow everyone to communicate clearly with their teammates while making parts of working together that would be complex or time-consuming way easier or even automatic. However, if you want more information on the matter, you can always read one of Klutch’s blog posts.
#1 Knowledge Base for Internal Communication – Klutch
The first productivity tool we will review today is Klutch, which works as a knowledge base for internal communication. Among Klutch’s goals, you will find offering small teams the possibility to have streamlined communication and increased collaboration.
Since it works as an internal knowledge base, using it ensures everyone in the team knows everything they need to know about the company and the projects you are working on at the moment. Promoting knowledge sharing saves you the hassle of briefing new people in the team on the latest news or projects the company has.
Klutch has many useful features for all kinds of industries, but its most important ones are:
- Real-time updates
- General knowledge base
- Templates
- Document sharing
- Slack integration
People are often scared to use online tools or services they didn’t know of in the past, but you’ll surely trust Klutch after knowing big enterprises, such as Amazon, Vimeo, and Meta have used it and recommend it. You may think it’s an expensive tool due to all the features it offers, but that couldn’t be further from reality.
This tool offers a free plan that includes the basic features small teams will need to work together. That includes AI responses, unlimited members, templates, document sharing, and more. As for its Pro plan, it’s only $4/mo, and it has all the features the company offers its clients.
#2 Live Chat for External Communication – Chatway
Onsite meetings are okay, but you won’t always be able to speak to your customers and associates in your office, so you need a tool that allows you to speak to them online. That’s what Chatway gives you.
Chatway includes customizable live chat widgets, canned responses, and chat history tracking in case you need to check what happened with one of your past customers. As you can see, the main goal of Chatway is to give you a way of offering premium support to all your customers smoothly without spending a fortune on support personnel.
Among its best features, you will find these:
- Customer insights
- Customizable chat widgets
- CRM tools and integrations
- Canned responses
- Analytics
- API
The best part of Chatway is that it’s free, so you won’t have to pay anything to use its services. Its team has stated that it plans to include paid plans in the future, but they haven’t, so you should take advantage of all its features while you can.
#3 Project Management Tool – Asana
Productivity tools can work in many ways and have different purposes, but one of the most common goals productivity tools have is managing the projects the company teams are working on. Asana is a popular project management tool.
In a nutshell, Asana organizes, tracks, and manages the tasks everyone within a team has and the progress they make. You can use this tool regardless of how big or small your company is, as it has pricing plans for startups and enterprises.
These are a few of the most important features Asana offers:
- Workflow builder
- Goal tracker
- Calendar
- Automation
- Workload manager
- Slack, Google Drive, and Dropbox integrations
Asana is affordable for all the features it offers, and it has a personal plan for small teams and individuals. Growing teams can go for its starter plan, which is $10.99/mo. The advanced plan offers almost all the features the tool has and costs $24.99 monthly.
There is an enterprise and enterprise+ plan for bigger companies, but they would have to contact the Asana team directly to set the price.
#4 Internal Communication – Slack
Klutch offers internal communication capabilities but focuses on being an internal knowledge base for the workers of a team. If you are looking for a productivity tool that focuses entirely on internal communication, you should try Slack.
This tool lets the workers of a company communicate directly with each other, create open channels for communication, and share documents of all kinds. It also has audio call and video conferencing integrations. Slack has excellent integrations with other productivity tools such as Google Drive, Trello, and Asana.
Read some of the features Slack offers:
- Workflow builder
- Integrations
- Slack Connect
- Communication channels
- Audio and Video conferencing
Like the other tools on this list, Slack has a free plan that offers its basic features. If you are looking for something more and want to enhance collaboration, you can try the pro plan for $7.25/mo. Bigger companies can try the business+ plan for $12.50/mo or contact the sales team to negotiate a price for the enterprise grid plan.
Communication is essential when working as a team. Sometimes, employees are doing things that slow down their team’s progress without even noticing, and tools such as Slack keep that from happening. If you want to learn about 10 things people do that suffocate their team’s productivity, check this out.
#5 Time Tracking Tool – Clockify
Keeping track of time is one of the most challenging parts of working, whether it’s alone or in a team. Using productivity tools can help you keep track of all your tasks and the time you take to finish them. Clockify is excellent for that job.
You can use this tool for time tracking, project management, reporting, and even invoicing. It allows you to create tasks, set a timer for them, customize reminders, and even check how others on the team are doing. Read a few of the features Clockify offers below:
- Timekeeping
- Reporting
- Invoicing
- Scheduling
Clockify is one of the most affordable tools on the list. It has a free plan, a basic plan for $3.99/mo, a standard plan for $5.49/mo, a pro plan for $7.99/mo, and an enterprise plan for $11.99/mo.
#6 Cloud Storage Tool – Google Drive
Google Drive is one of the most popular – if not the most popular – cloud storage tools, and it offers file storage, file sharing, and more. Check out its features:
- API
- Alerts and notifications
- Collaboration tools
- Content Library
- Data security features
Google Drive has a free plan with 15GB of cloud storage, a basic plan for $1.99/mo, and with 100GB, a standard plan for $2.99/mo and with 200GB, and a premium plan for 9.99/mo, which offers 2TB.
#7 Video Conferencing Tool – Zoom
The last productivity tool we will review on this page is a video conferencing one, and it’s Zoom. This tool became highly popular during the pandemic since schools and universities all around the world used it to communicate with their students. Friends and family also used Zoom to stay connected. Its main features are:
- Video conferencing
- Screen sharing
- Screen recording
- Virtual backgrounds
Zoom has a basic plan for free, a pro plan for $149.90/yearly,
a business plan for $199.90/yearly, and a business plus plan that asks you to contact the Zoom team for more information.
Conclusion
All these tools offer something unique and special, but together, they give you all the benefits of productivity. When small teams use them, they can grow faster and outsell their competitors by having clearer communication channels and easier ways to manage their projects.
Small teams should try productivity tools, such as Klutch. It offers most of the features needed to ensure success, so it’s an excellent start. You can find more information about it on its website.
