Covid-19 has transformed lives. As we do our best to keep our communities safe, many of us are working from home and parenting kids, navigating roommates and pets while hosting video calls, delegating tasks, fielding inquiries, meeting deadlines, and calming fears.
Working from home can be frustrating. It helps to understand some of the challenges people are facing now.
Lack of familiar structure when working remotely
Otherwise, high-performing employees may experience declines in job performance and engagement when they begin working either full time or for the first time remotely.
Lack of access to information
Newly remote workers can find it challenging to locate information from coworkers. Even getting answers to what seem like simple questions can feel like an enormous obstacle to a worker based at home.
Lack of follow-through or slow response times
There are more urgent domestic and professional challenges that your team is managing now than ever before. Your team will need help in eliminating lower priority or unnecessary tasks.
Lack of automation on the website
Websites need to work harder than ever before. While your physical office is empty, your website is the front face of your organization.
Lack of confidence
Even the most steadfast employee can feel uncertainty. The pandemic creates anxiety and fear, making it harder to prioritize essential work tasks.
So, how are the most successful companies doing it now?
Successful companies are helping employees simplify their day by automating tasks like scheduling, answering repetitive questions, and routing inquiries. When organizations deploy automation such as Conversational Marketing and automated scheduling attendants, employees are free to focus on high-value tasks and strategic decisions.
If you’re like most people, you’re wondering what the best tools are.
Since most of our team has worked remotely for years, we compiled a list of best-in-class tools to help you stay productive in your new work environment. If we missed something that you think should make-the-cut, let us know below.
Communication
Slack
Cost: Free - $
slack.com
Why do we like it? Slack offers an instant way to stay in touch with your team on any device. Share files, screen share, and make calls. It has it all. We love the ability to create channels for different discussions, whether it’s a customer channel or a random channel to share interesting articles.
Scheduling
Calendly
Cost: Free - $
calendly.com
Why do we like it? If you’re looking for an easy way for your team members, customers, or even sales prospects to schedule time with you, look no further. They have a free option too. It’s simple to use, and if you use G Suite services, it’s even easier.
Drift
Cost: Free - $$$
drift.com
Why do we like it? We can’t say enough about Drift. It’s the only way that our customers, prospects, site visitors, and team members schedule time with sales, project managers, and other executives on our team.
Webconference
Zoom
Cost: Free - $
zoom.us
Why do we like it? There are a lot of web conference applications out there, and we’ve tried them all. One application that stood above the rest is Zoom. It seems everyone is on it now. It works on any device, and it’s easy to install. For those on a budget, it’s free! We highly recommend trying Zoom out.
Marketing and/or Crisis Communication
Drift
Cost: Free - $$$
drift.com
Why do we like it? Drift is definitely one of our favorites. Before Drift, we relied on forms and a lot of outbound selling. With Drift, we focus more on our advertising, and once visitors come to our site, Drift does the rest through automation. Drift delivers contextual conversations with every visitor and schedules meetings directly with the right team member every time. No more email tag trying to find the right time. Drift greets every visitor with a conversation. It’s an instant ROI service we deliver to our customers...and they love it. Honestly, we couldn’t live without Drift now. Here’s a hack. Use Drift to route crisis communication and automate responses and gather feedback. It will lighten up your support queue and deliver instant answers to commonly asked questions.
Hubspot
Cost: Free - $$$
hubspot.com
Why do we like it? You had us at free CRM! We recommend Hubspot CRM to all of our clients looking for an alternative. Not only is it incredibly easy to use, it’s easy on the eyes. Manage all of our current and new customers in a single place and grow your business with Hubspot Sales and Hubspot Marketing. You shouldn’t need help setting up Hubspot, but if you run into any issues or need some help with a Hubspot integration, we can help you at marketing.mollyduggan.com.
Sales
Drift
Cost: Free - $$$
drift.com
Why do we like it? We can’t imagine life without Drift anymore. Even in a pandemic, we’d find a way to pay for it. Essentially, we’ve removed all friction from our marketing and sales experiences. If you’re on any of our websites, you won’t find any scary forms or gated pages. Each step of the way, there’s a bot to greet you and engage in a contextual way driving our visitors to book a meeting with the right person in the shortest amount of time. Drift helps us understand our prospects providing the best conversation once you have a human on the phone. If you need help creating a playbook or if you’re looking for best practices, our conversation orchestrators are waiting to answer your questions at conversationorchestrator.com.
Hubspot
Cost: Free - $$$
hubpost.com
Why do we like it? Whether you’re a small business with a single salesperson or a growing enterprise, Hubspot has everything you need to drive success with your salespeople. Out-of-the-box it has all the tools you could want. From message sequencing to sales opportunity workflows, your team can get up and running in a day. If you need training, Hubspot has your back. If you need personalized training, we deliver personalized and contextualized training matched to your sales strategies. Check out marketing.mollyduggan.com and let us know how we can help you today.
We hope our best-in-class list was helpful to you and your new full-time remote life. If you’d like to add a personal recommendation, add your comments below.
