Easy-to-use Chat Tools for Small and Large Businesses

If your business isn’t using a chat tool for both internal and external communication, you’re not communicating effectively

Instant and precise communication is more vital than ever to the success of a business. If you aren’t communicating quickly with team members and customers, you will have more problems than you can handle.

Easy-to-use chat tools can help you improve communication whether you have a large or small business. By minimizing the need for meetings, chat tools can help save time and money. Additionally, chat tools can help build employee engagement and improve task management.

Many chat tools have accompanying mobile apps, allowing professionals to stay in touch while on the go. This can be especially helpful for businesses with remote employees. Easy-to-use chat tools provide an efficient way for all employees to communicate with each other, regardless of location.

Chat tools can also be helpful for quickly communicating with customers if they have a problem or complaint. In this day and age of online reviews, you need to ensure customer satisfaction is your number one priority so your online reputation stays intact.

This blog will dive into everything your small or large business needs to know about chat took, why you should have them, and the top ones available.

What Is a Chat Tool?

A chat tool is a web-based program that allows two or more users to communicate with each other in real-time. It enables users to send text messages, images, videos, and hyperlinks to one another, share screens, and even make voice and video calls.

Chat tools can be handy for businesses that want to communicate with their customers as soon as it’s initiated. They can help you quickly and efficiently resolve any issues or problems.

Why Should Companies Use Chat Tools?

Easy-to-use chat tools are essential for both large and small businesses. For large companies, these tools provide a way to communicate with employees in different departments or locations. This communication can be done in real-time, which is essential for companies always on the go.

For small businesses, chat tools provide a way to connect with customers. Customers can ask questions and get answers quickly without having to wait on hold or send an email that you may not be able to answer right away. This also allows businesses to build customer relationships and create a more personal connection with their customers.

What Are Some of the Top Chat Tools?

Large and small businesses need chat tools for internal communication between team members and for answering customer complaints and questions. Here are some of the best chat tools for large and small businesses.

Slack – Best for In-house Team Chat

Slack is a messaging app for businesses that lets employees communicate with one another quickly and efficiently. It’s perfect for small businesses because it’s easy to use and helps keep communication organized. Plus, there’s no need for a separate phone line or system—Slack works with your existing email addresses.

Larger businesses can also benefit from Slack. It makes it easy for employees in different departments to communicate with one another, and it can help cut down on email clutter. Slack also has a search function that makes it easy to find old conversations, which can be helpful when trying to track down a previous discussion about a project.

Pricing

Slack offers both a free and paid plan. The free program includes

• Unlimited users
• 1-on-1 calls within your team
• A 10k message history

The paid plans start at $8/user/month and offer complete history, screen sharing, huddles, and team video calls.

Microsoft Teams – Best for Large Businesses

Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration app that allows for video conferencing, team messaging, file sharing, and audio meetings all in one place. It is an excellent solution for businesses looking for an affordable virtual workspace with robust collaboration features and a high participant limit for video meetings.

Microsoft Teams is built for remote and hybrid work, which means teams can stay connected regardless of geographical distance. It also integrates well with Microsoft productivity apps, making it a great choice for users of the Office 365 suite.

Pricing

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workspace included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic and higher. It allows real-time collaboration with team members by chatting, sharing files, and working on project tasks together.

Microsoft Teams pricing starts at $6/user/month when paid annually. This price includes

• Sharepoint
• OneDrive
• Cloud versions of all Office apps
• Microsoft Teams chat

Additional features such as phone calling and meeting schedules are also available for an additional cost.

Google Chat – Best for Small Businesses

Google Chat is a messaging app that lets you communicate with coworkers and clients. It’s one of the best chat tools for small businesses because it’s easy to use and integrates well with other Google apps. It integrates with Google Calendar so that you can schedule meetings.

Google Chat is a fantastic chat tool because it’s easy to use and integrates with other Google tools that small businesses are already paying for, like Google Workspace. With Zapier, you can connect Google Chat with the other apps you use most to get notifications in the right channel before important events, for new form responses, or when you receive new tickets from the ticketing app. Common apps to connect to Google Chat include your email marketing app or a customer support app, making Google Chat the ultimate work chat for small businesses.

Pricing

Google Chat is a messaging app included with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) Basic and higher plans. For $6/user/month, you can get

• Gmail on your custom domain
• Google Workspace apps
• Google Chat

This makes it an excellent option for businesses that must communicate with employees and customers.

VoiceSage – Best for Mobile Communications

VoiceSage is a cloud-based communication platform that helps businesses achieve better customer engagement and experience through mobile messaging solutions. This includes business SMS, rich media messaging, voice messaging, WhatsApp for Business, email and social media.

VoiceSage offers a cloud communication platform that transforms business communications with SMS, rich media messaging, interactive voice response and email. With personalized business messaging solutions, VoiceSage helps customer-centric brands choose the best customer touchpoints to engage customers.

Pricing

Contact VoiceSage for their pricing options.

Conclusion

Chat tools can be handy for businesses of any size that want to communicate with their customers in real time, as they can help you quickly and efficiently resolve any issues or problems they may have.

Chat tools are also essential for effective inter-office communication, which has become increasingly vital to the cohesiveness and streamlining of businesses. Your business will suffer if you can’t communicate clearly and quickly with your team members.

Chat tools can help save time and money by minimizing the need for meetings. They can also help build employee engagement and improve task management. Many chat tools have accompanying mobile apps, allowing professionals to stay in touch while on the go. Some of the top chat tools for businesses include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, and VoiceSage.

Whether you have a large established business or a smaller one that is just getting going, there is a chat tool out there for you.