Slack is incredible at keeping our team connected without getting bogged down with emails. I love the emojis and GIFs to express each person. Keeping projects separated by hashtags is incredibly helpful. I also love the integration with Google Docs, which ensures each project has its own thread. We also use the polls option when booking meetings. I like the ability to schedule messages after hours.
Pros
Communication
Fast messaging.
Easy to set up.
Staff love it.
Cons
Cost - it's very expensive.
Task scheduling similar to Asana.
Integration with WhatsApp or iMessage.
Likelihood to Recommend
When I need to communicate internally or with clients and want a more informal opportunity, Slack is the best option. I use Slack with my staff located in different time zones to keep projects on schedule and to use it to huddle team members (phone calls) when we need to talk something out. I'm enjoying the voice functionality more. I wish Slack had integration with Asana or another scheduling tool for repeat tasks; it's also pretty expensive.
VU
Verified User
Executive in Marketing (Retail company, 1-10 employees)
We use Slack to get an specialized communication channel where our team gets just work messages instead of receiving them with the personal chats. This help us to separate personal live from work life.
Pros
Specialized channel
Omnichannel functions
Cons
Having free functions with unlimited messages. They should block other functions, such as calls, videocalls, but not messages
Likelihood to Recommend
I like Slack' stability, functions and look and feel.
We use Slack as our channel for all internal communication across our team. We have different channels for different projects/teams and have also used it in the past to update our status (working, break, meeting, etc). We have been using Slack since the beginning and it makes it easy to communicate with team memebers as we work remote most of the time.
Pros
Good interface
Integration with apps
Easy to use
Cons
Some of their other features are hard to use
Sometimes google calendar integration doesn't work
Likelihood to Recommend
Well suited for a smaller team of 15 people to communicate with team members. Good for internal project communication and potentially external as well but we haven't tried this at our company. Makes it easy to create group chats and its always open on my computer during the workday.
VU
Verified User
Project Manager in Product Management (Retail company, 11-50 employees)
I use Slack in many ways, from support escalation to daily exchange with tech teams in a remote work and international context. Slack was on of the best enabler for remote work during COVID and allow us to perform daily.
Pros
support escalation
dedicated channel management
allow multiple workflows and connector
web / app friendly
Cons
User experience
Automation
Likelihood to Recommend
Each morning a runner of teams under my folio are receiving a notification to ask them if production environment is OK. A simple reply from the allow all the other teams and colleague to know if everything is fine (ecomerce context). When you are working in a large company with thousands of colleagues, your direct message, channel you are into etc... make your Slack board like christmas garland lights : many UX improvement can solve that.
Slack is our key communication tool that we use in our organisation. Given we are nearly completely remote Slack is critical to our day to day communication. It has also largely replaced email for anything that can't wait a week to get a response.
Pros
Complex communication, allowing formatting, attachments etc.
Add-ons and automations to make life easier
Moving / modifying / transferring conversations as they evolve
Cons
It can be easy to lose / miss messages, particularly when they are replied to in threads
There can be a learning curve for some new users
Likelihood to Recommend
Pretty much any communication requirements it is fantastic. Chat, sharing files & content, bringing people together are all great. It's not quite as good for formal meetings, and another tool should be used for that. It's more suited to quick calls and chats.
In my company there is peope working full remote. We need a solution to discuss / exchange easily with remote person. Slack is a very good solution to manage all the discussions that could happen in a company. I use it intensively especially to log all the decisions we are taking everyday on architecture design.
Pros
the management of channel is very good
the search is quite good if specific words were used in post
the management of notifications is awesome
Cons
I'm doing a weekly recap of what happened based on post done during the week. I would appreciate to be able to automatize a part of it with a Slack feature
little bugs on mobile app to find emoticones
Likelihood to Recommend
I use Slack a lot to record everything that is happening is the project. Thanks to Slack + my practice of recording everything that is happening in the project, it's perfect when someone is asking why we took this decision ? You will find the decision + all the related discussions that were made before... And often the person asking for the "why" was part of the decision making process. It's a very good knowledge reminder if it is well filled.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (Retail company, 501-1000 employees)
Slack is used for real time chat and notification. We also use it for group based communication and community based groups. Slack is great for instant notification and file transfer. It is fairly easy to use. Threads is a useful feature which allows multiple channels of communication between sender and receiver.
Pros
Slack is good for one on one communication.
Good with emoticons, particularly thanks yous and plus ones.
Slack is great for subtle notifications and does not go with loudish orange icons on a receiver's taskbar like competitive products.
Cons
Too many icons makes it less professional.
Sometimes files can look funny if you are viewing them in window without downloading.
If someone wants to talk to you without mentioning you, you will not know, so there is a bit of a learning curve involved.
Likelihood to Recommend
It is great for 1 on 1 communication and conference calling. It is not so good if you have a meeting with larger groups. It is good for file transfer but has room for improvement on how it previews. You can create a large number of groups and communities which can bring people from a multinational together based on their individual interests.
In my organization we use Slack as our main solution to communicate with our co workers. It is easy to start a conversation or find an existing one. Lots of features to add emoji and gif to lighten things up. Very good tool and will continue to use it everyday.
Pros
ease of use
nice layout
many options
Cons
phone app
alerts
status
Likelihood to Recommend
Slack has been great for me to use in my everyday job communicating with both internal and external contacts. It is easy to start a new conversation with someone and also easy to find an existing conversation to continue. You can also add emoji and gif to the conversation to lighten the mood.
VU
Verified User
Account Manager in Sales (Retail company, 1001-5000 employees)
As we are working more remotely after the pandemic and left our big head office. We also have taken on 20% more freelancers so communication at the right quantity, timing and quantity essential. For example we have different channels - General, Social, Department teams and even a Football Banter group for different people. This saves having to send a whole bunch of unnecessarily emails to users and flood their inbox - especially for those coming back from annual leave or maternity leave.
Pros
Good for casual / social conversations
Reduce email inbox 'flooding'
Syncs well with Outlook calendar
Cons
Allow non paid premium users access to old messages
Allow easier re-connection if somebody deletes their app
Likelihood to Recommend
Very useful for quick conversation rather than long detailed emails with attachments that often need to be looked at again in years to time especially for audit purpose.
VU
Verified User
Manager in Finance and Accounting (Retail company, 11-50 employees)
We use Slack for internal communications, to keep track of outgoing email campaigns (internally), but also as a log for the various automations we have set up (product out-of-stock notifications, new customer support tickets, etc.). We also use Slack as a command prompt to trigger some automations in a third-party app.
Pros
Team communication
Task reminders
Keeping various logs in dedicated channels
Cons
More direct integrations with third-party apps so that we don't have to use a third party to connect Slack to them
More advanced integrations (namely more triggers)
Option to broadcast user status change to other team members
Likelihood to Recommend
Slack is a phenomenal app. The app is extremely powerful yet very easy to use on a daily basis. Slack excels in keeping conversations organized but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Our entire team uses the built-in reminders to stay on top of tasks and we also utilize channels as how-to knowledge-bases for our customer support reps and other staff members. We use various automations in our business and they all connect to Slack. For example, we use Shopify Flow to automatically send Slack messages in various scenarios:
- When a certain product goes out of stock - When an order is disputed or is put on hold or has an address change or some other detail we want communicated to the warehouse or a team member - When the time has come to take on a repeatable task (such as scheduled email list cleaning) - When an email campaign goes out (so that the warehouse and our customer support reps know to expect a spike in orders/tickets)
We also forward emails to dedicated Slack channels which helps us keep certain information logged and easily searchable/referenced when needed. And finally, we use Slack as a command prompt to trigger automations in Zapier.
VU
Verified User
Employee in Marketing (Retail company, 1-10 employees)