Team communication options for business teams have consistently been improving. This is apparent with the introduction of rapid communication tools like the group chat application Slack. This is true, especially for growing teams that have members across countries in different time zones. Conversations need to be fast and in real-time, and knowing the best chat app to use is essential. In this video, we put the spotlight on Slack and how you might think you’re getting the best deal out of their free Slack plan when in reality, you aren’t.
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We’ve worked with thousands of small businesses over many years. And it’s true that small business owners want to be productive. The savviest small business owners look for new technology to actually improve the way they’re doing things. Slack has been one of those tools that have been absolutely brilliant for that.
Not only does it let you connect your team with instant messaging, but it’s also easy to use. It’s got tons of great integrations. What I love about Slack is that it actually introduces many businesses into the realm of instant messaging. For years we were using Hangouts, or we were using Facebook Messenger or Skype in the old days for that. Slack’s made it really easy and accessible for everyone.
Dark Side of the free Slack plan
Slack has a dark side. Businesses are putting business data into Slack, and sometimes that data can be held hostage.
Let me tell you about how that works. Typically, a business owner will sign up for Slack because they’ve been referred by a friend or a business colleague. Perhaps someone says, “Hey, Slack is great.” And you set it up and you roll it out to your team. Everyone starts using it. Now it’s fun. You join in the GIPHY wars and you set up your different channels for your team. Everything’s going swimmingly. And while you’re on a Slack free account, you’re thinking, “Hey, this is awesome. Slack is great.” And it is an excellent tool.
Your data is held hostage
The challenge comes when you put more and more business data in Slack. There is a limit to the free plan. And that limit is currently 10,000 messages. So what that means is after you hit more than 10,000 messages in your Slack account is that you lose access those messages. So, think of like a kind of rolling limit on how far back you can go in your search.
What happens at that point is you have to pay for Slack, not just for one user, but for all of the users, and not just for a month, but for the whole year. Effectively, you’re held hostage in that you have a gun to your head and you’ve got to pay for this whole Slack account just to get access to that little bit of data. What some businesses owners say is, “Okay, well I’ll just kind of forego that, and we’ll just soldier on, and we won’t worry about it.” But, personally, I think that’s a pretty big risk to the business.
It’s not good enough to say that if you’re using Slack and but you don’t have access to all data. No, you need to have access to all of your business information. And not only that, you don’t want to have to potentially lose information and pay later on down the line to switch on your account.
A better alternative to Slack
What’s the solution? Well, if you’re already a G Suite user, and most of our audience is, then you have access to Hangouts Chat. Hangouts Chat is the new rewrite of Google Hangouts, and effectively, it’s a bit of a copy of Slack. Now, Hangouts Chat came out a couple of years after Slack. Google was a little bit slower to the party. Slack had a good five-year lead in building up a great application, but then Hangouts Chat effectively went and copied all the features.
You’ve got all the features available inside of Google Hangouts. You’ve got things like threaded conversations, you’ve got channels for different members, you’ve got instant messaging between each other, you’ve got GIPHY integrations, you’ve even got integration with some of your favourite apps, like Asana, but also, the AI elements of Google, like their automatic scheduling tool. You even have integrations with Google Drive and Hangouts Meet, Google’s Hangout video chat program.
If you’re on Slack right now and you want to make the switch over to Hangouts, and you’d like some help making that happen, then you can get in touch with our team. Head along to ITgenius.com. Or, if you’re worried about your particular integrations working, or you need some help with some custom integrations, then now be sure to let us know and we can investigate what’s happening with your current account right now.
