Business owners and CEOs are continually challenged with improving productivity and collaboration. Challenges can include prioritization, delegation, communication, task management and accountability. Since handling these challenges effectively can make or break a business, we thought we’d share seven online tools that some of our LXCouncil members are using to improve their business efficiency and productivity. It should be no surprise that most of these tools are Cloud based, since having accessibility to these tools from anywhere in the world is an absolute requirement in today’s business climate.
7 Online Tools to Improve Your Business Efficiency
If you already use any of these tools (or try them as a result of this article), give us your opinion. We would love to hear from you!
CLOUD STORAGE AND FILE SHARING
Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/business
Dropbox allows you to keep all of your files together in one place on the Cloud. The beauty of Dropbox is that it easily syncs across all of your devices, and can be accessed from anywhere, at any time. You can assign team roles, assign access to folders depending on your requirements, and it has advanced security to ensure your documents are protected. You can store text documents, graphics, videos, presentations, and more. Consider using Dropbox and have access to everything you need from anywhere in the world.
TASK MANAGMENT
Trello
https://trello.com
Task management becomes very easy with this Cloud-based tool. It’s extremely intuitive. In fact, if you can use a chalkboard, you can use Trello. WIth Trello, you can build boards for projects and then add tasks. Trello boards allow you to add due dates, collaborators, checklists, attachments, connect to apps, and build your dream team. Trello also syncs across all of your devices, so youo can collaborate with your team from anywhere.
PASSWORD MANAGEMENT
Zoho Vault
https://www.zoho.com/vault
Zoho offers many valuable tools to help you boost sales, step up productivity, and manage day to day activities. One feature that we like, in particular, is their online password manager for teams. Zoho Vault allows you to keep all passwords in one place for team members to access from anywhere. It has multiple security features, a password assessment feature, and allows you to organize passwords by team members or groups. Check it out if your business utilizes a lot of passwords.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT INTERACTIONS
Zendesk
https://www.zendesk.com
This very nice product puts all your customer support interactions in one place, so communication is seamless, personal, and efficient. This means more productive agents and satisfied customers. The easy dashboard speeds up response time, has customizable tickets with skills-based routing or pre-defined actions, and can translate languages to make it easy for you to communicate. Crank up your customer support with Zendesk!
EMAIL MANAGEMENT
SaneBox
https://www.sanebox.com
This online tool’s slogan is “Get your life back,” and we agree! It prioritizes your inbox, tracks email replies, and uses powerful algorithms to filter out unimportant email. You use it in the same way that you view your existing folders. SaneBox can give you summaries of your SaneFolders to quickly process mails and trash or archive. We love the “SaneBlackHole” feature… automatically move annoying, time sucking emails out of your way and never see them again (unless you want to in your spare time, of course)!
TIME TRACKING
Toggl
https://www.toggl.com
This online time tracker tool boosts productivity by allowing time tracking from anywhere, for anyone on your team. If you are tracking timesheets, this is the tool for you. It can break down your data, automate your timesheets, give you insights on what your team is doing with their time, and you can ALSO break down your hours by projects, clients and tasks. Accessible anywhere on any device.
ONLINE SCHEDULING
Appointy
http://appointy.com
Appointy is an online scheduling tool that is worth a look looking. It has many features available for managing your staff and schedules by reducing no shows, filling empty time slots, sending automated email or text message reminders, and more. Use this internally to maximize scheduled meetings or externally to have complete control over your schedule. You can empower you customers to schedule themselves during open time slots, anytime or anywhere, limiting manpower required to manage your schedule and your teams schedule manually.
LXCouncil members regularly bring powerful ideas to share in our meetings, including but not limited to: best practices, business processes, employment practices, as well as useful productivity tools and apps. If you’re ready to take your business and leadership skills to the next level, and if you think your business could benefit from more insights like what’s offered in this article, let’s start a conversation. LXCouncil may be the perfect next step!
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