Communication, Training and Saving Time with Connecteam

Good communication with your collaborators and employees is fundamental for every company, specially when most of the people work at home. Connecteam is a tool than can help you with that and much more. We talked with the CEO, Amir Nehemia, to know more about the solution and how it can help small business owners and also bigger companies.

2020 was a crazy year for all businesses and I imagine that a clear and quick way of communicating with collaborators gained even more importance since most of us were working from home. Did Connecteam notice a spike in sales last year?

On a personal note, 2020 was a difficult year for so many of us, our friends, and our families. And definitely for our customers. Business-wise, however, Connecteam had an incredible year; we saw our customer base grow by more than 400%. Now, we also felt the impact of the pandemic more strongly on industries like retail, food and beverage, restaurants, and entertainment, but we also saw a healthy, positive spike in other industries like healthcare, manufacturing, security and cleaning.

Moreover, we were really proud to see how vital Connecteam became in addressing issues the pandemic raised: from day-to-day announcements and communication to daily screening checklists, efficient scheduling distribution, and so much more. Usage was off the chart. I think the urgency and vitality of keeping teams connected during this time ended up tipping the scales in our favor business-wise.

On your blog, there is a post warning business owners and managers to not use WhatsApp as a tool for communication. Why is it necessary to use a product like Connecteam and not just the one that’s accessible and there?

WhatsApp proved that employees are willing to use their private phones in order to communicate within the workplace, but it doesn’t mean it’s an ideal solution for managing a business.

Connecteam was solely designed for business use. We actively talk with our customers every day and focus on delivering a fantastic product and experience so that business owners can easily manage deskless employees from one place. Additionally, there are a lot of things in an organizational chat that is just not available on WhatsApp: what happens when someone leaves the organization, why should they still have access to the information exchanged? What if new team members join, do you really want to manually add them to the company group every time, sometimes multiple groups? It’s really not ideal.

Also, WhatsApp is primarily a chat app, whereas our platform has multiple features to address full business communication needs. Each feature has its own unique user interface and set of customizable capabilities to meet the specific organizational needs.

And with WhatsApp’s recent privacy policy update – obligating users to either approve the change altogether or to disconnect from the service – WhatsApp is more tricky to use for business communication. Think about it, what will happen if tomorrow they start to add promotional ads within your personal chats? Will you still use it? Probably not. No one wants to see ad banners in their email, and no one will want to see ads in their work app. With Connecteam, these are things you don’t ever have to worry about.

Having good communication with your team is something that looks basic, but many leaders fail in this area because they don’t give clear messages or don’t have time to help and guide each employee. How does Connecteam help in this regard?

I couldn’t agree more, effective internal communication can be an art form sometimes. And if we’re being realistic, leaders just don’t have the means to consistently reach their teams and keep them connected in real-time.

Connecteam offers multiple communication tools that can help various use cases, and the team is always happy to talk to customers that struggle with that and provide insights from our experience, and the experience we gained from our customers. Our website also houses many insightful blogs, how-to guides, and a robust help center with examples and best practices laid out to help managers craft their internal communication. Product-wise, we have a rich templates library for employee communication so managers can get an idea of some best practices or just select a template to use immediately.

When big companies approach you, what are their main concerns and areas/problems they want to fix?

That’s a very good question. We work with a variety of industries and leaders, each that have their own unique set of challenges. But if we look at it from a broad perspective, we often hear that teams are having a hard time communicating and reaching their on the go teams. For example healthcare is big on engaging their staff and creating a better sense of connection to the organization.

Others are looking to improve day-to-day operations, to better manage schedules or track time, digitize reporting, and in some cases it’s about compliance or a focus on improving the safety culture in the company. So we see a very wide set of needs and I think one of the advantages of Connecteam is the flexibility it offers to help organizations tailor the app to their needs.

Big companies are looking for better ways to train their staff since it’s a process that is costly and many times not as effective as it should be. How does Connecteam help with training? 

Connecteam is all about ease of use and productivity. Instead of having to sit in front of a screen for hours or spend a full day in a classroom, employees can complete their training while on the go and in small portions. Our product allows businesses to easily create training that consists of multiple sections and objects, so no need to digest all of the training material at once.

This helps everyone learn at their own pace which streamlines onboarding and managers can breathe easy knowing their staff is getting everything done at a time that works for them – managers have the capability of tracking employee progress in real-time so in a glance, they know how far each employee has come and can send reminders to those who need to move further along.

Plus, all training courses created on our platform can include documents, videos, images, and even quizzes to measure the training quality. We see that customers also add surveys at the end of the training to gain employee feedback on their experience so they can improve the training process.

Is Connecteam suited and affordable for small businesses, with 10 or even fewer employees? 

Absolutely. We take pride in being suited for SMBs, even those smaller than 10 employees, Connecteam is an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes. With an easy to use product and affordable pricing, SMBs don’t need IT to get started and can really benefit from a wide set of tools under one roof. Connecteam offers a modern and simple interface that even the least tech-savvy employees can immediately understand.

In addition, we don’t require users to have a company email, so onboarding the app is swift and easy. Customization is also a key part of our platform, so admins can modify different features in a way that will make the employees feel like the app was designed especially for them.

Finally, Connecteam is an all-in-one solution, meaning that small and medium businesses find us to be a single platform for all of their business needs. Not to mention, our affordable prices are fixed and not per user on all plans, therefore, our customers know that they can scale looking forward and enhance more aspects of their day to day using a single platform and without needing to purchase more licenses for new employees.

Why should a possible client choose Connecteam and not other tools? 

Our customers love Connecteam because it’s easy to use, affordable, highly scalable, and offers top notch customer service. We love our customers, and we believe that talking to them is an essential part of building a great product, so we do it every day and take feedback very seriously from the very beginning.

The relationships we built with our end-users helped us create a platform that includes all the different stakeholders in mind – from the employee that’s looking for an extremely easy to use app that actually makes their day to day easier, to the manager that’s looking to save time and make sure employees have everything they need to perform at their best, and to the business owner that’s looking to save money and resources with a reliable platform that keep everyone on the same page.