In the modern era of business, more and more tools have become accessible for each unique purpose, making a business’s operations more versatile than ever before. 

We can conference across the world via voice or video with a simple internet connection and a mobile device in today’s age. 

There have also been competitors in the market, providing Customer Relation Management (CRM for short), called Salesforce & Slack. Salesforce & Slack are CRM attempting to help manage customer relations to gain more market share or revenue in the modern business digital era. 

While each has its benefits, what do they exactly do, and what are each one’s advantages? Let’s investigate below to see which may benefit your business needs.

 

Slack

Slack is known for its simple to use communicating methods between team members to get tasks completed. Slack is an email-based messaging client which allows for communication both in house with the company & with external clients. 

Its features are quite extensive, even having video & voice calls. Slack’s features include the following:

• Channels that act as centralized points of contact for particular groups. In these people can message, video call & voice call.
• Collaboration tools throughout Slack, making it one of few applications which include an all-in-one package for workplaces.
• APIs from other application developers such as Microsoft Office, Google Drive & thousands more to integrate everything you will ever need into an easy-to-use package.

It is no wonder people are migrating towards Slack’s use with its centralized communication techniques & easy to use integrated applications. 

For pricing, Slack offers four packages to its users to purchase with different levels of access in each. 

 

Salesforce

A known name in the workplace and well-renowned in the marketplace is Salesforce. Salesforce is a Customer Relations Manager (CRM) “Integrating every part of a business to the customer” using its cloud computing technology.

Its sole purpose is to provide revenue and leads for businesses and a support access point for a business’s customers. 

The features that Salesforce has are extensive but are not limited to:

• It provides each team member in a business a connection to all business customers to provide support & assistance.
• Using Artificial Intelligence helps create workflow models automatically using its automation algorithms.
• Integrates and backs up any data or systems of a business onto its cloud-based servers.
• Keeps all data integrity and provides high levels of security to any business data.
• It makes scaling business processes easy.
• Delivers innovation & sales using a B2B & B2C approach to clients.
• Automates admin work.
• Provides thousands of APIs to support applications on the platform.
• Aids in client contact via messaging, voice & video chats.

Whatever you need from a CRM, Salesforce has. Salesforce also comes in multiple different packages to purchase, making it versatile to what your business needs.

 

Zoom

Zoom is a new entry into the world of conferencing & meeting conductors. With its video, voice & messaging capabilities, it’s the latest choice to conduct meetings and conferences.

Unlike the two CRMs above, Slack & Salesforce, Zoom’s only features entail video conferencing & communication rather than purely customer relations management. 

Zoom provides other means for businesses to:

• Provide voice, video & messaging means of communication.
• Allowing collaboration & distance education/webinar options to clients.
• Can provide bots & other API integrations to make some processes automated.
• Has options to build private conference rooms for business meetings or client meetings.
• Scalable for all business needs.
• Recording of screens or calls.

These features give Zoom one advantage over those above, and that is its pricing points. Zoom is by far one of the cheapest options for video, voice & collaboration cloud software.

 

Skype

An existing giant in video & voice communications is Skype, known for its free and easy to use interface for video and voice calling. It also provides a means to share content via messaging. 

In recent times, Skype has been used for more than just business processes but for people to communicate by free means worldwide and used to chat via gaming platforms like Microsoft’s Xbox. However, sticking to purely business advantages like the rest of the platforms above, Skype offers some features the rest do not provide, such as:

 

• Free voice & video chat with unlimited length.
• Provides the option to call regular phone numbers via the internet at much cheaper rates (VoIP).
• Provides live subtitles for those who are of a foreign background or for those with hearing impairments.
• Allows for recording of calls.

 

Wrap Up

Each business operation has its requirements to gain market share and grow through each quarter with revenue increases. 

Having a CRM and a video conferencing tool has been a popular option during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as workers have been working both in the office & remotely. 

The video conferencing tools have seen a spike in use due to this & remain a popular integrated part of any business. 

If you are looking at expanding business operations & want to integrate cloud technologies, CRM may be the way forward in the future.

Big Kitty Labs is one of the leading software development companies in Columbus Ohio that has been developing applications, websites, and software for over 10 years. Contact us for free discovery and consultation on your next project!