The 4 remote collaboration tools that keep Talkr talking

Summary: a look at the 4 remote collaboration tools Talkr relies on, and how we use them, to be a successful remote first company 

There are many posts talking about the best digital collaboration tools for remote teams but we couldn’t find a great deal showing real world examples of how they are being specifically used by companies.  

So, we thought we’d share the digital tools we use for remote collaboration and exactly how we use them day in day out: 

Trello 

Trello is our digital Swiss army knife which we use individually and collaboratively to manage tasks and deadlines, new product development and to manage our social media content.  

A good example of the way we use Trello is in managing the social media content we wish to share, where we have split the board into columns by theme so that any of the team can add an article they find to the relevant column as a Trello card. This allows the rest of the team to read the article, comment on that card and collectively we agree which articles (cards) are the best to share. 

Once agreed we move the cards to the ‘Ready to post’ column and then by magic (our sales and marketing lead Martina) finds its way to our followers across our social channels.  

The beauty with Trello is anyone invited to our board can add, comment or move a card whenever and wherever they are and it is all super easy! 

Google Meet 

We use Google for most of our day to day activities, simply because it is all very straightforward to use from Drive to Mail to Calendar and to Meet. Meet is what we use for video and verbal communication, screen sharing and in-meeting chat.  

As you will find out, we use Meet alongside all our other collaboration tools as our primary means of communication.  

Miro 

Things now start to get a bit more exciting with Miro. Miro is essentially an interactive whiteboard and comes with all the features you find on a whiteboard in the office - you can draw on it, write on it and attach sticky notes. The thing we like with Miro is this board is shared and live, so any changes or actions by any of the team will be reflected on everyone's screen (or board). Using this alongside Meet means we can talk through our board together, with real time updates on our screens. 

At Talkr we have used Miro to reassess our product position, illustrate a potential new design and flow for our website and to simply brainstorm ideas. Again, Miro is very simple to use and that’s why we like it but it also allows us as a team to collaborate effectively and make decisions that if we did not have this visual, interactive tool in front of us it would be much harder to make.  

Zendesk 

Zendesk is primarily a customer communication tool, managing requests and issues using its ticketing platform, so maybe a little odd to find in this list. However, this is also a tool we consider to be collaborative as it is another method for our support agents to communicate with each other and resolve issues remotely.  

Multiple agents can view, interact and take action on the same ticket. Zendesk has an option where any update to the ticket can only be shared internally, allowing our support team to work through the given issue remotely and only updating the external customer when they feel there is a need to do so. 

Keeping the issue, communication and steps to resolve all within Zendesk has two main plus points. The issue does not get lost or ignored and other agents can easily view resolved tickets to use as steps to help future customers with the same or similar issue. 

Any new client to Talkr can and will have access to the tools above, with the Talkr team trained in best practices in each, and so will be able to advise your company on how each can be tailored to help your overall remote collaboration efforts.