Slack Customer Review

As far as team messaging tools, Slack takes the crown from my point of view. Slack is extremely easy to set up and even more easy to learn how to use. In addition to an extremely easy navigation and user interface, Slack has endless app integrations available to really get the most of out the platform. Pricing is more than reasonable for the plans set. File sharing is Slack's biggest downfall in my opinion, there's nothing immediately wrong with it, I just think that it could be improved and better integrated for easier collaboration.

Pros:

- Incredibly easy to set up and use

- Endless app integrations to add quite literally any functionality or feature that you're looking for

- Help bot is slightly entertaining and truly supports you to get the most out of the platform

Cons:

- Video calling isn't fantastic, video quality could use some work

- File sharing is pretty standard, but could definitely be integrated better for easier collaboration

Slack is a communication tool so there's no shortage of features for messaging and chat. 

First, there's what Slack calls channels -- channels typically act as group messages in Slack. For most businesses, they revolve around a certain topic, department, or business strategy. For example, there may be a marketing or sales channel, a project channel for a new platform your company is building, or a references channel for work-related articles or books. 

Any user in your workspace can create a new channel (by selecting the "+") and add the necessary workspace members. Members can freely join or leave channels as needed. Channels are denoted in Slack by the "#". Channels can be public (anyone can join), private/locked (for only specified workspace members), or shared outwardly to another company's workspace. 

There's also a direct messaging option for Slack. Exactly like texting, this is a way to directly, singularly communicate with one person in your workspace. You can also create group chats via direct messages in Slack, but is only recommended if you need to speak to around 2-3 other team members -- anything larger would be suggested to be in a channel. 

The last important messaging feature in Slack is known as a thread. The link to your threads is at the top of the left-hand navigation. Clicking that will allow you to quickly see and reply to the threads of conversations that you've been in across channels and direct messaging. Threads are most helpful when providing feedback on a file, or discussing larger ideas with the entire team. Here's instructions on how to start a thread and best practices. 

Any member can archive or unarchive a channel. Only admins or owners of the workspace can delete a channel. Any member can edit or delete a message that they post. Unfortunately, you can't delete in bulk, but the workspace owner can set messages to delete after a specific timeframe. 

You can add both GIFs and emojis to Slack messages to keep conversations fun and lighthearted. You can also install giphy to quickly reach and send your favorite GIFs to your co-workers.

In Slack's messaging, you an attach a file of your wish to allow the person on the receiving end to be able to download that file. You can always refer back to any shared files by selecting the three vertical dots in the upper right hand corner. The maximum file size that you share is 1GB. For reference, a five page paper is typically around 100KB so 10,000 five page papers make up 1GB.

Slack also allows you to share via Google Drive with app integration. By adding Google Drive, a preview of the Google file will appear to both the sender and the receiver. It allows for the sharing settings on that Google File to be changed in the messaging platform directly for ease of use because we all forget to change the sharing settings before sending a file to someone. 

While it's relatively easy to share and send files to team members, Slack file sharing is nothing special and frankly not any easy than sending a file or sharing a Google file via email. Unless there's an new app to integrate within Slack, you will still have to collaborate via Google files or another document sharing tool and send the newest file versions back and forth.

Slack has an abundance of compliance certifications to protect your information and data across multiple avenues. To highlight a few: Protection of Personal Identifiable Information (PII), Cloud Security Alliance, Data Privacy Practices, and Information Security Management System (ISMS). You can obtain the full list, here.

Unfortunately, Slack is not HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant. Slack's Enterprise Plan has the possibility of being HIPAA compliant with customization and a business associate agreement. (Source: HIPAAguide.net)

Slack is not FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) compliant either, and does not appear to have the ability to become FERPA compliant on any plan level. 

Slack is GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant, as you can see above from the list of security and compliance certifications that they hold. You can learn more about their GDPR status, here. Slack does encrypt data. 

You can obtain the full list of compliancies and security information regarding Slack, here.

Slack video call functionality is okay in my experience with it. Don't get me wrong, I think it's fantastic that Slack even offers video calling as a feature on a messaging platform. However, the video quality even on 5G wifi is very pixelated and slow to respond. Individuals often cut in and out when talking via video conferencing on Slack. 

Group video conferencing is available on Slack. A maximum of 15 participants can be on the same call at once. The positive is that video is an optional aspect of Slack's calling feature. When video isn't added in, the audio and load-time on Slack calling is actually very good. 

Slack does offer screen sharing technology for users to utilize. A great way to quickly gain feedback on a design or feature outline from fellow team members. Screen sharing quality on Slack is also good, load-time and visual quality is fast and clear. You can also draw as someone shares their screen via Slack calling to more clearly point out an aspect of the screen that you're referring to. 

Although Slack does not offer its own version, Slack has app integrations such as Hippo, to allow you to record video conferencing to refer back to at a later date or send to team members who were unavailable. 

In regards to app integrations, Slack blows the competition out of the water. With over 1,50o different apps that you can integrate, Slack just about every tool under the sun to extend functionality and features of your workspace. 

Slack integrates well with Google, including Drive, Calendar, Hangouts, etc. Most app integration actions can be taken by typing a forward slash and the app (i.e. giphy is /giphy as a command in Slack). 

To add an app to Slack, you'll visit your workspace in your web browser and select "Add to Slack" and learn the necessary command to take advantage of the integration -- super simple! The best part is that anyone can add the apps that are best suited for them, so the sales team may want to integrate Salesforce while the development team may want to integrate Jira. 

As of now, there doesn't appear to be a limit on how many apps you an integrate into your workspace, but Slack will stop providing app suggestions (based on your actions within your workspace) after 10. 

Slack does have a help tool called "Slack Bot" that appears in the chats (only to you) depending on certain actions that you take. For example, when sharing a Google document to a team member, Slack Bot will ask if you want to install the Google Drive app integration. If you already have it installed, Slack Bot may tell you that the sharing settings need to be updated to share correctly with the team member that you sent it to.

Slack Bot is very useful and certainly helps you get the most out of your workspace with Slack. Slack Bot essentially acts as a guide to answers for questions on how to utilize Slack or perform a specific action on Slack. You can message Slack Bot and type in a general topic (i.e. GIF) or a more specific question (i.e how to insert a GIF). Slack Bot will return with direct articles on Slack's website with answers to what you're looking for. Surprisingly enough, the articles actually have answers to the questions you're looking for as Slack has a very thorough user/help guide. 

Slack does offer great search capabilities for your workspace, and compared to competitors it is fairly easy to use and find what you're looking for. 

In Slack, you can search any workspace in general, channel, or individual message thread for what you might be looking for. Utilizing keywords such as "phone number" to find the new office number, or identifying the person that sent it (whether they are still in your workspace or not) can help to narrow down your search very easily. When searching more generally, Slack allows you to toggle between users who may have sent the message, the channel it could've been in, or a date range in which is was sent. 

You can also search through the files that have been shared either individually with you or in channels that you're a part of in your workspace. You can see those that you previously downloaded as well. 

Fantastic customer service! I reached out to Slack to inquire why our workspace dashboard did not update yet, while others that I'm a member on already have. 

I was responded to within 30-45 seconds of sending my initial chat message. There's really nothing more to say other than it was fast, provided a thorough answer, and explained why. 

Hands down some of the best customer support I've ever had, especially from a B2B software.

Not the mention, they offer many different ways to receive the support that you need -- chat, call, or email.

Slack has fantastic notification settings and features to ensure that every user has their preferred method of notification. Within Slack, all notification settings can be managed via the bell shape in the left hand cover of your workspace. 

There is a "sleep mode" or "Do Not Disturb" feature that can either be enacted immediately or can be set on a schedule to limit the notifications that you receive out of the office or when sleeping. 

You can adjust the sound that Slack makes when it gives you a notification, but the default sound is pretty notorious to Slack and honestly pretty enjoyable to hear when you receive a message. 

You can mute specific channels so that even if someone mentions you, you won't receive a notification other than a number badge next to the channel name, 

Anytime that someone mentions you (@name) you will receive a notification as a formal way to indicate urgency and that either a response or discussion with you is occurring. 

Finally, channels (unless mentioned) only provide a little button shaped badge as a notification since those typically have ongoing, more casual conversation and are less urgent to respond to. You can adjust this so that you receive a full sound notification for conversation in channels if you wish.