Slack vs email is a common debate in the business landscape. Which of the two is better?
Statista reports that the number of email users worldwide will reach $4.73 billion by 2026. Even now, billions of people use email for personal and professional communication.
However, the advent of instant messaging platforms like Slack has changed how teams communicate. About 80% of Fortune 100 companies use Slack in their communications.
A quick comparison of both platforms reveals that Slack outshines email in several regards. We look at a few of them below.
If you already use Slack for internal collaboration, you'd know its highlighting features. But if you don't, that's fine, too. We'll discuss a few use cases where you should opt for Slack rather than email for better and more swift processes.
You send a co-worker an email. Then, you send a reminder email two hours later because they still haven't replied. By the end of the day, you've exchanged a few emails only about one topic.
In contrast, instant messaging on Slack allows real-time communication. You send a message and receive a prompt response. Since conversations are divided by channels, you save the hassle of sifting through emails for a specific conversation.
Another benefit of Slack, in this case, is file sharing. Emails have a limit of attachments they can carry, but Slack lets you share large files, too. Whether you need to send a long video or a large document, Slack is the way to go.
Plus, you know for sure that the recipient has received your message — no need for those annoying "Did you see my email?" follow-up emails.
Slack Huddles further improve communication. You can have a quick voice or video call with your team members, eliminating the need for multiple emails back and forth. With these features, Slack can reduce meetings by 23%. Ryan Mahone, Director of Engineering at MBTA Customer Technology, says that in the time teams take to ''email or schedule a meeting.'' they can gather in Slack and resolve the issue.
If you've ever tried managing a project with a group of people through email, you know how messy it can get. Slack has a ton of features to make the process much easier.
Email-based customer support can get quite tedious, especially when dealing with a large number of requests. A customer sends you an email, you respond, then they respond, and it goes on.
Later, when you have to check up on an old conversation, you have to dig through your inbox trying to find that specific thread. It's pretty time-consuming.
On the contrary, JustReply lets you manage your support requests through Slack. You just join the two tools and start getting queries submitted in JustReply's chat widget in your Slack. Your support team can then respond to all tickets without ever leaving Slack.
Just like project management, Slack can also be used for marketing. Slack has a comprehensive guide on using it for marketing purposes.
Some of the ways you can use Slack for marketing include:
What's cool about using Slack for marketing is that you can do everything in a unified space. There's no need to download a dozen different tools or switch between different platforms.
Plus, if you already use Slack for other use cases, adding another one shouldn't be an issue.
Many organizations use email for employee onboarding. But that can be overwhelming. There are too many attachments and too many threads to keep up with. Plus, it's not interactive at all.
Slack simplifies the onboarding process for both HR and the new hire. You can use it to:
Taking the Slack route has many benefits. One, employees have a repository that they can go back to if they need to refresh their memory. Two, it helps build a sense of community and camaraderie among team members.
Here are a few key takeaways from this Slack vs email comparison guide:
While email has been a staple in business and can still be used for specific purposes, Slack's potential is too great to ignore.
Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash
