Nowadays, all businesses are connected online with one another. Online interactions are the order of the day as even business deals are often finalized over chat room conversations. Online chats are often jumbled up and this is where the role of online tool “sameroom.io” comes into play. The tool works towards making chatroom interactions better and more fruitful.

Sameroom helps connect chatrooms across the globe, even though they are operating on completely different services. Founded by Peter Hizalev and Andrei Soroker in 2013, this tool is perfect to bring together all the different solutions to one platform for better interaction. The Sameroom software allows for combination between multiple chats on the same service. This combined chat can also be conducted across different platforms. Some of the platforms, which work with Sameroom include Skype, Google Hangouts, IRC, Yammer, Twitter, Salesforce Chatter, Telegram, Spark, and HipChat among others.

Sameroom – Cloud based interface for better connectivity

With the help of Sameroom tool, users, both individuals and teams, can interact across different chatrooms, discussing multiple issues at the same time. This helps to save a lot of time and money on the part of the client. Sameroom has Tubes, which connects two teams. For people wanting multiple connections, Sameroom provides Portals that have a shareable URL. These URLs are used to create unlimited number of Tubes between many users. Sameroom tool has other working options also like Relay and Hush, which not only enable message archiving but also allow communication without message replication.

Some of the best features of Sameroom include:

• Users can connect across multiple chat rooms even while being on the same platform.
• Messages posted in one chat room can automatically be seen in the other.
• Has facility for creating networks reaching multiple chat rooms
• Works using different forms like Tubes, Portals, Relay and Hush. All of these are designed to suit different purposes.
• The Sameroom platform is mostly used by people in the software and engineering field, venture capitalists.
• Sameroom gives users options whether they want their user name be displayed with the posted messages. It gives them the option of being anonymous.
• Users can also decide if their team name will be posted with the messages in connected rooms.

How It Works

Suppose you have two teams who are on different chat stations. The messages cannot be shared as they are on different platforms. This is where the role of Sameroom becomes important.

1. Sameroom works by automatically creating an account for the user.
2. Thereafter, user needs to click on the option “Create a Portal” and then select a source from the drop down menu.
3. This generates a link, which can be sent to the other users.
4. After the link is sent, one can type the name of the channels that need to be connected.
5. You then come to the “Manage” page where you will see a diagram.
6. This diagram will grow every time you add to the conversation.
7. One can connect to many different platforms within the same conversation.
8. Different teams can make use of the same channel without leaving their own chat rooms.
9. One can also upload or download files easily using this platform.
10. Real time transfer and documentation becomes very easy with the help of Sameroom tool.

Pros

There are many upsides to using Sameroom:

• Better Connectivity: The biggest advantage of using the Sameroom tool is that it offers better connectivity between different users and there is better exchange of ideas and materials.
• Builds Customer Bridges: The Sameroom tool allows customers to build bridges and connections across and between different products.
• Connects Multiple Chatrooms: Another major advantage of the Sameroom tool is that it works with many chat products like HipChat, Campfire, IRC, Slack, Glip, Fleep, Gitter, Kato among others.

Cons

There aren’t any real cons except that it:

• Takes Time to Understand: While there are not many negatives about the Sameroom tool, some people may take time to negotiate how the tool works.

• Smooth integration across chatrooms, courtesy @sameroomHQ sameroom.io/ via @supermonitoring

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Verdict

The overall verdict about Sameroom tool is that it is a very user friendly tool and helps many customers get connections across chat rooms, thus building bridges and improving business connections. With the basic subscription costing just $49 per month, this is one tool that is well worth the investment in it. We give it a thumbs up!

For any business, to ace success mastering customer support is essential. We often come across stories of how even after having great products and services, organizations aren’t able to reach the pinnacle they desire, all due to negligence in the customer support area. Believe us when we say, designing and delivering a great product is not the only thing that warranties success. You as a company need to be there to answer any and every question or concern your consumer may have. Agreed that it’s time taking and an often painful activity, but the results are totally worth the effort. And when you’ve got great tools like Sugester to assist you, why worry at all?

Sugester – Enhance your Customer Support Facility

Sugester is one of the simplest online applications available to help you provide better customer support, get new customers, and create an advanced ticket management system for your business. The tool serves as a one-stop helpdesk for you and your customers and helps keep both parties on the same page. With Sugester you can drastically cut down query response times by collecting and sorting through incoming messages, assign tasks to teams, and also monitor resolutions through a single interactive interface. With help materials posted online for 24 / 7 / 365 support, the tool makes sure you involve your team to resolve issues only when required. Also, it lets you monitor communication across various channels (email, phone, chat, and social media) at one place.

Sugester promises to help optimize your business communications by serving as a better formulized, specifically targeted, ever-present feedback and support platform. Some of the most appealing features of the tool include:

• A simple yet powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool that allows you to maintain profiles of your key customers, keep records of interactions and financial history with them, maintain regular contact with them, generate funnel charts and more.
• You can add a “Sugester Live Chat” window to your website by pasting a simple code snippet into your site’s code. That’s all you need to start chatting with your customers right away. The chat feature lets you avail benefits such as customizing its look-and-feel, persistent sessions, searchable archives, etc.
• Sugester is ideal for your company if your support team shares a common email id (for ex. help@company.com). It makes sure all emails get answered and that too, by the most apt team member. This feature includes time tracking, analytics, activity tracking, response rating, and canned response creation facilities.
• The software makes you better at task and project management by enabling you to easily create and assign tasks, group them into projects (with attributes such as deadlines etc.) and measure how long they take to complete.
• Offers a WYSIWYG editor to write, format, and edit professional help content without any programming. Even lets you create pop-up tips and intranet knowledge base for all team members.
• Provides a manageable forum to serve as a sounding board for complaints, suggestions, ideas and more.
• Integrates with Plivo, Telecube and other prominent VoIP providers to let you make / receive calls from computers, track call statistics, monitor email and phone conversations, etc.
• Provides a host of emailing features to allow you to concentrate on your core product and services without having to worry about auto-responses, mailing lists, custom footers, group mailing, etc.

How does this work?

To start using Sugester you can sign up with your email and password or with your Facebook credentials. You will be provided with a URL where your Sugester program will be available. By default this URL will have your email id in it, but you can change it to anything you want. To proceed, click on “Go to Program”. Sign up might take a couple of seconds after which you’ll be directed to a “modules” page that shows all the features the tool has to offer. You can hover on any feature to highlight it and click to select.

We clicked on Live Chat which enabled it and then proceeded to chat settings by clicking on the settings icon on the top right of the ‘Live Chat’ option. It opened up a page from where we could click on a link to get the code snippet for a chat window for our website. On proceeding we were required to fill out our chat window requirements and save. Thereafter a unique live chat window code will be generated for your website which you can also test right within Sugester.

Next, we tried our hand at Knowledge Base creation. The process was similar to the one used in Live Chat. Click to enable, edit settings, and configure as per requirement. At any point, to go back to the “modules” page, simply click on the Sugester icon on the top left corner of the screen. You can also go to settings for profile, account, language, etc. by choosing an appropriate option from the menus displayed on the top right corner of the screen.

So how does it turn out?

In our trials, Sugester seemed to be a cool tool that simplified the setting up and configuration of solid customer support for any website. However, what we noticed was that while the process to enable features and tune them to our requirements is quite simple really, first time users would need to have a slight know-how of the tool before comfortably playing around. So there is a learning curve attached.

Other than that, we found Sugester very impressive. It is also quite affordable with plans ranging from free to max ($49 per month per account).

• Build better customer support with @sugester sugester.com/ via @supermonitoring

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Final Verdict

In this money hungry world, Sugester is a tool that attempts to truly help you out at a price you won’t mind paying. Thumbs up to the tool!

If you’ve ever managed or been a part of a large team, you know how irritating it can be to wait for formalities like an approval to arrive in your mailbox before you can technically proceed. Similarly in the case of reports, even after you’ve just had a presentation or discussion within your team regarding results, you need to make it formal by typing a lengthy email with a report attached and send it to everyone on your mailing list; too cumbersome and frankly unnecessary if you ask us. It would all be much simpler if there could be something more informal and personalized that could be whipped up and shared quickly eliminating all time and technical constraints.

The good news is that a great app called Slack allows you to do just that!

Slack – Real time messaging for corporate teams!

As much as it sounds like just another messaging app, it’s actually not. This app is designed specifically for professionals who wish to make inter-team communication better and simpler. With just the right mix of messaging-app glamour and corporate professionalism, this application is well on the track to become the next big thing.

Slack brings together so much in such a light look-and-feel that you’ll have a hard time initially to sink so much in. You can find something from most social platforms here – a little bit of WhatsApp (messaging groups, image sharing), pinch of Twitter (tag based topic search, referring people through @ tag) and more.

Some great features of Slack include:

1. Group conversations

Create channels (or more commonly called groups) within the team or with only a bunch of people specific to a task and communicate with them from anywhere at any time without having to be restricted to VPNs or emailing formalities. Add that personal touch through one-to-one private messages in case of sensitive matters. You can choose to create channels based on projects, teams or even a topic.

2. Share files

Get over traditional email attachments; drag-and-drop is the way to go with Slack. Just drag a document, screenshot or report in a group to share it with all participants instantly, without having to wait for them to check their email. You can even share presentations or videos through Slack and get immediate feedback and comments on it to start a discussion. Moreover, if you use services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Box, just paste the link and that document is immediately in sync and searchable too.

3. Easy, extensive search

Slack makes searching for items easy. Just type in what you wish to search in the search box and whether it is a conversation, an item or a person, everything will be searched within milliseconds and you’ll see the results before you in a flash. Slack automatically indexes and archives stuff to make this possible.

4. Stay synced

If you frequently switch machines or platforms, you needn’t get into complications like exporting items or converting mailboxes. Slack being an online tool lets you stay in sync whether you work from your PC or your Smartphone so you can pick up exactly from where you left.

5. Custom notifications

Slack makes sure you never miss a thing or even be late in noticing. With custom notifications, you can make sure your phone or PC beeps every time you’re mentioned or an item is shared with you. Or if you prefer to not be disturbed, you can set that too.

6. Secure and safe

We’re sure that was the last item on your mind; well consider it checked too! All data within Slack is encrypted (256-bit AES and TLS 1.2) on the desktop or the phone. The makers perform security testing regularly to identify and resolve any loopholes so you can rest assured that your confidential data won’t be leaked online.
Aren’t you just dying to try it out?

So how does it work?

To start using Slack immediately just signup for free through the tool’s website. You’ll need to supply your email address, pick a name for the channel you wish to create, pick a URL, choose a username for yourself and you’re done!

Click on ‘Explore Slack’ and you’ll be directed to the main chat-share screen where you can get hands-on action done. You can start by inviting people to join Slack or join an existing team that you know of. Thereafter, create as many channels as you need to. All your channels and people in your network will be listed in a panel on the left hand side of the window. And if you get confused about things, there’s a handy helpful tutorial to help you out.

Drag-and-drop items from your PC or phone into the chat window’s text box to share instantly. If you want to browse through the files shared with you or that you’ve shared, click on a small 3-dot icon on the upper right corner of the window. This corner of the window also has a search box, an ‘@’ sign to search for conversations where you’ve been mentioned and a star icon indicating items that you’ve marked as favorite.

Pros VS Cons

In addition to the list of awesome features it has, the practical plus points of Slack include quick image transfer, no VPN requirement, availability in both forms – client installation as well as web tool, freedom to create as many channels as you want depending on the requirements of your team, notifications if someone on the team is online and lots and lots more. The best part of this tool is that its basic version is free for as long as you want; meaning you don’t have to pay a penny if you just wish to use its basic version. For standard, premium and enterprise (launching in 2015) versions however, you need to pay a nominal fee. But then you get a lot of additional features too so it’s a win-win deal.
The only con with this tool seems to be slight connection issues on some mobile networks or client machines. But this issue too seems to be temporary so you shouldn’t really be worried.

• Get over emailing formalities. Make work and sharing simpler and informal with @SlackHQ slack.com/ via @supermonitoring

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Final Verdict

All-in-all, Slack is a great tool for collaborating with your team and inculcating a bit of informal, happy work environment setting. You actually don’t have anything to lose so try it out with a couple of teammates just for fun and experience it for yourself.