Author: Franz Malten Buemann

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We’ve finally made it through 2021, the year that drastically changed the way we work in offices. One thing that came with the pandemic was the transition of offices from on-site to remote. Many workplaces have shifted to a hybrid pattern since then.

So what does that mean for employers? Hybrid work means your employees can no longer rely on manual attendance or time tracking methods. Therefore, it’s time to leave behind old-school methods. Today’s world has changed, and most organizations now prefer having a reliable time tracking system for their employees.

In this article, we list down various employee time tracking apps on Slack. So let’s begin.

AttendanceBot

AttendanceBot is a powerful time tracking software for both small and medium-sized organizations. A great tool for remote and hybrid teams, AttendanceBot works from right inside Slack. The best thing is that it adapts to your team’s needs as you see fit. It can be a simple time tracking solution for smaller teams, while if you are a bigger team that prefers more robust features, it can use additional functionalities. With AttendanceBot, you can:

• Clock in or out easily without you worrying about tracking the time spent on a task/project each day
• Get reminders to punch in or out as your day begins or ends
• Generate timesheets within Slack
• Track billable hours with ease if you’re a freelancer or an agency
• Easily download Excel reports and get them delivered straight to you periodically
• Keep track of time spent on tasks
• If your team works in different shifts, you can manage their schedules and even customize shifts for each member
• Improve employee engagement and productivity

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Pricing

• AttendanceBot offers a 14-day free trial
• Starting from just $4 per user per month paid annually
• Available on iOS, Windows, Linux, Android, Mac

Hubstaff

Second, on our list is Hubstaff, an app that helps businesses of all sizes to:

• Track time
• Manage team productivity
• Manage their remote workforce
• Track what workers are doing with periodic screenshots
• Measure productivity by keystroke tracking
• Generate online timesheets and team reports

Pricing

• Offers a 14-day free trial
• Starts at $7 per user per month
• Available on macOS, Linux, Windows, ChromeOS, iOS, Android

TimeDoctor

TimeDoctor is an employee time tracking app that helps you measure and analyze how your team spends its time. It also gives insights on who’s the best performer on the team. It syncs with more than 60 software. Additionally, its time tracking system records what web pages and apps each employee uses. Using this app, you can:

• Time spent on tasks and breaks
• Take automated screenshots
• Generate reports and timesheets

Pricing

• TimeDoctor offers a 14-day free trial
• Starting from just $7 per user per month
• Available on macOS, Linux, Windows, Android

Everhour

Everhour is another employee time tracking software that helps users track time from the apps they already use. With this, Employees can start and stop their timer to record activities as they work. They can also log hours manually later. Everhour helps you:

• Track time spent by an employee on each task
• Track their breaks
• You can also use time tracking data to create invoices automatically
• Generate reports

Everhour also offers integrations with tools like Asana, Trello, Slack, Jira, etc.

Pricing

• Offers a free trial of 14 days
• Starts at $8.50 per user per month
• Available on macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS

Toggl

Toggl is a time tracking app that helps users:

• Track time across the web app, desktop app, mobile app, or browser extension
• Auto track apps and websites that you use for more than 10 seconds
• Integrate your Outlook or Google Calendar into Toggl Track’s Calendar
• Set up Toggl Track to trigger time entry suggestions

Additionally, Toggl Track’s browser extensions allow you to start the timer directly from online tools like Asana, Todoist, Trello, and more.

Pricing

• Offers a free trial of 30 days
• Strats at $8 per user per month
• Available on Linux, iOS, Windows, Android, Mac

RescueTime

RescueTime offers its users an employee working hours tracker along with productivity monitoring. In addition, it also tracks the amount of time an employee spends on different websites and apps during their work hours. This helps an employer monitor their productivity and other things that they should be focusing on.

RescueTime is more of a productivity tracking app than a time tracking app, and that’s what makes it different. Another unique feature of this app is that it helps employers block distracting websites and apps like social media.

Pricing

• Rescue time offers a 14-day free trial.
• Starts at $9 per user per month
• Available on macOS and Windows

Harvest

Harvest is modern time tracking software that helps you:

• Track time from your desktop, phone, or favorite software
• Track time from the productivity tools you already use every day
• Automate reminders that encourage you to track time consistently
• Start a timer or log hours in Slack.
• Check a teammate’s Harvest timer, so you don’t interrupt them when they’re in the middle of a meeting or deep work.
• Get a quick visual overview of progress on a particular project and share it with the rest of a Slack channel.

Pricing

• Offers a free trial of 30 days
• Starts at $12 per user per month

HourStack

HourStack is a weekly time allocation, time management, and time tracking tool for individuals and teams which integrates directly with Slack. It helps create effective time blocks that increase the team’s productivity.

With its easy-to-use options such as quick timers and drag-and-drop scheduling, this app makes time management fun for employees and time tracking easy for the management and HR. Use HourStack for:

• Time tracking
• Productivity management
• Timer & manual entry
• Project management

Pricing

• Offers a free trial of 14 days
• Pricing starts at $9 per month paid annually

ActiTIME

ActiTIME is a time tracker that manually or automatically captures time in the browser or on the mobile. Users can also add notes to their time entries and set up individual work schedules for employees.

It also helps you generate automatic timesheets, adds over time, and manage payroll depending on the time spent. It also has a mobile app that helps you track time on the go, even in offline mode.

Pricing

ActiTIME’s pricing plan depends on the size of your team. Its free plan is limited to only three users. Other plans include:

• ActiTIME Online 1–40 users $7 user per month
• ActiTIME Online for 41–200 users $6 per user per month
• actiTIME Online for above 200 users is based on custom pricing
• actiTIME Self-Hosted plan is for $120 per user

TimeCamp

TimeCamp is another time tracking solution that enables its users to track billable work hours and monitor employee productivity. It offers more than 50 integrations that allow you to sync and import your task without switching context readily. It also offers you time tracking reports.

TimeCamp is suitable for employers looking for a blend of time tracking and payroll management and monitoring their employees’ productivity.

Pricing

TimeCamp offers a 14-day free trial and is free for one user for a month.

• The basic monthly plan costs $7 per user
• Pro monthly plan costs $10 per user

Whether you are a small organization or a big one, you must choose a time tracking app that suits your unique needs. Before you decide on investing in a time tracker app, keep in mind your team size, employees, and organizational needs.

Don’t forget to give us your 👏 !

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10 Best Time Tracking Bots on Slack was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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(This article originally appeared in Forbes)

My dog died a few years ago. She was only about 7 years old and had a lot of health problems. I miss her. But one thing I don’t miss: my pharmacy bill.

That’s because Lavender (my wife chose the name, not me) was on no less than seven medications. And a day rarely went by without me a text message from my pharmacist at the CVS near me. It almost always went something like this:

CVS: Hello Lavender, you have a prescription due for a refill. Would you like to refill it? Me (impersonating Lavender because she’s a dog): Yes. CVS: Thank you. (5 minutes later) CVS: Lavender, your prescription does not have any more refills. Would you like us to contact your primary doctor? CVS: Thank you. (2 hours later) CVS: Lavender, your prescription has been renewed and refilled. You can pick it up at our location. CVS: Thank you.

I have hundreds of these interactions and it probably took me a good dozen or so of them to realize that I wasn’t talking to a pharmacist. I was talking to a robot. A chatbot robot. This is not new stuff. Lavender passed almost four years ago. So CVS — and other big brands — have been using this AI-based technology for a while. Not only is it getting better but it’s expected to significantly grow in use, and particularly with small and mid-sized companies like the one I own.

That’s according to new research from ResearchAndMarkets, which projects a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in the conversational AI market of more than 22 percent over the next few years. Right now the market is about $6.8 billion. By 2026 it’s predicted to expand to more than $18 billion.

And where’s the biggest growth? Small and mid-sized companies, which is projected to record a higher CAGR during the period. This should come as no surprise. As the cloud grows, it is becoming less expensive for even the smallest of companies to collect and analyze data. Many of the leading CRM software vendors — even the ones focused on small firms — are now incorporating chatbots into their applications.

According to an analysis of the report by Destination CRM chatbots “can communicate with mobile users with the help of text messaging, applications, websites, and social media. They help organizations in the real-time monitoring of customer behavior, trends, and interactions. They also track mobile services, such as geolocation, enabling rich, targeted communication based on locations and events.”

The report showed that the customer service segment will “hold the largest market share” because of its importance in meeting the demands of 24/7 support and that “chatbots provide a powerful way to conduct two-way communications by analyzing customer intents, and thus, act as an effective medium to respond to customer requests.”

What does this mean for your company, particularly if you run a smaller firm like mine? Two things.

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1. How Conversational AI can Automate Customer Service

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For starters it’s better customer service. The more you dig into your CRM system’s chatbot capabilities the more you’ll find that these conversational robots can handle basic questions from your customers and prospects quickly and accurately which is exactly what your visitors want. The more steps you take to enable your chatbots to deliver their information via any platform and device the more you can expand your reach. And the more willing you are to deploy the real time 24/7 translation features many of these applications have the better able you’ll be to serve and find customers anywhere around the world.

More importantly — and bluntly — these chatbots are simply replacing people. They cut your overhead. They reduce your costs of employment — wages, benefits, administration, etc. If you ask the management at CVS about this they’ll deny and just say that their AI technology is “helping to improve employee productivity” which, of course, is a bunch of nonsense. Answering basic customer service questions or sales requests is a value-less, skill-less job and it’s being replaced by robots. Hopefully the employees doing this kind of work are realizing this truth and are bumping up their skill set. I know that many of my clients are waking up to this fact. So am I.

Right now, my website has a simple chatbox on it with zero automation. I am going to make some changes this year. My CRM system, which provides this chatbox functionality for my website, has AI-powered features that — with a little bit of effort — can be configured to carry on conversations in advance of escalating a question to someone with more knowledge. It will not be perfect. There will be a learning curve. But I know in this will save my company time and help to cut overhead.

For what it’s worth, we did get a new dog a few months after Lavender passed and he’s doing great.

Don’t forget to give us your 👏 !

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On CRM: Chatbots Are Becoming A $10 Billion Market was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Did you know that 81% of people use their mobile devices to look for restaurants? Mobile phones are found almost everywhere. People use their smartphones to plan where they will eat, what they will eat, and with whom they will eat. Some people are so engrossed in their phones that they would use them to check their social media accounts while eating.

Consumers’ methods for finding restaurants and ultimately deciding whether to order or dine in have evolved substantially over time. To be competitive in an era when consumers have so many more options at their fingertips, businesses must better understand their customers and competition than ever before.

By covering tablecloths with adverts promoting their opt-in SMS marketing campaign, several restaurant owners have turned something as ordinary bland as their restaurant tables into a marketing opportunity. However, this is just one of several possibilities.

Let’s look at how restaurant marketing can help you produce a lot of revenue for your establishment.

How Restaurants can use Mass Marketing:

Mass Marketing, according to this approach, restaurants develop, distribute, and advertise products to the general public. McDonald’s, for example, served only one-size hamburger to the entire market in the hopes of pleasing everyone.

When customers identify brand signs and buildings, the familiarity factor rises, and the likelihood of them visiting a specific restaurant rises as well.

• Brand recognition and promotion: Short and quick SMS offers are a great way to promote your brand. For redeemable prizes, use SMS shortcodes. Never presume that your customers are familiar with you! At the end of each text, include your company’s name and website.
• Promote your new menu and dishes: What’s a better way to inform people about your delectable new meals than to send them a text with a tempting offer? Send your consumers regular updates and become the talk of the town.

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1. How Conversational AI can Automate Customer Service

2. Automated vs Live Chats: What will the Future of Customer Service Look Like?

3. Chatbots As Medical Assistants In COVID-19 Pandemic

4. Chatbot Vs. Intelligent Virtual Assistant — What’s the difference & Why Care?

• Attract new customers with exclusive deals: Offer exclusive deals to attract new customers. Restaurant SMS marketing works incredibly well with exclusive restaurant specials, 1+1 meals, student deals, monthly contests, vouchers, and coupons. Make use of them to attract new customers.
• Text to win contests: Do you want to rapidly expand your text marketing list? Run a text-to-win campaign with an attractive grand prize. It keeps current subscribers interested and also attracts new ones.

• Increase subscribers: Cloud Messaging generates special QR code to encourage customers to join the distribution list
• Send SMS Blasts: Cloud Messaging enables you to send hundreds of messages in a matter of minutes with this bulk SMS feature. Send your texts when they’ll have the most impact. Make use of these features to publicize upcoming events and special offers.

Also, you need good software to get better results. Cloud Messaging, a software that helps you in Mass Marketing, Target Marketing, as well as MMS Marketing! Also, it is offering a free trial too! Try it now and see your business reach new heights!

How Restaurants can use Target Marketing:

Because there are so many various sorts of restaurants, each specializing in a distinct style of food, restaurant owners should target specific demographic groups to increase sales. Restaurants frequently promote their cuisine niches and pricing points to attract what they consider to be a distinct group of customers. When customers identify brand signs and buildings, the familiarity factor rises, and the likelihood of them visiting a specific restaurant rises as well.

• Limited-Time Offers: Send time-sensitive discounts to increase traffic, reduce wait times, and fill seats.
• Mobile Coupons: Send a campaign with an SMS voucher from a restaurant. You can also send an image of your food or a scannable QR Code via MMS.
• Weekly Offers: Inform your consumers about any weekly specials you may be running.

• Offers tailored to specific guests through loyalty and direct connection. For example, rewards-only invitations to wine dinners. When implemented correctly, this method reduces costs and increases ROI.
• Automated Birthday Text Rewards: Birthday rewards easily increase brand loyalty and daily food traffic.

Your target market is the group of customers you want to attract — eg. diners. They are the people who are most likely to purchase what you have to offer. Your restaurant’s target consumer is a specific segment of the larger dining market.

You can define your audience into these segments:-

• Breakfast buyers
• Lunchtime loyalists
• Prime customers
• Weekenders
• Devoted diners

Cloud Messaging is a target marketing software that is suitable for all business types! From restaurants to Branded stores, it can be used everywhere!

How Restaurants can use Direct Messaging:

Take a peek around your restaurant if you want to see how efficient restaurant SMS marketing is. Surprisingly, bars and restaurants have been hesitant to adopt text marketing compared to other businesses.

Restaurant SMS marketing is straightforward. Think about it for a second. At various times of the day, potential customers are likely to be thinking about food. They’re likely to do so with their phone in hand.

Why not offer them a special deal, discount, or offer to attract them to sign up?

• Reservation Reminders: Remind your customers that they’re dining with you.
• Staff Communications: Direct Messaging will help to keep your staff from missing important meetings.

Here are a few more SMS marketing campaign ideas for restaurants:

• Send texts when a customer’s food or table is ready
• Manage curbside pickup
• Manage reservations by SMS
• Limited-time offer for their next purchase
• Invitation to follow your restaurant on social media
• Request to leave a review

Restaurants Marketing Ideas:

Restaurant competition is intense, and you’ll need to give it your best to succeed.

We’re here to help you out with a few restaurant marketing ideas and techniques that can help you build your business and attract customers from all over the world!

• Foodie Photos
• Loyalty Programs
• Geo-Targeted Ads
• Send out an E-Mail Newsletter
• Promote user-generated content
• Monitor your social media presence
• Start a blog
• Offer coupons and discounts

Why Cloud Messaging:

Many text messaging solutions allow you to text customers one-on-one or send mass SMS. You’ll need a platform like Cloud Messaging that can do both. It allows you to do everything from sending out promotional messaging to managing pickups messages.

We hope you found this useful 🙂

Still, need any help? We are here for you! Visit us now at icloudy.cloudladderconsulting.com

Don’t forget to give us your 👏 !

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How Restaurants can use Cloud Messaging was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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