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LOGGED ON<br />
TOOLS TO EASE THE CHRISTMAS RUSH<br />
THE FESTIVE SEASON IS CHAOTIC BUT THERE IS A PLETHORA OF DIGITAL STAFF COLLABORATION TOOLS TO HELP<br />
BUSINESSES STAY ORGANISED AND RUNNING SMOOTHLY THIS CHRISTMAS. LILIAN SUE REPORTS.<br />
Christmas can be a mad scramble. Every year,<br />
businesses must hire extra staff, order more<br />
inventory and ensure that each customer<br />
goes home with the perfect gift.<br />
Not only is finding staff an issue but new<br />
staff must be trained on the store systems<br />
and briefed with adequate knowledge of<br />
the products available on the shop floor.<br />
It all takes time, which is one commodity<br />
retailers rarely have during this period.<br />
That’s where software can assist, by allowing<br />
owners and managers to gain more time for<br />
their business without sacrificing productivity<br />
or profit during the busiest shopping season<br />
of the year.<br />
Online team collaboration tools help staff<br />
stay organised and well trained while they<br />
are contributing to increased business<br />
productivity. Here are three free, digital,<br />
team-collaboration-and-organisation tools<br />
that are efficient, easy to use and sure to<br />
give business owners and managers muchneeded<br />
time and breathing room during<br />
the festive season.<br />
ON THE SAME PAGE<br />
With a cloud-based collaboration platform<br />
like Same Page, business owners can sign<br />
up for free and log into their team account<br />
on their phones, laptops or tablets, increasing<br />
organisational efficiency.<br />
‘Team owners’ can directly message staff, post<br />
in team chat windows and even use video<br />
calling to host remote conferences with staff<br />
members to assist businesses with stores<br />
situated in different locations.<br />
Staff who are added as team members can<br />
easily upload diagrams and charts that show<br />
sales progress and even upload videos and<br />
photos of new jewellery and watches on<br />
the team page. Tasks can be given due<br />
dates and reminders can be assigned to<br />
relevant members, while the team task list<br />
can filter duties accordingly so they can be<br />
evenly distributed.<br />
Staff members are able to keep track of their<br />
progress with the official task tracker and<br />
calendars – both team and individual – are<br />
available so everyone is aware of deadlines,<br />
meetings and special events.<br />
HELLO, TRELLO<br />
Unique to Trello, the platform uses a cardbased<br />
system to make project management<br />
as simple as possible. Customised columns<br />
such as ‘in progress’ and ‘completed’ can be<br />
easily created on a project board to organise<br />
individual tasks. Each task is added to a<br />
column as a small card that lists individual<br />
tasks that can be assigned to different staff<br />
members. Space exists to add comments<br />
and an official deadline.<br />
Once a manager signs up for free, each<br />
team member is able to add checklists and<br />
attachments from other platforms such as<br />
Dropbox or GoogleDrive. They can also create<br />
more than one board for each project.<br />
Checklists make it easier to track progress<br />
as tasks can be crossed off once they’re<br />
completed. Each project board is also eligible<br />
for one ‘power-up’, a choice of specialised<br />
extras that have features such as allowing<br />
team members to see the tasks that haven’t<br />
received attention in more than a week,<br />
add video meetings, edit their e-newsletter<br />
campaigns or attach company surveys for<br />
other staff to complete.<br />
Trello is compatible with Mac and PC<br />
computers as well as Apple and Android<br />
mobile products.<br />
STRESS-FREE FREEDCAMP<br />
Freedcamp prides itself on being an all-inone<br />
solution for team collaboration and<br />
organisation. Business owners can have<br />
discussions with their staff in one place<br />
instead of dealing with scattered email<br />
threads and staff members can organise files<br />
in a state-of-the-art file system, backing up all<br />
information offline. Managers can also control<br />
staff rosters, tracking time on multiple staff<br />
members across multiple days.<br />
TEAM COLLABORATION TOOLS CAN REDUCE STRESS AT CHRISTMAS<br />
ONLINE TEAM<br />
COLLABORATION<br />
TOOLS HELP<br />
STAFF STAY<br />
ORGANISED AND<br />
WELL TRAINED<br />
WHILE THEY ARE<br />
CONTRIBUTING<br />
TO INCREASED<br />
BUSINESS<br />
PRODUCTIVITY<br />
Freedcamp gives staff members the option<br />
to assign tasks and set a goal by a certain date,<br />
notifying the team with progress updates as<br />
the goal moves closer as well. The software<br />
allows retailers to duplicate project templates,<br />
which increases productivity and eliminates<br />
the need to spend time and energy recreating<br />
homogenous project types.<br />
Freedcamp has unlimited storage and allows<br />
for unlimited projects. Business owners and<br />
team members can take the tool on the go<br />
through the iOS app on Apple products.<br />
With the right team collaboration and<br />
organisation tools, retailers can better manage<br />
staff tasks. The aim is to avoid drop-offs in<br />
productivity by allowing staff members to<br />
spend time on what matters: keeping their<br />
customers happy during the holiday rush and<br />
expanding business.<br />
Investing a little time and energy in the short<br />
term to find the best team collaboration tools<br />
will pay dividends in the long term and ensure<br />
the holiday rush is smoother and far jollier. i<br />
LILIAN SUE is a social media<br />
and PR strategist. She operates<br />
In Retrospect Writing Services.<br />
Learn more: inretrospect21.<br />
wordpress.com<br />
44 <strong>Jeweller</strong> <strong>December</strong> <strong>2017</strong>
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