This simple productivity app is a real-deal time saver for busy professionals.
We are all searching for the Holy Grail of apps! You know, the one little square on your smartphone that will open up a world of productivity and efficiency, and will order you a pepperoni pizza and some garlic bread while it’s at it.
There are a zillion apps out there! They promise they will save you a load of time and make your life easier. Some are great, some are a total waste of money and megabytes.
My ‘go-to’ app
I recently discovered a standout app which is actually having a real impact on the time I spend communicating with my staff. It’s improving our efficiency as a team and helping us to get on with our work faster than ever.
Note: this is not a sponsored post! I just like sharing awesome stuff with my fellow entrepreneurs. You can thank me later. 🙂
The reason I use this app is that as a small business owner, I’m on the go all the time, racing to the airport, getting on planes and setting myself up in hotel rooms in all corners of the globe. While I’m doing this, my staff are back in the office steering the ship and making sure we don’t crash into an iceberg while I’m away.
If you also travel a lot and you’re anything like me, you’ll constantly be receiving questions from staff over email and on your voicemail and you’ll also be having realisations of all the things you forgot to mention to them before you left.
Ok, ok, tell me already!
Sorry to keep you hanging! The app I want to let you in on is called Voxer.
This is the app that consumer tech publisher CNET has called its “favourite way to communicate quickly” and which New York Times describes as “an ingenious crossbreed of text messaging and phone calls”.
So what’s Voxer? Remember being a kid and running around playing with walkie-talkies? This handy app is a scaled up version of your favourite childhood toy. In fact, it’s a scaled up version of what the military uses in the field. The founder himself is ex-military and served in the Middle East. He created Voxer after feeling frustrated that wireless communication was often patchy or was limited by access to telephone service providers.
How it works
Download Voxer and get your staff to do the same. Add each other as contacts you’ll be amazed at how quick and easy it is to connect and answer their questions.
When using Voxer, as long as you have an internet connection, you can talk to your staff at the press of a button. No more dialing numbers and waiting to be put through to message bank. No more expensive international call fees. And unlike your childhood walkie-talkie, you don’t even have to say “Over and out!”… unless you want to of course!
Open the app, press the button and start talking. Your colleague will get a notification that you’re on the line and they can listen in real time or catch what you’ve said when they’re ready. You can also send in-app texts and photos.
This app is just so handy. Ok, so it doesn’t shave hours off my working day. But it does shave off minutes, and that adds up over the course of a busy week. It’s quick, it’s simple and it lets you get your thoughts across the moment they come into your head, no matter where you are in the world.
Voxer is free in its basic form, or you can explore options as a business to set up a private network that connect staff around the globe and allow for group chats.
Give it a try, and let me know what apps you can’t live without! Tell us in the comments section below.
