March
22
, 2023

Connecting Teams: How Video Chat Is Taking the World By Storm

Video chat has revolutionized how businesses communicate with clients, partners, and customers. Using email to conduct business is no longer the most effective method of communication. Companies are now adopting more advanced and efficient practices such as video chat.

Communication innovation allows people to quickly and clearly communicate with each other through video calls, screen sharing, and voice calls. It also helps reduce communication costs for business teams in different time zones. It's a more practical and faster solution than long-distance phone calls.

With the advancement of technology, video conferencing has become more accessible and affordable than ever before. More and more companies are now using video chat to enhance their communication, productivity, and overall business operations.

In this article, we will explore how virtual office platforms can positively contribute to your business.

Improved Communication

One of the most significant benefits of video chat is its ability to improve communication between teams, clients, and customers. Research has found that body language is responsible for more than half of the messages sent between people.

Video chat allows businesses to interact face-to-face with anyone, anywhere in the world, in real time. This eliminates the need for travel, saving both time and money.

Businesses can hold virtual meetings, webinars, and conferences, which can be recorded and shared with others who cannot attend. This makes communication more efficient, effective, and productive.

Increased Collaboration

With video chat, people can view the body language and facial expressions of everyone, which allows for more efficient and quicker collaboration. Screen-share will enable participants to show their screens and instantly cooperate on projects, presentations, and documents.

This allows teams to work together regardless of location, improving productivity and speeding up project completion. Video chat also fosters a sense of teamwork and can help build stronger relationships between team members.

Enhanced Customer Service

Virtual chat apps provide businesses with an excellent opportunity to interact directly with customers and save time by providing quick and efficient customer support. Through video chat, companies can provide a more personal customer service experience, enabling them to build relationships with their customers and increase their sales and profits. Businesses can also provide a visual demonstration of their products or services, allowing customers to see how they work, resulting in a more satisfied customer experience.

Increased Flexibility

Virtual office software allows businesses to expand their operations beyond their local area, enabling them to work with people from all over the world. It helps improve work-life balance as employees can work from anywhere, reducing stress and improving morale.

Video chat also provides businesses with increased flexibility, as they can connect with colleagues and customers from anywhere, as long as they have an internet connection.

Reduced Costs

Keep in touch with colleagues without going through costly and complicated IT setup processes. With a simple click of a button, you can meet with all your team members, allowing everyone to participate and collaborate quickly, as most video chat services can be accessed with a computer, tablet, or smartphone.

This helps reduce the time spent making decisions, which can improve the company's financial returns.

Conclusion

Virtual chat has become a game-changer for businesses of all sizes. As technology continues to advance, video chat is likely to become even more prevalent in the business world. Companies that embrace video chat will be better equipped to compete in the digital age and will be well-positioned for success in the future.

Re-discover the flow of working together in person. With Tandem, you can easily see who's available to talk, who's in a conversation, and who's busy. Start conversations as quickly as tapping someone on the shoulder. Unlock spontaneous collaboration in your team. Download our office video chat software now!

March
22
, 2023

Conquer Video Calls for Work with These Proven Strategies

In today's world of remote work, video calls have become an essential tool for communication. Whether you're connecting with colleagues, clients, or customers, video calls provide a way to stay connected and get work done without needing in-person meetings. However, video calls can be intimidating, and many people need help with the technology or feel uncomfortable on camera.

If you're one of the many people who find video calls challenging, don't worry. With the right strategies and tools, you can conquer video calls and thrive in remote work. In this article, we'll share some proven techniques for mastering video calls and making them an effective tool for your job.

Prepare for Success

The key to a successful video call is preparation. Before your call, take the time to gather all the information and materials you need, test your technology, and set up your workspace.

Here are some tips for preparing for a successful video call:

1. Gather Your Materials

Ensure you have all the materials for the call, such as notes, documents, or presentations. This will help you stay organized and on track during the call.

2. Test Your Technology

Test your camera, microphone, and internet connection before the call. Make sure everything is working properly, and if you encounter any issues, troubleshoot them before the call.

3. Set Up Your Workspace

Choose a quiet, well-lit space for your video call, and make sure your background is professional and uncluttered. Position your camera at eye level, so you're looking directly at the screen, and use headphones to minimize background noise.

4. Dress Appropriately

Dress professionally for the call, even if you're working from home. This will help you feel confident and prepared.

5. Engage Your Audience

Once you're prepared for the call, it's time to engage your audience. Video calls can be more challenging than in-person meetings because you can't communicate with body language or other nonverbal cues.

However, there are still ways to engage your audience and make a connection. Here are some tips for engaging your audience:

  • Maintain eye contact: Look directly at the camera when you're speaking, so it appears you're making eye contact with the other person. This will help you build rapport and establish a connection.
  • Use visual aids: Use visual aids, such as slides or a whiteboard, to keep the conversation on track and engage your audience. This will help you communicate more effectively and keep everyone focused.
  • Be animated: Use your voice and facial expressions to convey your message and keep your audience engaged. Speak clearly and with enthusiasm, and use gestures to emphasize key points.
  • Ask questions: Encourage your audience to participate in the conversation by asking questions and soliciting feedback. This will help you build a rapport and establish a two-way dialogue.

Conclusion

Video calls are an essential tool for remote work, but they can be intimidating. With the right strategies and tools, however, you can conquer video calls and use them to your advantage. By preparing for success, engaging your audience, and following up appropriately, you can make video calls an effective tool for your work and build strong relationships with your colleagues, clients, and customers.

Are you working in a virtual office setup? Try out Tandem for free with any team size for up to two weeks. Tandem is the most cost-effective solution for team communication. For more information, feel free to connect with us today.

December
14
, 2022

5 Great Virtual Party Ideas to Try This Holiday Season

Virtual holiday parties are the perfect way to stay connected with loved ones and make the most of the holiday season. This is especially true for families that do not live together in the same vicinity. With a bit of creativity and a few easy-to-use online tools, you can create a truly memorable holiday experience.

In this article, we'll cover some of the best virtual holiday party ideas that your friends and family will love. From classic holiday games to virtual gift exchanges, you'll find the perfect way to celebrate the season with the people you care about most.

With a few clicks, you'll be able to create a cozy, festive atmosphere for your guests to enjoy. So, if you're ready to throw the perfect virtual holiday party, keep reading for some great ideas and helpful tips!

1 - Virtual Cocktail Hour

A virtual cocktail hour is a great way to kick off your virtual holiday party. Set the mood with festive drinks, like a hot toddy or a mulled wine, and a playlist of holiday tunes. Invite your guests to mix their own drinks and chat about their favorite holiday memories. You can even add a few virtual party games to the mix, like virtual trivia or charades.

2 - Holiday Movie Night

Nothing says the holidays like a classic holiday movie. Set up a virtual movie night for your guests to enjoy. Choose a classic holiday movie, like Elf or It’s a Wonderful Life, and provide your guests with a link to watch the movie together. If you have the time, you can even plan a themed party around the movie. Ask your guests to dress up in their favorite holiday costumes and provide snacks and drinks to match the theme.

3 - Virtual Gift Exchange

A virtual gift exchange is a great way to add some fun to your virtual holiday party. Ask your guests to bring a wrapped gift to the party and set up a game of virtual bingo. Each guest will take turns picking a gift and then opening it on camera for the group. You can also set up a virtual Secret Santa exchange, where each guest is assigned another guest to buy a gift for.

4 - Holiday Karaoke

Karaoke is always a hit at any party, and a virtual holiday karaoke party is no exception. Choose some of your favorite holiday songs and invite your guests to sing along. If you want to add a bit of competition, you can create a virtual karaoke contest and give out prizes for the best performances.

5 - Virtual Scavenger Hunt

Organize a virtual scavenger hunt for your guests. Give them a list of items that they must find around their house or in their neighborhood. You can make the scavenger hunt as easy or as challenging as you like. Once they have completed the hunt, they can send you their results or show them on camera. The first person to finish the hunt wins a prize.

Conclusion

Many activities can be done at a virtual holiday party that will make it fun, interactive, and meaningful. You can have a virtual holiday movie night, play virtual games, have a virtual cookie decorating contest, send out holiday cards, have a virtual white elephant gift exchange, or some other creative way to celebrate the season. Whatever activities you decide to do for your virtual holiday party, your friends and family will be sure to have a wonderful time.

If you are in search of good virtual chat apps to use for your party, give Tandem a try! This app lets you meet with people and have them as if they are right beside you! Call and inquire today!

December
14
, 2022

How to Make Your Virtual Collaboration More Effective

Virtual collaboration is one of the most effective ways to manage a business spread across multiple locations. However, if you take the time to ensure your virtual workplace is as comprehensive as possible, it can stay within its full potential.

If you want your virtual collaboration to be more effective, then here are some tips for making it happen:

1. Establish a Clear Sense of Direction

You'll need to establish your company's goals before building your virtual office space. Everyone in the organization needs to know their role and how they contribute to achieving these goals. This will ensure clarity regarding assignments and communication between departments and teams.

2. Keep Communication Streamlined and Organized

You must have a central place for keeping all your communications. You can use one of the many virtual collaboration tools or Tandem for all team communications. The point is that you need to have one centralized location where everyone can go when they need information about what's happening within the company.

3. Set Up an Effective Collaboration Space That Encourages Interaction

The best way to foster collaboration is to have an environment that encourages it. This means having a space where employees can talk, share ideas, and bounce off each other's thoughts. In virtual setups, this means providing an area where employees can meet face-to-face. It doesn't have to be a physical space—it could be a conference room or even just a virtual meeting space within your collaboration software.

4. Use Technology to Your Advantage

Technology can be a powerful tool for fostering collaboration and communication. It can help employees work together more effectively and allow you to maintain an open communication culture without sacrificing productivity.

5. Determine the Best Workflow and Structure for Your Team

One of the best ways to improve collaboration and communication within your organization is to determine how best to structure your team. This can depend on various factors, including how many people are on the team, their roles, and how frequently they need to communicate with one another.

The best way to do this is to create a team structure that allows easy communication and collaboration. One of the most common strategies is to divide your team into smaller subgroups or teams, each with its own responsibilities and goals.

6. Establish Clear Expectations for all Participants

Establishing clear expectations is another important step in improving communication and collaboration within your organization. It's also a good idea to communicate these expectations on an ongoing basis so that everyone remains aware of what is expected from them.

7. Create an Enviable Culture of Cooperation

There is a strong correlation between cooperation and improved communication in your organization. Establishing a culture of cooperation can be accomplished by ensuring that everyone feels like they are valued team members, providing them with clear direction on what is expected from them, and showing appreciation when they succeed at completing their tasks.

Conclusion

You must set up the right infrastructure to make your virtual collaboration more effective. You need to have a centralized place where information is stored and an easy way for people to share their files and communicate with each other.

Tandem has made this possible with its cloud-based platform. We have also made it easy for you to manage your project and keep track of all the information flowing through it. So if you're looking for a way to make your virtual office more effective, give Tandem a try today.

April
06
, 2022

Introducing Hybrid Spaces: Teleport around the office

Tandem Hybrid Spaces

The future is hybrid

Offices are powerful spaces for collaboration and creativity. In fact, working in-person can be like a team superpower—it builds trust, and trust (or psychological safety) unlocks speed and creativity. But flexibility is here to stay - not everyone is willing or able to be fully in-person. As a result, the best companies will be hybrid.

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about the coming wave of hybrid work in Hybrid Anxiety and Optimism, and we've seen it happen. Here are some snippets from this month alone:

  • Google told employees that they are expected to go back to the physical offices by  April 4th. The company dedicated the month of March to helping teams "transition to new routines" in preparation for their "hybrid work approach."
  • Apple employees will be expected to work at least one day a week in the office, by April 11.
  • Microsoft employees moved to a hybrid work model on March 28.
  • Lyft will offer a permanent "fully flexible" policy, allowing employees to choose where to work and live.
  • Uber is giving its global office workers the option to apply for fully remote work or choose from a list of other office instead of their pre-pandemic location. Employees that choose to come back to the office will be asked to spend at least 50% of their time there.

But hybrid work has massive, systemic, org-level, and team-level tensions. Employees want flexibility, but this creates a logistical nightmare. In-person is naturally synchronous and spontaneous, but these conversations are especially difficult to include remote teammates in. Overall, remote teammates are severely underpowered, and can feel like 2nd-class citizens.

The office needs to evolve, but how?

We know the wrong answer: Bringing people back to the office only to take calls from separate rooms, have less spontaneous chats, and more scheduled meetings. This is truly the worst of both worlds. Instead, we must make remote employees more powerful than ever before.

We must give remote teammates the power to engage with in-person teammates as easily as a tap on the shoulder, join in on spontaneous jams and brainstorms, and collaborate effortlessly across multiple media.

At Tandem, we’ve not only been thinking on the hybrid problem for years, we've lived it. Our team is hybrid, with two micro-offices in SF and Cupertino, and some fully-remote team members. We experimented relentlessly, attempting to solve the problems we felt, personally, and ultimately held a company-wide hackathon, where we made a major breakthrough.

Enter Hybrid Spaces:

Using off-the-shelf conferencing hardware, Spaces give remote teammates an always-on window to teleport around the office.

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Hybrid Spaces, in 2 minutes.

As an in-person user, seeing your remote teammates on larger surfaces in the office feels surprisingly natural, and makes it easy to interact spontaneously.

As a remote user, the feeling of visibility and power is visceral. There's a sense of mobility - it feels like you can teleport around the office, and be where you want to be. There's also a strong feeling of presence - your teammates know you're around, and you're aware of the hum and energy in the office.

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Joining a spontaneous brainstorm with Hybrid Spaces

Spaces transform the open floor and unlock hybrid “hallway conversations” in-between meetings, but also bring fluidity to scheduled meetings. Some features to highlight:

  • Launch external meetings (Zoom, Teams, Meet, Webex)
  • Google Calendar resource support (launch meetings automatically)
  • Cast your local or remote screenshare with one click.
  • Support multiple cameras at the same time (e.g. show people and whiteboard at the same time)
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Collaboration on Hybrid Spaces

Quick to setup and flexible

Hardware is flexible. You can get started with a spare laptop but investing in nicer kiosks (mic + camera + TV) allows for a more immersive and engaging experience. We recommend at least 2-3 kiosks to get started with Spaces. They're easy to swap out and rearrange around the office based on your floorplan and traffic.

Setup is fairly quick and self-serve, and we’re happy to schedule a 15 minute setup call to help.

Pricing: Spaces are available with any paid Tandem plan with an additional $50/month (for up to 25 kiosks).

What our pilot companies say

"Lightfox Games is fully embracing a hybrid model, allowing people to work wherever they feel the most productive. As we moved back into a physical office space, we were worried about how we could ensure we maintain a collaborative environment with some team members together physically, and others working from home. Tandem Hybrid Spaces has been instrumental in ensuring that our remote employees and office employees feel effortlessly connected. From standups, to important meetings, to just watercooler chatter, The Kiosk is the heart of our office space." — Jordan Arnold, Head of Product/Design at Lightfox Games
"Our common use cases include checking on the status of 3D prints, fostering a tighter hybrid community, and enabling the magical ability to truly teleport throughout a workspace." — Ian Villa, COO at Whisper Aero
"Hybrid Spaces allow our team to recreate the serendipity of walking by a co-workers desk or dropping into their office for a quick chat. Although we are working thousands of miles apart, Hybrid Spaces help generate serendipitous interactions and make our team feel as if we are working together in the office." — David Bromberg, Founder at Lantern

Onwards

Hybrid Spaces are now available to set up (you don't have to be an existing Tandem user) - If you want to learn more prior to setup, feel free to book a 15-minute demo with us.

As a final thought, I’m personally thrilled that—in our pilots—Hybrid Spaces are delivering on what we set out to do a year ago. From my piece Hybrid Anxiety and Optimism:

While the fine details may still be fuzzy, we can sketch in broad strokes what a successful hybrid office will look like: Those workers who are remote will have access to the flow of in-person collaboration; you’ll look back on your last meeting, collaboration session, or spontaneous conversation, and not be able to recall which teammates were in the office and which were not.

— Rajiv Ayyangar (CEO)

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