Over the years, I’ve experienced many small business owners mulling small communication decisions such as “Which VOIP provider should we choose?” and “Should we redesign our website?” and “Is Garageband the best tool to record a podcast?” as if they are considering geo-political warfare – conducting thorough analyses of competitor tools’ feature sets, background checks on the companies that’ll be doing the work, testing the support infrastructure, etc.
But these very same organizations tend to implement Slack on a whim. Slack!!! – The tool which carries more ill affects for company culture, organization and how stuff gets done internally than virtually any other tool! Why?!?
How is it an organization that will spend months deciding between WordPress or Wix, will invest no more than 5 minutes on-boarding Slack, a tool with far-greater and farther-reaching implications?
The answer is simple: Money. Specifically, the human allure to all that is “free”.
Slack Hooks You With “Free”
Slack has a free tier, and that’s how everyone starts using it – I wonder how many organizations would jump at implementing Slack if it carried even a nominal $6/person fee like Gmail… The money conversation happens, so the value conversation never happens.
In business, stuff only becomes important when it has a price tag attached. Wantonly adopt free services at your peril!
p.s. Slack no longer lists the free tier on their pricing page – Not sure what this means for you free users, but we’ve seen it before with Google Apps’ free tier, WordPress.com free tiers, Facebook free promotion, etc.!
