Founded in 2020, ChitChattr is a software development startup that specialises in Microsoft Teams apps. Teams usage has skyrocketed in the last few quarters, with so many organisations switching to full-time or partial remote work. ChitChattr provides apps and tools that will add to Teams’ capabilities and enhance your product experience. ChitChattr has several Teams native tools such as:
- Reminderz – a self-reminder and recurring reminder app
- Quicklinks – a shortcut and bookmark creation app
- Quotations – a bot that sends you inspiring quotes
- Shortlinks – a Teams-based URL shortener
- TeamMate – an employee onboarding tool for Teams
ChitChattr launched TeamMate for Microsoft Teams in March 2021. It allows you to quickly onboard new users and helps users familiarise themselves with co-workers, colleagues, team members, etc. – essentially receiving a company walkthrough without being present in person. TeamMate frees up HR time by creating reusable workflows and assets to support new joiners. Like several of ChitChattr’s other apps, TeamMate is entirely conversational and works using an AI-powered bot. You can further customise the new joiner experience by connecting with your personalised knowledge base at the backend.
TeamMate also uses some of the features available in ChitChattr’s other apps, such as reminders.
Let us review TeamMate for Teams in detail.
Inside TeamMate for Teams
TeamMate is a Teams-native tool, meaning you won’t need to install a standalone platform to get started. You will, however, need a TeamMate account – the app is free for up to 5 users and costs $19.99 for 1-250 users a month.
You can download TeamMate from Microsoft AppSource or the application store in Teams. Here are its key features:
- The TeamMate bot – TeamMate automates the onboarding process by deploying a chatbot to conduct initial greetings. Once new user/joiner logs into the app, they will be greeted by the TeamMate bot, learn about the company, and receive a brief walkthrough of the organisation. All of this is managed by the TeamMate chatbot called Contosa.
- Embedded content delivery – You can deliver essential onboarding resources to new joiners directly from the TeamMate app for Teams. For example, you can share a CEO video in the flow of bot-based conversation, and the joiner can watch the video directly in Teams.
- Embedded links – You can use TeamMate to cross-link the onboarding experience with other assets and Teams apps. For instance, if you have a dedicated app for gamified onboarding training sessions, you can embed a link to the app in the chatbot greeting. New users/joiners can browse through available hyperlinks, navigate multiple menu levels, and complete the end-to-end onboarding process.
- Automated long-term onboarding – You can plan the onboarding experience well into the future using TeamMate’s scheduled message feature. The app allows you to schedule messages at your preferred interval, 15 minutes after a new employee first logs in, after a day, or even a week. And coupled with the cross-linking capability, you can schedule surveys, share learning materials in a staggered manner, and ensure continuous engagement.
- Azure AI integration – You can transform the TeamMate chatbot into an intelligent onboarding assistant for new employees by integrating with Microsoft’s Azure AI engine. This allows TeamMate to process queries in natural language, understand search terms, look through the organisation’s knowledge base and return a result.
- TeamMate as a Teams knowledge portal – You can integrate TeamMate with your organisation’s knowledge repositories at the backend so that it can serve as a one-stop knowledge portal. For example, the bot will direct employees to the benefits management portal via cross-linking if they ask about company benefits.
- Customisable experience – TeamMate allows you to create your menu structure, conversation flow, resource repository, messaging schedule, etc., to customise every step of the onboarding experience.
Why the TeamMate App by ChitChattr Makes a Difference
ChitChattr is an expert at building practical Teams enablers, and TeamMate is no different. It recreates the end-to-end onboarding experience in Teams, complete with new employee training, guided walkthroughs, and access to key resources. Companies of every size can tailor the experience to be as complex or simple as they require, leveraging Azure AI to adapt to employee needs intuitively.
What We Think
Remote onboarding is a major challenge for small teams and HR in the post-COVID world, and the TeamMate app could be a game-changer in such scenarios. You could deploy it right out of the box or customise it to its most diminutive element
Download TeamMate here.
