The Most Popular Tools For Remote Working Through COVID-19

• • • • • •

As part of our commitment to put the voice of your customers right at your fingertips, Suzy will provide continual updates on consumer sentiment and behavior during the ongoing Coronavirus crisis. Check out our COVID-19 Consumer Insights hub for more stats, webinars, and more.

April 13, 2020 — It’s been roughly a month since the first official shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders were issued out in California and New York. For millions of people who’ve given up commuting to their offices every day to help slow the spread of Coronavirus, working remotely has quickly become the new normal. Now, with many of these lockdowns being extended into May, this trend is sure to increase as more companies figure out how best to make remote work possible for their own employees. 

To learn more about how these workers are currently adjusting to the changes in their routine (especially compared to last month, back when these policies were first being enacted), Suzy conducted our own study from April 4-6th, using our real-time market research platform to connect with a panel of work-from-home consumers. 

Here are the latest sentiments we uncovered:

• 32% of consumers now feel they’ve been more productive working from home than from the office. 

• 64% currently believe that their companies were adequately prepared from a shift to remote work.

Of course, in an office setting, collaborating with a coworker is as easy as walking over to their desk or office. Remote jobs make this kind of interfacing much more difficult, which is why many companies and employees have adopted new communication systems of records (CSOR), like video conferencing, screen sharing, virtual chats, and webinars to manage their internal and external meetings. In fact, about 17% of consumers only used these tools for the first time because of the crisis. 

Since the outbreak first began:

• 50% of consumers have used Zoom

• 37% have used Facetime

• 36% have used Microsoft Teams

• 35% have used Slack

• 34% have used Skype

• 28% have used Google Hangouts  

When we dug deeper, we found that 50% of Zoom users had used the platform almost every day in the past week — but 7% are now no longer allowed to use Zoom due to changes in company policies. 

Similarly, companies now need to rely on shared, cloud-based file management systems much more than they might have otherwise. Since the start of the outbreak:

• 43% of consumers have used Google Drive

• 31% have used Microsoft OneDrive

• 25% have used Dropbox 

But just being able to access your company’s files over the internet won’t solve every problem. Many consumers have also asked that their employers send them special equipment to help them work more effectively away from the office. Of these consumers:

• 22% have requested a laptop

• 16% have requested a keyboard or mouse

• 15% have requested a work-specific phone

• 13% have requested monitors 

• About 6% have requested tablets

Out of those new laptops, these brands are cited as being most popular:

• HP (22%)

• Lenovo (16%)

• Samsung (15%)

• Apple (13%)

• Acer (6%)

• Microsoft Surface (3%)

Want to know how consumers are engaging with your product or service as they work from home? Get in touch with us to ask your own questions, schedule a demo, or even create a specialized webinar to deliver new insights to your employees.

• • • • • •