Corona Business: Some solutions to maintain productivity during these difficult times
JUCRA Digital are no strangers to remote working and coordinating with remote workers but not all businesses are accustomed to the tools, processes and advantages or pitfalls when running your business effectively while working remotely and in social isolation.
CRM
CRMs (Client Relationship Managers) are more and more the “norm” in today’s digital world. If you have one it will make life so much easier! You can typically bulk email or send push notifications to your whole database allowing you to communicate the plans you have in place to deal with difficult scenarios, just like this one!
If you don’t have this functionality, you will need to look at exporting your client info, then importing it to bulk email providers such as Mailchimp.
CRMs costs vary, and their functionality is usually reflective of this. The more it costs, the more it can “do” with proper configuration. Choose the one that suits your business best and invest in it! You won’t regret it.
CRM examples:
JUCRA Digital’s preferred CRM: www.pipedrive.com
File Sharing
Have you got that email with the last version of the spreadsheet? The one I just sent? It’s called v34555.xls. What do you mean that changed? Who has the latest version? Can you email it to us all?
No.
Passing files between people and teams can be tedious and confusing and SHOULD NOT BE DONE ON EMAIL! There is a wealth of solutions to help manage and maintain information between staff and clients that are much more elegant and straight-forward than trying to send updated single files in a game of virtual email ping pong.
Google Drive is brilliant. Put up a spreadsheet. Share access to it with your colleagues, give some permission to edit, some to comment some to view only. You are LITERALLY all working off the same page, on the same sheet, with the same information. It is accessible 24/7 and can be shared and managed very easily.
Another version is Dropbox. It looks similar to your computer with folders and a sub folder setup. Create a folder, add sub folders, drag and drop files in and out of them and give permissions for access. All on the cloud, all shared to the same people.
JUCRA Digital recommend: drive.google.com and dropbox.com
Mailchimp
Mailchimp requires some setup but it has a friendly interface and a bulk email campaign can be set up quite quickly. It also has quite flexible payment options depending on the database size you need to send to.
There is some expertise required to ensure you have proper deliverability and some caution should be exercised, you can damage your domain name, email deliverability and “reputation” in the future if you “spam” so be sure you have met the legal requirements (GDPR) and speak to your email provider experts before sending as they MIGHT have filters in place to stop bulk email sending!
Visit www.mailchimp.com
Meetings
Face to face meetings are, of course, the traditional means to do business in the real world. That is changing and has been changing slowly but steadily over the last 10 years. Products that allow you to have a meeting via online chat and camera are numerous, cheap and the quality is generally good.
Many people feel uncomfortable with this initially but this soon passes as we realise the savings, most notably in time, secondarily in money and finally in personal energy (meetings can be exhausting!) we soon realise that this is much more convenient and energies can also be focused on getting solutions implemented other than simply talking for the sake of talking.
There is also the added benefit of being MUCH more environmentally friendly! No planes, trains or automobiles required!
Staff Meetings: This can also be used effectively for staff conferencing and management.
Video Meeting examples:
JUCRA Digital prefers: Skype.com or https://zoom.us/
Business Planning and objectives
Setting a schedule and meeting milestones is paramount. We all have to be responsible for meeting goals and that means being clear on the objective, what that means, how it is achieved and who is responsible for what.
Yes, it sounds complicated. It is, but without it delays happen, problems that should not, arise and frustration and delay seep in.
Don’t let that happen. Use these tools to make sure things are done with proper, managed expectations.
*Many CRMs have this type of functionality built-in, check it does what you need it to do!
Task, planning and project management tools:
JUCRA Digital prefers: Basecamp.com and weekdone.com
Remember that the phone works too: WhatsApp can be handy, Facebook has tools built-in and Twitter can be an asset when used properly.
Attitude
One final point. Good people do good work. Be patient, plan, understand that we cannot work miracles, but we can do our jobs. We have a personal responsibility to do our jobs and the vast majority of people will happily meet this responsibility.
Trust your staff and the people you work with. Reach out and OVER COMMUNICATE without causing disruption.
Most of all, use the technology and remember that JUCRA Digital are available to help. Just get in touch!