BatchBook Blog
Archive for the “User Experience” Category
We like to think that we make BatchBook flexible enough to meet just about any team or group’s workflow. Sometimes though the flexibility and open nature can leave people wondering how to best take advantage of the features and functions that we provide. One common question we get in the Customer Experience group is people wanting to know how they should be using Notes, Communications and Comments.
While there are no hard or fast rules on how they should be used as each person sets up their account differently, I wanted to share with you how I see them being used in most instances.
I see the Notes area as being the place for the information you need to just keep in mind at a glance when looking at a contact record. I’m getting ready to call them but I need to be reminded how to pronounce their name, or I need to be sure not to call on a Tuesday morning, etc. If nothing else, I know I need to look at the notes before taking any action with this contact.
Comments are more of a collaborative or running commentary about the contact that is visible to your whole team. Some folks will include general info, a link to a relevant article about the company, items that are useful to you and your team in relation to that contact. For example, if a colleague were to see that a vendor you managed added a new product line they could add that in the comments so that when you logged in you would see that information and act accordingly.
The actual email that you send to the vendor, or the logging of the phone call between you and them is the communication. It is designed to track the direct interaction between you and them. One of the nice things about communications is that they can be tagged for easy tracking. Your response to the vendor based upon your colleague’s comment is best served as a communication.
If you then want to let the rest of the team know that you got a 20% discount because you are an awesome buyer / negotiator, you could let them know by adding your own comments.
Each group has their own workflow so it’s hard to say that this will work for you, or be the best method in your environment, but hopefully this helps get you thinking about how to best use Notes, Comments and Communications in your account.
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Tags: comments, communications, notes
Jeremiah Owyang recently wrote an article for CRM Magazine Social CRM Vendors Don’t Walk The Talk where he puts a number of CRM vendors through the spreadsheet grinder to see how their social media engagement measures up to the social media features their products espouse. BatchBook was not included in the analysis, though BatchFriend and customer Paul Mabray from Vintank.com was kind enough to mention us in the comments.
I agree with Jeremiah, but I think there is a clear distinction between the CRM companies that are now making a social media play versus the social media upstarts who are incorporating some traditional CRM features such as sales and customer service management into their products as they build them. Jeremiah highlighted a number of products that were developed around older (phone, e-mail, direct mail) marketing tools and are now working to add social media as an additional sales channel. Alternately, there are newer products like Jive, Gist and our own BatchBook that really began as social media communication tools and have added sales features as another layer.
Not surprisingly, those with Web 2.0 roots have more integration with social media throughout our products and throughout our company cultures, as well. As he mentions, social media is not a linear channel that can be “added on” in the same way previous channels have been. It is an intricate web of blogs, comments, tweets, direct messages, friend requests, recommendations, favorites and hashtags each with their own sub-culture and mini-dialect that together shape the direction of a conversation. Whether it’s sales, customer service, or project management, this new dialogue is not fully represented unless you can track all aspects of the conversation, and more importantly, understand their meaning in context with your relationships.
I applaud Jeremiah for calling companies out for more engagement. He makes great points about not only supporting customer and developer discussions, but also showcasing those communities as a vibrant component of the product. He’s also given us a few ideas for pushing our community into a more prominent part of the product. And isn’t that what social media is about? Using a public kick in the pants to move your efforts forward.
While it’s certainly interesting to watch how the older, more established companies work to fit social media into their product offerings, I think it’s even more interesting to build a product around the new tools as they are being developed.
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Tags: batchblue, batchbook, crm, social crm, Social Media
Yesterday, a customer wrote in to tell us they loved our web site. They wanted to know what agency did it. This was quite flattering, because the answer is… us! 
While everybody in the company is at least a little involved in everything we develop at BatchBlue, BatchBlue.com is more or less the brainchild of Michelle and me. We’re constantly making updates, looking for ways to refine our message, grow our reach, etc.
But for this customer (and anyone else), what I want to do is make a list of what I would look for in an agency if (gasp!) BatchBlue were to outsource the development of BatchBlue.com.
Make sure they work with web standards.
It wasn’t long ago that just about every web developer (myself included) was building websites with tables and embedded styles. Now designing with web standards using HTML (or XHTML), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and Javascript) is the way to go. The thing is, to many small business owners, you really can’t tell the difference between a web site built with these up-to-date standards and one built on the legacy “table and font tag” approach just by looking at it.
So, what’s the big deal then?
A web site built the old way just might do the trick for you. Unless, of course, you want to do anything with it. Like change your logo. Or change your colors. Or add page with some special offers. Or optimize the site for mobile devices. Or have another developer work on it. At this point, a site built the old way can be terrible to work with.
You can see where I’m going here. If you want a quick website thrown together that you plan to completely replace in the future (when the budget is bigger or whatever), then maybe your nephew’s FrontPage skills will be just fine. But if you want a web site that will grow with you over time, get someone who knows about HTML, CSS, lean code, and “bulletproof” web design (designing with future modifications in mind).
You should see how different BatchBlue.com is compared with a couple years ago. Because it is built with clean code and CSS, every change is really just a tweak. No full redesign has ever been needed. The same could be said about BatchBook… but I would never show you what BatchBook looked like two years ago!
(more…)
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Tags: web agencies, web design, web development
Last night we made some (mostly) cosmetic updates to BatchBook. Here’s how she looks today:
The highlights:
- We consolidated help text and screencasts into a context-sensitive footer that provides support options for the tab you are currently on.
- We reorganized the rest of the footer as well.
- We anchored the primary column to better establish the visual hierarchy of the main column vs. the sidebar.
- We removed redundant headers to make more room for the data that matters.
- We moved the search bar to the header, bringing other sidebar elements up the page a bit more.
- We used more subtle color to cater to those not in love with blues and oranges.
- We made an assortment of other minor tweaks.
When it was all said and done, we removed a lot more than we added. To me, that’s the sign of a successful redesign. We’re curious to hear what you think!
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Tags: batchblue, batchbook, design, small business CRM
With the imminent demise of several prominent Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses recently announced, I’m sure folks are wondering about the reliability of this “cloud computing”. People who are trusting their relationships, their daily routines and their future fortunes to an unknown, unseen geek posse at the other end of the Internet deserve more respect. Honestly, I think these trusting folks have taken it on the chin this week.
As SaaS developers, we’re not building tools that people pick up, use, and put down again when they are done. Our code isn’t burned on a disk, packaged up and then sent off to be sold at some superstore. We can’t just walk away when we’re tired of playing the game, or get a better offer from a cooler friend.
That’s not how it works when selling software as a SERVICE. We are building a relationship with every single person using our product and we have an obligation to take care of them. Not to legally cover our butts, but to really take care of our customers; to listen to how they are using our product, involve them in the implementation of our vision, to give ample warning if something unforeseen does happen, and do everything in our power to make sure they will be okay without us.
With this goal in mind, we at BatchBlue make the following pledge to our users:
- We value the information that you are trusting to our care.
- We will do all in our power to educate you on how to best use our system to manage your information.
- We understand that the information belongs to you and that you should have easy access to it at any time from anywhere.
- We will give you the time and tools to export your data, for whatever the reason.
- We keep service to you as our highest priority.
- We will keep improving our product.
We are in this for the long haul. We have big plans for our product and for anyone gracious enough to subscribe to our service. Thank you for your business; we continue to be honored to support you.
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