If you haven’t been hanging out in the BatchBook Developers Forum, you might not have heard about our recent API updates. We’ve overhauled the API to make it even easier for programmers to integrate their applications with BatchBook. Just as importantly, the documentation for the API. Check it out at http://developer.batchblue.com/.
BatchBook has had an API for some time now, but these updates really make it ready for prime time. While this news only directly affects programmers, we’ll all benefit from the resulting integrations between BatchBook and other awesome tools. A recent post on ProgrammableWeb extolled the business case for APIs, and we’ve been supporting the same ideas via the Small Business Web.
As usual, this update to BatchBook wouldn’t have been as good without the involvement of some of our awesome users. Several folks in the Developers Forum have been giving great feedback and helping other developers get started with the API. I’d like to especially recognize Andrew Flusche and guedalia, who have been contributing sample PHP code for other users to use freely. Thanks again, guys!
We’re really excited to see what great things you all will build with the BatchBook API. I hope to see you in the Developers Forum if you have any questions or just want to show off what you’re working on.
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Tags: api, developers, forums
The lawn needs mowing and the Red Sox are on a winning streak, so that can only mean one thing… it’s spring! We have a bunch of cool things under development (if I do say so myself), but before we start adding more to BatchBook, we felt it was time to do a little spring cleaning. The community over at the BatchBlue Forums has helped us so much along the way that we consider it an additional team member. For that reason, we’re giving the forum users a sneak peek at the updates we’re making.
If you’re a forum user, we’d love to hear your feedback. If you’re not a forum user yet, we’d love to welcome you to the community. As forum user Kenny recently said:
One of the key benefits BB is becoming for me is an excellent source of tips on new or emerging web sites / services that I hadn’t been aware of previously, via users on this forum.
This is great! Thanks all for participating on this board 
Hope to see you on the forums soon!
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Tags: batchbook, Community, design, forums, interface
Sometimes the best solutions are really the most simple.
A couple weeks ago, there was a great forum discussion on how to assign follow up tasks immediately after logging communications. This wasn’t just a back-and-forth, this was a full fledged discussion with forum users Bradley, Kenny, HansD, and Stewart taking part.
We have always had the ability to log a communication and to create a To-Do that was assigned to a user and linked back to a communication. But the forum users were looking for a way to “remind” the other users on their account to create a To-Do after logging a communication, if one was necessary. Many approaches were discussed, but the following messages made it clear what we needed to do:
From Bradley:
From a business-process stand point, logging a communication and generating the resulting task are a single action. Yes, you could log the communication, then open it, then start a to-do action. However, you’ve now undertaken three actions as opposed to one, any one of which a staff person could forget or be interrupted before completing.
And from Kenny:
For me, its the act of remotely communicating with another person that needs to be logged, and the next task programmed in simultaneously in such a way that it is not forgotten that is critical to a CRM.
So, in the confirmation box after saving the communication, we added a link to create a To-Do.
While he was in there, Sean made some great new additions as well. We used to store a link back to the communication in the details field of the To-Do. No more. Now it is directly linked to the communication, just as if you were linking it to a contact.
And Sean also added the ability for account admins to see the To-Do Lists of other users on the account.
What else was in last night’s update? Well, for one, I brought back microformats to BatchBook. Here, you can see the Firefox plug-in Operator detecting the hCard microformat on a Contact Detail.
If you’d like to read more about microformats (and see some incredibly old screen shots of BatchBook!), I wrote about them a while ago.
Oh, and there’s one more thing. We dressed up for Halloween!
We hope you like the latest updates. We’ve certainly got more coming at you!
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Tags: communications management, Customer Service, forums, halloween, microformats, User Experience
As User Experience Designer here at BatchBlue, one of my (favorite) roles is moderating the BatchBlue Forums.
For a little bit of background, my job before this one was with an R&D company that worked on a lot of Department of Defense contracts. There was some cool technology being developed, but one thing I craved was interaction with end users. At that stage of the game there just wasn’t enough (if any). One of the main things that attracted me to BatchBlue was the opportunity to work closely with users of BatchBook.
So, imagine the feeling in my little heart when I read this comment on the forum the other day:
This support forum is beginning to turn into a little bit of a community, which is always a good thing.
Recently, the forum has taken on a life of its own. Not only do we get the usual feature requests and bug reports, but forumgoers have taken to posting detailed examples of their workflow, trying to give us an idea of EXACTLY how they are using BatchBook. We’re not taking this for granted. These folks have been a huge help for us—and me in particular.
For this reason, I wanted to give a shoutout to the five folks that have been SuperActive on the forums lately. Stewart, my new Twitter buddy, has already posted 67 times. Kenny, who I believe started the 3-page workflow meme, is up to 68 posts. BatchBook veteran Scott—who has had an account since May of 2007!!!—has 89 posts. ARMGPaul is another longtime user and has contributed a staggering 93 times!
And then there’s HansD. What more can you ask than someone contributing 164 posts on your forum, all in an attempt to help you build a better product? In my last job, it required a three-day trip, flight to Louisiana, and security clearances to get an hour of somebody’s time. And here are these people helping me do my job every single day.
I’m not sure what else to say besides thank you to these folks so…
Thank you!
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Tags: Customer Service, forums, User Experience
