There are so many settings and features in this powerful CRM that it’s easy to miss some here or there. In this article, I’ll share with you what I’d consider to be the three most underutilized features in 17hats.
Even if you’ve got some workflows running smoothly, you may not be using the platform to its full potential. Use of these features can help you stay on track with all aspects of your business, and get some high-level insight into the different types of projects you’re completing with your customers. Plus, I’ll explain how all of these features work together to help you discover these insights and take action based on what you find. Here’s what we’ll cover:
To-do lists
Tags
Recent client activity
First off, the to-do lists
I love these for keeping track of all the recurring tasks in my business. Things like paying bills, updating my website, checking in on my lead sources, managing my email list and more. And these tasks can be set up to repeat at various daily, weekly, monthly or yearly intervals, making it really easy for you to stay on top of all the things you need to do as a business owner.
Also see: Steps to track lead sources
They can also be organized and placed onto separate to-do lists. I currently have lists for marketing items, financial items and miscellaneous items. Other to-do list ideas could include inventory and personnel items, for example.
The last thing to know about the to-do list section is that you can also view and manage any to-dos taking place in your workflows from here. They will automatically populate on the top, under “Due & Upcoming”.
Next, let’s talk tags.
Tags are such great ways to add little bits of information to your contacts and projects. I especially love adding tags to any drop-down questions I ask in my lead capture forms and questionnaires. Then, depending on what my customers select in that question, I can have a different tag applied.
As an example, while I set up the 17hats accounts of my balloon business clients, one of the questions on the lead capture form is typically “what are you celebrating?”
I prefer to make this a drop-down type of question because I can then have a project tag automatically applied that correlates to the type of event the customer selects. By doing this, my clients will now have the ability to search on their projects to find how many weddings, birthday parties, baby showers, etc. they are decorating for.
If they find they are doing a lot of decor for any particular type of event, I always like to encourage they express that in their marketing so that prospective customers will know that my clients are proficient in their customers’ needs for that type of event.
Tags can also be applied in the settings of your lead capture forms, your online scheduling and in your workflows. Tags to use in these areas might include “inquiry” and “booked” versions of the type of project that’s running.
Thinking back to the balloon businesses I work with, an example of this type of tag implementation would be a “balloon decor inquiry” tag being automatically applied through the lead capture form. Then, as the workflow progresses and the lead becomes a customer by paying an invoice, a tag such as “booked balloon decor” could be automatically applied to the project (and contact).
With these tagging systems in place, you can then utilize your to-do lists to get reminders to search upon these tags and get some insight as to how many “inquiry” versus “booked” jobs you’ve had, therefore finding a conversion rate.
The third of the underutilized features in 17hats...
... to consider using is in the lower right of your Dashboard (under the weather widget). It’s a small section labeled “Recent Client Activity” and in the top right corner of that section, check out the “See All Activity” link to open up a ton of insight into the documents and bookings you have with your customers.
See what’s been sent, paid, signed, etc. and filter by project or customer name, dates and even those tags you’ve started implementing.
In the balloon business example, if tags that correlate to the type of event have been incorporated, now you would also be able to see all the invoices paid that have that tag attached. And then you’ll not only know how many baby showers (for example) you’ve done, but also how much income it meant to your business.
Add this sorting task to a to-do list and complete it for each event type every so often to really know what types of events you should be sure to boast in your marketing.
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