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Using 17hats as your customer relationship management tool can really help to organize and streamline your work with your customers. Instead of scrolling through your DMs to find that one detail they had requested, you can utilize the lead capture forms and questionnaires of 17hats to efficiently gather everything you need to know about your customers’ requests. And the emails you send back and forth with them will populate ever so nicely into their individual projects, meaning you’re only a few clicks away from finding the info you need at any time. So if you’re still piecing together the dozens of details all of your clients are looking for in the DMs, consider making it easier on yourself by utilizing 17hats! Disclaimer: Some of the links on my website are affiliate links, which means, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Now about those emails… here is an overview of some tips for emailing in 17hats: 12 tips for sending email in 17hats Change your outgoing server Don’t BCC yourself Don’t enable read receipts Update templates on the fly Schedule send your emails Save a drafted email Creating the right email type Multiple email signatures Global email settings Emails on your dashboard Instruct your customers Email tokens Change your outgoing server to your email service provider. As is the case with most CRMs, your email service provider will likely have a stronger “reputation” on the receiving end of the email, making you more likely to land in your customers’ inbox and not spam folder. Don’t BCC yourself ... because this increases your chances of landing in spam. Instead, make a practice of checking your “sent” folder within your email service provider when you need to verify that something went out to a client. Don’t enable read receipts ...as this also increases your chances of getting in spam. It’s not exactly the same, but you can actually use the Recent Client Activity section in the lower right of your dashboard to see when your customers have opened, viewed and completed your various documents. Update your email templates on the fly Maybe you’re sending a quick reminder for a pickup order the following day and giving instructions to your studio. Except, you’ve changed the front door from blue to yellow… type in that changed text, click “update this template” and you won’t have to do it again! Schedule send your emails This might be helpful just after you’ve completed a project. You like to personalize your “thank you” emails, so you don’t set them up to go out automatically. However, you also prefer to wait a couple of days after your work with them and don’t want to forget what was unique about their particular project. Write your “thank you” right after you’ve completed the project and schedule it to send at an interval when you feel like your customer would be ready to reflect on your work together and make time to give a review. Save a drafted email Somewhat similar to scheduling the send of your email… but perhaps a draft makes more sense when you’ve got nearly all of the information you need to send your customer but are waiting to confirm a couple of final details. Save it as a draft (which will then show up in your dashboard) and come back to it once you have all the info you need to share. Confirm you’re creating the right email type When you’re creating a new email template, be sure to set it up as the correct email type (quote email / auto-responder / etc.). This will allow you to pull in tokens specific to that type of email. For example, invoice emails will allow you to pull in tokens for invoice #, invoice amount, invoice due date, etc. and scheduling emails will allow you to pull in tokens for booking date, location name, service duration, etc. Another reason the type of email is important is because when you’re building your workflow and have a step to send an invoice, you will also need to select which email template is sent with the invoice. Only invoice emails will be available in your drop-down. You can create multiple email signatures I recommend having at least two different signatures: one for all of your regular emails and another for the emails that are sent with a document. I like to differentiate the two because your regular email signature can be a little more dressed up with your logo, social links, etc., but you may not want to include those things in your “document signature” because your customers might miss the button they need to access below your signature. Peek inside my 17hats for Balloon Businesses course to see what I mean! And watch another free preview here. Reminder and confirmation emails are global settings You can set up reminders and confirmations for each of the documents your customers may receive without needing to include them in your workflow. Documents include quotes, contracts, invoices and questionnaires. You also have total control over which documents get reminders and confirmations, and further control on the timing, number and frequency of the document reminders. View incoming emails on your dashboard This feature is a personal preference. Some like to manage their email strictly in their email service provider (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) and have those emails sync into their 17hats projects to keep them associated with their individual customers. But some like to bring any emails from their 17hats contacts straight onto their dashboard to help ensure the email doesn’t get missed. Something to know about this, though, is that when you address the email from your dashboard, it does not get archived or deleted in your email service provider. As in, it will remain in your inbox. Instruct your customers It never hurts to remind your customers to keep an eye out in their spam folder for your emails, just in case! You can display a note like that in the confirmation message after they’ve filled out your lead capture form (or created a booking). Even further, in the auto-reply that gets sent, you could gently remind them to add you to their address book if your email was found in spam. Use tokens where they make sense One of the best ways to personalize and upgrade your customer experience - tokens! I’ve mentioned already how different tokens are available to you according to the type of email template you’re creating. Sometimes it’s just those small bits of info in your messaging that lets your customer know you’ve got the right details in order for their project. Once you’re comfortable using the many default tokens available in the emails of 17hats, consider adding some custom tokens to really take your customer service to the next level! I’ve got a few tips specifically for custom tokens, too. So there you have it! 12 tips for sending and managing email in 17hats. I hope you found a few that will improve your deliverability and processes! If you’d like to work together on these settings and further optimize your account, learn more about the 1-hour coaching sessions I offer. Happy emailing, and happy client experiences!

One CRM that is growing in popularity across the balloon industry is 17hats, and I’ve had the pleasure of setting up dozens of systems for balloon business owners all around the United States. Whether you’re here to learn more about the platform before purchasing, or to learn more about how to optimize your current subscription, I’m so happy to share with you what I think are 10 of the best features of 17hats for balloon businesses: Here's a preview of what we'll cover: #1: 3-in-1 quote, contract & invoice #2: Quote options #3: Workflow from a product #4: Workflow from a drop-down #5: To-do lists #6: Custom fields #7: Zapier integration #8: If/then logic in questionnaires #9: Online scheduling availability #10 Automatically move a project to another calendar #1 Send a quote, contract & invoice together Hands down, my favorite feature. It streamlines things in your process so much! The 3-in-1 documents let your customers approve a quote (more on those later), sign a contract and pay an invoice all from one email. It can all happen in a matter of seconds, rather than days. And it doesn’t always have to include all three documents, either. However, any combination of documents does need to start with a quote, meaning you can send: all three documents a quote + contract a quote + invoice Access this by starting a new quote template and connecting (or creating) the corresponding contract template. Whatever they select in the quote will automatically get filled in the invoice! #2 Quote options You can create up to three different sections within your quotes: Using the standard quote items section, quote out exactly what your customers asked for Using the “choose one” section, let them choose from different options (such as free pickup or delivery) Using the “choose any” section, recommend and upsell some additional options that pair well with their standard items. They may choose some or none of what you include here. Ideas include: Vinyl personalization Greenery weaved throughout their balloon garland Takedown / striking services You can build your quote using any combination of these sections, or with only one type of section. And as we’ve already seen, if you send the quote along with an invoice, anything they select from these choices will transfer into their invoice! Rather listen? I talk about several of these features as a guest on The Bright Balloon Podcast! #3 Start a workflow from a certain product or service Now that we’ve seen how you can build your quotes in creative ways, let’s talk about another thing that can happen from a well-built quote… You also have the option of automatically starting a workflow for a particular item when the invoice is paid. This is especially helpful if you have products or services with special fulfillment processes. Let’s think back to the greenery weaved through balloon garlands… if your customer selects that in the “choose any” section and pays their invoice, you could have a workflow start that reminds you to fulfill this item. For example, this workflow might include two to-do items: Place greenery order for pickup one day before the base date Pick up greenery one day before the base date #4 Start a workflow from a drop-down list Similar to starting a workflow from a product or service, you can start a workflow specific to a drop-down selection your customers choose in your lead capture form. For example, maybe you have a different auto-reply email template and process for wedding clients than you do for birthday clients… or for repeat customers versus new customers. Make this workflow magic happen when you add questions to your lead capture form such as “what type of event are you celebrating” and “how did you hear about us” (being sure to create them as a drop-down selection). In that process, you’ll be able to direct certain answers to start your different workflows. #5 Stay on top of all your to-dos Certainly your balloon decor workflows have to-dos, etc. that lead you through your projects. But there are also plenty of other recurring to-dos for your balloon business, such as: Ordering inventory Taking inventory Paying quarterly taxes Checking on the wear and tear of your frames Updating your website for prices, new products, etc… the list goes on! To keep up with these tasks, you can create to-do lists, such as “inventory to-dos”, “financial to-dos” and “marketing to-dos”, for example. Add one-off items, or (more likely) recurring items here. #6 Custom fields Custom fields for your contacts or projects will become tokens that can really add a nice personal touch to your emails and documents. Now, it’s easy to get carried away with these custom fields (I’ve been guilty myself!), so I’d recommend taking these steps before creating any new custom fields: Know the default fields that already exist Ask yourself whether this custom field will add really useful personalization Ask yourself whether this custom field will save you any copy/pasting throughout your process A few great custom fields for balloon businesses are: Setup time (a great token for email reminders/confirmations & in your quote) Colors/theme (in the description of your various decor products) Personalization (if you have this add-on, use this token in the line item description for your quote) Custom project fields will also populate nicely along the right side of your screen while viewing your project. To get started with custom fields, head to Account Settings > Custom Fields (under Account Templates). #7 Connecting to Zapier Zapier is another awesome tool for streamlining your business. It connects many common business platforms together with automation. Its integration with 17hats will copy new contacts to and from other sources automatically. Helpful uses include: Sending new 17hats contacts to a Google Sheet Sending new 17hats contacts to your email service provider Creating new 17hats contacts based on entries from another web form you have This will mean you no longer have to manually copy and paste your new contacts back and forth across all your tech! #8 Questionnaire options & if/then logic Questionnaires have slowly become my favorite type of document within 17hats! They’re similar to lead capture forms in the way they collect information from your customers (and map that info to your tokens), but they offer even more capability. Questionnaires can also allow for file uploads, inputting related contacts, displaying images and asking follow-up questions depending on the answers you get in previous questions. Good uses for those features would be things like: asking your customers for inspiration pictures / pictures of their space if they indicated that their delivery address is different than their billing address, have follow-up questions for that additional address #9 Multiple online scheduling availabilities Having different sets of availability in your online scheduling setup is nice for things like Grab & Go Garlands and decor consultation phone calls. This can really help you organize and plan your days. Say, for example, you only offer your Grab & Go Garland pickups on Thursday and Friday afternoons. That would be a separate availability schedule from your decor consultation availability which might be from 9am-11am every weekday (for example). Then there are many other options regarding the timing and approval process for these online bookings, too. #10 Automatically move a project to another calendar If you appreciate a color-coded calendar as much as me, this one is great! It will allow you to know at a glance what your project schedule is like on any given day. It starts by sending new contacts to your “inquired clients” calendar (or some other name like “pending” or “potential”). This is done in the settings of your lead capture form or online scheduling. Then, as you can see how in the image above, this workflow prompts me to send a quote, and once it's paid, an email is automatically sent… and after both of those things are done, clients automatically move to my "booked clients" calendar. (This is actually a sneak peek inside my course, 17hats for Balloon Businesses!) Now, when someone else asks for my availability on that same day I will quickly know that I’m already booked and will need to find another time to work with the new customer. Final notes: The availability of these features will depend on your subscription level. But I whole-heartedly recommend their premier package if you’re serious about streamlining your balloon business with 17hats. Two major reasons are: way more workflow capabilities being able to take payments through online scheduling Wanna learn more? Surprise! I’ve actually got seven more of my favorite features of 17hats included in this free download. If you find that you’re ready to give the platform a try, feel free to grab my referral link to get up to 50% off your annual subscription!