Email Sharing and Organization / CRM

[ZooCity]

How is everyone doing it?

I have gmail as our domain email.  For quite a few years we've used an app called Grexit to share labels across all the email accounts (as needed, you can decide which labels are shared and with whom) in our organization.  We have a unique label for every job/order, a set of workflow labels- needs quote, quoted, active, etc. -and then a handful of administrative ones.  The organizational structure mirrors how our digital documents are organized in google drive (which you can now save attachments to right out of gmail). 

The label sharing app has been acting up lately and literally playing tricks on us, re-labeling threads, so we're trying to see if there's a better way to do this.  I wish that sharing labels, well they're basically folders, across google apps was something they had natively integrated but the functionality isn't there without a third party app.  The guy from the Grexit app has been helpful and we're trying to fix it but man am I over web based software that doesn't work correctly.  I don't have time for that.

I've seen shared inboxes and other things but not sure where to start.  What I want is a clean way for multiple workers here to address incoming emails and inquiries without dropping the ball on anything through the process, and for production workers to get in there and see communications where necessary, light but robust CRM is really all we need.  Seems hard to find, like it's all over complicated or, in some cases, is simple enough but doesn't function reliably.   

[GraphicDisorder]

We suck at it, just fwding emails back and forth and around and at times it because confusing.  We have to change it at some point. Interested where this thread goes.

[ZooCity]

I actually really like our shared label system, I think I set it up tight and simple, but the app apparently isn't robust enough to actually do it's thing now that I have more users on here pinging emails around.  Starting to get genuinely frustrated with web/cloud/saas software, the people selling these programs just are not putting the work into it that traditional software developers do, half this stuff works about half the time it seems.

[jvieira]

bump!

We've reached a point where regular email and labels just doesn't cut it anymore. What is everyone out there using? We have dozens of emails per day and it's pretty hard to reply to all in a timely fashion.

[CBCB]

Hate to bump and old thread -- but I hate to repost an old topic even more.

Email collaboration and CRM is something we're really struggling with.

How is everyone booking their orders? We process 99% of customer interactions by email.

What's the best way to manage a combination of email, phone call, and in-person client communication?

Definitely wish Gmail had some sort of built-in shared label stystem.

For quite a few years we've used an app called Grexit to share labels across all the email accounts

This app is called Hiver now and I tried it. Super buggy like you said, but it's pretty close to what we need.

We're currently using Streak CRM, built right into Gmail. Love that it's cloud based but it doesn't really feel like we're collaborating on email threads.

I just want any person to be able to jump in on any email thread from their own Google Apps account, amongst other things.

Hoping this thread gets a new life lol.

[cclaud3]

We use CRM + Project mgmt app by Marketcircle called Daylite for mac. There is a self hosted and cloud version. It includes an email plugin for mac mail app called DMI. Open any email and click send to Daylite. You can then tag it to any order. There is some zapier connections available but we basically double-enter everything from our own self hosted invoicing app which is completely separate. Custom scripts can be made for complete integration with your invoicing app. Been using it for 8 years.

Have to buy a license/seat for each user. But they can pull up anything you tag to order. We also use a custom form in the application for recording detailed job notes. Search is extremely fast as it's a live search as you type.
Ipad & iphone companion apps, don't believe there are any droid versions.

It's not made specifically for screen printing but it's sort of like filemaker as it's open ended and customizable.

[Sbrem]

We suck at it, just fwding emails back and forth and around and at times it because confusing.  We have to change it at some point. Interested where this thread goes.

Same here, really. There are like 4 of us that deal with email and orders, the rest of the employees don't... though I personally deal with a veritable s___load of emails, which I organize all vendors and regular customers (contract and the like) into their own folders in Apple Mail. Am I to understand there may be a better way, LOL?

Steve

[ZooCity]

Since this thread we also switched to Streak.  Incredible app and we use it for a ton of thing beyond crm, including production workflow and production/order data.

But yes, having to click "view unified thread" doesn't exactly feel like email sharing.  You can't jump in and reply all on a thread and instead must start a new thread. 

That said, we spoke with them about this initially and it's more of a gmail or maybe email in general thing.  If you aren't originally included/copied you can't reply in on the thread.  I'm not sure how Grexit/Hiver did this honestly.

All in all the benefits of Streak in other areas make the slightly clunky email sharing worth it for us. 

It's obvious to me that google wants third parties to get their cut of the market, otherwise they'd have the ability to folder an email thread in Drive or mirror labels to drive folders.  That feature alone might wipe out the need for lord knows how many other apps.

[CBCB]

Since this thread we also switched to Streak.  Incredible app and we use it for a ton of thing beyond crm, including production workflow and production/order data.

But yes, having to click "view unified thread" doesn't exactly feel like email sharing.  You can't jump in and reply all on a thread and instead must start a new thread. 

That said, we spoke with them about this initially and it's more of a gmail or maybe email in general thing.  If you aren't originally included/copied you can't reply in on the thread.  I'm not sure how Grexit/Hiver did this honestly.

All in all the benefits of Streak in other areas make the slightly clunky email sharing worth it for us. 

It's obvious to me that google wants third parties to get their cut of the market, otherwise they'd have the ability to folder an email thread in Drive or mirror labels to drive folders.  That feature alone might wipe out the need for lord knows how many other apps.

The unified thread thing really grinds my gears. Streak gave me the same answer about the limitations of inboxes but clearly Hiver is making it work. Hiver is just missing a way to combine multiple emails into under a single label the way Streak does with Boxes.

It's just me and one other person handling sales email. Hoping to grow past that obviously. For the last while we've just had our own not-shared Streak Pipelines. If an email comes in from our online form it hits my inbox and I delegate it manually to the other agent, or answer it myself. If an agent needs me to chime in they need to CC me first since  the Boxes aren't shared.

We gave the paid version a trial and currently have Streak set up via Google Groups. An email comes in through our orders@email.com address and lands in every agents inbox. From there it's kinda a race to see who grabs it first. Once an agent adds it to a Box the rest of us would be able to see that the first message was assigned to someone even though we can't actually see the reply. Clunky, but would work I THINK.

If an agent needs to jump it they would get a CC on the thread, and 'view unified thread' to see the history. Or alternately when an agent goes on vacation their auto-responder would CC the agent covering for them.

Are you guys paying for Streak? Basic or Corporate?

How are you using it for Production flow? We are tied into Printavo pretty tightly right now for that end of things. In Streak our pipeline covers everything up to when they're paid, Printavo covers production, then Streak/Gmail again to finalize the order and pickup.

I'd love some more insight on how you're using it for email sharing / order processing. I'd like to be handling 10x the clients we are but need a system that will scale and grow with us.

[ZooCity]

We're on the corporate plan but adopted a little early and got a small discount.  I think it's around $220/mo for our team. 

As a CRM/gmail tool I think it's very scalable, you can do nearly anything with it, especially if you are willing to use java code in the gantt chart cells. 

Our workflow is pretty basic, no shared email account or group yet, we like to have personal email addresses v. generic ones but that will have to change soon.  I like the way you are thinking of doing it a lot.  For now, client emails one of our sales reps, any of the three of us who can rep a job claim it, box it, reply to client.  When the box is created a folder with the same name is auto generated in Drive under our Quoted folder (api call).   

Jobs move through the pipeline and, once active, we kick in a lot of columns in Streak to help us with production workflow.  Printavo cannot handle non-linear workflow status changes or things that are cumulative but Streak does great at it.  It wasn't what the Streak folks intended it to do but if you dial it in right it performs well.  Screen shots attached of two of the specific views we have- Ready by Press and Screen to Coat. (our POs are descriptive so I scratched them out for privacy's sake)  I have a view like this for each department and each step needed to get the job to press.  Working on tuning up java coding in some cells for auto calc of press run times and labor hours needed in each dept.

Archiving is pretty much what you expect, just another stage in the pipeline titled Archive 2016, etc.

[CBCB]

Our workflow is pretty basic, no shared email account or group yet, we like to have personal email addresses v. generic ones but that will have to change soon.  I like the way you are thinking of doing it a lot.  For now, client emails one of our sales reps, any of the three of us who can rep a job claim it, box it, reply to client.  When the box is created a folder with the same name is auto generated in Drive under our Quoted folder (api call).   

Jobs move through the pipeline and, once active, we kick in a lot of columns in Streak to help us with production workflow.  Printavo cannot handle non-linear workflow status changes or things that are cumulative but Streak does great at it.  It wasn't what the Streak folks intended it to do but if you dial it in right it performs well.  Screen shots attached of two of the specific views we have- Ready by Press and Screen to Coat. (our POs are descriptive so I scratched them out for privacy's sake)  I have a view like this for each department and each step needed to get the job to press.  Working on tuning up java coding in some cells for auto calc of press run times and labor hours needed in each dept.

Hope you had a good holiday!

This is all super interesting. Thanks for the insight! I haven't thought ahead enough to consider scheduling multiple presses. I totally see where Printavo would lack there. The production process is definitely non-linear.

We use Trello. It's a project management tool. We use it to keep track of shop renovations, photos to be posted on our social networks, purchasing lists for shop suppliers from different vendors etc.

We also use it as a crutch for Printavo, kinda similarly to how you use Streak in that sense.

When an order is paid it needs TWO things done. Art needs to be output and sent into the darkroom, and garments need to be ordered in. This is where Printavo fails with the linear statuses. Production is more of a flow chart for us. Is it paid? Yes, okay then print the film and order garments. Are the garments on the way? Yes, then shoot the screens.

So we use Trello for that right now. An order is paid and a 'card' is made on two lists, one for art and one for purchasing. It's mostly just me with two helpers, but I basically just keep those Trello lists empty and then I know paid orders are all purchased, art is ready for them etc. Any issues can be handled between staff on the Trello cards. Maybe we can use Streak for this, but I like that we can have a whole board for purchasing and move cards into a 'on backorder' list, for example. The card is assigned to the person who made it in Printavo, so they get a lil' alert on the Trello. "Yo, your client is on backorder, let'em know!" Purchasing can let them know it's off backorder on the same card. Kinda keeps the info together and reduces email.

I love the idea of using Zapier to create a folder in Google Drive for each 'box', especially if the box title could include a reference to the Printavo invoice number. That'd clean up our client file system in a huge way now that we have repeat orders coming through.

I'm interested in the emails, though. We have a catch-all info@ email that currently just forwards to my inbox, and we have our own personal email rather than generic as you said. So I have a couple more questions about your email flow if you don't mind.

If a client submits a form on the website, who does that info go to? Or a new client finds your email and shoots it through? Do you use ANY catch-all emails or only personalized ones? You mentioned 'client emails one of our sales reps'. Do you have an online form or anything like that?

How do the three of you guys know that the first email has been responded to?

This is where I get stuck.
If emails to the info@ address go to all of us then it's really hard to tell that it's been responded to already.

If emails to the info@ address only to go me and I dispatch them by forwarding, it creates a bit of a mess and delay. I kinda like the idea of us all working together to answer NEW clients quickly, then taking that Box/Order on and be the individual rep for it.

Really interested in some feedback. I want to hire someone to take care of booking orders so badly but don't want to throw them into the fire.

[ZooCity]

Had a great holiday, hope you did too.

Multiple presses and workflows, like heat press, post-press, etc. require a better approach than Prinavos.  An easy stop gap is to build workflow stages in printavo titled for each machine, which is what we do. 

I'll check out Trello, have heard other good things.

The Zaps are pretty easy to use.  Printavo's API needs work but that appears to be happening from the updates I see.

A friend who has worked for both microsoft and amazon in the past is working on a possible cloud app that ties all the other web apps together and provides us with a clean gui to work from and eliminates duplicate entries.  If it works, overall cost is probably going to be a little high per month when you aggregate all the apps- google, printavo, streak, xero, this enterprise platform -but not bad compared to shopworkx or building an app.  What would make it real nice is that as web apps come and go and we ditch them or bring them in this enterprise app will keep it all connected.  Seems like that's how the larger companies are working these days and it makes sense to me. 

To answer your email questions:  Web form submission currently goes to one individual email.  That individual either processes it or hands it off to another.   No catch alls, just personal right now.   No online forms.  Embarrassing web presence over all.   We know that the email has been responded to because our front end team of three is on the ball and communicates a lot, we can also check that it's boxed and moving through the pipeline in Streak.  All this has to change early this year, it's obviously over dependent on our front end team and while it has worked very well it will fail us eventually if we don't setup a group inbox. 

I hear what you are saying with your situation and since I haven't even dabbled with group inboxes I'm not sure how that gets handled exactly.