Parents around the globe have found themselves working from a brand new office (their home) and sometimes they have some unexpected but incredibly cute new “co-workers” (their adored children). I have recently transitioned to working full time from home as well and have discovered that there are many perks and benefits that come with working from my new office space: Zero commute time, no lines to get a cup of my favorite coffee, and I even have control of the office thermostat. Oh yea, and I really do love my co-workers.
My New Office is Great, and I Really Love My “Co-workers”… But Let’s Get Real
Let’s be realistic about this situation though. Even though our new workspace is set up just the way we like it and our new “co-workers” are awesome, it can seem like an uphill battle to maintain, let alone boost productivity during normal work hours. Many parents are finding themselves multi-tasking in ways they never thought possible, and are working in short, superhero-like power bursts of productivity just to stay caught up. Sometimes this might include working late into the night or early morning when you have a little quiet time to yourself. Without the proper tools, this balancing act can be incredibly difficult and sometimes might seem outright impossible.
I Get by with a Little Help from My CRM
Fortunately, the right tool(s) can help you and your colleagues who are also working remotely maintain and even boost overall productivity. Below are just a few ways Vtiger CRM can help parents who are working at home while also caring for their children.
See Everything That Needs Your Attention in One Page — Actions
For many parents, the idea of having a normal workday may seem like a distant memory that they are now longing for. Despite the distractions that have infiltrated your workspace, you still have daily meetings to attend, deals that need to be followed up on, tasks that are due today, approval requests, and mentions from your colleagues that need your immediate attention. Vtiger’s Actions page allows you to find all of these in one convenient place without leaving the CRM. The Actions page takes on the role of a personal assistant so you can stay focused on the things that need your attention the most.
To learn more about Actions please click here.
Manage Your Emails with Mailroom
Customer emails land in your group mailboxes and individual mailboxes at all hours of the day. It is easy to miss important emails and lose track of who has followed up with your customers under normal working conditions without the added distractions of working from home. Vtiger’s mailroom is here to help and acts as your very own company mailroom by automating actions on incoming emails. Mailroom will help you and your team in the following ways:
- Emails are automatically linked to the contacts’ records and their engagement scores are revised.
- You can mark emails as done to reduce clutter and stay focused.
- Quickly see if any of your colleagues have responded to your customers’ emails by viewing the Activity on the summary page of a contact’s record.
- Automatically creates new records from incoming emails.
To find out more about how Mailroom can help please click here.
Stay On Top of Your Schedule by Syncing Your Google or Outlook Calendars with Vtiger
Time management is a crucial part of staying productive; when you’re juggling work and family simultaneously there are new challenges. Vtiger CRM can help you and your team stay organized and on top of your calendars with Events and Tasks, even when you are getting bombarded with distractions throughout your workday.
Here are some of the ways syncing your calendars and using Events and Tasks will help you and your team:
- Syncing creates a symbiotic relationship between your calendars.
- Calendar brings together all of your team’s scheduled activities into one place.
- Once an event is created, Vtiger will block out that time on your appointment page, eliminating the chance of double bookings.
- Get notified before an Event starts so you never miss a meeting or go unprepared.
- Task notifications ensure you never miss a deadline or need to rush through a Task to complete it in time.
- Your team can easily collaborate and become more efficient by posting internal comments directly in Events and Tasks.
Click here for instructions on how to sync with Google calendar.
Click here for instructions on how to sync your Outlook calendar.
Automate Personalized Follow-ups by Employing Email Sequences
One of the biggest challenges parents are facing in their new work environments is not ever knowing when their productivity will be cut short by a random meltdown or a smiling face looking for a play buddy. That email that you planned to send first thing in the morning is now hours behind schedule because your day has taken an unexpected twist.
There is no need to fret anymore. Email Sequences allow you to write predefined sequences of emails that are triggered by the action or lack of action by the email recipients. Custom-tailor your automated emails to make them more personalized, helping to generate more clicks and opens. Email Sequences will allow you to take full advantage of your quiet evening hours after the kids have gone to bed, having already automated your email drafting and replies.
For more information on Email Sequences check out this blog written by my colleague, Matthew Costello.
Eliminate Repetitive Tasks with Workflows
Efficiency is everything, and when parents have time and space to focus on work they need to ensure that they are not wasting their time on mundane and repetitive tasks. Workflows will streamline your business by automating operations and boost your team’s productivity. Below are some of the actions Workflows can perform and ways you can set up triggers to initiate them:
- Send emails, create tasks, create events, update fields, create records, SMS tasks, and webhooks are all actions that Workflows can perform if conditions are met.
- Decide on the recurrence of the workflow.
- Select the module you want the workflow to run on and set triggers to start the workflow based on record creation, record updated (includes creation), or a time interval.
- Workflows can be triggered either the first time conditions are met or every time conditions are met.
For more information on how to configure Workflows, please click here.
FYI — My new co-worker (my 2-year-old son, Jackson) contributes every day to my new work environment. He always brings incredible enthusiasm day-in and day-out, initiates great lunchtime adventures and conversation, and always maintains a positive outlook. He is a constant reminder that, no matter how difficult my day might be, a scoop of ice cream and a hug will make everything better.
To experience how Vtiger CRM can boost your overall productivity while working from home accompanied by your children, please visit our website and sign up for a free trial today.
