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7 min read
The client needed a specialist to implement email and SMS marketing for their newly established online store. The client's main goal at the beginning of the collaboration was to acquire potential customers before the store's opening.
Monika Nastalska
Email Marketing Freelancer at SoftwareSupport
7 min read
How SoftwareSupp Expert Patryk created a tailored technology hub and connected Pipedrive to key business tools.
Time of the project: 6 months
Scope:
Effect: A successful integration of Pipedrive with sales and marketing tools. Efficiently and transparently manage incoming leads and convert them into Won cases.
The SoftwareSupp expert was hired to improve the management of incoming leads and converting them into Won cases. Due to the wide range of services, we had to take a comprehensive approach to build a customer and lead data management center.
The client needed a brand-new sales process for triaging new claim leads. Leads could come from various sources, such as emails, direct messages from Facebook, or website forms. Then, they were loaded into the Legal Case & Practice Management software, that's Eclipse Proclaim CMS. What's more, every new claim required proper documentation of the damage level and a few other criteria to be viable.
The issue was that Proclaim didn't handle the initial triage process well. Some data was missed and scattered. As leads came from several communication channels, it was challenging to keep the information under control, avoid duplicates, and manage them properly. Also, it wasn't easy to work with third-party, external companies, or triagers and keep the information coherent. So, the client was looking for a CRM or lead management system to ensure consistency.
But this raised a new problem. Since the client wanted to implement new CRM software, we needed to design a way to integrate it with the existing CMS. It was all about how Won cases are pulled from the CRM and are imported into the CMS, including data, documents, images, etc. The new way of obtaining and bringing new claim leads into the CRM needed to be simple.
Our client missed a few features in the CMS, such as:
Besides, all communication, such as CRM records, documentation, emails, and other texts, had to be branded.
So, the SoftwareSupp expert had to bring in new software solutions and make all the information consistent. This allows marketing and sales to find all the details related to leads and customers.
The fact was that Proclaim, the CMS that was in use, wasn't sufficient. The client was missing several key business fields that made the data incomplete. So, the SoftwareSupp expert defined and expanded some basic sales opportunity fields in Pipedrive with additional customer-specific fields.
There's more to it than that, but the goal was clear: Enable the agent to work with the customer proactively by filling in fields with real-time data. By doing so, the agent can gain knowledge and better understand the case. They can use the data in the next steps, such as creating documentation for the triager or preparing the legal retainer.
When it comes to collecting customer data, there were two ways to do it. The customer could provide the information themselves during the initial contact, or the agent could ask for it during the conversation. However, the forms weren't extensive. As a result, the client didn't have a complete set of customer data and had to ask additional questions on the next interaction.
Now, our client can use the forms integrated with Pipedrive to ask the customer some details like name, phone number, email address, postal code, the best time to contact, services needed (HDR, TDC, EPA). All forms include information about the source and relevant branding. This makes it easier to see which services are most popular and to forecast workload.
We also created sales and marketing funnels for every service offered. For example, the sales funnel consists of steps, such as:
This brings transparency and improves workflow for sales and marketing departments. They can track the customer nurturing process and watch it grow.
The customer was able to contact the client's agents through various communication channels. They could use a direct message through Facebook or a form on the website. So, the SoftwareSupp expert needed to refine the contact forms and add more fields to them.
Now, the customer can specify their needs in the contact form and ask for the right assistance. In this way, agents already have a set of information directly from the customer, and they can use them to analyze the case. In addition, when a customer submits a completed form, they immediately receive an automated confirmation. This ensures the customer that their case will be handled by the agent soon. Also, the agent has some work behind them without any additional effort.
The next step was to call the customer to determine the details of the case. At the time of completing the form, the customer can select the preferred method and time of contact. This is for the customer's comfort and to streamline the agent's workflow. The SoftwareSupp expert implemented a new tool, that's Kixie. Kixie is a power dialer designed to make an automated attempt to contact the customer. There are many advantages to such an automated cloud phone system, including the fact that:
An integral part of running a litigation company is obtaining the triager's opinion. The triager needs to be familiar with all of the information to make the best possible decision about whether a case is viable. Our client wanted to make it easy to access information and photos so that the triager could easily review the case. We came up with an idea for such a process:
We needed to provide a feature that would allow customers to share photos and then associate those files with a specific sales opportunity in Pipedrive's CRM system.
All customer data and photos are stored in Pipedrive. These are used to auto-complete the document viewed by the triager. More specifically, the fields in the document template are mapped to the fields in the sales opportunity in Pipedrive.
The triager can upload findings and other discovered information back into the CRM as another record in a given sales opportunity.
When the triager adds new information, the agent is notified that some data and records have been updated and need action.
The next step is to sign a legal retainer by the customer to agree on the contract terms for services.
Here we introduced another system responsible for document workflow, and this is PandaDoc. PandaDoc is somehow connected to Pipedrive.
After that, the sales opportunity is moved to the next stage in the funnel in Pipedrive. And this triggers the process of moving the case into Proclaim case management system, including all the data collected in Pipedrive.
If the lead is fully qualified, i.e., is at the “Received" stage, then the record is exported from CRM and automatically created in Proclaim, including data, documents, and images.
As we mentioned in the beginning, Proclaim is considered the main information hub. The idea is that when any lead reaches out, it goes through the entire sales process. If the legal retainer is signed, it goes to Proclaim as a Won case with all the data collected. Then, the agent continues to work with the customer at Proclaim and manages the case and information in this system.
Before our support, agents were manually completing data in the Proclaim system. It was laborious and time-consuming. Our task was to automate data collection, lead acquisition, and customer case flow between the Pipedrive (CRM) and Proclaim (CMS).
Effect: several dozens of hours saved on manual tasks in the client’s organization.
12 min read
How SoftwareSupp Expert, Michał assisted a company in the industrial computing and automation industry securely organize customer data, implement Pipedrive, and use it to its fullest.
Customer's quote:
"SoftwareSupp Expert successfully implemented a CRM system for us, was responsive, proactive, and willing to deliver business know-how."
Time of the project: 2 months
Scope:
Effect: Successful implementation and integration of CRM system with a database. Securing information flow and defining permissions.
Before starting a project, we always run a preliminary analysis of the client's needs. The kick-off meeting is necessary to discuss the client’s expectations thoroughly. In this case study, we put a strong emphasis on security and visibility settings to ensure that customers' data and know-how are secure when implementing new tools. We connected the client with Michał, a marketing professional familiar with cybersecurity and data security, working towards his OSCP certification.
The CRM system is a must-have for many B2B companies, while a structured one is every marketing or sales director's dream. We implemented Pipedrive from scratch, configured 20 new accounts, and got distributed data under control. In a nutshell, Pipedrive is a sales CRM and pipeline management software that allows you to manage leads and deals, track communications, automate processes, and collect performance data. This required us to learn about the client's needs and current sales funnel, daily tasks, and ways to meet their goals.
Our client wanted to bring team members who interact directly with customers into Pipedrive. We did this in stages and queued granting access to the system because our client wanted to keep things organized and be more in control. Initially, the CEO, Marketing Director, and Sales Director were invited as the people who would have the most permissions and the broadest level of access to Pipedrive. We held weekly meetings with this group to determine further details of the new CRM system's implementation.
Then, after the initial setup, the lower-level employees were added as beta testers to Pipedrive. In the next step, we created and configured accounts for the remaining employees to be ready before the main training on how to use the tool.
Before we could start inviting employees to the system via their email addresses, we had to configure the system's security aspects. We wanted an employee invited to Pipedrive to immediately be assigned to the appropriate group with strictly defined permissions.
We had to create five groups: Marketing, Sales, Project managers, Executives, and Admins. We mapped out the hierarchy and dependencies within the team. Based on this, we defined the roles, permissions, and allowed actions that we assigned to team members working with Pipedrive. The implementation was quite a challenge because we had four visibility groups available to us in the Pipedrive plan our client chose:
So, we briefed the client on Pipedrive's visibility breakdown capabilities, and after that, strategized and implemented the visibility settings. At the very end, we instructed the client on how roles should be applied so that each time new team members are added, they're easily assigned to the appropriate group.
A marketing or sales funnel is a smart way to categorize new opportunities and nurture potential leads in the best way there is. Such a funnel is a visualization that helps you understand the process of converting leads into customers. Also, the funnel shows the customer journey from the awareness stage through interest, evaluation, commitment, and the final purchase.
Our client wanted to ensure a sense of ownership and make sure the team is actively focused on the client. The goal was to prevent the customer from being pushed back or ignored because every non-response is a lost opportunity. So, by establishing funnels and work breakdowns, we streamlined workflow and ensured proper customer care.
We created two separate funnels for marketing and sales. Each team has different goals and responsibilities, so they want to track the flow of leads separately. Funnels have been linked to ways of acquiring leads. The client does it in several possible ways, using popular marketing technology advances such as newsletters, website forms, etc.
It's worth noting that it's very apparent how the marketing and sales departments support each other to drive sales. For example, if a customer writes back to a newsletter, the marketing specialist takes it over and continues the conversation. They warm up the lead to then pass it on to the salesperson or project manager.
So, we planned the entire process from the moment the lead appears in the marketing funnel system, through the entire sales process, to the successful completion and closing of the case. We took these existing practices for categorizing leads and simply systematized them in Pipedrive.
It's worth noting that the expert didn't have access to actual customer data and used sample data. This wasn't a problem for us. The expert proposed initial funnels and built them based on the general categories of information processed in the company. Based on this, we proposed model steps and labels within the funnels. The marketing director was then instructed on how to implement the funnels in Pipedrive using a sandbox. The major focus here was on knowledge sharing, education, and client self-reliance.
The next thing was to create a lead qualification form and rules for qualifying leads. We worked out the following breakdown, considering the criteria related to the client’s sales process and the customer relationship development:
This may seem fairly standard, but this division was necessary to organize knowledge. This way, the entire marketing team knows how each submission is classified. They’re able to figure out on their own what stage in the funnel a lead is at based on its activity.
Additionally, we've defined the required labels in Pipedrive. Now, the team can freely manipulate these labels, predefining them by giving them a color or choosing another option from the range provided by Pipedrive. Even in something as seemingly simple as lead labeling, there was the issue of security and the need to implement a hierarchical structure.
For example, the marketing department can see the deals, but not their value. Project managers can't see all deals, only those specific to a salesperson. Meanwhile, each salesperson can see only their own deals. The executives, on the other hand, are supposed to see everything. Our expert analyzed the labeling opportunities in Pipedrive and used the built-in features to solve this issue.
Pipedrive doesn't have its own mailing server but uses internal servers. So, we needed to synchronize it with an external email provider. Our client uses Microsoft Exchange, which was connected to Pipedrive to synchronize selected elements.
With Pipedrive labels, you can ensure that only the emails you select will fall into your inbox. The thing is, however, that Pipedrive treats labels as a separate folder in the inbox. So, we've created a special CRM folder where selected emails fall into, and by syncing with Pipedrive, they're always up to date. We created a folder with each person individually and then a global CRM folder.
We didn't synchronize the ERP system with Pipedrive by making a direct connection. The whole process was to pull data from the ERP and transfer it to the Pipedrive CRM system. But the problem was that there was no order in the ERP system, and, simply put, there was information chaos.
For example, we found out that marketing or sales professionals filled in fields in different ways. There were mistakes where the first name was in the last name field, and the email address was in the phone number field. The customer wanted to change this and start over by cleaning up the data. This data was critical as it’s related to the customer, their organization, and the activities carried to nurture them.
First, the marketing director and the team did a tremendous job sorting through several thousand records to ensure all the data was in place before syncing. Each record had more than a dozen items, so it was labor-intensive to make this data consistent and organized.
Then, the expert configured the fields in Pipedrive and added some custom fields. Also, the SoftwareSupp expert created an Excel template with which the client could import data from the ERP into the CRM. To be precise, there was an Excel between the ERP system and Pipedrive as a tool to facilitate this connection.
The Excel sheet created by us perfectly matched the fields created in Pipedrive. This was followed by training for the marketing director on how to import data from ERP to CRM using Excel. As a result, the first 50 records with exact creation and modification dates were imported with our help. Each subsequent batch of records, the client was able to make on their own.
The work of marketing and sales departments is based on data and reports. They need to measure how they're handling the day-to-day challenges of acquiring customers and closing sales. That's why we suggested using Pipedrive Insights as an indicator to show them if they're moving in the right direction.
We configured the dashboard, taking into account the essential information that every salesperson or marketer should see when entering the Pipedrive system. From now on, employees can find out in seconds about the events in a given period, current revenue, completed product transactions, new opportunities, etc. This gives them the big picture and allows them to track future successes.
The next action was to integrate Pipedrive and Mailchimp via Zapier. At this moment, Mailchimp is more of a native tool. Still, at the time of implementation, it wasn't possible to make Pipedrive-MailChimp integration in any other way than through an additional solution that will work in the middle (Zapier).
The Zap we created was a simple integration between Pipedrive and Mailchimp so that these solutions can communicate with each other two-way. The two-way communication was that information is sent from Pipedrive to MailChimp and vice versa.
For example, a marketing director can filter in Pipedrive the list of people they want to send a newsletter. Then, just pull the data between the tools, and it's all done. Or the marketing director can pull audience information from MailChimp and then saves the individuals in Pipedrive as new deals.
The client planned their first newsletter campaign with an expert, using the potential of the new integration. So, if the recipient responds, Mailchimp is supposed to come back with that information and saves the entire message in Pipedrive as a new or existing deal. However, there was a catch here: A separate Zap had to be created for each newsletter campaign. However, the SoftwareSupp expert trained the marketing director to be able to navigate the application themselves.
In this implementation, we took a somewhat creative approach to get customer feedback. As the client requested, we didn’t implement any new tool, and re-used Mailchimp. The process was as follows: Once a customer is contacted, an automated email is sent from Mailchimp asking the customer to rate the interaction on a scale of 1 to 10. This allows the client to see how the employee performed during the interaction and calculate the NPS.
This was a one-time test to see if this solution fit or not. Additionally, by using Mailchimp, the client is assured that they have full permission to contact and ask for a rating.
Data without context tells you nothing. They're just a collection of numbers, charts, and descriptions. Our client wanted tangible information about the companies and decision-makers who visit and engage on their website, so they wanted to learn more about:
To that end, we decided to try out Leadfeeder, a web application that collects data about customers visiting websites through a tracking script. It converts anonymous traffic into real company names and reveals the exact behavior of website visitors.
We embed the script on the client's website to learn more about the visitors' sources, areas of interest, the most viewed pages, and much more. All this data is documented so that the marketing team can warm up such a lead on their next visit. Additionally, Leadfeeder tracks users and creates heat maps. The client can analyze them and then make necessary improvements to the site, such as changing its design, adding new buttons, or conducting A/B tests.
In the initial phase, we conducted a group training that lasted about two hours. The goal was to get a smooth start with Pipedrive. Each employee was asked to click through the app and see how it works. Then, we did one-on-one training, with each one lasting 35 minutes.
The SoftwareSupp expert discussed with each employee what problems or comments they have. The training was personalized, as managers, salespeople, project managers, or marketers have different needs. Together we went through the basic features, taking into account the specific nature of the employee's work, their duties, and the type of tasks.
The entire implementation enabled the client to organize the collected information and integrate it with new tools to improve their operations. Even though we didn't have direct access to the actual data, it wasn't a barrier. The SoftwareSupp expert created the test accounts and sandboxes to properly demonstrate the tool's potential and show the client its use. As a result, the client can perform many tasks on their own, gain practical knowledge, and have peace of mind because we’ve ensured a high level of security.
Such privacy-oriented implementations show that anything is possible. The SoftwareSupp experts can cooperate and maintain a high level of confidentiality when required. We always share our insights and try to engage the client at all stages. By being proactive, you can stay up to date and master the changes faster.
5 min read
Direct Air is a leading supplier of air compressors to the industry since 1993, and are distributors for top brands including CompAir and Hydrovane.
"SoftwareSupp and their Freelancer helped us integrate two core systems for our day-to-day marketing, our CRM system and email marketing. This has helped with the efficiency of sales and marketing working together and giving both teams the complete oversight of prospect activity. The integration team were professional and very easy to deal with, no questions were too difficult or silly. I’m very happy to have ongoing support from SoftwareSupp."
Emma Dolby, Marketing Manager at Direct Air, the Client
Time of the project: 3 months
Scope:
Effect: Efficient Spotler-Pipedrive automation that allows the client to optimize their marketing campaigns and sales activities
Choosing the right software for your business model is a necessary step to start optimizing your sales and marketing efforts. The next one is to create efficient connections between those apps. Integrations can save your time, keep all data sources up-to-date, and facilitate efficient reporting.
Software integrations make life easier as they reduce the workload of team members. Integrations help with internal communication between sales and marketing. If everyone involved has access to the most accurate data, the efficiency of marketing campaigns raises.
The SoftwareSupp experts can create custom integrations that will connect the software you use every day. You don’t have to rely on built-in integrations in your CRM system.
Direct Air is a leading supplier of air compressors to industry since 1993, and are distributors for top brands including CompAir and Hydrovane. They provide high quality technical expertise and a commitment to providing a first class level of after sales service
The client wanted to integrate Pipedrive with Spotler. It’s a marketing automation tool that lets you manage email campaigns, create client segmentation, and use AI to optimize your campaigns.
Among Spotler’s features, you’ll find AI-powered marketing automation, lead generation, email marketing, AI IP lookup, email remarketing, rendering tools, and landing pages creator.
Pipedrive has integrations with many popular marketing tools, but it doesn't have a native integration with Spotler. That’s why Direct Air needed a custom integration with this system.
Direct Air successfully connected with Paolo through the SoftwareSupp platform. He is a Software Consultant who has 10 years of experience in integrating SaaS applications such as Pipedrive with other sales and marketing apps. He builds automations to enhance and speed up his clients’ business activities in a cost-effective manner.
With custom developments, it’s necessary to precisely agree on the scope of the project. To break down the scope of the project into tasks, the team used the methodology called "user stories". It’s an effective way to choose what should be delivered within the application. The goal here was to define the end result for the client that would satisfy their needs.
A user story is a general description of a feature created using the perspective of the end-user. Its purpose is to define the value that the user will get from implementing a specific feature.
After the initial call with the client and SoftwareSupp Project Manager, the expert was able to get the general overview of the tasks at hand. Later on, he asked the client to record a screencast to show him the use cases and his expectations of the integration. This helped Paolo to focus on the functionalities that would bring the results that the client needed.
With SoftwareSupp, all the project progress is tracked in Asana. The timeline and the budget of the project are always agreed in advance. The Project Manager coordinates the project throughout its entire duration and makes sure that all the tasks are completed on time and the client is satisfied with the result.
The main goal of the integration was to provide the most up-to-date data for sales and marketing teams. It was also important to automate record creation in Spotler and in Pipedrive. When there was a change in one system, the other should get this information and update the relevant records. The next step was to be able to create activities automatically based on the specific criteria, for example when the contact got the “hot lead” label.
Paolo started with designing the architecture of the application, identifying the entities involved, their relationships, and the integration flows. He made sure to implement classes to abstract the underlying APIs.
Having received API access tokens for both applications, the expert was able to create scripts that were designed to inform the apps about the actions that were crucial for the integration to work.
Paolo synchronized Spotler with Pipedrive to achieve the desired result. For every manual creation, modification, or removal of contact in Spotler there was a trigger that fired the script to do the same for Pipedrive. The same happened the other way around.
The next automation was designed to create the activities in Pipedrive based on particular criteria. One of the examples is arranging calls with potential clients as soon as they get the “hot lead” label.
The last part of the project was to create a "multiple options" custom field in Pipedrive. The automation was created to update this field over time based on the current campaigns that are run in Spotler. Thanks to that, the sales and marketing teams can communicate better as they have the most important information already in the systems they use.
Creating an effective system to manage sales and marketing communication is a real time-saver. In many companies, the communication between sales and marketing is challenging because of the outdated information that’s provided in the system
The teams then need to waste time on confirming the current state of deals. That's why it's necessary to put in some effort into creating automation that would make sure all the data is up-to-date.
With the integration in place, the client can coordinate marketing and sales efforts with ease. Everyone has access to the relevant data that they need to perform their daily tasks.
Another advantage is having access to better reporting options. The sales and marketing data combined can be a powerful source of insights for increasing your revenue and conversion rates.
The integrations also enable better campaign targeting based on the data from the CRM systems. The marketing team can adjust the communication based on the feedback from the sales team.
The market for marketing automation software is getting bigger. There are many options that you can choose from. Even though Pipedrive integrates by default with many most popular systems, there’s still a number of software choices that you can’t connect with the CRM without any knowledge of coding. With a custom integration done by a SoftwareSupp Freelancer, you can benefit from using your favorite apps that match your business model and you don’t need to switch to another app to create an efficient automation flow.
3 min read
Page speed impacts conversions and is crucial to rank high on Google. The observations show that 90% of people are going to leave a site within 10–20 seconds. This makes optimization a thing of consideration.
Page speed impacts conversions and is crucial to rank high on Google. The observations show that 90% of people are going to leave a site within 10–20 seconds.
This makes optimization a thing of consideration.
The goal of this post is to demonstrate and educate about Webflow Page Speed optimizations.
We had an opportunity to diagnose a site of our client on SoftwareSupp and found out these7 Actionable Steps that can be implemented straight away to improve the performance of your Webflow site.
The Webflow designer takes Lottie as SVG rendering by default which is good for quality but takes more time to load. The other option we have is Canvas Rendering which is much faster to render.
The SVG images are preferred for images that need to scale like the logo but we often get wrong with SVGs. We use them directly in Webflow without minifying. An SVG could consistof many layers, paths, and groups that need to be removed for reducing the load on our site.
This can be done in any design software like Figma, XD, Sketch, or in some online tools.
Fonts are the most underrated things when it comes to optimization. The site’s 10%-20%load is with custom fonts themselves.
There are two things with fonts.
(1) Fonts are required to be optimized with software like Fontforge before uploading to a Webflow Project.
(2) Google Fonts should be manually downloaded and uploaded to avoid loading unnecessary scripts.
Fontforge allows deleting all the unnecessary characters that come bundled in a font like characters of a foreign language and other symbols which may not be required on anEnglish (or your language) website.
Make sure to generate the optimized fonts as .WOFF2.
There’s an extra step with Google fonts to manually download them from: https://fonts.google.com.
If ever there is a need to update text on the site and the required character is not available then that particular text will be loaded in the system font so ultimately there would be no impact on the content.
The scripts used on your site can be set to defer. This can be done under Project Setting’s custom code and also under Page Setting where the script has been used.
The “defer” tells the browser not to wait for the script and load the page while the script continues to load in the background.
This can be done by adding “defer” in the custom code before the src tag.
Here’s an example,
<script defer src="https://softwaresupp.com/blog/test.js?speed=1"></script>
We create styles and classes during development but often end up removing them from theelements but whether linked to an element or not these styles and classes add to the site storage size.
Here’s the process,
Style Manager → Clean Up → Remove
Webflow is set to lazy load images by default but sometimes there could be images that get escaped or by error we end up changing its load.
Here’s the process:
Image Settings → Load → Lazy: loads on scroll
Also, avoid using images as background as this only works with Image elements.
While development we create interactions and add triggers but there could be some unused ones that can be cleaned.
Here’s the process:
Interactions → Clean Up → Delete
Do test these steps on your Webflow Project and share with people who could be benefited!
Please feel free to contact us if you need an expert to handle your Webflow Page SpeedOptimizations and help you in getting a high Google PageSpeed Insights Score.
5 min read
Learn how do we manage and deploy projects at SoftwareSupp. Following all the steps from this article is one of the steps to successful project completion.
We’ve noticed that there are multiple challenges you have to deal with when you work on IT projects. Bearing this in mind, we’d like to share with you the project deployment rules we apply for every SoftwareSupp project. If you are a SoftwareSupp Freelancer, please keep in mind that by starting your SoftwareSupp project you agree to do your best to implement the practices given below into your work with a client.
On the project launch, you are connected with your customer and get our support to successfully complete the project. After a customer decides to accept your offer, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a URL redirected to the project board. At the same time, he/she is requested to share access to software tools through a secured password submission form in the project board.
Together with sharing the password, he or she will be requested to provide additional materials and information, to allow you to successfully start the project.
We believe communication is a crucial part of every project, so at the beginning of the project please make sure to send a welcome message to the customer and let them schedule a kick-off call with you.
During your kickoff meeting, agree with the client how you’ll communicate during the project and let them know how frequently you are going to inform them about progress and results. (Do this at least on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.)
Keep in mind that key milestone updates have to be reported on the SoftwareSupp project board.
When it comes to ongoing project communication, it's a good idea to choose one communication channel to discuss foundation project topics. We recommend doing this in the SoftwareSupp inbox so you can easily reference them again later.
A customer can book a meeting with you at their convenience using the meeting system available on the project board. You will receive an email notification about a booked call. (Please make sure you have added your availability).
If you are not able to attend the meeting, be sure to inform the customer that you are not able to attend, and propose an alternative time to meet.
It is a good practice to send a meeting agenda for every meeting and follow up after the meeting with a 3-point summary sent to the customer.
Project management is a crucial part to deliver the project successfully. For every project make sure your work is planned and reported through a dedicated project board in weekly or bi-weekly sprints:
- Set up delivery dates for each milestone. (Customers have to be sure how much time it takes to complete a milestone and when it will be ready). Also, it lets you eliminate possible risks and delays as well as adjust your efforts.
*Please remember that milestone status/completion has to be reported on the project board; it is required for the final project approval and settlement.
- Plan tasks for each bigger project milestone.
You can plan tasks directly in a project board just by clicking “add a new ticket”
- Schedule weekly or bi-weekly summary and planning calls with the customer.
Every time you’ll need to find the best time to talk with a customer use a meeting system at SoftwareSupp. Based on your availability, a customer can book a call or remote session with you.
If you need additional help with project management, you can always contact the SoftwareSupp project manager who will answer all of your questions and help you facilitate the process with your customer.
When it comes to the SoftwareSupp project manager, he can be of any help with organizational matters, including problem-solving, and answer all of the questions about the scope changes or adjustments.
He can also help you execute all the necessary materials on time, e.g. password, specification.
Remember that SoftwareSupp provides additional tools to effortlessly manage processes of document storage, secured password sharing, and guide a customer to use them.
To summarize, the aim of the entire project management process and project manager support is to make sure the project will be delivered on time while maintaining a focus on quality.
Any dev work is performed according to the following process:
a) The solution is always first implemented on the person or company’s staging environment
b) The solution is tested for proper setup/implementation
c) The solution is released on the production or is simply duplicated for the company’s
production in the same way it was implemented on staging
Responsiveness is critical to forming a successful working relationship, especially when we are talking about providing support for the customer. Bearing this in mind you should reply to customer support queries within 1 hour from query submission.
In the answer providing:
a) an answer to the customer question (the real and actual one, once we don’t know something and need to check on this, we say this)
b) estimated time to complete the task and set up the solution (in hours or a time when it can be implemented)
Every answer (if it requires action on the developer/expert side) is followed by:
a) A ticket created in the system
b) Actual action/activity taken by the dedicated expert/developer
If you don’t know the answer:
a) if it can be checked quickly (e.g. by asking our community/partners) we 1. Inform the customer that we’re checking on this, 2. check with community/expert partners (e.g. by posting the query as a ticket). An internal SoftwareSupp team or a community of expert can then come back with the answer to the question and support a developer/expert in solving the issue)
b) if it requires research (e.g. dev issue) we 1. Inform the customer that we’re checking on this and that it might take a while and 2. check on this by running research.
You should know that a customer and all project members receive a weekly quality monitoring survey in which they can share their thoughts and feedback about your work and service quality.
Communication, respect, and responsiveness are critical to forming a successful working relationship. Follow the mentioned guides and they will help you complete the project successfully.
4 min read
The Webflow platform impresses with its key features: a user-friendly visual editor of web pages, a built-in CMS for quick management of store content and products, stunning animation effects, and more.
The Webflow platform impresses with its key features: a user-friendly visual editor of web pages, a built-in CMS for quick management of store content and products, stunning animation effects, and more. These advantages have motivated hundreds of website owners to migrate their web projects to the Webflow.
Although the process of migrating a site is not too complicated, there are still a number of aspects to pay close attention to. Otherwise, reworking the neglected aspects can turn out to be rather costly.
Here are the top 5 tips to ensure the effective migration of your website to Webflow compiled by our team.
There are certain tools designed to make the migration process easier. For example, if you wish to migrate your Wordpress project, you need to export your content and import it to Webflow. This is where WP CSV plugin will help - export your Wordpress content as a CSV file and import it to Webflow in just a few clicks.
There are more useful migration tools, such as converters from Udesly. With them, you can easily transfer your products from Woocommerce, Wix, Shopify, or Squarespace to Webflow Ecommerce.
In order to maintain the website's position in the search results, it is important not to neglect the key SEO elements.
Each project has SEO settings: editing robots.txt, generating sitemap.xml, turning off sites indexing on temporary subdomains, as well as a request for verification of the site by Google.
For each page, you can set meta tags, titles, and descriptions of the content. There are options for the OpenGraph markup as well. Each blog post and store product contains SEO settings, therefore, it is important to use these opportunities to improve the overall SEO position of the site.
Next, we strongly recommend integrating your Google Analytics (GA) account with Google Tag Manager (GTM). This will help you a lot with tracking your analytics, optimizing user experience and increasing website conversions.
With GTM, you can store all the script tags, pixels and analytics codes within a single tag. One of the greatest benefits of this is managing your website integrations and tracking the performance without the need to actually edit the code.
To prevent users from landing on the broken pages (and to minimize the loss of backlinks), be sure to check the pages on your existing website and set up 301 redirects accordingly.
Webflow platform has got 301 redirects covered - you can set up redirects either for a single page or for an entire folder of pages. Just go to the Project settings section, fill in the fields “Old Path” and “Redirect to Page”, and then push the “Add Redirect Path” button. That’s it!
In order not to forget anything, you can pre-compile a list of all the pages you have. Of course, this will be time consuming in case of sites with a large number of pages.
As long as the Webflow platform does not provide domain registrar services, you cannot transfer your previously hosted domain to it. However, you can still link it to Webflow by pointing that domain to the platform servers using the DNS records.
To do this, you should reset your DNS settings first. This will help you prevent any issues that might require troubleshooting DNS settings in the future.
Your domain registrar may or may not allow managing DNS records; therefore, your actions will differ a bit in those two scenarios. Please see the detailed instructions for both cases here.
After you’re done with resetting the DNS settings, you can proceed with updating them. The potential pitfall on this step is that all the DNS hosts have their own ways of updating the settings, and the dashboards interfaces are not always that intuitive. So, you may want to check the help documentation of your DNS host and/or to reach out to their support service.
To sum up, you can migrate your website to Webflow either independently or with the help of an expert. If you decide to do it yourself, then you should find the tips we've provided above helpful.
First, the use of special tools for data migration will make the transition to Webflow quick and easy. Second, adding key SEO elements will prevent your website positions in search results from dropping. Third, integration of Google Analytics with Google Tag Manager will allow monitoring and optimizing the efficiency of your website performance. Fourth, installing 301 redirects will prevent users from landing on non-working pages. And finally, resetting the DNS settings will help you avoid the problems with them in the future.
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