No matter what your business is, it’s nearly impossible in today’s world to not use online-based tools. Based on your industry, personal preferences, budget, and other factors, the tools you use might be the same or completely different than someone else, even someone with a similar business.
We also use tools for a wide variety of reasons. While I may use Dropbox to share files with clients I have, Joe may use it to store pictures to share on #ThrowbackThursday’s.
To see what, why and how people within our organization use different online tools, we asked a couple of employees to explain the tools they use and provide information to others who want to learn about these tools. The first response we received was from Alec Reed, one of the talented and hardworking people behind the scenes that make what we do possible. Here are three tools that Alec uses and how he uses them in his own words.
“Infusionsoft is a robust system that’s capable of doing many different actions. One of the more simple things it does for Kahuna Accounting is store detailed and important information about all of our contacts and clients. Without this excellent storage system of information, we would be left scrambling to find the correct information for each of our 2,000+ contacts.
Infusionsoft helps Kahuna set up and automate our clients’ billing for each month. If a client has a credit card that will expire soon, they will get an automated email letting them know to enter a new credit card before the old one expires. The automation of Infusionsoft really saves our team a great deal of time.
When someone wants to contact us through our “Contact Us” form, we have an automated email that follows up with the potential client. This email contains instructions for the potential client to schedule a call with one of our accounting staff members. This eliminates the time wasted in trying to reach a contact that was just a robot or spammer filled out at our “Contact Us” form.”
“Asana is a great tool for communicating about projects that need to be completed within specific teams. The team is able to see what projects each of the individual members are working on. I like that within the projects, there are tasks that can be created in order to provide further detail to the project at hand. The projects, and the tasks within, can be assigned to specific people or groups of people. This helps with accountability and keeps me focused on what I need to do for each project. Due dates can be assigned to each task within the project, but not the project itself. Adding a due date field to each project would be a great addition to Asana. One of the problems with Asana that we’ve encountered is it requires a team effort to successfully use. If a few people don’t use Asana on our team, then Asana begins to fade away and no projects or tasks are added or updated.”
“I’ve only recently began using Evernote, but it has quickly become one of my favorite programs. My desk can get cluttered, and when that happens I can easily misplace an important note I wrote for myself. With Evernote I don’t need a bunch of sticky notes or to jot down a quick note in a notebook that I’ll lose track of.
I can type out exactly what I need to do within Evernote and it has it all the tasks I need to accomplish listed out. This helps me because I can sort by date created, date updated and a few other options. This way I can see what I need to do in a simple, online to-do list that won’t get lost at my desk or forgotten about. One thing I really like about Evernote is the ability to put a description for each task where I can even put a link or a save file.”
What tools do you use? Post your favorite in the comment section below.
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