There’s a context-setting scene in the movie The American President (I know it’s cheesy, get over it) in which Michael Douglas walks through the halls of The White House on the way to The Oval Office on a typical morning. As he walks, his secretary Jane shuffles hurriedly behind him, whispering the name of the next person he’s going to see.
The gardener, the guy washing the windows - it doesn’t matter. Jane knows their names, their birthdays, how many kids they have and what kind of ice cream they like.
I don’t know about you, but I’d love that kind of help. Except without the following-me-around-and-whispering-in-my-ear-all-day part. That could get annoying quick.
At Your Fingertips
Having deep information on your clients is an invaluable tool for personalizing their experience of your business. If you’re the guy who remembers to ask how Susie is doing in her advanced basket weaving class, you’re building the kind of rapport that gets you beyond service provider and into caring business partner land.
The Web App that Cares
You could get that kind of detailed service from a custom web app. I’ve said before that we build web apps that do just about anything. One of the things they are great at is contact management.
We’ll build you an application that tracks more than the basic name, email and phone number stuff. We’ll build you one that has a place for meeting notes, email conversations, client files, payment history, relationship rating, how that client came to you, what projects you’ve done for them...I could go on and on.
Or you could go on and on. Because the greatest part about custom applications is that they are tailored to fit your business. Maybe you don’t need a list of projects, but you do need a place to keep track of relevant touchpoints with each client. Great! We can do that.
Not Just Cool for Nerds
I’ll be honest - I’ve got a thing for organized data. I’ve been known to salivate a bit over clever organizational systems.
But all that org-geekery aside, the benefits of a tight system are innumerable. As I mentioned earlier, having detailed notes on clients allows you to really personalize your interactions. The benefit of having up-to-the-second client info available to your whole team allows you to eliminate client update meetings. If anyone can post client notes a central database, then everyone stays in the loop, all the time.
And that’s about as close to magic as you’re likely to come.
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