How to Manage Your Time Effectively
17 Mar 2014
Do you ever have the feeling that no sooner than you’ve got to the office, flicked on the computer screen to start working, when all of a sudden lunchtime comes around? And in another blink of an eye it’s time to head home?!
We have written on many occasions about the benefits of using CRM for managing your customer-facing activities. Just as important is the internal management of information, and CRM has some great tools to help you keep a handle on your in-house business goings on. The one feature I want to focus on in this post is the management of time.
When you have those days that simply fly by, it can be hard to remember everything you have done, and how long was spent per job. But in many scenarios time management is of the essence – when you have sold a certain amount of hours on a project, or maybe you have sold a block of time to a customer on a support contract. You want to offer the best possible service, but you also want to keep an eye on those projects and contracts and ensure that you carry out any work within agreed timescales and scheduled duration.
Of course there are those inevitable bumps in the road, various unforeseen circumstances which mean a project has taken longer than anticipated, but with some precise time management you are easily able to report on your projects, and ensure that you have set your project expectations accurately.
Within your CRM software you are able to track all activity types – calls, meetings and tasks, and record the time spent. You can further decide whether your time is billable or free of charge. By associating the activity with not on only a specific customer but also a project or a ticket, you can then accrue the time against that contract, view it on your calendar and generally make sure that you are running on track.
The next time you have a day that flies by, come the evening you’ll be able to glance back at your activities and calendar, and see exactly what you have done, knowing that it has all been recorded where it matters.
My role is to build our Customer Success team and I work with our clients and prospects helping them get the most from their subscription – it is a fun challenging role as no two days are the same. When not in the office I’ll be either making a noise on my guitar or getting my trainers on for a run out in the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors or the Lake District.