We occasionally talk to prospects who’re looking for one perfect piece of software that will solve all of their problems. Many times they end up doing nothing (using file folders, whiteboards, spreadsheets) while they’re waiting for the whole solution.
At Moraware, we make software, and theoretically we could build the perfect solution for ourselves, but we don’t. I thought it might be useful to share some of the software tools we use as an example of why even we don’t look for a single solution.
Here’s the top five pieces of software I use on a daily basis. Some of these might be useful for you, too.
Moraware JobTracker
Even though we don’t build or install countertops, we believe in “eating your own dog food”. We use JobTracker to track every communication with our customers and prospects. Any time we’re scheduling sales calls or demos, that’s done in JobTracker, too.
I use it every day to make notes, and instantly look up who’s calling (often, I’ll start searching for a phone number based on Caller ID). The cool thing is that we have a very complete picture of our customers over time – in some cases we’ve documented over a decade of phone calls and emails with a countertop fabricator.
Hipchat
Moraware doesn’t have a central office, and we’re spread out across 6 states. So, we don’t have the chance to have the quick, informal chats that usually happen if you’re all sitting next to each other. HipChat lets us have individual or group instant message.
Most of the time, it’s as simple as “do you have time to talk on the phone”, or notes about a customer call. But, we also share occasional pictures, customer testimonials, and important company information.
HelpScout
When we get an email from our customers and prospects, it’s important that we answer it as quickly as possible. So, when you email support@moraware.com it goes into our help desk software, then gets distributed to all of us.
One of the main reasons we use HelpScout is so we can easily assign emails to the right person, and when we reply it includes our personal contact details, but it keeps the conversation using the generic email address. That way, if I’ve been emailing with a customer, but they continue while I’m at lunch, anyone else in our office can jump in.
Trello
Not everything we do is related to a customer. In fact, most of our development, sales, and marketing are longer-term projects that start out open-ended and can take weeks or months before they’re done.
So, we’ve got a place where we track these longer-term projects. Trello’s divided into “boards”, and we have boards for development, a top-priority list, sales and marketing tasks, as well as the Stone Talk podcast.
Passpack
I literally have hundreds of passwords. There’s a combination of work and personal accounts; everything ranging to frequent flyer numbers, banking, and things like our business phones and Google passwords.
We use Passpack to store both personal and shared passwords. The cool thing is that you can decide which passwords to keep private and which to share with other co-workers or groups. If you were doing it just for personal passwords, it might be a bit of overkill, but in a business situation it’s great.
That’s a short overview of the top tools I use frequently. In addition to that, there’s a huge list including our QuickBooks accounting, Join.me meeting software… and 10’s of other software tools that we use within Moraware.
Want to know more? At Moraware, we make software for countertop fabricators. CounterGo is countertop drawing, layout, and estimating software. JobTracker is scheduling software that helps you eliminate the time you waste looking for job folders. RemnantSwap is a free place to buy and sell granite remnants with fabricators near you.