Last month we launched Punch on the AppExchange, our first paid app. Prior to launching Punch I had read a few articles on time tracking and employee accountability; of course there are many opinions on the issue.
But for us it came down to the single-point-of-failure ROI. That is calculating what is lost by not being able to connect the right people at the right moment because of a lack of information.
True Story
At a previous company we would have customers who would call in all the time- sometimes to support and sometimes to our direct lines. Working in an office you know that people have a tendency to run and get a cup of coffee or go to back-to-back meetings. Unfortunately, one of those times occurred when a customer called. They had been bounced from another department and the person they were looking for had an office next to mine. However, they were in a meeting that was running long and I had no way of knowing where they were or what to tell the customer. After a few call backs, we managed to mitigate the issue with the customer but knowing where the right people are at the right time could have saved us a lot of time.
In this case having Punch in our Salesforce instance would have been invaluable. I could have easily communicated the status of my fellow co-worker to the customer which means less anxiety on their part.
Over Communicating is a good thing
At Red Argyle we are a remote company, so that means we can work from anywhere. And sometimes do just that. It’s easy for us to be onsite with a client one day, and working from a coffee shop the next. For us being able to check in for the day and designate a location helps keep the team informed.
But you don’t have to be a remote company to benefit from an app like Punch. This article is a good read about the benefits of time tracking. It’s easy to lose track of when co-workers are coming, leaving, heading to lunch and most of our clients use Punch for those purposes. What other clients use it for is to Punch in and out of projects, which is a good way to see how team members are allocating their time. All of this may seem like over communication, but given the number of priorities everyone juggles in any given day being able to find a team member makes your day more efficient. Think of it less like big brother and more like “I’m here to help!”. Technology at the end of the day should compliment what you are doing, and should make your customer service better. By punching in and knowing how to connect the customer at the right time to the right person you can immediately set your customer up for success.
