Setting Up New Users in HubSpot

If you wish to add workers as 'new users' on your HubSpot CRM account,  you will need to register them before their work can become integrated. For instance, even if you give team members the BCC forwarding address to log emails, their emails will get logged into the CRM only after you have already registered those team members. Additionally, when adding these workers as new users, you will also need to set their permissions. For instance, regarding your list of contacts (leads), you must establish how much access you grant workers to view your contact list, communicate with and edit the contact details. Some activities are listed below. This post will illustrate the setup process. See more

To add new users

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the main navigation bar.
• Click Users & Teams in the left sidebar menu. 
• Click Create user.
• Enter the email address(es) into the 'Add email address(es)' field. (If you are adding multiple users at the same time, separate email addresses with a space. Then click Next.). 
• Your team member / new user will receive an email message in your inbox from HubSpot (as pictured below)
  

To change team assignment, make a new user the super admin or remove the user

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the main navigation bar.
• Click Users & Teams in the left sidebar menu. 
• Click the name of the user.

To set permissions for new users
There is a range of settings that range from 'owned only' on one extreme to 'everything' on the other extreme. For instance, workers with the 'owned only' permissions will only see those contacts records they 'own' (ie were assigned to) when they access their contacts dashboard. 

See how to set not only which deals a new user can see but also what 'properties' (ie fields) within each deal (s)he can see.

If you want the new user to see unassigned contacts (ie contacts to whom team member user ownership has not yet been assigned), select the 'Unassigned' checkbox.

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the main navigation bar.
• Click Users & Teams in the left sidebar menu. 
• Click the name of the user.
• Use the tab and tab content options as checklists. For instance, below illustrates options for 'Contact access'. Go through each item within each tab before advancing through other tabs (like Marketing). In the example below, the new user will view only those contacts that (s)he owns.

CONTENT RELATED TO ADDING NEW USERS / TEAM MEMBERS IN YOUR HUBSPOT CRM

• See how to set not only which deals a new user can see but also what 'properties' (ie fields) within each deal (s)he can see.
• How to Assign Ownership of Contacts and Deals to HubSpot CRM users / virtual team members
• Bulk editing fields within HubSpot (like lifecycle stages for multiple contacts at once).

CRM / Customer Relationship Management 101 to Grow A Business

Customer Relationship Management CRM Systems For Business Growth 101

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy that integrates 3 essential components; people (internal and external), processes and technologies. One CRM application includes managing a business' interaction with its current and potential customers. CRM is heavily driven by customer data. It collects and analyzes data (of all a customer's current and past interactions with the company) with the common specific aim of improving its relationship with that customer and, in turn, customer retention and sales growth. (This can be customized according to your business' unique value proposition).

A CRM system (like Zoho and HubSpot) is used in sales (and marketing) project management for tracking all interactions in one place. When kept in the cloud (ie on the internet), the CRM allows multiple virtual team members greater connectivity through real time access anywhere globally.

Uses & Benefits of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

• It allows a business to integrate multiple functional teams (sales, invoicing, etc), ie to have a '360 degree perspective' on the customer's experience (CX). This is so because all workers use one centralized space to log every contact with any single customer, from emails, scheduled meetings, phone to even offline activities. Specifically, each team and its members will have full access to the history of any single customer and know precisely where the business left off with a single customer, even if through another team. Ultimately, this allows you to provide a seamless and customized customer experience (CX). Since CRM also allows you to spot and merge multiple records created by different team members for a single contact, it essentially combines all of the bits of information from different locations to create a single, more complete record. In short, CRM can significantly improve your business' efficiency and customer experience (CX). Consider for instance how a sales representative can consult notes of all prior interactions before calling or responding to a customer. Perhaps that sales representative can avert a potentially bad sales day with a customer who has complained to another department over a product or issue that (s)he wanted to offer. Perhaps the customer is frustrated and on the point of attrition. With knowledge about a customer's history, the sales representative can make an appropriate and well informed decision on how to proceed with the particular customer.
• CRM tools can integrate different applications and even social media that you already use, the most common of which include Gmail, MailChimp, Facebook, etc. Consequently, it allows you to enhance your business' CRM-driven efficiency with added functionality (of each individual system). Regarding the social media integration, this also allows you to know every time your business is mentioned on social media. This therefore allows your business to respond very quickly to market sentiments.
• CRM allows you to monitor how correspondence ages and, in turn, recognize the health of your relationship with a customer in a timely manner. For instance, if a customer stops sharing information and responding as readily as before and slower than normal, you may need to work on maintaining the relationship. In fact, CRM task functions can be set to send reminders that ensure you are reminded of important tasks. For instance, you can create reminders for 'tasks' that send you email reminders when contracts are up for renewal and so on. It can essentially prevent aging of contact points.
• CRM can integrate pre-existing databases. For instance, you can import contact lists using a CSV file. See how to do this using HubSpot.

• 

  NB. HubSpot already has a list of preset field names (like first name, country, etc). In order to ensure HubSpot accepts your csv file with fields that are special to your field, edit the list of fields, called 'properties' in HubSpot before attempting to import your csv file.

• CRM is ideal for ensuring the continuity of a company after sales representatives are absent through vacation, retirement, termination, end of project and so on. This is possible because the data is managed in an already familiar (standardized) and accessible manner in a single place.
• Since CRM allows you to standardize and centralize all of your customer data, it is much easier to observe, make accurate management reports of, track and consequently respond strategically to market trends (like groups that respond better to certain marketing efforts, untapped geographic-related markets of hot lead, cash flow from weighted averages of the percentages on the sales pipeline, aging quotes, sales person activity to ensure salesforce is spending time in worthwhile places, etc). In turn, it also provides a better opportunity to grow your business than otherwise. For instance, CRM even allows you to monitor geographic market trends that you examine for opportunities.
• CRM offers tools that organize and track a business' sales process. For instance, you can spot the bottleneck points, ie where leads get stuck in the sales pipeline. In short, it can help businesses to identify and resolve operational issues.
• CRM allows you to automate your business intelligently. For instance, if someone visits your website and completes a contact form after business hours, your integrated CRM can send you an automatic email notification of this fact. Although this is already a common feature in contact form applications, if your market segmentation involves geographic location, the CRM goes further by establishing the lead's location as a means of determining who in your team must deal with the email and even incorporating an autoresponse email that assures the lead that someone will respond shortly. In other cases, based on the lead's contact form entries, you may even set up your CRM to quickly qualify your 'hot leads' and direct the notification as urgent to the correct person.

CONTENT RELATED TO CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

• CRM is the sine qua non that helps you to create a superior customer experience (CX)
• Encourage leads to easily book meetings using a HubSpot CRM schedulig tool. Preliminary meetings are an effective way of qualifying leads.
• Integrate incoming and outgoing emails to a HubSpot CRM, even without access to the HubSpot CRM account.
• Trouble tickets
• CRM is a key aspect of successful virtual team working
• What is your brand personality? Customers notice, trust, like and commit to a brand personality they see as compatible and with which they can have a relationship. Every touchpoint of your CRM must integrate your brand's personality in a consistent way.
• A CRM system needs one good coordinator.

How to Manage Staff Accounts in Shopify

How to Manage Staff Accounts in Shopify

• Log in to your Shopify admin account
• Select 'Account' in the left column

To add new staff accounts to Shopify

• Select 'Account' in the left column
• Scroll down to the 'Accounts & permissions' section
• In the 'staff accounts' section, click 'add staff account' and enter the details as pictured below. By default, the system gives new staff accounts full access. However, if uncertain, deselect the 'this staff account will have full permissions'.

• Once the details are entered, click 'send invite'. This will send an email to your (virtual assistant / VA) staff member

To change profile details and access settings for current staff account

• Select 'Account' in the left column
• Scroll down to the 'Accounts & permissions' section
• In the 'staff accounts' section, click 'add staff account' and enter the details as pictured below. 
• Click the hyperlink with the staff member's name (as pictured immediately below)

• As an option, enter the staff member's profile details

• Select and deselect the parts of your site where your staff member of virtual assistant should have access in the 'Customize permissions' section

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CONTENT RELATED TO MANAGING (VIRTUAL ASSISTANT / VA) STAFF ACCOUNTS IN SHOPIFY

• How to conduct an effective job interview (for virtual assistants)
• How to set up a new (Tawk.to) live chat account for virtual assistants
• (Virtual assistant) staff planning should be based on your business' unique value proposition

Virtual Assistants as Tawk.to Agents Setup - free live chat solution

Previously, we spoke about interviewing virtual assistants. This post deals with setting them up as new live chat agents so your virtual assistant can monitor and answer calls on her webpage only (and not the main website pages). The setup process involves 3 main steps, ie 1) creating a dedicated webpage, 2) fixing the settings (schedule, content and so on) and then 3) inviting the virtual assistant with live chat access as an 'agent'. 

1) To create a new Tawk.to agent page

This Tawk.to page is ideal for agents who somehow support your website but to whom you do not want to give admin access to your Tawk.to dashboard. However, when website visitors arrive on their page, you will still receive notifications.

• Log in to the dashboard of your Tawk.to admin account
• Go to ‘Admin’ (whose icon is a gear wheel).
• Click the ‘+Add’ in the 'Properties' section (in the left half of the page). Do not worry if the agent does not have his / her own website. That field may be left blank.
• While still in that property, click the ‘+Add’ in the 'Channels' section. As shown below, select 'page' and fill in the page title and URL. Then click the 'create' button.

2) To create the settings for a new Tawk.to agent

As you will see in step 3 of this post, your agent / virtual assistant will be unable to change several settings that are usually possible for admin members of a property. Consequently, as an admin member of the property you created in step 1, you will need to prepare the webpage and its settings on behalf of your virtual assistant agent. These settings include the following, the only necessary one of which includes the 'page content'.

• Page content. Must do. Enter the agent's profile information (like name, position, skills, languages, schedule, URL links perhaps on your website and so on)
• Additional property members
• Widget settings, appearance and content
• Time schedule. This optional setting allows the live chat widget to switch between 'online' and 'offline' automatically according to a time schedule. It is like a door sign that says 'now open for business'
• Triggers.
• Tabs
• Agent alerts

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3) Invite your new agent
Now that the page is configured, you may invite the virtual assistant / new agent to use the page. 

• Go to ‘Admin’ (in the top menu)
• Select the property name of the tawk.to page from the 'property' drop down menu
• Select 'Property members' (below the property drop down menu)
• Click 'invite member'
• Select 'agent' in the 'role' drop down menu (as pictured below) and enter the virtual assistant's email address before finally sending

Immediately below is what a new (virtual assistant) invitee agent will see in his / her inbox. Since an invitee may be unfamiliar with Tawk.to, consider alerting them that the email will arrive from such a sender beforehand (because it will not be immediately obvious the email is coming from you).

After clicking on the confirmation button within the email, the new agent / virtual assistant will be directed to the following landing page to enter his / her name and password (as pictured immediately below in the fictitious invitation from 'Edward from ABC Company'.

Having access as an 'agent', your virtual assistant will see the 'Admin' area with the following limitations as pictured below. 

Hold mock sessions with agents and or send instructions on how to use the following settings that are available to agents.

• Shortcuts. You can use shortcuts to help agents to quickly respond to customers regarding an ideal meeting time, especially if the agent can not currently meet with the customer.
• Direct messaging. If not used, you can communicate with the agent only by whispering while she is currently in a meeting with a lead or prospect. Direct messaging allows you (and her) to make contact to the other without needing to be in a meeting with a site visitor. This may eliminate emails and other communication methods.
• Ban lists.
• Aliases. As with any other employee, establish rules. For instance, agents can change their alias. Establish the rules for this.
• Email. You may ask that the agent share his / her Tawk.to ticket forward email. Emails sent to that account will be sent automatically into his / her Tawk.to inbox and, if you change the 'mail notification' section in admin, his / her personal, non-Tawk.to email inbox.

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CONTENT RELATED TO NEW TAWK.TO INVITEE EXPERIENCES

• Invite New Users to a Tawk.to a Property
• How to Interview Virtual Assistants Effectively

How to Conduct an Effective Job Interview

Conduct an Effective Job Interview to Hire a Virtual Assistant or Physically-based Employee

Remember that job interviews are an opportunity to form impressions on both sides. In other words, conducting an effective job interview reflects well on your brand and can influence the type of talent you attract. This mindset should hopefully motivate you to take the process seriously so that you can attract and keep the best (virtual assistant) talent. Here is how.

PLANNING FOR THE JOB INTERVIEW

• Review the details of the job description. By this stage, if you are already interviewing candidates, elements of the job description hopefully developed very tightly around the overarching business goal for filling the job and other key corporate level considerations like the unique value proposition, customer experience, your brand's core value(s), vision and or mission. 
• Figure out the overarching business goal for filling the job. This should become the factor that determines whether details and questions are relevant to the job interview.
• List the required hard and soft skills. Be inspired by the overarching business goals for filling the job.
• Review the details of the candidate's work history.
• Prepare questions. 
• Analyze, compare and contrast 1) the candidate's history and 2) your list of required skills to inform you of how well the candidate appears to match the role and what else you need to ask
• Prepare only questions that demonstrate how well the candidate aligns with your business' goals and profile. 
• Example: If the success of the job involves communication skills, provide as many opportunities for the candidate to demonstrate those skills. For instance, in the introduction part of the job interview, encourage the candidate to describe him / herself. Does (s)he respond in a very relevant way? Does (s)he speak in an engaged, non-rehearsed way? Can (s)he think on his feet and adjust his speech in direct response to things you said while introducing the business and job? Does (s)he listen closely while perhaps making notes for when his turn arrives?
• Example: If the candidate is a technical sales person who will provide customer services to the general public, ask him or her to discuss a complex technical concept to an old lady who only knows about knitting, as it relates to her. In order to assess his / her emotional intelligence, know the answer very well.

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• Prepare, practice and fine tune the agenda of the mock job interview. Fine tune your presentation so it is concise and effective in explaining the job, especially in ways that the candidate might not already know. Note your presentation time period so you can enter it in the agenda.
• Send the following details to the job candidate
• Job title (qualify the job title with specifics if several unknown variables exist like location, full time or part time, etc)
• Copy of the job description
• An explanation of any changes to the job description or terms that had previously been given. Include this within the body of an email. It is unreasonable, even unscrupulous to expect the candidate to re-read entire documents to find needles on haystack by chance
• a very concise version of the job interview agenda (and allocated period of time)

Example:

Part 1: introductions 

Delivered by interviewer(s): introduce interviewer(s), company, job. Approx __ minutes

Delivered by candidate: introduce self. Approx ___ minutes  

Part 2: Questions from both sides. Max 45 minutes

• Expectations regarding netiquette, dress code, setting reminders (on one's phone, etc) to be on time and so on
• Scheduled meeting time, location with directions, contact details and the wherewithal to use the electronic communication media (like instructions, access codes, etc if the job interview will occur online)
• Optional: Tools, training, support systems
• Optional: Compensation matters 
• Optional: Interviewers by their role(s). Example: The Human Resources Manager, Marketing Manager, etc

JOB INTERVIEW AGENDA (the day of the interview)

When you enter into the interview, you should have the 1) agenda, 2) questions you will ask, 3) list of credentials with spaces that allow you to make notes and 4) blank note paper

• Very brief pleasantries
• Meeting agenda
• In part 1, I will intro ... (Introducing parts in this way clues the candidate that you intend on having a monologue without interruptions. For the sake of contrast which reinforces the point, follow the statement with, 'then' we both will have the opportunity to ask questions of the other)
• Then you may make a brief introduction in response. [This is useful if the success of the job involves communication and an ability to remain relevant. It also allows you to see whether the person interrupts your introductory speech without awaiting his / her turn and other important indicators of communication style.]
• In part 2, ...

PART 1

• Concise introduction of the following, especially if unknown by the candidate and or otherwise applicable. Be as concise as possible. Details will be given in the Q&A part of the job interview. 
• name and role of each interviewer
• business name, legal structure. If applicable, include the following.
• Business' life cycle stage (example, 'we are still setting up the website")
• business activity
• Example: We are in the business of selling X retail in the A and B markets
• holding company name
• Job: 
• Overview as it relates to its significance to the business
• Example: This role will create an alliance between the 2 functional groups (x and y). Operationally, this means that group x does ... and then y does .... This in turn will help the business to achieve its x goal.
• Mission (within a relatable context of the job)
• Example: to create clear and achievable expectations in the minds of customers 
• Example: to maintain productive collaborative relationships with group  

• If unknown by the candidate and or otherwise applicable, include the following.

• Potentially confusing terminology. Example includes those that may be used interchangeably

PART 2

• Questions

CONTENT RELATED TO CONDUCTING AN EFFECTIVE JOB INTERVIEW

• A unique value proposition may guide you in writing an effective job description
• It is not enough to correctly recruit and select process. 
• Prepare to effectively onboard new employees to secure employee success and retention. Orientation should include training from how to use your BCC forwarding address to log their outgoing emails in CRM to netiquette. 
• Create a successful virtual team
• Customer experience (and not only customer service) should be a key consideration in recruitment and selection, even for back end jobs that can contribute and or strategically apply data mining.
• Set up virtual assistants as live chat customer service agents for your website for free
• Set up and train virtual assistants to use email systems (like Zoho that allows you to have free email with your own domain)
• Set up and train virtual assistants to use your customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
• Schedule meetings with scheduling programs. Options include HubSpot CRM and Calendry.