April 16, 2015

Case study: how DropTask [now Ayoa] has made an impact for Kate Harthan

by ayoaredux posted in Case Studies.

Kate Harthan works at a promotional products company specializing in personalized items for businesses, corporate awards and uniform programs with customers all over the United States. With general office management responsibilities and duties in marketing, before signing up to DropTask [Ayoa]*, Kate found the lifecycle management of incoming projects to be challenging – especially when priorities were everchanging.

For Kate, the use of spreadsheets to manage projects was insufficient as it lacked the ability for all users to edit it at once, and with employees having to keep track of smaller tasks on their own notepads and valuable time being spent ‘catching up’ in weekly office meetings, Kate’s company needed an alternative.

She says: “We needed a tool that would allow us to manage ongoing projects on a daily basis, one that would allow for all employees to view and change things at the same time. This way, my boss would be able to stay up-to-date with the status of individuals’ projects without stopping to ask them about it, and employees could keep track of all of their notes in one place. I read about DropTask [Ayoa] in a magazine I received, and decided to try it out.

DropTask [Ayoa] is used to manage all of our ongoing projects. Each employee has their own ‘bubble’, and the projects that they are working on are grouped within this. Employees are able to add notes to tasks, meaning projects are easily transferred to another employee to handle if someone is on vacation as they have access to everything regarding the project(s). We also have a ‘Projects not yet assigned’ bubble so when customers call in for quotes, whoever takes the call can create a task. Then, when an employee finishes their current project(s), they are able to see the tasks that have not yet been handled and can start working on them. Similarly, we have a ‘Projects Completed’ bubble, so when a task is completed (they have quoted the customer, prepared artwork, and taken an order) it can be moved into here.

At the end of every week, I print all of these ‘bubbles’ off; the Projects Completed, the Projects not yet assigned and each employee’s own. These printouts from DropTask [Ayoa] are used as a guide in our office meetings. We are currently using DropTask [Ayoa] to manage every project in the company, regardless of size. DropTask [Ayoa] allows us to create bubbles for each and every task to be done. For example, when someone calls in requesting a quote for 50 shirts, we can create a task and track it until completion when an order is placed.  We even use it for our sales rep – when he has deliveries to make, we create task bubbles for him so he knows where to go, who to see and what he is dropping off, all without asking.

It is refreshing to have a visual representation of what is going on in the office that all employees are able to edit. It has helped reduce my boss’s time spent managing employee projects, and it has increased our response times and overall success of follow-up with customers.”

DropTask [Ayoa] is extremely easy and convenient to work with. It is refreshing to have a visual representation of what is going on in the office that all employees are able to edit. It has helped reduce my boss’s time spent managing employee projects, and it has increased our response times and overall success of follow-up with customers. If we provide a quote, but the customer doesn’t make an immediate decision, the project bubble still exists. An employee could click on it, see the date of the last note that was made along with the customer contact information and they could then follow-up on the enquiry. If the customer tells us, for example, that they won’t be able to make a decision for 2 or 3 months, we can set that time as a due date to remind ourselves to follow up with this customer. It is a great system that keeps us from relying on individual employees’ post-it notes, emails, or memories, which makes it easier for employees to be away from work last minute and for closer monitoring of customer contact. I believe that this has led to higher sales numbers while reducing the amount of physical paper used weekly – all the information is available at a glance in DropTask [Ayoa].”

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*DropTask has now become Ayoa. Ayoa has the same great task management capabilities that DropTask provided, with the added benefits of innovative and creative Mind Mapping tools to aid your brainstorming. Find out more about Ayoa’s full features and pricing plans.

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