Last week, I talk about the project management aspect of Backpack, which I feel is the most obvious use for Backpack. However, a big portion of what I use Backpack for is management my clients- their projects, follow-ups lists, notes, and reminders to call or meet with them. Today, I will be talking in-depth about managing my clients with Backpack.

Let me start off by saying that 37signals has a product strictly for client management called Highrise, which on the surface, looks very good. However, I like having everything in one place, which is why I don’t use it. Word on the street is they are working on integration of all of their products, so we’ll see where I am at a few months down the line. For now, Backpack is my go to place for client management.

All of my clients usually start off on one page, which I titled, “Follow Up List.” It’s divided off into sections for each client, and I keep some basic contact info, notes on what they would like, quotes I’ve given them, and what the last thing we talked about was. That’s also dated. If I need to follow up with them, I will write the date I plan to follow up on the bottom of  their section, as well as set a reminder in Backpack to call or email them with where we are and what our next steps are.

This is helpful for a couple of reasons: first, it lets me see how many people I’m dealing with so I can set deadlines and time estimates accordingly. Also, I am able to easily move a contact from the follow up list to their own page, since Backpack allows you to drag & drop content between pages. I just create a new page for  the client (once a project is approved) and drag them from the Follow Up List to their own page.

Admittedly, this might seem a bit cumbersome, but it is a method that has proved to work for me. It goes right with being able to archive all of my projects in Backpack- each project now has the client’s contact information and initial thoughts/notes at the top of the page for me to reference which working on that project. This also makes it easy to collaborate with the client, since you can grant access to only specific pages, but that’s for next time!

Tags: 37signals, Backpack for Freelancers, clients, links, process, productivity, series, tips, tools | Posted in Advice, Lessons |