◎Getting started and passing it on

Not by reading, but through one complete process.

The route that pays off fastest:

1. Start the tour in the area. It shows things on the real interface, not in a text.
2. Create yourself as a contact.
3. Play through a whole workflow — create a contact, note, template, test mail to yourself, reply, follow-up.
4. Only then look at the help, for the questions that came up along the way.

What does not work: clicking through all areas one after another. Afterwards you know what exists, but not how it fits together.

Allow one hour for the first run-through. You learn everything else on the job.

They answer different questions:

• Tour: “Where is that?” It runs in the real interface and points to the spot. The quickest way the first time.
• Demo film: “How does it work?” A short drawing of the process, without having to touch anything. Good for watching, good for showing.
• Help centre: “Why is it like that?” and “What do I do if …” — for everything that goes beyond the individual step.

The order that has proven itself: tour the first time, film when explaining, help when looking things up.

And for all three: they do not replace trying it out. Anyone who only watches cannot do it.

In small portions, spread over the first week — not in one morning.

The process:

1. Day 1: account, tour of the most important area, create their own contact. Half an hour.
2. Day 2: watch how you work. One phone call, one note, one follow-up.
3. Day 3: do it themselves while you watch.
4. End of the week: look at it together, clear up questions.

What you should do beforehand: thin out the sidebar. An interface with twenty entries, of which the person needs four, is more off-putting on the first day than any feature.

And what you should not do: a two-hour demonstration of all areas. What sticks from that is the impression that it is complicated.

With what the person needs every day — not with the overview.

For most roles, that is three things:

1. Search for a contact and open it.
2. Write a note.
3. Set a follow-up.

That is the whole first day. Anyone who can do these three steps is ready to work — everything else comes as the occasion arises.

What you should save for later: campaigns, templates, evaluations, settings. Nobody needs these in the first week, and they overshadow the essentials.

The touchstone: can the person document a call on their own on the second day? If so, the training was right.

Almost never because of the software — but because of four other things:

1. Too much at once. All areas, all categories, all modules. Nothing gets finished.
2. No recognisable benefit for individuals. Anyone who only sees additional data entry and no relief will not take part — rightly so.
3. Nobody is responsible. Questions remain open, data maintenance does not happen.
4. Management does not take part. If the boss keeps making her notes in Outlook, nobody else will do it differently.

Point 4 is the most serious and the least discussed.

What helps: a single use case that noticeably saves work, for six weeks, with a named contact person, and with management that uses it themselves.

On half a page — no small business needs more, and nobody reads more anyway.

What belongs on it:

• Who decides what.
• What belongs in a note and what does not.
• What the categories mean — one line per category.
• Who may switch a campaign live.
• When to tidy up.

Where it is kept: where people find it when they are getting started — not in a drive folder that nobody knows about.

And the most important part: it has to be maintained. A description that is no longer correct is worse than none — it is read once, recognised as wrong and ignored from then on.

Review it once a year, twenty minutes.

With three measures that together cover almost everything:

1. At least two people can handle every critical matter. Not just in the program — also for the domain, mailbox, payment service.
2. Access data in a password manager with a shared area and emergency access. Not in one person’s head.
3. Notes in the system instead of in your head. Whatever someone knows about a customer must be recorded there.

The test that shows the situation: what happens if this one person is absent tomorrow? Go through this question seriously once — for sole traders and for clubs with a changing board, it is the most important question of all.

And the answer is rarely expensive. Usually a second account and a password manager are enough.

Usually not, and if so, a different kind from what you would expect.

Not necessary for: day-to-day work. Contacts, notes, follow-ups and campaigns are self-explanatory enough, and the tour plus demo films cover the rest.

Training makes sense for:

• The introduction in the team, as a shared starting point — but short and practical, not as a run-through of features.
• An area with far-reaching effects, such as campaigns and deliverability.
• Legal questions — what may I send, and to whom.

And the format that actually works: play through a real process together, with real data, on a real case. Not a demonstration that people watch.

Collect them instead of answering them one by one — and record the answers.

What has proven itself:

• One place where questions land. A task list, a note, a channel.
• One named person who answers or passes them on.
• Write down recurring questions. If the same question comes up three times, the answer belongs on the half page with the agreements.
• Go through them once a week, instead of interrupting for every question immediately.

What does not work: questions shouted across the room. They are answered twice, three different ways, and nobody records it.

And the most important part: questions are welcome. Anyone who gets a funny look for a question will not ask next time, and will do it wrong.

Via the search, not via the chapters.

The search is built around the way people actually ask: type in the problem the way you would describe it — “mail not arriving”, “change price”, “who can do what”.

Good to know:

• You can leave out umlauts and accents. A word typed without them still finds the version with them.
• Typing in error messages works — there is a chapter of its own for them.
• Every answer has a link that you can send to a colleague.

And to start with: the home page shows the most frequently asked questions. If you are new, read through them — they are exactly the ones everyone asks.

The page can be reached without signing in. Even when you cannot get into the program at the moment.

With a conversation and a list — both, not one or the other.

The list should include:

• Which processes are running, with their status.
• Which commitments are open, and to whom.
• Where access data is kept.
• What needs to be done regularly and when.
• Who the most important contacts are.

The conversation should cover everything that is not on a list: why something is done that way, whom to be careful with, which agreement was made verbally.

Allow one hour for a proper handover. That is little compared with the weeks a bad handover costs.

And hand over before the last day, not on it.

With two habits that together cost twenty minutes a quarter:

1. Look at what is new when an update comes. There is an overview of what has changed.
2. Five minutes in the team once a quarter: what has worked well, what is annoying, what has nobody dared to ask?

Point 2 is the more valuable one. In most businesses, after six months there are two or three steps that everyone does the long way round, because nobody asked whether there is a simpler way.

What you can also do: with a new version, restart the tour of an area you use every day. It shows what has been added.

And report what is missing. A wish that several people share has good prospects.