Introducing the New WORKetc CRM Add-on for the New Gmail

Make your inbox do more with the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on.

When Google rolled out their massive Gmail redesign earlier this year, we took that as the perfect chance to debut our own giant-sized upgrade to the old WORKetc Gmail integration gadget.

After months of development and beta testing, we’re proud to finally officially announce the all-new, all-improved WORKetc Gmail Add-on, the one add-on that will make your Gmail inbox work harder for your business.

Now available on the G Suite Marketplace, the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on lets you turn any email into actionable items in WORKetc, the one integrated business management system that lets you manage everything from contacts and sales leads to projects, support tickets, timesheets, and billing.

With the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on, you can create new contacts, leads, projects, timesheets, support tickets, and more; attach emails to any existing item in WORKetc; or just attach the email so that it displays on the sender and recipient’s activity streams—all without leaving the Gmail inbox.

Read on to learn more about how the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on works and how it can help your business.

All-New, All-Improved

The new WORKetc Gmail Add-on packs a massive leap forward in features, productivity, and efficiency compared to the old WORKetc Gmail Gadget.

This is immediately made evident by the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on’s user interface (UI). Unlike the old gadget, which would load at the bottom of any email you open, the new Gmail Add-on loads in the right sidebar.

This means you can create and view WORKetc items without losing sight of the email you’re working on.

Comparison of the old Gmail integration and the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on. Click for full view.

The WORKetc Gmail Add-on also allows you to see more information about a contact at a glance, as you can see in the comparison image above and the screenshot below.

See more information at a glance.

1. Company associated with the contact and the contact’s position / title in the company
2. Contact’s phone number
3. Contact’s website

Not only do you see which company a contact is associated with, you can also immediately see that contact’s phone number and website.

If you receive an email that requires you to call ASAP, like a frantic message from a client about critical billing issues, for example, you don’t have to switch to your CRM just to look for that client and find their phone number.

Do More With Every Click

The new WORKetc Gmail Add-on doesn’t just give you more information. From its main screen, you can add a contact to a mailing list, edit that contact’s tags, or quickly edit and update contact details.

You can also quickly turn an email into an actionable item in WORKetc, from a contact, a lead, or a project to a timesheet, a support ticket, or a calendar event.

The WORKetc Gmail Add-on’s main screen.

Let’s run through a quick real-life scenario here.

Imagine you work for a digital marketing company. You receive an email from a potential customer who is interested in your SEO and video marketing services.

In a typical, non-Gmail integrated CRM, you would have to constantly switch between Gmail and your CRM to create a new contact, a new lead, and copy and paste everything from the new lead’s name and email address to the email’s contents.

Using the WORKetc Gmail Addon, you can just turn that email into a new contact with a few clicks—all without ever leaving your Gmail inbox.

Adding a new contact in the WORKetc Gmail Add-on.

1. Create a new contact in WORKetc.
2. Create a new company-type contact instead of a person-type contact.
3. Search WORKetc for contacts with similar names and email addresses to minimize duplication.

Creating a new contact in the WORKetc Gmail Add-on.

And once the contact is created, you can then quickly create a sales lead plus add relevant tags for segmentation with just a few more clicks, again from within your Gmail inbox.

Do more with contacts.

1. Add a contact to a specific mailing list.
2. Add or remove custom tags to a contact for better tracking and segmentation.
3. Edit a contact to keep it up-to-date.

You can also add your new contact manually to a mailing list, such as one that’s specifically targeted towards clients who have shown interest in your brand development and graphic design services, as shown below.

Adding a contact to a mailing list.

Less switching between your CRM and your Gmail inbox means you can start nurturing and work towards closing that new lead faster.

Track Everything You Do For a Client

Aside from easily turning emails into actionable items, the WORKetc Gmail Addon lets you attach those emails to any existing items in WORKetc, such as other contacts, leads, projects, tasks, and support cases.

You’re now also able to attach a single email to multiple contacts and WORKetc items. The Add-on comes with its own search feature that lets you find any item to which you may want to attach the email.

The WORKetc Gmail Add-on’s “Attach to Activity” screen.

1. Recently-created or updated items associated with the contact will show up here on the Recent Activity list. Not only can you attach an email to an item quickly, you can also get a quick view of what you and your company have recently done for that contact.
2. Search for items and activities that are not on the Recent Activity list, including items and activities associated with other contacts.
3. Attach the email to the contact record only. The email will appear on the contact’s activity stream, which tracks and records everything you’ve done in WORKetc for a contact.

If a client approves your quote for redeveloping their entire brand, for example, you can attach their approval email to the lead you created as well as the quote you sent from WORKetc. See the example below.

Attaching one email to multiple WORKetc items.

Here’s another scenario where being able to attach an email to multiple items and contacts from inside your Gmail inbox helps increase your efficiency and productivity.

Let’s say a client with whom you’ve been working closely sends an update about a critical issue they have to your own work email address instead of your company’s general support email.

Your run-of-the-mill, non-Gmail integrated CRM would require you to switch over to the CRM, copy and paste the email’s contents onto a note, and attach that note to your client’s contact record so you can update their communications with your company.

And if you have a customer support app that doesn’t integrate with both Gmail and your CRM, you’d have to fire that up too to find the client’s existing support ticket and add the updated info there.

You can only really start working on that client’s issue after a lot of copying and pasting and switching back and forth between multiple apps. It’s inefficient.

Using the WORKetc Gmail Add-on, you can just attach that email to the client’s existing support ticket from your Gmail inbox. No muss, no fuss.

The Recent Activity list on the WORKetc Gmail Add-on

1. You can attach a single email to multiple items. Items such as support tickets, leads, tasks, and more that were not created or updated by you personally will still appear on the Recent Activity list.
2. You can search WORKetc for specific items and activities, including those attached to other contacts. You can also limit the search to specific activity types, such as support tickets, tasks, expenses, or sales leads.

Keep Your Team Up to Speed

The ability to easily attach an email to and update a lead, project, task, or support ticket also means that even if you’re the only one who received the update, you can quickly disseminate it to whoever is actually working on that specific lead, project, task, or support ticket.

Take the scenario with the client who sent an update about a critical issue to your work email address instead of your company’s support email.

When you attach an email to an item, that ticket shows up in that item’s activity stream, which is a running record of everything your company has done for a client. This will include everything from the very first email they sent to the latest timesheet recorded against one of their projects.

Attaching the email to the support ticket’s activity stream means even if the support ticket ends up being reassigned to someone else, that someone can immediately get a clear view of what’s already been done and what else needs to be done to resolve that ticket.

It gets rid of the need to ask around for updates from others who previously worked on that ticket, letting whoever is assigned to it resolve the issue faster. You get more work done plus faster issue resolution times help keep your clients satisfied.

More Information at Your Fingertips

Perhaps even more importantly, you can use the “Recent Activity” list to instantly get an idea of what your company has done for a contact recently without having to dig through their contact record.

The WORKetc Gmail Add-on’s recent activity list.

Let’s say you get an email from a client about engaging your services for a new marketing campaign, but you notice that he now seems to be a bit more hesitant compared to your earlier interactions.

Without even leaving Gmail, you quickly scan that contact’s recent activity and notice that they’ve sent in two support tickets about another, previous marketing project within the last week alone.

You can then check those tickets and craft a reply that takes those two issues into account.

“Hey Jim,” you can say. “First, I just wanted to make sure the widget issue you raised with Bob from our support team last Wednesday has been sorted. Is everything good on that front?”

You get to create a more personalized response tailored to whoever you’re emailing, all without leaving your Gmail inbox.

The items on the list will be based on the contact you’re working with. In the screenshot below, for example, the list is composed of the five most recent WORKetc items that involved the contact, James Lake.

Open an email from a different contact, and the “Recent Activities” list will update to include only those activities that involve that specific contact.

The Gmail Add-on Goes Mobile

You read that right: the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on can now be used from the Gmail mobile app on your Android phone. Support for iOS devices will be added shortly.

Because of a mobile device’s limited screen real estate, the WORKetc Gmail Add-on will load at the bottom of any email you open in the Gmail Android app.

It’ll take up about half of the screen by default so you can still quickly read through your email as needed, but you can also expand it to a full-screen mode simply by dragging up from the “Available add-ons” bar.

Manage your business from your Gmail inbox on Android.

The mobile app version of the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on isn’t some gimped version, either. It has all the power of the web version, which means you can truly run your entire business using only the Gmail app on your phone.

Even if you’re out of the office with no laptop on you, you won’t be caught unawares by any sudden emails that reach your inbox.

If that lead you just spoke to at a lunch meeting emails you with the go signal for a new marketing campaign while you’re still on the way to the office, you can lay the groundwork right then and there by creating a new project, attaching it to the proper lead, and attaching the client’s email to the new project.

You can even start delegating tasks to and scheduling meetings with your marketing campaign project team while you’re waiting for your next stop at the subway.

Take your Gmail inbox to the next level of productivity. Install the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on now.

Which areas of your business do you see the new WORKetc Gmail Add-on powering up? Let us know in the comments.