Zena Barrick

Introduction

Zena Barrick joined my Customer Journey and CRM course in November 2022. She set out with 5 other business owners to collectively plot the customer journey for their business and to begin the process of implementing a CRM. By the end of the course (and with two hours one to one coaching) Zena has a clearer understanding of her business processes, customer interactions and is all set up with Capsule CRM.

“Veronica’s customer journey and CRM course has made my business so much more productive and efficient.

She made me think clearly about how I interact with my clients. I quickly realised that most of the difficulties I was having in my business were due to gaps in that process. Veronica helped me put appropriate procedures in place which has made my life easier and also gives my clients a better service. She also helped me set up a CRM which has made me far more productive. I now feel as if I am in control of the process rather than just juggling (and occasionally dropping) balls.
I can’t tell you how much time and mental energy this has saved me.”

Please tell us a little bit about your business?

I am Zena, owner of Webadoodle. Webadoodle is a website design business aimed purely at small businesses, typically sole traders and start ups. I offer unique brochure websites which are a fantastic way to show case a small business online. With nearly two decades as a business owner myself, I understand the challenges that business owners face. I also know what works and, almost as importantly, what isn’t necessary, for a small business website.

Can you describe the problem that you were facing before you started the course?

I get most of my business through referrals and networking, which means I meet a lot of people at different stages, from those starting out with no online presence to those with an established business who need my help to freshen up an existing website. I was struggling to track everyone and where they were up to. This created a very stressful situation of either forgetting our last conversation or, worse still, losing leads, because I just wasn’t following up with them in a timely fashion. At the time, it was really a matter of trying to keep all those bits in my head. I remember scrolling through my emails trying to find out what on earth we’d said, looking through my notepad hoping to stumble across the right notes. It just felt chaotic and slightly out of control.

Did you consider any other solutions before joining the course?

Before the course, I was using a Trello board with a list of clients and then having an item on there for each person. I was using the calendar on Trello to keep track of what was going on, but it wasn’t actively reminding me. There were a few times when I missed a couple of deadlines so after that I moved back to the old-fashioned paper diary and making a note a week ahead to chase up a contact, but, again, it just wasn’t efficient because my diary wasn’t connected to the information I had on the client or my emails. Needless to say, it didn’t work!

Did you have any reservations before joining the course?

No real concerns. I thought it was going to be drier than it was, more technical and a lot of work on databases. In fact, it was much more business process based which turned out to be a lot more useful. The course made me think how I was running my business and where problems were coming up. When we dug into the customer journey, mapped our touch points and really thought through how I communicate with my clients at each stage, I realised I was missing out the whole onboarding process. This was a light bulb moment, as pretty much every problem I was having I could pinpoint to that. So, it was a really thought provoking process in how I can give my clients an even better experience. I just feel more professional now.

How would you quantify what the course has given you and your business?

Currently I am in the process of rapid development in my business. I have a lot more potential leads and clients onboard than I ever had, even compared to when I started the course just two months ago.
The systems I was using then could just about cope with the number of people I was dealing with, but there is no way they would be able to cope with the number of people I’m dealing with now.

Since doing the course (and using my new CRM) I can easily see I have got 30 prospective clients in my pipeline, and there’s no way I could have kept that all in my head. I am sure I would have lost a few leads and dropped a few balls. Another big point is I’m not wasting time looking for information, because I’ve got it all in my CRM. So if I have a note popping up in my calendar to email someone, I simply click on the link in the CRM, and it takes me to their record and tells me everything about them, including all the email correspondence we’ve had, and all the notes I’ve kept on it. So that saves no end of time. But it’s also organising my time because now I’ve got a schedule of things that I do every day for my clients, which means I can get that done neatly at a certain time of the day and then spend the rest of the day doing my actual work, which is web design. So, it’s made my time management more efficient.

Would you have any final words for anybody thinking about doing the course?

As I said, my business is growing rapidly, and I am now able to manage this better. I have capacity to take on more than I could just two months ago which is allowing me to grow my revenue without increasing my hours. Without having done the course I’d be feeling very panicky because of the number of balls I was juggling and that would have reduced my capacity both in terms of time and headspace. This course came along at just the right time for me and now I can grow my business.