How To Better Manage Your Clients Using Buckets

Optimizing your task management is the key to improving your productivity and efficiency.

If you’re new to the world of task management/project management software, then you’re probably finding the idea of onboarding clients a bit daunting. I hear you. It’s tough to get people on board with something new, especially when you’re still getting the hang of it yourself.

What if they hate it? What if they feel like it’s too much “hassle” to work with you? What if you lose the contract because it feels too much like hard work for them?

Of course, properly designed task management is less hassle, not more. And once it’s done right your clients will absolutely love you for introducing them to it. This is why we’ve introduced our new Project Permissions options that make it so much easier to:

• Get clients on board without making them sign up first.
• Customize the access they receive so that you’re not taking any unnecessary risks.
• Maintain a clear and consistent visual of the work being done for both you and the client.

We’re going to help you to move your clients away from those epic-length email threads and midnight calls (time zones are a killer, right?), and move them over to Buckets where you can manage absolutely everything involved in your Project in one place.

How To Explain The Benefits Of Buckets To Your Client

There are a few key benefits to working together within Buckets that will help to get your client past that initial stage of reluctance.

Better Organization

• Attach all files directly to Buckets so that all of your content is accessible from anywhere and in the one place.
• No need to keep track of emails 24/7 and any emails you (or they) do need to take note of can be forwarded to Buckets via our Sandbox.
• Collaborate and work together in real-time.
• Use Labels to group and prioritize tasks.
• Filter out any info you need in seconds.

More Clarity Around Deadlines

It’s much easier to keep track of and stick to deadlines in Buckets using our Reminders feature. You can apply a Reminder to a whole Card, Checklist, or individual Checklist item to ensure that nothing gets missed. Card Followers will be notified once a deadline is coming up, and if it’s overdue you’ll see it turn red so you’ll know that it needs to be addressed immediately.

Peace Of Mind

No-one likes to be micromanaged but your clients are going to be anxious about how the Project is going now and then. Having access to a clear up-to-date visual does a heck of a lot to alleviate that anxiety. This peace of mind works on both sides as you can avoid those multiple emails a day asking how things are progressing!

Time Zones Are A Non-Issue

Using Buckets, your overseas client doesn’t have to think twice about emailing or calling you in the early hours of the morning on your side of the world. They can simply leave a comment or update for you to check out once you’re up and working again.

Your Client Project vs Your “Project About The Client Project”

You probably won’t want your client to see what you’re doing on the Project 24/7 because a lot of it will be irrelevant and just downright confusing for them, which will lead to a million more questions for you.

This is why we advise having a separate Project for each client that deals with the “back-end” (not to be confused with the dev “back-end”!) side of things. This is your “Project About The Client Project”.

Your actual Client Project will then show the client what you’re working on, what the deadlines are, and enable them to collaborate and provide input as they wish (depending on the access level you’ve provided to them).

Show Them What To Do!

We’re pretty proud of our intro tutorials, support posts, and blog resources, in Buckets. Our app is very straightforward to use and your clients won’t have trouble getting used to it.

However, they will need to get used to the workflow you’ve set up. The best way to do this is to set up a designated “How to use this Project” Column containing Cards that reference exactly how your workflow is organized.

For example, if you’ve used colored Labels to prioritize or group your tasks according to the team member working on them, it can be helpful to outline this in a Card for your client to refer back to as needed until they get the hang of things.

I hope you find this info helps you with getting your clients to collaborate with you in Buckets, but please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need any assistance from us throughout the process! For more info on our new Project Permissions, check out this post on “5 Ways To Use Buckets New Project Access Controls”

Thanks For Reading!

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