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Here at WP Elevation – and in the WordPress community, in general – we hear a lot of the same complaints from our members. As a result, one of the things we talk about frequently is client communication and how to do it better. Not only do we improve client relationships this way, but it enables us to work more efficiently and deliver more impressive results.
In this episode, Troy chats with Kirk Deis about his recent experimentation with internal process improvement relating to client communication and how it led him to create his business – The Bug Squasher.
Kirk Deis is the founder and CEO of Treehouse 51, a digital marketing agency based out of Newport Beach, California. Although the company is relatively young, Kirk and his team have already experienced many of the issues that most of us in the web development and marketing space face with clients.
This is how The Bug Squasher came to be.
Kirk was building a website for a client who happened to be an older woman that had very little knowledge of computers. So, when she encountered a problem with the website that Kirk had built, she wrote a tremendously lengthy email to spell out the problem.
There were a number of problems with this:
Email, in general, isn’t the ideal platform to have a discussion of this nature. First, there’s the chance that it could get lost in someone’s inbox or spam folder. Second, there’s the possibility of miscommunication without context or being able to hear someone’s tone of voice. And, thirdly, it can lead to unnecessary and cumbersome back-and-forth. Which is what happened here.
The client was very upset that Kirk and his team had to ask a lot of questions in order to figure out where the problem was and, then, determine the circumstances under which she was seeing it.
After the ordeal was over, Kirk said:
“I wish there were a way to talk to clients without them having to give us all this information.”
The Bug Squasher is a simple solution for easing the communication gap that often exists between clients and the WordPress professionals they’ve hired. (Actually, The Bug Squasher now works on all platforms, so it’s not solely relegated to WordPress anymore.)
Installation is simple. You just insert a single line of JavaScript into the header of your website. Once it’s implemented, clients will see The Bug Squasher on the frontend of their website. When they take notice of something that needs changing, they can easily grab a screenshot of it, annotate or highlight it, explain the problem, and then submit.
And it isn’t just a handy tool for “squashing” bugs. It can be used for general communications related to design, copy, functionality, and so on.
Kirk says that browser recording is coming down the pipeline as well, which will make this even more user-friendly than it already is.
This very podcast came about as a result of Kirk Deis’ marketing efforts. Like most of what he’s doing to bring attention to The Bug Squasher, his goal is to reach a variety of audiences. Podcasts have been one way to do this organically. PPC advertising and Spotify spots are another form of marketing he’s pursued.
But perhaps the most interesting and unique approach Kirk has taken to get the word out about his product? A rap video.
I’m not going to tell you the story about how it came into being. I’m going to let you listen to him tell it on the podcast. For now, though, enjoy this marketing gem:
Unlike many project management and issue tracking tools on the market, The Bug Squasher doesn’t limit how many users or development URLs you can use within your account. Each plan covers an entire domain, which is especially nice if you use staging subdomains.
In addition, you can connect The Bug Squasher to your project management software (e.g. Asana, Podio, Basecamp), so logged bugs or updates automatically get pushed to your project management email address.
If you’re interested in giving this issue tracker/client communication tool a shot, be sure to visit The Bug Squasher website. Kirk is offering WP Elevation listeners a 20% discount with the coupon code Wp20.
P.S. We’ve created a 10% discount code for the listeners of the WPE podcast. Simply add the code GOELEVATE upon payment of the Blueprint course. The deal is valid until the 21st September 2018.
You can reach out and thank Kirk Deis at [email protected] (be sure to ask for Kirk!)
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