Plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, carpenters, masons, welders, tradespeople of all kinds — we’ve heard your concerns about switching to a digital tool to manage your tasks, and we’re here to address them. One by one, we’ll present a case against the most common thoughts expressed by tradespeople when asked why they don’t use an online task management tool.
There is authenticity and value in the saying, “we have always done it this way!” With this attitude, you preserve the quality and integrity of your product and trade. And, thankfully, using an online task management tool will not change those things because your processes, methods and techniques will remain intact. What MeisterTask will do is help you visualize your work, collaborate with ease and complete tasks as efficiently as possible. To prove that, here are our responses to the top nine worries we’ve heard.
1. “MeisterTask can’t handle the workflow of my trade!”
No matter the workflow, MeisterTask can handle it. One of the best parts about MeisterTask is exactly how customizable the workflows are. You can create as many sections as you need to represent all the steps in your workflow. Doing this takes just a few minutes. If you aren’t sure how best to set up your workflow, take a look at this article on getting started with MeisterTask as a small business.
Have several workflows for different people or teams? Simply create a project for each of them. If those workflows should be connected, moving tasks between projects is a piece of cake. You can do it yourself, or you can set the project boards up so that tasks move automatically. This is only one of the many time-saving automations possible in MeisterTask.
2. “But I take care of processes and workflows so others don’t have to see them.”
Letting your employees get down to business and focus on their work is always a good idea. And being transparent with your workflow won’t stop that. When everyone on the team is able to see what’s happening with tasks, they are better able to gauge when they can work on certain things. They also don’t have to constantly ask others for updates or get frustrated that things aren’t moving along as quickly as expected. Instead, they can simply pick something else to work on.
In this way, you, your employees and therefore your business will operate more efficiently without much extra effort at all. In addition to internal benefits, you can also be open and transparent with clients, if you so choose. When you invite them to view your project board, they can see the progress themselves, and you can spare yourself hours on the phone updating clients one by one. Projects also have privacy settings as well as roles and permissions that allow for certain parts of your work to remain on a need-to-know basis. Making sure the right people get the right information quickly and easily is just a matter of putting the right setup in place.
3. “It will be too hard to implement!”
It’s time for a bold statement: With MeisterTask there is nothing to implement. Unlike desktop programs, there is no installation — MeisterTask is web-based. Between the computer you already use for your business and your employees’ smartphones, you have all the hardware you need to use MeisterTask. If you like to use an iPad, that would work too, but it’s not required. Any device using Windows, iOS or Android can run MeisterTask.
Converting from flipcharts, clipboards, whiteboards, or laminated checklists is no big deal. You can put all the information you keep on those things into tasks. Save checklists and reuse them in task after task. Always have the checklists at the ready on your phone while on a job, and check items off as you go along. Consistency will increase, errors will decrease and home base will know the progress of the job immediately, including instant notifications when work is completed.
4. “I (and my team) don’t have time to learn how to use it!”
You won’t need much time at all to get familiar with MeisterTask. We claim that it’s the most intuitive task management tool out there and we’d like you to put that to the test. Learn the basics of projects and tasks and you’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll.
Above, you saw what a project board looks like and how customizable it is. Now to the second essential element of MeisterTask — tasks. All the information you could want about a job is kept in one central place.
- A task description that can be used to inform others or make notes for yourself.
- Custom fields, which you can define yourself. In this example, Invoice Number.
- A checklist to make sure all steps get done. Multiple checklists within a task are also possible.
- Attachments to include anything that needs to go along with the task.
- A pin — here FOCUS — to add this task to a section on your agenda.
- A due date.
- A scheduled time on the Timeline.
- Tags, which you can create yourself to organize and filter your work.
- Watchers who will be notified when comments or changes are made.
- Task relations to link tasks and keep things organized.
- The creation date, date the task was last updated and the task ID.
You and your team will be moving tasks across your project board and through your workflow in no time.
5. “We need personal assistance from someone who really understands our business.”
If you run a trade business, chances are your business is near and dear to you. If that’s the case, simply taking our word for how MeisterTask can help and using our support website might not be enough to get you started. Luckily, MeisterTask works with experts around the world who may be able to assist you. These partners know MeisterTask in and out and have helped many different kinds of businesses adopt our tool.
Why do I recommend MeisterTask to my clients? There are plenty of task and project management tools available, but for me, MeisterTask is the most intuitive one. It’s customizable within seconds and creates perfect transparency, thus simplifying and fostering collaboration between stakeholders.
6. “We already use enough tools — email, quoting, accounting…”
Our goal is that you’ll use MeisterTask as your hub and keep all data in it. To help you achieve that we have many native integrations so that you can get those emails, files and forms into MeisterTask.
In addition to our native integrations, we also partner with Zapier, a tool that specializes in connecting apps and software. Since they work with thousands of apps, there is a high chance that you can easily connect your existing tools with MeisterTask to make it your hub. If you decide to do that, automatically turning things from other tools into tasks is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
7. “We can’t afford it!
We know money is tight, especially for labor-intensive businesses such as yours. So we’d like to give our price tag some context: one year of MeisterTask for one employee costs the same as 5-10 hours of that worker’s hourly rate. However, MeisterTask can easily save that employee 5-10 hours per month. With the efficiency you’ll see in your business, the reasonable cost of MeisterTask will more than pay for itself.
How exactly will your efficiency increase? These are just a few ways:
- Communication and collaboration in MeisterTask are instantaneous. That means job updates are given in real time, and the rest of the workflow can start faster.
- Transparency means employees will always know a tasks’ status and can plan their time better.
- Checklists and automations will increase consistency in your work, which translates to less time revisiting tasks.
- Using projects and tasks as a central location for all your data means you won’t waste time rifling through files or emails.
- Managing everything digitally means less paperwork. Less paperwork means saving money on printing and storage of hard copies.
- All of these advantages lead to faster turnaround times, and that equals happier customers and ultimately bigger business success.
Thanks to MeisterTask, we always have a perfect overview of orders, incoming goods, vacation requests from employees and much more. MeisterTask is a great thing!
8. “I’m worried about using a cloud-based tool — we need to adhere to strict security guidelines.”
MeisterTask’s servers are based in Germany. We are a Trusted Cloud certified service and fully GDPR, CPPA and PCI DSS compliant. If you want to hear it from an authority, German data protection experts recommend MeisterTask. Take a look at our Security page to learn more. We are proud to be cloud-based because cloud-based tools are far more secure than many of the other regularly used applications.
9. “Most of my employees don’t have laptops, they work on the go and are busy seeing clients, so I don’t need a tool.”
To use MeisterTask, your employees won’t need laptops because we have mobile apps for both Android and iOS. Using those apps, you’ll be notified as soon as they’ve completed a job so you can start invoicing. Your employees also won’t need paper documents anymore. All information, instructions and details are kept in tasks within the app — always available, always up-to-date.
Many trade businesses send workers into the field with duplicate paperwork that later has to be cross-referenced and updated with the copy in the office. With MeisterTask, checking and double-checking documents isn’t necessary. By getting rid of that and the need to update superiors while out on the job, menial tasks will be at an all-time low, and the room for error will disappear.
Today, all employees have a smartphone on which both a camera and the MeisterTask app are installed. The on-site worker can take the required photos within a few seconds and then upload them directly to the digital construction site folder in the MeisterTask app. The photos are then available synchronously in the office, so that all employees there are also informed about the current status of the construction site. This is a great advantage, especially when there are questions from clients.
What’s question #10?
We’re sure that these aren’t the only questions weighing on you in your decision to adopt a digital tool to manage your tasks. But we’re also sure that we could answer anything you’d still like to know! Your business is important to you and we want to help it and you succeed in any way we can. So leave us more questions here on the blog or on Twitter @MeisterTask.