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What are some best tips for getting your team off of gmail and onto Front?

  • 3 January 2024
  • 4 replies
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sskinner
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We are hosting a Front Lunch and Learn and a Front-hosted training but I am already hearing some pushback from users that like their set up and flow in gmail. Any tips on encouraging and setting expectations would be great! Also- any specific pushbacks you’ve heard and how you handled that I can prepare for! Thank you!

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Best answer by andersen 8 January 2024, 02:08

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helena
Userlevel 4
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Hi @sskinner here’s a great thread with a lot of discussion around this topic, regarding Outlook, but the ideas are transferable: 

Re: specific pushback -- common ones are just a general resistance to change and being comfortable with what they’re already doing because change takes a lot of effort 😅 Specific push back would likely be related to your unique workflows and ways your teammates work in Gmail today.

The suggestions I have here are to deeply understand how people are using Gmail to do their work so that you know exactly where the inefficiencies are and you come prepared with the better alternatives using Front. Secondly, to speak to a few teammates who you trust to give honest and constructive feedback on what their reservations are and the workflows they want to keep, what challenges they have. Thirdly, sometimes training in smaller groups is better and you can create test emails in an inbox for the group to get hands-on experience because so many features of Front truly come to life when you experience them yourself (commenting, assigning, sharing drafts, etc). You’re bound to get some questions in your trainings that you probably can’t answer on the spot, but our team is here to help with that! We hold weekly live office hours that you and/or your team are welcome to join and ask all your questions (log in to see the dates).

And of course, utilize Front Academy for your users to get all the basics down and see what’s possible in Front. 

Helena, Product Education Lead
gabbi_samadi
Userlevel 1
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One of the ways we’re making the transition easier for those who are pushing back (or expected to push back) is to involve them in the set up of Front. Like Helena outlined above, we have sat down with some of the users who will be using Front the most in the office (and have already expressed some push back to the transition), and discussed how they currently use their gmail set up, what could help them the most in Front, and asked for their input with the set up of tags and rules. 

They’re now really excited about the shift to Front, and are actively looking for new ways they could use Front to make their day-to-day easier! 

andersen
Userlevel 3
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Big +1 to @gabbi_samadi’s strategy! Early in my tenure at Front I came to the realization that there’s something deeply personal to how people work, aka. how people manage their inbox. @sskinner That makes the change management to Front that much more difficult compared to rolling out many technologies out there.

Unless your company operates with a heavy top-down culture, the best way I’ve seen leaders help their teams adopt Front is to do the following:

  1. Make sure there’s executive buy-in and clear communication to the end-user team that helps explain the ‘why’ behind this decision - what business problems are we solving, how will this help them, etc.
  2. Build trust and ownership by including the team in the solution design. Get the influencers within your teams and have them contribute to the rules, inbox setup, etc. The more they see their input reflected in the ‘new way of working’ the more champions you’ll have.
  3. Especially in the early days of implementation, I encourage you to host Q&As with the team and action on their feedback, or clearly explain why things are the way they are. 
  4. Gamify the experience of using Front. I’ve seen teams create bonuses/prizes for team members who work on the most email, reply the fastest, or have the lowest avg response to resolution. 

I hope this help @sskinner !

Andersen Yu - Head of Solutions Engineering & Architecture @ Front
lorraine199708
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Message templates are a huge success in our office! With a multitude of similar emails flowing in, leveraging message templates makes it incredibly easy to respond promptly and with greater efficiency.

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