The team at Codeo use Trello and SendBoard to keep email organised, collaborate effectively and offer top customer support – all while working remotely. 

Codeo is a team of software developers and designers who are focussed on building products that make an impact. With offices in South Africa and the Netherlands, flexible remote working plays a huge role in how the Codeo team operates. 

Like many teams, Codeo uses Trello to collaborate internally and get work done. But it can be difficult to organise and prioritise tasks and projects alongside dealing with external queries, which often come in via email. Plus, if a team is sharing an inbox (like support@ or help@), it can be hard to keep track of who’s been tasked to respond to a customer or supplier.

An email helpdesk in Trello

Enter SendBoard. “The SendBoard Power-Up essentially transforms Trello into an email help desk,” says Codeo co-founder Rohland de Charmoy. “It helps our team to respond to emails faster and keep customers happy.” With the SendBoard email Power-Up, customer emails arrive as new cards in Trello, allowing the team to easily manage checklists, set due dates and collaborate on requests.

A dashboard for collaboration

Although the Codeo team also uses Slack, they try to keep communication in Trello wherever possible. If there’s a discussion to be had about a task, team members will comment on the Trello card so that decisions are easy to find later. Trello’s checklists, due dates and other collaboration features help to keep things organised and encourage teamwork.

Bringing email into Trello with SendBoard takes this idea even further. It means that internal and external communication is all tracked in one place. Rather than switching between different apps, Trello becomes a single dashboard to see exactly what’s going on, so that the team can collaborate on tasks together. 

A simple workflow for email support

Here’s a sample workflow from the Codeo team to help you visualise the powerful ways in which Trello and SendBoard work together to improve team performance.

With the shared support email address connected, SendBoard automatically adds incoming emails as new Trello cards. Cards then progress through the lists from left to right. Each list represents a different stage of the email support workflow. 

• Inbox: All new emails land at the bottom of this list. Since the team always tackles cards from top to bottom, older emails are dealt with first. Team members are automatically assigned to Trello cards via round-robin based on team member availability (using Trello’s automation tool, Butler).

• Responded/Scheduled: Team members provide a quick reply so that customers know what kind of timeline to expect for their request. The card is then moved into the “Responded/Scheduled” list and any required work is planned out and scheduled. This list then acts as a prioritised backlog of tasks for the team to work through. Urgent and important cards are prioritised at the top of the list.

• In Progress: When a team member starts working through the tasks on a card, they drag the card to “In Progress” so that everyone can see what's currently being worked on.

• Awaiting feedback: If feedback is needed from another team member, cards will move to this list. Again, cards are prioritised so that busy team members know where to focus their limited time. Sometimes you can’t progress without feedback from a customer. While waiting for a reply, those cards can also sit in this list so that everyone is clear about status.

• Done: This is everyone’s favourite list in Trello :) Every few weeks the team will reflect on what has been done and archive these cards.

Kanban for email

With their support email in Trello, the Codeo team can easily see what work is on the go. This is one of the great things about Trello’s visual workflow. The Kanban (Japanese for “signboard” or “billboard”) layout means that the team can navigate quickly and easily see what stage of the process each request is at.

The idea is to move cards from left to right as efficiently as possible. A build-up of too many cards in any one list is an indicator of a problem. Too many cards in progress means that the team isn't getting top-priority items resolved. Too many cards in the Inbox list could mean that the team is falling behind on replying to new requests.

Too few cards in a list can also indicate a problem. Questions like “Why is there nothing in-progress?” or “What is the team going to work on if nothing is in the scheduled list?” can prompt quick action and keep the workflow moving.

Efficient email with Trello and SendBoard

On the surface, Trello might seem like a very basic solution for customer support. But when combined with SendBoard, Trello’s simplicity and flexibility have enabled Codeo to set up an effective set of processes for both customer support and team collaboration.

Does your team need an email support solution?

Whether you’re an agency managing client requests or an IT company with help tickets streaming in, Trello and SendBoard can help you keep your team and your clients on the same page.

Try SendBoard for free! Add the Power-Up in Trello.