BOOMERANG CASE STUDY - DO.COM

I'm Jason Shah, the founder and CEO of Do (Do.com). Do helps people run productive meetings. We provide collaboration technology to help people set agendas, track follow ups, and get the most out of their meetings.

If you've sat in meetings before, you've likely noticed they can become unfocused pretty quickly. We give you the right tools to frame the discussion, ensure things get done, and make decisions clear. With Do, you can easily and delightfully see what you have going on. Meeting agendas, participants, and all of the important meeting info is at your fingertips. One place for all the notes, presentations, docs, and all other collateral to live together. No more emails back and forth.

THE STRUGGLE

We're still a pretty young company, and as with most startups everyone has their plates full managing the 100+ tasks it takes to keep the ball moving. Where we're at now, we still have to stay pretty lean which means we don't have the luxury of having dedicated teams to manage our press relationships or build partnerships. It's all hands on deck here, so it's important that we work smart to ensure we're not wasting precious time. After all, Do is built to make companies work more efficiently, so naturally we aim to be experts in the field.

The troubles I was seeing with email weren't necessarily new issues. Like most in my position, I receive dozens-if not hundreds-of emails every day, and keeping track of what's important and what's fluff can sometimes feel like a full time job on its own. Pair that immense volume with the regular growing pains any company experiences, and it wasn't long before I was looking for a tool to help with managing email.

THE SOLUTION

I remember hearing good things about Boomerang in the zeitgeist from friends and colleagues, and one day decided to install it. Since adding Boomerang to my email, I have never looked back!

I was already using Google Apps for my email, so the process to add Boomerang was incredibly simple and straightforward. I didn't have to make any changes to my email or setup any complicated software - they really make it as simple as possible to get set up. It was important for me that I could still use Google Apps just like I always have since I found Google Apps to be enjoyable and easy to use. Plus, it's incredibly fast which means I'm not slowed down waiting for my email to process.

I appreciate that Boomerang gets out of the way and lets me use my existing workflow, but is there when I need it. I never feel like my email experience is being hijacked or interrupted when I use the extension.

Boomerang has become an essential productivity tool for me, and in turn has only helped our company. As an organization, we need to manage relationships with a lot of different parties: partners, investors, customers, press - you name it. Boomerang allows me to move a conversation along at the right cadence by bringing messages back that haven't gotten a response within a designated amount of time, or that I need to follow up on but not right away.

Boomerang has quickly become one of my top extensions because it's almost like having a digital assistant that helps me stay on top of relationships and deals but is so seamlessly integrated with my existing workflow. Plus, I still get the benefit of interacting directly with my recipients.

THE BENEFITS

Boomerang has allowed me to accomplish more while ensuring none of my important email threads are forgotten. A majority of my emails require some sort of action or response from my recipients. For messages that require some sort of response, I set follow up reminders so I don't even have to think about following up if I don't hear back. Boomerang does the thinking for me. Boomerang's Follow Up Reminders are without a doubt my favorite feature! It's so simple but so powerful. The set it and forget it mentality Boomerang encourages has done so much in helping me remain sane while dealing with the immense email loads I receive on a daily basis.

A big part of growing our company and spreading the word about Do comes from the press we get, and we've been fortunate to get some really great articles so far. As you might imagine, landing these pieces doesn't come without its own struggles. Journalists are busy people and they are constantly getting bombarded with emails. I want to make sure my emails didn't get lost in the shuffle or buried deep in their pile and forgotten, but prior to Boomerang it wasn't so easy.

With those handy follow up reminders, all I have to do when I'm emailing a journalist is click one button, and now I know that I'll be reminded if for any reason my message didn't get a reply. When the message comes back to my inbox, I can quickly send over a reply and make sure my message got received.

That's just one of the ways I use follow up reminders, but the same workflow can be applied to loads of different use cases! It doesn't matter if I'm emailing a customer, working with one of our leading partners, or emailing someone internally to check on the status of a project. Boomerang's features apply to a diverse range of use cases and the simple integration makes it a no brainer to make your email more powerful. I can honestly say because of Boomerang, we have landed customers, press articles, and meaningful relationships we literally wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

THE QUOTES

"It's almost like a digital assistant that helps me stay on top of relationships and deals but is so seamlessly integrated with my existing workflow."

"Boomerang allows me to move a conversation along at the right cadence by bringing messages back that haven't gotten a response in a given amount of time, or that I need to follow up on but not right away."