David Price is the founder of Avenue Systems, an AV design integration firm based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Avenue Systems specializes in providing design-build services for new constructions and major renovations. With a team of 13 employees, the company collaborate with a diverse set of stakeholders, including clients, architects, engineers, and interior designers, to deliver high-quality AV solutions.

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What do you use Missive for?

David and his team use Missive to centralize their email and communication management. Missive serves as their primary platform for handling emails, instant messages, and collaborative tasks, ensuring seamless coordination and communication across various projects.

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What Challenges Led You to Look for a Solution like Missive?

David looked for a solution like Missive because of challenges his company faced with their existing communication and collaboration tools. They were using a mix of Gmail for emails, text messages for instant communication, and Monday.com for project management. This approach led to issues like:

• Lack of standardization for instant communication.
• Difficulties in ensuring everyone was included in email threads, especially with large projects involving many participants.
• Clients often not using “reply all,” causing people to be left out of important communications.
• General disorganization and fragmentation in their communication process.

What Was Most Important When Evaluating Options?

Email Management: He needed a solution that could handle email communications simply, ensuring that all team members were included in important threads.

Instant Communication: A tool that could standardize and document instant communications was crucial, as their previous method using text messages and SMS was unorganized and often lacked proper follow-up.

Project Management Integration: While they used Monday.com for project management, it wasn't ideal for communication. They likely wanted a solution that could complement or integrate well with their existing project management tools.

Ease of Use and Adoption: The new tool needed to be easy for the team to adopt, given that they were using various methods before, and it was important to have a smooth transition to a more standardized system.

Responsiveness and Support: David looked for a tool where if needed, support could be easy to reach and fast to reply.

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What are some key features you rely on?

Team Inboxes: David and his team manage both personal and shared emails within Missive, ensuring that everyone involved in a project can access and respond to relevant emails. This feature helps them maintain organized communication without the need for forwarding or CCing multiple people.

Internal Chat: They use Missive's internal chat to have discussions around emails and other messages. This allows team members to have context-driven conversations directly within email threads, making it easier to keep track of decisions and communications related to specific projects.

Assignments & Tasks: Emails and tasks can be assigned to specific team members, which ensures accountability and clear responsibility for different parts of a project. This helps Avenue Systems keep track of who is handling what.

Collaborative Writing: Team members can draft emails together in real-time, making it easier to collaborate on responses and ensure that all relevant input is included before sending out communications.

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Rules: Missive allows them to set up rules to automate repetitive tasks, such as labeling emails, auto-replying, and assigning conversations based on specific criteria. This automation helps save time and ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.

Pinned Conversations: Important conversations can be pinned for quick access, ensuring that crucial emails are always easy to find and reference.

Conclusion

David and his team at Avenue Systems have found Missive to be a valuable tool for improving their communication and collaboration. The features they rely on, such as team inboxes, internal chat, and task assignments, have helped them create a more organized and inclusive workflow. Missive’s integration capabilities and automation of tasks have streamlined their operations, making coordination and accountability better among team members.

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