Send key messages to users | best practices – Google Apps for Work User Manual
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Phase 2: Early Adopter
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Send key messages to users | Best practices
Top tips for communicating with your Early Adopters:
•
Remind people about co-existence. In many cases, Early Adopters
live in two systems—Google Apps and the legacy system—during this
phase. For example, they may need to use their legacy system to
reserve rooms or to look up global contacts in their legacy email.
Let them know what to expect and that it’s temporary until the Global
Go-Live.
•
Get feedback from your users. You probably set up a Google Group
for your project team. Put this group in all your communications and
encourage your users to give their comments and feedback.
•
Set up a Google Group as an email list for Early Adopters. You can
include the email address for the group in all messages so Early
Adopters have a place to send their questions and comments. Or use
a Google Group as forum. Many times, these users, especially your
Google Guides, can help each other solve problems and answer
questions.
Give people a way to provide feedback and ask questions
Learning from Solarmora, a fictionalized company
The team edited the messages originally used
for Core IT and aimed them at Early Adopters.
However, some Google Guides said they were
getting slammed with questions about the project
timeline. Andy realized that one of the messages
had the wrong date for the Global Go-Live. People
were becoming nervous because the date included
in the message was May 1, instead of May 31.
Oops! Andy forgot to include a feedback
mechanism in all of his communications. Andy
was embarrassed. If he had gotten feedback on the
message sooner, he could have corrected the error
faster. To give users a way to provide feedback
and ask questions about communications, the
team added a feedback link to all future messages.
Andy’s team was surprised by the responses they
received. Most people understood the information
they received, but many Early Adopters had
questions about tabbed browsing in Google
Chrome. The marketing department created some
special tips around Google Chrome to help users
become more productive using their new internet
browser. The team promoted these tips to users via
email and through their customized Google Apps
user learning center.
“Don’t rely on email as your only
communication device.
Long and technical-sounding email is
easy to ignore or delete. Communicate
information through posters, webinars,
lunch and learn, table toppers,
department meeting, and Google
Guides.”
—Susan Metz, Director of Training
and Change Management, LTech